Life is marked by growth and decay, fast and slow change. Thats what growth and decay are, change. Change is a fundamental aspect of the universe. Even something which is seemingly still is moving constantly on some level. Every atom constantly moves and vibrates, every subatomic particle is constantly moving, taking on energy and giving it out. There is a flow to it all. If you stand quietly you can notice it. There's a sound here and a rustle there. So much is going on. A bird singing in the distance. The light and shadow of a moving tree. A leaf rolls slowly down from the sky. What you can see depends on your patience. If you were patient enough, maybe you could see a mountain crumble away.
There is a famous teaching in Buddhism called the Three Kayas; Dharmakaya, Sambhogakaya, and Nirmanakaya. The three together describe this ever changing and flowing nature of existence.
Dharmakaya is the pregnant space inbetween sentences. It is the mother of creativity and is where curiosity resides. The open possibilities of every moment is a place of crackly energy. Sambhogakaya is movement. The movement of becoming. Its the momentum of karma that brought us here and dictates where we are going unless we see through it thoroughly. Sambhogakaya is the process of creation. Growth is the main element of sambhogakaya.
Once something has become what its karma has driven it to become, then it it seemingly solid and concrete. There is an "is-ness" to it. It seems real. This is called Nirmanakaya. The world is filled with things which are holding a form for the time being. The things that fill our world only exist temporarily. Even a mountain will eventually turn to silt. If you hold a glass of water in your hand and you drink the water, its no longer a glass of water, just a glass. Its nature changed. If you drop that glass and it shatters into a million scattering pieces, its no longer a glass. Every glass will eventually break. Its is-ness will end and the isness of all the shards of glass will be.
The three kayas together describe our real experience. In every moment there is a uniqueness and an infinite amount of elements to be aware of. In any moment we can choose to be aware. To be aware of the possibilities and to be aware of the movement, growth, decay, and to be aware of the solidity and is-ness that seems to pervade all things and ideas.
Standing silently we can tune into this process. We can feel the possibilities of any given moment, we can notice the changes and sounds happening constantly. We can be aware that the solidity is there and is temporary. You can adopt the three kaya (or trikaya) view at any time for any amount of time. Standing in the forest, you can stop and just listen. You can hear it everywhere. The wind caressing the leaves of the trees. The faint chirp of a small bird, the intermittent scratching of a squirrel climbing a tree.
When you tune into the world from this perspective the world often becomes very vibrant and incredibly beautiful. colors become brighter and more subtle, sounds more prevalent, textures more interesting. Becoming open to your experience of the world is the process of dropping your agenda for a moment, forgetting the worries, and fears, and just being there ready to experience life fully. If you are curious about the possibilities of each moment; if you are attentive to each movement, each sound, each feeling; if you are fascinated by each form, by the shape and texture of it, then you are there. Start with sound. Close your eyes and wait patiently for a sound. You won't have to wait long. When a sound appears, let it pass like a white line passes underneath your car on the freeway. Don't cling onto the experience, just constantly wait for the next experience while at the same time experiencing what is here now. Labeling is not letting the white line pass beneath the car. Its stopping it, and trying to hold it, to control it, and make it permanent. Nothing is permament. Letting all your experiences flow through your senses is like skiing down a mountain at full speed. There's no need to count the trees when you wiz down the mountain. Theres no time to anyway. Just let them go by, and be there to enjoy the experience.
Wait patiently for each experience with the curiosity that you would have if you didn't know what was going to happen. In reality, you don't. If you find that everything has to have a label, then notice how your mind labels things. There is a growth, and isness to each thought. In between thoughts there is the possibilities of many new thoughts popping up.
The world is not a fixed thing that we can ever fully grasp and control. Its a flowing, ever changing set of experiences, which we always have the chance to tune into. Patience, unfocused awareness and curiosity are the keys to seeing the world in a new light. Try it, you might like it.
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