The Buddha
had one big realization the night he sat under the Bodhi tree
and gained enlightenment. Even though he would later create a
body of work that has kept Buddhists busy down through the ages,
this one insight was the core of all he tried to convey and the
base for all other Buddhist thought and practice. His insight
was that all human suffering comes from our belief that things
are stable and unchanging.
We believe
that this chair or this person or this opportunity will always
exist. We base this belief on the circumstantial evidence that
the chair or person or opportunity has existed and is continuing
to exist right now. But time and again we find that the chair
breaks into kindling, the person moves away, or the opportunity
disappears. Every time we are startled. We weren't expecting
the change when it happened. We had no way of knowing the chair
was going to break right then.
Why do we
expect things to stay the same? One reason is because it's easier.
It's easier to assume that things will continue as they are because
when things do change, they often change in ways we can't predict.
it's a lot easier to assume the chair will stay a chair than
to keep in mind constantly that it might break in this moment,
or this next moment. The leg may break or the back. It is convenient
to assume the chair will stay a chair because that way we have
only one thing to consider and that's something we already know
- the chair the way it has been.
But that's
not all that is going on. We don't just assume things don't change.
We often actively don't want them to. We are attached to the
way things are because they're bearable. We know we can survive
things as they are because we are surviving them. Because of
change, we don't know what we will be made to endure.
A large part
of this fear comes from our culture. In Western culture, life
is seen as a line from birth to death. In Western culture, life
begins with birth. The line of life continues in one direction,
from the past to the future and ends with our deaths. After our
deaths we spend eternity in either extreme pleasure or pain (if
you hold to the most widely held spiritual beliefs of our culture)
or we cease to exist at all.
This belief
that life is a line extending only into a finite future (or a
future with the possibility of eternal pain) makes change a very
difficult thing to deal with. Change happens over time. Change
means that we are getting closer to death. It's no wonder that
we experience the fives as uniformly bad. More than any other
number in the Minor Arcana, they show us that we are getting
older and closer to death.
There is
an alternative to this way of thinking, and it is one that I
believe is very much needed in our culture today. It is a view
that sees change as not only a part of life, but the best part,
the reason for living and the purpose of it all. This is the
view of many Pagan paths.
A basic tenet
of many Pagan beliefs (not all) is that everything is constantly
changing. This attitude is shown in a beautiful chant to the
Goddess that goes: "She changes everything she touches,
everything she touches, changes."
This change
however is not seen as linear with a final end, but as an ongoing
cycle. Death is seen as that which brings life, for the moment
we destroy one thing, we have created another. The block of marble
is destroyed that the statue may be born. The food is destroyed
that our bodies may have energy. The sperm and the egg are destroyed
that the embryo may live. Our own deaths are only a prelude to
rebirth.
Life and
change are inextricably connected and we see this in the number
five. Five is considered the number of change because it breaks
up the stable four and also because it represents life. It is
the element of spirit added to the four physical elements. It
is directly linked to the life cycles of woman: birth, menarche,
motherhood, menopause and death. These are the five major changes
women go through in the course of their lives. The number five
is also to life as it represents the fives limbs of the body:
one head, two arms and two legs.
With these
new connections we can begin to free ourselves from the fear
of change and death. This allows us to appreciate the present
moment. When we fear change, it's hard to stay aware of the present
in any detail. The details of this moment, those things that
make it unique and special, are the very things that changed
to make it different from all the previous moments. To appreciate
the present, we must be able to freely accept the changes that
created it.
As long as
we fear change, we have to do something to keep from noticing
it. We develop a perception of our current moment that hides
the changes that are happening. Often, we live our lives ina
kind of haze ignoring vast amounts of our everyday lives to maintain
the illusion that nothing is changing.
This illusion
doesn't work. We are able to ignore the change around us only
at the cost of detaching ourselves from reality. We must disconnect
in order to ignore. And we can only ignore for so long before
the wrinkles and grey hair get to be too much and we are forced
to recognize that yes, things have changed.
By fearing
change, we pull ourselves out of life, distracting ourselves
from the very things that could bring us connections, a sense
of experience and memories. For when we finally do notice the
change, it's too late to go back and appreciate the way things
were.
By realizing
that change is life (yes, it's that simple!) and that death does
not mean the end of everything, we can allay our fear of change
and enter into a real connection with the reality going on around
us everyday. We can appreciate the things are moving and changing.
We can pay attention to what is actually going on and cherish
it because we know that it won't last forever. In the realm of
everyday spirituality, no number gives you a surer path for experiencing
your life than the five.
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Making
Changes Exercise |
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Think of
your day and your week. List at least five things that you do
the same way everytime you do them. Do you drive home from work
the same way? Do you make your coffee at the same point in your
morning routine? Perhaps you eat the same thing for lunch everyday.
For the next
five days you will change one thing on your list for that day.
You only have to change that item for that day and only one new
change is allowed per day. (You may keep any changes that work
out.)
Write about
each change. How did you feel? Did the change cause problems
for you? For others? Name one positive thing that happened for
each change. Finally, connect each change with a Five from the
Tarot.
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Dealing
With Loss Exercise |
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Name five
things you have lost.
How did you
feel about the loss? How did it affect your life?
Connect each
loss to a Tarot Five. Are the suits evenly represented? Is any
suit not represented?
For each
loss, name one thing that has come into your life because of
the loss. If you need help thinking of losses, you may pull cards
from the deck and use the Recall An
Experience exercise.
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