"You call it consciousness. This is your waking state — your consciousness shifts from sensation to sensation, from perception to perception, from idea to idea, in endless succession."
--Nisargadatta

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“The ocean is the ocean. All the waves, large and small, all the ripples and the raging seas are an apparent shifting of the substance H2O. The movement is a quality of H2O. There is no separate shift. The entire ocean is shifting constantly.”
--Gilbert Schultz

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“The rope never was a snake. In the realization, nothing changed.”
--David Boulter



There’s always lots of talk in spiritual forums about The Shift.

Because a lot of people, including perhaps you, want it. Reeeally want it.

Whatever it is.

Of course people do talk as if they know what it is. And of course it’s an appealing idea, this notion that we can leave the pain of being a person behind and transcend into something much grander and more peaceful.

So let’s look for a minute without all the propaganda.

For a shift to happen, that means something moves. Something goes from this to that, from here to there. Something changes.

When it comes the great spiritual shift, what is that something? What exactly is it that shifts, travels from this place to that place, and actually changes?

Is it the brain? Before or after The Great Shift it’s the same brain, same head, same chemicals and electrical impulses. Maybe it fires off at different times to different stimuli in various locations, but the brain itself remains the same.

The brain does not shift.

So that’s not it.

Maybe it's the mind? The mind is a concept, not a real thing, and it changes all the time. Is that a shift or just another mind change?

Is it thought that shifts? Thoughts redirect millisecond by millisecond throughout lifetimes, and whatever they are, they’re the same substance regardless of whether they’re about a flower or a knife or love or enlightenment. So if changed thoughts is what we’re calling The Shift, then hey no big deal, not worth the hype and the lifetime of seeking.

Perhaps what shifts is feelings or mood, such as, sadness or anxiety changes into bliss. No feeling stays forever though, including bliss. Besides, if that’s it, then surely there is medication that can help make that happen quicker than trying to get the spiritual shift to occur.

Maybe the one thing we can shift is attention.

Well, we certainly try.
Shift your attention to the breath, to the feeling, to the present moment, to I AM, to that stressful thought, to images, to excising past trauma by remembering and analyzing it, to chopping wood and carrying water.

Never mind that we are not the actual boss of attention- it does what it wants. I mean, when we drive and zone out, a) did we control that? b) what drove? and c) is that a shift?

Whose attention actually shifted? It doesn’t appear to be ours.

So that attention alteration- how important is it? And also us, the driver- how important are we?

But, but, but, Mind-Tickler- What about consciousness? Isn’t there a shift in consciousness?

OK. Well. Are we saying consciousness changes, moves from here to there?

Um… how does that work?

Our own consciousness (aka personal attention) might move. But that is very self-centric isn’t it?

Conveniently reinforcing, not dismantling, the sense of self that consciousness and awareness then revolve and move around.

Sure sure. That’s it.

Besides, if consciousness is out there, does it need us to know that? Does anything actually change- in us or anywhere else- if we personally know it’s there?

Or does it just feel like a change, seem to be a change?

Consciousness is whatever it is whether we put our focus and attention on it or not, and even whether we’re alive or dead.

Consciousness does not shift.

Whew. Fine. Let’s change gears for a moment. Let’s pretend that we did just determine what shifts.

Let’s now look at the actual movement, the actual change.

FROM what TO what? Where was whatever-it-is before the shift, and where does it move TO, afterwards?

From one idea, one paradigm, one understanding, one feeling, one perception to another?

Are any of those self-based activities, actual shifts?

We say, “I’m not there yet.”

Meaning whatever it is, it’s there, not here.

Apparently we’re supposed to literally move to ‘there.’

While staying in the present moment of course.

The thing is though, if it’s not here already, then how can we even know about any of this?

“I’m here. But I want to be there.”

What a fun game.

Nothing wrong with this game. We can play or not play- either is a fine way to spend a life.

It might just be easier- on us- to know it’s a game.

It might just be easier- on us- to consider that perhaps nothing real, nothing essential, shifts.

Or needs to shift.

So that, if we do enjoy chasing that ball,

We can chase it for the fun of

Being here.

Not there.