When we think we have everything figured out, the universe tests us to see if we learned the lesson. If we move through it calmly and with mindful consciousness, we can pat ourselves on the backs, tallying one more lesson understood. Yet, don’t rest on your laurels too long, the lessons never cease, and when we think one has undoubtedly passed, it may come back disguised as another.
We must be careful not to think we have arrived, for we are always in the constant state of becoming.
A key element in understanding this concept is how Bob Dylan expressed it: “You always have to realize that you’re constantly… in the state of becoming, you know?”. The word ‘realize’ conveys the precision of the thought.
Most artists will reveal or confess they are never delighted with their finished work. Writers can’t fathom how they let that sentence slip past into publication; painters, sculptors, and musicians have expressed; I could have if I would have, or I should have changed a stroke, angle, or note. They epitomize the deeper, knowing that nothing is truly complete.
According to Buddism, everything in human life, all objects, and all beings are constantly changing, inconstant, undergoing a rebirth and death, which ends in the cycle when a person achieves Nirvana.
Until then, we are living in a world of impermanence.
Yet, we get fooled repeatedly into thinking we have reached the pinnacle of success in business, athletic ability, and scholarly achievements to be disappointed when another overshadows the high accomplishment. Or we stop striving and moving towards a new bar and instead fall into the trap of despair. The classic and cliched examples are the high school quarterback or homecoming queen who stopped pushing for achievement when their glory days had passed.
To be in a constant state of becoming does not suggest we cannot find contentedness nor enjoy accolades for achievement; it is to caution us, understanding that it is a fleeting moment. Glory in the spotlight, but don’t let the light blind you into thinking this is all that is.
The unceasing change is evident when looking at nature to guide us in our journey; nothing in nature stands still. Just as the earth rotates and the waves ebb and flow, so do our lives, no matter how desperately we resist. To recognize life is not a finished act but a process, the realization I believe Bob Dylan referred to.
How we think today may change tomorrow as experience and perspective color our thoughts. To allow such variation is the beauty of understanding the flow of life.
And this, too, shall pass. Even when the artist puts the last strokes upon a canvas, it only records the finish for that moment. But as light, air, and age affect the canvas, we see it is constantly becoming. We will never reach the final becoming until the becoming is no longer.
