Shifts
After having inquired into thoughts around a specific topic, I notice that in the following days (maybe weeks?) there is a wobbly shift occurring.
Today, I was on a bus with a number of noisy teenagers. In the past, I would have been quite uncomfortable with the noise, and engaged in many thoughts and judgments about the noise producers. My discomfort would give rise to the thoughts, and the thoughts to the discomfort, in a spiral of self-made suffering. Along this would be the seeing of what was happening, and a dismay of the difficulty (or impossibility) of changing it in the situation.
This time, I noticed it was different. I was on the cusp of several different ways or relating to the inner/outer situation, and could move in any direction. I could have a taste of my habitual patterns, although did not need to go far in that direction. I could stay neutral and focus on the article in Shambala Sun I was reading, without being much distracted. Or I could shift into a deep appreciation of the noise and the kids - effortlessly experience it all as Existence manifesting.
I have noticed a similar effect in other areas where I have engaged in inquiry. For a while, there is a wobbly situation where I can choose to go in any number of directions. The old patterns are still available, although I am not able to engage in them in any convincing way. There is a neutral option, if I choose to focus on something else. And there is the option of deep appreciation and gratitude by recognizing it as Existence manifesting.
It seems that it then stabilizes more, into the neutral or appreciative form.