What changes in life? We live in the belief that everything changes. It was Heraclitus, among the ancient Greeks, who said: Panta rhei, everything changes – perhaps only change itself is constant. But if you think about it more deeply, almost nothing changes. Life brings those who practise it into very similar situations, as if the saying were true that character is a mythic role.
If you think about it, life is the continual repetition of the same actions: you get up, have breakfast, work, enjoy yourself and go to bed. And so it goes, a whole life long. One repeats the same routine even when conditions change: if you wake on another continent, there too you wash and have breakfast. The scenery and the actors change now and then, but the play is the same.
It takes a certain aptitude, a clear-sightedness, to notice the repetitions. It is not worth stepping into life's stereotyped situations. Of course, as long as you do not even notice that you are walking straight into one of these traps of compulsion, there is no chance of change, and one breakfast follows another.
The young disciple arrived at the monastery and asked his superior what his work would be.
– You will draw water, my son, and chop wood.
The young man pondered, and at first the task seemed acceptable. But surely service of this kind would not last for ever? After all, he had come to the monastery to be cleansed of every shadow of illusion, and to be enlightened! So he asked:
– And what will my work be once I have attained enlightenment?
– You will draw water, my son, and chop wood.
There seems to be a difference between the states before and after enlightenment, and youth is not the same as maturity or old age. Should you move with the times, or hold fast to lasting values? At 16 moving with the times seems the more important, at 60 holding fast. What is good at dawn is not necessarily good at dusk. In youth the sincere belief do only what you love! is still acceptable.
What a bold view! It fights for room to move, it selects, it chooses as it pleases! Everyone would like to live like this, but not everyone is willing to fight for this freedom. Yet it is also true that one must always be in season, that is, with a young head you may be feverish, with a mature one rather more considered, but with an old head be wise! Let us amend that appealing statement! The tenet Do only what you love!, spoken at twenty, sounds like this at sixty: Love what you do!
If life forces you into some action, at least do it with a good heart, for that way it is easier. It is said that as long as one's action is forced, he does not reach the root of existence, whereas if his action or thought becomes unforced, he comes much closer to the essence.
What, then, changes? Not the action itself, but perhaps the attitude. Life is not only for chasing experiences and forever collecting new relationships. Alongside horizontal growth you must also advance vertically, so that you gather depth of experience too. This is revaluation. What was once so important that it swept all else aside later loses its lustre and settles into its place. Questions you had not even asked yourself until then become important, and unsuspected vistas open up. Things that once weighed heavily become weightless, and what had left you cold begins to matter. It is not the world that changes, not even the play called life, nor even the cast: it is you who change. After enlightenment you draw water and chop wood differently from before.