I live fifteen minutes from the beach. When I visit the beach, the water flows from the Pacific Ocean into Puget Sound to hit the shore I’m standing on. The shoreline is different every time. The wave behavior is different – low tide versus high tide versus anything in between, wind speeds and white cap action, ferry and general boat activities, underwater currents and so on all influence and weigh in on wave behavior. The waves themselves look different every time: wave height in calm versus active behavior, color and looks based on lighting and sun location, opacity, seaweed content, and more. All this to say, when I head to the beach, I don’t know what to expect. Calm seas? Powerful, loud crashing waves? Go enough times and it’s easy to see there’s nothing to fear with the unknown of it. Yet we fear the unknown everywhere else in our life. Why is it different? Is it really different?
Our world is made up of cycles of change everywhere: seasons, sunrise and sunset, phases of the moon. Nothing is permanent: animals, plants, humans, fish – we all come into the world, age and die. Even mountains grow, shrink and eventually disappear. The planet lives with its molten core that will someday cool. Our sun will someday go through its normal death cycle. They’re slower but even the mountains, our planet and sun will all pass on. If you believe in science, which since you’re reading this, you must, then you believe this. So why the fear?
“Change is scary.”
Is it? Every day, every moment there may be change. We change our minds, we change our project, we change our clothes. Every day, every moment there may be change. What’s there to fear?
“Facing the unknown is scary.”
Is that really true? When we leave our home, we don’t know what we’ll encounter. When we wake up, we don’t know what we’ll encounter. A burst pipe, a broken furnace, an enjoyable phone call, the most satisfying cup of tea, a surprise delivery of a gift from a friend. There’s nothing to fear in any of that.
Even mountains grow, shrink and eventually disappear. Everything changes.
“What if something bad happens?”
Okay. So what if that’s the case? “Well, I might get hurt.” Sure. One might get hurt, so? We heal. We adapt if necessary. We survive and move on. There’s nothing to fear. This too shall pass.
“What if I die?”
There it is. Some people believe all fears are rooted in a fear of death. I think that can be true for some people, but in my experience, that’s not true for all of us. Death is the ultimate unknown for many people. So it becomes the ultimate fear. Why? It’s inevitable, we will all die, so why fear it? And why let that fear grow and morph into other fears that impact our daily choices?
There is a gift in the impermanence of everything. Everything shifts and passes. Having a bad day? No worries, the day will end. Work becoming difficult? It will pass, one way or another. It also means the fun stuff will pass too. Having the best day ever? Enjoy it, drink it in, because yes, this too shall pass.
Impermanence of everything in life shows us that all we have to do is be patient through the difficult times and be grateful during the joyous times, for this too shall pass.
What about Allah? What about the Divine?
The Divine lives outside of time. If God didn’t live outside of time, if time contained God, then time would be God. So God lives outside of time. God is permanent.
If we’re connected to the Divine, then are we permanent?
Great question! We’re not. What we’re connected to is. That’s how spiritually developed people stay peaceful, calm and trusting during difficult times, because they can connect to that place. By connecting there, to the Divine, and looking outward at the world one watches the difficulty instead of identifying with it.
By Connecting to the Permanent Divine
and looking outward at the world, one watches the difficulty instead of identifying with it.
Have you ever noticed how various spiritual paths teach us to know who we really are, and to let go of who we think we are? Our initial sense of identity can become hardened, trapping us and keeping us identifying with occurrences happening around us in the world. It feels like everything is happening to us. That can feel intense, scary and very painful.
Our initial identities are composed of what we call our personalities, our positive traits, our flaws or character defects. We believe we are these things. That belief keeps us stuck or trapped. Suddenly we don’t change like the world around us. We won’t grow, or will grow very slowly. We’re not mountains or planets, our life spans are relatively short. When we refuse to flow with life, we become like heavy boulders in a rushing stream. Water constantly rushing by us, wearing us down. Life feels stagnant, like nothing changes. It’s not life that doesn’t change, it’s our perspective that refuses to change.
Letting go of our self-identity feels scary. It feels like death. It kind of is a death, but the death of a false construct. The false identity was never really who we were despite what we felt and believed. Letting it die doesn’t change anything in the world. It only frees our anchor in the river and allows us to flow freely with life again. Something we used to do as children until we stopped.
Letting our self-identity die frees us to perceive the world around us differently. We’re free to grow, change, evolve and connect more with the Divine. Our hardened identities can prevent us from connecting with Allah, and experiencing Allah around us. It can prevent us from developing a personal relationship with Allah.
If we cling to our self-identity, it can be a form of false worship, or shirk. It all comes about from a fear of the unknown. The fear keeps us trapped and stagnant, when life and existence all around us is change, growth and movement. We’re constantly being invited to surrender into its flow.
We’re invited
constantly to surrender into the flow of life, to let what we believe as our self-identity, go.
This is why faith is so important. Faith, not reason and logic, help us act despite our fear. It can even be faith in our reason and logic that helps us move forward, but it’s the faith, regardless of what it relies on, that helps us move when fear demands we don’t.
So look at the constant change and flow around us. Witness it’s invitation for you to join in. Consider accepting it.
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