Mystic Mantra: Be the change you want to see

Yesterday I was clever, so I wanted to change the world. Today I am wise, so I am changing myself.      — Rumi

We are awash in change — it is everywhere we look. The rate of change we have experienced over the last 100 years is unprecedented. For thousands and thousands of years, humans have moved no faster than a man could walk. Then for thousands more, it was no faster than a horse. Then in a few short decades, we developed trains, cars, planes, and rocket ships. Now, communication occurs at the speed of light.

What is important for us is how fast we adapt to the changes around us. Those who are deeply rooted in traditions are quite likely to be resistant to change. The traditionalists are pessimists about the future and optimists about the past. One of the keys to an individual’s success is their ability to adapt to changing situations.

Albert Einstein emphasises: “You can’t solve a problem with the same mindset in which it was created.”

Change happens whether we want it to or not. Some people welcome change and find ways to turn the unexpected into an opportunity for growth. Others become frightened and simply react. How we handle the inevitable changes are the keys to living a life without fear.

In a rapidly changing world, we have to prepare ourselves for challenges that will confront us every day. This requires a liberally educated citizenry. The only education that prepares us for change is liberal education. In periods of change, narrow specialisation condemns us to inflexibility — precisely what we do not need. The right attitude can mean the difference between allowing unexpected life changes to keep us from achieving our goals or dealing with the changes and growing because of them.

When we are confronted with unforeseen changes in our lives, our first response may be to either run away from them or fight them. Fight or flight is an inborn survival instinct that surfaces when we feel threatened. Embracing change with our full being is the only way for us to live mindfully and meaningfully.

To use the words of Charles Darwin, “It is not the strongest of the species that survive, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to change.”

Perhaps the best mantra for bringing about change is to begin with oneself.

As Alan Cohen advises us, “It takes a lot of courage to release the familiar and seemingly secure, to embrace the new. But there is no real security in what is no longer meaningful. There is more security in the adventurous and exciting, for in movement there is life, and in change there is power.” Anyone, anywhere, can start an initiative of change by applying the words:  “Be the change you wish to see in the world” — which have often been attributed to Mahatma Gandhi.

Bob Dylan has captured the essence of this philosophy in a more satirical way through his immortal lyrics:

Come mothers and fathers throughout the land
And don’t criticise
What you can’t understand
Your sons and your daughters
Are beyond your command
Your old road is rapidly ageing’.
Please get out of the new one
If you can’t lend your hand
For the times they are a-changin’.