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already ceased to exist at the moment one thinks it,—it eludes thought. The material world, they say, is going to disintegrate, and the mind will drown in the torrent-like flow of things. (CM 177) Bergson is aware that the philosophical perspective that he is attempting to cultivate in his readers quite likely might catalyze a negative response—ironically , not because of our inability to understand it, but because, on some level, we have understood what he is saying and yet are frightened by what such a worldview might imply.7 Bergson’s claim is persuasive. It can be extremely difficult, both intellectually and existentially, to even begin to acknowledge the extent to which our inner (and outer) worlds are undergoing a process of ceaseless change. We often pay lip service to how wonderful it is to be creative, but in actuality, we are deeply frightened of change. We often feel more secure when someone in power tells us what to do, what to say, or what to think. We frequently prefer to remain childlike rather than to take on the frightening responsibility that is implied if we were to really grow up and consciously make the attempt to shape the texture of our lives. As human beings, we often seem to prefer to live in societies and/or subcultures that give clear-cut guidelines and rules instead of taking the risk to honor and cultivate our own freedom to live the life that we choose. It seems that we often prefer to pretend that we know, at all times and in all places, what is right and what is wrong, who is good and who is bad, rather than live in a world in which there are no absolute, rock solid, moral codes, a world in which every human being is a complex, ever-shifting amalgam of good and bad, right and wrong. It is almost as if we prefer to pretend that somehow we can convince the world (and ourselves) to stop changing, as if we want to somehow make ourselves and everyone else stay eternally the same. But, as Bergson never ceases to point out, it never works this way. Change is both continual and inevitable. So the question becomes: how do we respond to this torrent of newness? Do we attempt to control the behavior of others as well as our own feelings and actions? Do we seek to build higher and thicker and stronger walls around ourselves to hold back the onrushing tsunami of change? Do we attempt to (self-righteously) battle with the threatening forces of otherness and difference? Or, is there perhaps another option? Could we, instead, embrace the change as it comes our way? Could we recognize that change is the very nature of who we are? Most of us try to muddle through life as best we can, willing to change in certain respects, resisting change in others. It is this resistance to change that is one of the hallmarks of our superficial self. In-and-as our superficial self, it may well, at least for a time, feel comfortable to put on a false smile, or to blindly follow the leader, or to unquestioningly get in line. And yet, in the end, we always pay a price if we continue to live a life that is inwardly dictated by 24 LIVING CONSCIOUSNESS others, if we remain so mesmerized by our fear of the unknown that we no longer have a clue as to what it is that we really want out of life. But I would argue that the pain of awakening to our superficial self is crucial, at least if it helps us to cross some inner threshold so that we can begin to long for something more. That pain is worth it if ultimately some deep part of us finally decides: enough is enough. Unfortunately, it often seems that, in our attempts to penetrate to the heart of our being, we have to pass through a twisting labyrinth of funhouse mirrors. We perhaps think that we are becoming more spontaneous and free, only to discover that we have just been impulsive and stupid. We perhaps fight against passive acquiescence to social norms, only to discover that we are merely playing out its perverse flip side in the form of our knee-jerk rebellion against authority. I would like to suggest that genuine and worthwhile inner change does not come from an arbitrary effort of will or from...

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