56
august/september2019yogajournal.com.auPHOTO: VIKTOR GLADKOV/ISTOCKWhen you’re in the midst of the
process, you may feel like that
overheated chickpea—or like cookie
dough, raw and untogether. Even more
dislocating, you may not know exactly
who you are. That uncertainty—the
feeling that you’re in between your
old self and an unknown new one—
is one of the signs that you’re in a true
transformative process.
Transformation is different from
spiritual awakening or enlightenment.
The contemporary philosopher
Yasuhiko Kimura defines
transformation as a dance between
being and becoming. Being is the
changeless source of all that is, the
formless ground where words and
categories dissolve, which many of you
have perhaps touched during meditation
or Savasana (Corpse Pose). Becoming is
the part of you that grows, changes, and
shifts. It is the realm where inspiration
becomes actualised in the world. Being
is your still center, your source;
becoming is your personality, your body,
and your interactions with the world.
When you have a spiritual
awakening, or even a deep experienceof stillness in meditation, you return to
pure being, an immersion in the love
and freedom of undying essence.
Transformation, on the other hand, is
what happens when the insights and
experiences that emerge from pure
being meet your ordinary human
personality and your day-to-day reality
and begin to infuse your choices and
relationships.
Doug’s transformative process began
when he realised that the insight he’d
had in meditation was demanding to be
lived. An old friend of mine described a
similar moment in his life. He’d spent a
month in retreat with his teacher,
finding that his capacity for loving had
increased exponentially in his teacher’s
presence. Back in the stream of ordinary
life, he’d watch the love evaporate under
the pressure of making a living and
dealing with daily minutiae.
For him, the process of
transformation arose from the tension
between the love and wisdom of pure
being that he experienced while on
retreat and the everyday habits and
feelings that characterised his former
self. It’s that tension that actuallybegets change. In fact, the tension is
part of the process, a sign that
transformation is imminent. There
are other signals that you can learn to
recognise, too, because for most of
us, real transformation happens in
stages that can be tracked.THE WAKE-UP CALL
Transformative journeys start with a
wake-up call: For some, it arrives like
Doug’s did, as a sudden, intuitive
recognition. But just as often, the call
may come through an external crisis.
For instance, Francesco, a young actor,
says his transformation began when a
director fired him from a film, alleging
he didn’t know how to express real
emotion. For Dale, the triggering event
was the early death of her husband.
Yoga and spirituality teacher Andrew
heard the alarm bell when a student
left him, asserting that his life didn’t
reflect his teaching. Each event was
heartbreaking—not only did it shatter
the external framework of these
people’s lives, but it shattered their
beliefs about themselves.
Evolutionary biologist Elisabet
Sahtouris has written that stress is
what creates evolution in nature:
Plants grow through pruning. Human
beings grow the same way. When we’re
faced with a situation that we can’t
control or change with our current
level of understanding and skill,
evolutionary stress arises and impels
us to question, seek, practice, and
eventually take a leap outside of our
comfort zones into higher levels of
awareness.HOLDING UNCERTAINTY
Stress is uncomfortable and, for some,
downright disturbing. But in science
and in spirituality, important
breakthroughs are often preceded by a
period of intense frustration or impasse.
Consider a scientist who has assembled
data and performed innumerable
experiments, but can’t seem to crack the
problem. Her passionate quest for
answers and her frustration about not
receiving them build to a white-hot
intensity. In this impasse, the answers
emerge from her momentarily still
mind. Often, it takes the form of an
insight, like a download from the Source
while resting or taking a walk.
Spiritual breakthroughs follow a
similar pattern. You search for answers“Transformation is different from
spiritual awakening or enlightenment.”yj77_54-59 quantam leap.indd 56 19/7/19 5:54 pm56
august/september2019yogajournal.com.auPHOTO: VIKTOR GLADKOV/ISTOCKWhen you’re in the midst of the
process, you may feel like that
overheated chickpea—or like cookie
dough, raw and untogether. Even more
dislocating, you may not know exactly
who you are. That uncertainty—the
feeling that you’re in between your
old self and an unknown new one—
is one of the signs that you’re in a true
transformative process.
Transformation is different from
spiritual awakening or enlightenment.
The contemporary philosopher
Yasuhiko Kimura defines
transformation as a dance between
being and becoming. Being is the
changeless source of all that is, the
formless ground where words and
categories dissolve, which many of you
have perhaps touched during meditation
or Savasana (Corpse Pose). Becoming is
the part of you that grows, changes, and
shifts. It is the realm where inspiration
becomes actualised in the world. Being
is your still center, your source;
becoming is your personality, your body,
and your interactions with the world.
When you have a spiritual
awakening, or even a deep experienceof stillness in meditation, you return to
pure being, an immersion in the love
and freedom of undying essence.
Transformation, on the other hand, is
what happens when the insights and
experiences that emerge from pure
being meet your ordinary human
personality and your day-to-day reality
and begin to infuse your choices and
relationships.
Doug’s transformative process began
when he realised that the insight he’d
had in meditation was demanding to be
lived. An old friend of mine described a
similar moment in his life. He’d spent a
month in retreat with his teacher,
finding that his capacity for loving had
increased exponentially in his teacher’s
presence. Back in the stream of ordinary
life, he’d watch the love evaporate under
the pressure of making a living and
dealing with daily minutiae.
For him, the process of
transformation arose from the tension
between the love and wisdom of pure
being that he experienced while on
retreat and the everyday habits and
feelings that characterised his former
self. It’s that tension that actuallybegets change. In fact, the tension is
part of the process, a sign that
transformation is imminent. There
are other signals that you can learn to
recognise, too, because for most of
us, real transformation happens in
stages that can be tracked.THE WAKE-UP CALL
Transformative journeys start with a
wake-up call: For some, it arrives like
Doug’s did, as a sudden, intuitive
recognition. But just as often, the call
may come through an external crisis.
For instance, Francesco, a young actor,
says his transformation began when a
director fired him from a film, alleging
he didn’t know how to express real
emotion. For Dale, the triggering event
was the early death of her husband.
Yoga and spirituality teacher Andrew
heard the alarm bell when a student
left him, asserting that his life didn’t
reflect his teaching. Each event was
heartbreaking—not only did it shatter
the external framework of these
people’s lives, but it shattered their
beliefs about themselves.
Evolutionary biologist Elisabet
Sahtouris has written that stress is
what creates evolution in nature:
Plants grow through pruning. Human
beings grow the same way. When we’re
faced with a situation that we can’t
control or change with our current
level of understanding and skill,
evolutionary stress arises and impels
us to question, seek, practice, and
eventually take a leap outside of our
comfort zones into higher levels of
awareness.HOLDING UNCERTAINTY
Stress is uncomfortable and, for some,
downright disturbing. But in science
and in spirituality, important
breakthroughs are often preceded by a
period of intense frustration or impasse.
Consider a scientist who has assembled
data and performed innumerable
experiments, but can’t seem to crack the
problem. Her passionate quest for
answers and her frustration about not
receiving them build to a white-hot
intensity. In this impasse, the answers
emerge from her momentarily still
mind. Often, it takes the form of an
insight, like a download from the Source
while resting or taking a walk.
Spiritual breakthroughs follow a
similar pattern. You search for answers“Transformation is different from
spiritual awakening or enlightenment.”