What are the best 30 day challenges to bring some change?

What is change? Why do you want change? Only that which is prone to change, can change, is it not? Time changes, time is change, and that which changes in time, will keep on changing in time. The body changes in time, your opinions change in time, your beliefs change in time, your relationships change in time, your ideas change in time, your perceptions change in time, your circumstances change in time, your career changes in time, in short, the sum total of you, keeps changing in time. Yet, you seek a challenge to bring about change. So, the question is, are you seeking to change something, where change is inevitable over and over, or are you seeking something unchanging, lasting, timeless?

Is one unhappy with one’s own life that drives one to look for another, perhaps better way to live? That’s an all too familiar feeling for one. One has been there before, and brought about some change, which worked out splendidly. For a while. Then one’s life changes, again, and one wants something else entirely, and one is back, looking for newer ways, perhaps something that simply would work out well throughout one’s life, is it not? A relationship that lasts, a friendship that stays, a love that never diminishes, a beauty that never fades, a profession that never tires, a body that never changes, an aging that never happens, a recognition that is never forgotten, a contentment that remains. In other words, a time that doesn’t change. You follow. This is what everyone wants, is it not? That something which is eternal, and therefore timeless. So what is one to do?

One’s life is saddled with the burden of responsibilities, relationships, and commitments, of livelihood and in all that chaos, one hasn’t the time or space, to even question the ways one functions. Yet, there is the inner need that is felt by one to bring about a different quality in one’s life, is it not? So, how can I bring about that quality which is timeless into my life, when I live in time? Time, not in the chronological sense, but rather in the psychological sense. One’s thoughts spring from one’s memories, is it not? If there is no memory, there is no thought either. If one saw something entirely new and simply stayed with the newness of it without comparison, without relating to it from the past, there is just no thought operating. One is completely captivated by something beautiful and one loses oneself in that moment of captivity. And in that moment, time doesn’t operate, you don’t exist. But when one creates an image of that captivating beauty, it becomes a memory. And then, one starts comparing and contrasting, and, in that, there is division, the beautiful and the ugly, the good and the bad, the respectable and the disrespectable, the worthy and the unworthy, love and hate, like and dislike. Therefore, thought which expresses memory, is always divisive. And what is memory, sirs? Is it a mere recording, something stored in your brain, that thought merely recalls? What are all the things that one stores in one’s memory?

I need to become a lawyer, therefore, it takes me years of study and training. What I read, must be retained, in order for me to pass my exams and qualify. I need to know the way to my residence from my office, and I need to recall the direction. I need to recall a recipe to prepare a certain dish. Therefore, knowledge in the practical spirit, has its place and needs to retained. But I have also retained, a harsh word spoken to me by another when I was 12, an insult at work when I was 21, a great time with someone dear when I was 25, a heartbreak when I was such and such, my beliefs, my anger, my hatred, my opinions, my faith, my prejudices, my likes, my dislikes, my traditions, my culture, my race, etc. And all these have shaped my conditionings, which in turn, influences my perceptions and relationships. So, the sum total of all that which lends a personality to me, are my conditionings, which I have retained in my memory. In other words, the conditioning is the personality, and the personality, which makes me, “me”, is memory put together over time. And, memory lends continuity to the “me” in time. If there is no memory, there is no “me”, and there is no time, is it not?  Therefore, time is me, time is you. Does one see that?

So how can one bring about a timeless state in one’s life, that eternal quality, when one continues to operate from the past? To come upon that which is timeless, time would have to cease. That is, you, who are a sum total of your conditionings and beliefs , must cease to be. Cease, not in the sense of dying, but in the sense of letting go of all that psychological accumulation, that makes you, you. Change does not require 50 days or even 50 minutes. It must happen here and now, if you actually see, for yourself, what you are, made up of. If you counted on time to change you, heal you, make you stronger, happier, etc., you are basically waiting for you, to change you. How can there be any change, if you, the personality, the memory, the time, continue to dictate and direct that change? You are time, therefore, any change you direct, will change again. Do you see that?

If you don’t change now, time cannot bring about that change, if you don’t heal now, time cannot bring about that healing.