No moment can be different than it is. We can't change a moment that comes. The moment (and its content) appears from within us, before us, and we are relegated to being able to see it but not to change the very thing that we're looking at as it appears. So that whether we like it or not actually means nothing.
However, what does mean something is what we allow to happen within us as each of these moments unfolds before us. It's what we do inwardly with what takes place outwardly that alone has the power to transform both these worlds in a way that is truly positive for all. It's why our interior work is so important -- because it leads gradually to a completely different relationship with every moment we meet.
Real strength doesn't have anything to do with being more powerful than whatever the moment is that seems to be overpowering us, but real strength understands that there is literally nothing in this world for us to be afraid of. Imagine that! Imagine meeting a moment and you know, from the inside out, that nothing that is being revealed to you has the power to do anything to you other than give you a new understanding of yourself.
If we didn't know that was so, then our life would look the way it does now, where we're struggling all the time. But changing that around, we can realize that within us already dwells a level of being, of consciousness, with the power to not just reveal and actualize these moments -- transform them into an inner strength -- but through it, to literally transform that moment (and ourselves) into something that is altogether new and stronger than ever before.
I'm talking about "silent seeing." We all have ideas about silence, but we don't really know that it is a part of ourselves. We see it as something we want, maybe a state to be gained or avoided, but nevertheless something that dwells in a world apart from ourselves. But silence doesn't dwell outside of us. Silence was there in the beginning of all things, and it's always here with us as part of the living Now.
Without some kind of conscious relationship with real silence, we are wasting away in the noise of a world that loves the sound of its own prattling. And by the way, it loves it because it's able to hide its pain in the chaos that it continues to create as it tries to escape its own manifestations.
If we can see the futility of taking thought to produce peace and quiet -- then what are we to do in those moments when our own thoughts and feelings are whirling around within us, every one of them demanding we attend to it if we ever hope to know peace again?
We must learn to accept every moment as it is given to us. We understand that life isn't something happening to us. And if it's not happening to us, then it is happening for us. And the more we accept this revelation, inwardly and outwardly, agreeing to the revelations that come with it, the freer we are to receive the innumerable gifts that appear with every moment, including a moment-to-moment rebirth of our own understanding.
Without acceptance of this kind, there is the constant howl of resistance to life, and there can be no silence. And if there is no silence, there can be no peace. Without peace, there can't be clarity. And without clarity, how can there be dimension to our existence? Without being able to penetrate, to see into the depths of our own heart and mind, there can't be revelation. And without revelation, there is no possibility of renewal, no real life.
The next level of consciousness is to learn and practice, as best you're able, to bring every disturbance (as well as the temptation to jump in and try to quiet it) into your awareness of it as it is unfolding, into this presence that is already part of your being that meets these moments in perfect quietude.
The more we will choose this kind of "silent seeing," the more we will see that there has always been a perfectly silent self, a higher nature that isn't just there within us, waiting to be realized, but in truth, that we have always lived within without knowing it. Learn to embrace this kind of "silent seeing," and in doing so, begin to see life through a mind, a heart, and a body that is quiet because it is part of what it is observing.