A BOLT FROM THE BLUE

I'm fascinated by the fact that we can have bolt-from-the-blue experiences, those that hit us with the force of revelation.  (We say revelation as if the new perspective is the "real" one. but actually we can see the experience neutrally, as the exchange of one view of "reality" for another.)  I'm thinking of the kind of experience that makes you clap your forehead in wonder - I was blind but now I see!

How is it that our consciousness can undergo a complete revision, see what was black yesterday as white today?  Has something been building up inside, unknown and unfelt, until the tipping point is reached and we go tumbling into the new?  So many wheels are turning in our consciousness that are just beyond our awareness, so much lies hidden in potential - and then the thoughts and feelings of those wheels reach the surface and we have a grand revision, or the smaller version which we call an epiphany.

We think our beliefs and thoughts are solid, tied to something eternal and unchanging, but history is full of examples of the kind of internal revolution that brings us to a new reality.  Religious history is full of examples of conversions - Paul on the road to Damascus is a prime example - but there are also political awakenings, scientific revelations - and the revelations that come when you fall in love.  Maybe you've known someone for a long time and barely noticed him or her.  Then one day you catch sight of a certain gesture or facial expression and in an instant you're madly in love. "How could I not have seen her before?"  Suddenly, the world looks different, you feel different and full of electric energy.  If you were depressed before or thought things were just so-so, now you see with new eyes how beautiful the world is, full of possibility.

I'm fascinated by these experiences because they tell me how ephemeral all our thoughts and feelings are.  They are always subject to revision, to change.  The idea that there are no systems delivered from on high to cling to, that all of what we think is real, is actually constantly ebbing and flowing, created in our own consciousness - this idea is terrifying to many people.  They see themselves floating in the void, without an anchor, alone in a cold and alien universe.  But I see an anchor in the very recognition of the ephemeral nature of reality, in the realization that thoughts and beliefs are subject to change, that what I believe is true today isn't static, written in stone, but constantly unfolding, evolving, undergoing transformation.  Basho, the great 17th century Japanese poet wrote, "Every day is a journey and the journey itself is home."

All is unfolding and there is always the possibility of change.