Bigger Than the Moment

When we are in the thick of a challenging life story, like a death, a breakup, a business problem or an angry episode with our partner, it helps to remember that what is really happening is bigger than the moment.

How does this work?

We know that the first strategy for dealing with challenging situations is awareness. With awareness, we are in the situation and outside it, simultaneously. We are experiencing what is happening subjectively, while witnessing the event objectively. For more on this, please read  The Bumper Car Lifestyle. When we do this without immediately jumping into the story, without reacting blindly, we give ourselves the opportunity to respond skillfully to what is happening rather than react with our traditional, often unskillful, behaviors. We then have the opportunity to take personal responsibility, do some inner work and take new action. This four part strategy allows us to learn from what is happening rather than continue to use our old, sometimes dysfunctional, personal software. In this way, we use our life as our perfect teacher.

Once we have achieved this personally responsible, life-changing way of being (no small thing), we need to see that what is happening is also bigger than the moment. Each story is a part of a bigger whole, a bigger lesson, a bigger truth. You could call them jigsaw puzzle pieces. When something is bigger than the moment, and when we realize this, how can we resist investigating, trying to fit the piece into the bigger puzzle of life? The current challenging story is just a part of something bigger and exists to point us in the direction of that bigger truth. When we investigate what is bigger than the moment, we also discover that what is happening is a part, not just of our little story but everybody’s story. It is universal. And the knowledge of universality is the field in which we grow compassion.

Helpful questions for this practice are: What archetype are we encountering; which spiritual truth; what area of lack; what fear is present? What part of us doesn’t feel completely whole? Every story has an encompassing truth surrounding it. Which one is present now?

When we remind ourselves that what is happening is bigger than the moment, we jump beyond the ego, and avoid getting lost in our small story. We reveal the bigger picture of our own life as a part of a great whole and we experience humility in the face of the bigger picture. It is much like looking up at the stars at night and becoming lost in majesty and scale.