So often I hear about individuals and organisations who are passionate about CREATING change. It’s even mentioned in the tail end of a What’s Bubbling post about social entrepreneurship.

It seems that so many people involved in the non-profit / charity sector are deeply addicted to “saving the world”. According to the Born on the Mountaintop experience, “You have the Save the World addiction when you believe you must make a positive impact on the world before you can feel completely acceptable”.

The problem with this is that you can’t actually CREATE change. Change happens whether you like it or not. Change is meant to happen, and it will take place whether you are a part of it or not. It’s happening all the time. You have no real control over it, or over the consequences of your actions.

Any action you take, whether it’s through thought, speech, or physical expression, will be a catalyst for change to occur in the world around you. The vibrations you emit when you take that action will attract the various entities together to bring rise to a specific situation.

This resulting situation could be a new school for underprivileged kids in a rough neighbourhood, could eliminate poverty throughout the third world, could result in the destruction of an entire rainforest in South America, or could even land you a windfall by winning this week’s national lottery.

You simply cannot take credit when this situation arises, nor can you take the blame for it.

Normally, whenever you’re unhappy about something in the world, or worried about an event that you fear will take place, you start to enforce change. You think you have the power! Ha!! Really you don’t. The only thing you can ever do is take specific action, and let go of the desired outcome. Keep your eyes and ears open, look deep inside, and discover your intention behind a specific action that you’re taking. Is it coming from the dark side (a form of anger, frustration, stress, greed, a need to protect your ego, or a desire to deceive)? Or is it coming from a place of compassion?

Do you want to build that new school in the run-down neighbourhood because you’re really angry that the local government just doesn’t care about the welfare of it’s community? Do you want to build the school so that you can be recognised as a “local hero”? Do you have a vested interest in the land where you’re proposing to build the school?

Or is your intention for building the school coming from a place where you genuinely and wholeheartedly feel for the quality of education that the kids in that neighbourhood currently receive? Can you feel deep within you the hardship that each and every one of these children are going through right here, right now? What’s really driving you to build that school? What’s your intention? Does your action arise from the dark side, or does it arise from a place of compassion?

Whether you take action with a dark intent, or with a compassionate intent, it may result in the very same outcome arising for you - the construction of that brand new school for underpriviledged kids. Congratulations! However, this very same initial action, whether through thought, speech, or physical expression, will simultaneously be the catalyst for other situations to occur in the world around you.

The other simultaneous situations that occur are determined by the actual INTENT of your initial action. If you have a dark intention for that initial action, it’ll bring rise to other events that may not necessarily serve you in the way you’d hoped. It’ll certainly plant the seeds that bring rise to not-so-pleasant circumstances in the future. If you have a compassionate intention for that initial action, chances are high that it’ll bring rise to other events that positively serve you in the future.

Fine, you may WANT to change the world. Honestly, you can’t. All you can do is patiently and innocently observe the wonder of the world around you. Focus on the things that you already find beautiful and the things that function well. Pay attention to these things, appreciate them, raise their value. For those things that shock you or make you feel uneasy, then rather than succumbing to the dark side and making a lot of unnecessary noise about forcing others to change, let your actions come from a place of compassionate intent, and through that wonderous place, take inspired action.

Just as the caterpillar transforms into the magnificent butterfly, so too must you take only consistent inspired action and patiently welcome the changes that you’re destined to experience.

What will be the intention of YOUR actions today?

Right now, the sun is shining. Nothing special - it’s a gorgeous afternoon, and the light of the sun is penetrating through the large window and illuminating my whole bedroom. This morning the sun wasn’t shining. Nothing special - the clouds were hiding it, and it looked quite gloomy outside. Tonight the sun will stop shining. Nothing special - the Earth will have rotated so that we won’t be able to see the sun, and so we’ll be in darkness.

Interesting how the sun was still there, doing it’s job, radiating as it was meant to. The sun will continue doing it’s job, radiating as it’s meant to. The sun will continue shining. At times there will be clouds or the Earth covering it up, hiding it from our view, and although it will look like the sun has stopped shining, it’ll just be that our view of the sun has been obscured.

Our experience of the rest of the world is kind of like that. Everything that we could ever want, that we could ever hope to get, is permanently there. Everything that we hope never to get, to never be a victim of, is also permanently there. What happens is that our past actions cause certain things to be hidden from our present view.

Karmically speaking, our previously bound paap karma hides all the things that make us feel good, and reveals those very things that make us feel bad. In the same context, previously bound punya karma hides all the things that we could never want, and reveals the very things that make us feel better.

Of course all those bad things and those better things are just momentary. We want to remove all karma so that we can see our world as it is, completely unadulterated, being aware of all the good and all the not so good, without really reacting to it.

So the next time you’re looking for that perfect parking space, remember that it’s just there where you want it, even if it appears to be momentarily hidden. The next time you want to go on that playful date, remember that the right person is right in front of you, even if they appear to hidden from your life. The next time you want the sun to shine, remember that it will, although it may just be hiding behind the clouds.