Once you see and accept the transience of all things and the inevitability of change,
you can enjoy the pleasures of the world while they last
without fear of loss or anxiety about the future.
When you are detached, you gain a higher vantage point from
which to view the events in your life instead of being trapped inside them.
You become like an astronaut who sees the planet Earth
surrounded by the vastness of space and realizes a paradoxical truth:
The earth is precious and at the same time insignificant.
The recognition that This, too will pass brings detachment
and with detachment another dimension comes into your lie inner space.
Through detachment, as well as nonjudgment and inner nonresistance,
you gain access to that dimension.
When you are no longer totally identified with forms, consciousness –
who you are becomes freed form its imprisonment in form.
This freedom is the arising of inner space.
It comes as a stillness, a subtle peace deep within you,
even in the face of something seemingly bad.
This, too, will pass.
Suddenly, there is space around the event.
There is also space around the emotional highs and lows, even around pain.
And above all, there is space between your thoughts.
And from that space emanates a peace that is not “of this world,”
because this world is form, and the peace is space.
Now you can enjoy and honor the things of this world
without giving them an importance and significance they don't have.
You can participate in the dance of creation and be active
without attachment to outcome and without placing unreasonable demands
upon the world: Fulfill me, make me happy, make me feel safe, tell me who I am.
The world cannot give you those things, and when you no longer have such expectations,
all selfcreated suffering comes to an end.
All such suffering is due to an overvaluation of form
and an unawareness of the dimension of inner space.
When that dimension is present in your life,
you can enjoy things, experiences, and the pleasures of the sense
without losing yourself in them, without inner attachment to them,
that is to say, without becoming addicted to the world.
The words This, too, will pass are pointers toward reality. In pointing
to the impermanence of all forms, by implication, they are also pointing to the eternal.
Only the eternal in you can recognize the impermanent as impermanent.
Object Consciousness and Space Consciousness.......................................137 Falling Below and Rising Above Thought.................................................138 Television...................................................................................................139 Recognizing Inner Space...........................................................................141 Can You Hear the Mountain Stream? .......................................................143 Right Action..............................................................................................144 Perceiving Without Naming......................................................................144 Who Is the Experiencer? ..........................................................................146 The Breath.................................................................................................147 Addictions..................................................................................................149 Inner Body Awareness...............................................................................150 Inner and Outer Space................................................................................151 Noticing the Gaps.......................................................................................153 Lose yourself to Find Yourself....................................................................153 Stillness.......................................................................................................154