Life flows. Times change. We live through an ever-changing stream of hours, days and seasons...

We could think of the moving point of NOW flowing along a line connecting past to future – like a boat, with an embarkation point (past) and a destination (future); with a wake and a bow wave.

So we have two elements – the eternally moving now, and its context. The NOW has no duration or dimension. All time and space, all definitions of any kind, are properties of the second component (the context).

We could say that flux (flow) is an expression of the principle of lux (light) – and therefore signifies the most illuminating, enlightened mode of being. The context is the shadow in which this light is clothed...

Facts are just definitions – and so belong to the contextual world, not the real world. For example, 'down' for a person standing on the North Pole is exactly opposite to 'down' for a person at the South Pole. And for an astronaut on a space station (which keeps falling over the horizon) 'down' means round and round…

What this teaches us is that all facts are only true within a limited context (i.e. a finite space / time / perspective) – so they are all just as imperfect and as mortal as you are. If you don’t believe me, come back and check in a few tens of billions of years and see how different you are and your universe appears to be…

In other words, fact believers are cultists and shadow worshippers – a fact which, happily, will only offend you if you believe it’s a fact.

If you stand on a bridge over a river or motorway, you will see change and flow – but you may also see apparent patterns which lead you to suppose that there are predictable, recurrent factors (or rules). "Ah, now I understand", you say to yourself, "that’s how it is"... And yet, if you look for long enough, these too will change. The current (the present reality) always ultimately triumphs over the re-current (echoes from the past).

Our bodies, our minds and our emotions all belong to the contextual world – they are mere facts, and thus mortal (or subject to change). They define who we think we are – which is utterly different to who we really are. They (our bodies, minds and emotions) express something of our past, and may lead us to have certain expectations or prejudices about our present – but these prejudices and expectations are not really real. The reality is always infinitely bigger and more comprehensive than what we think it is.

Imagine a caterpillar about to 'chrysalise' on its way to becoming a butterfly. The moving NOW is directing that a transformation is required...

If a caterpillar only knows about being a caterpillar, how can it make any sense of this experience? From the caterpillar’s perspective, it might look like the end of the world – it might experience feelings of loss, mortality, finity, confusion, desperation, despair; it may feel out of control.

Just remember that if the caterpillar tries to be in control of the transformation, all it knows is how to be a caterpillar – it can only try to repeat the past, which is no longer appropriate and is therefore anachronistic (like the Latin language).

When you went through the pains of teething as a baby, some part of you probably wished to go back to having no teeth – but how limiting that would have been for your life experience.

Sometimes autumnal transformations only make sense when we look back in spring and see how the old made way for the new. The old us needs to go through that phase of being out of control – and later, as a butterfly, maybe we can look back and make sense of it. The alternative is to keep trying to glue the leaves back onto the trees.