The ancient Greek philosopher Heraclitus of Ephysus (c. 535-475 BC) is probably best known for the quote reported by Plato in Cratylus:
“You could not step twice in the same river.”
As always, when we try to figure out what people actually said or didn’t say so many years ago, we have to piece together fragments of text from various sources. I should caveat this blog by mentioning that I am not a philosopher and don’t claim to understand the nuances of these ancient texts, but I shall give my understanding of why I think this is an important thought that can help us in our lives today.
In simple terms, Heraclitus was observing that you can’t step into the same river twice because, from moment to moment, there is a flow of water, so the river is not the same as it was a moment ago. This is a metaphor for our experience of life; everything is in a constant state of flux, so we can never experience the same moment twice, although if a bore at a social event has ever cornered you, it may feel like a moment can last for eternity.
This may seem like a trivial observation, but I think the reason it’s important is because we often think and behave as if it isn’t true, especially when we consider our thoughts, beliefs and desires, and this can keep us stuck in undesirable behaviours and habits.
Dr Amy Johnson has written about this in a wonderful piece I came across on Tiny Buddha, which is a great website that features articles about happiness, love, relationships, change, meaning, mindfulness, spirituality, simplicity, minimalism, letting go, and more. Amy Johnson is the author of two fantastic books about changing habits and addictions that I will link to below. She writes:
“Imagine there is a river running through you.
"Your entire experience of life flows through you, down that river. Everything you think, feel, and do passes through, powered by the current of the river.
"Your emotions, your opinions, your sense of identity … your habits, diagnoses, and choices … they aren’t still or solid, sitting somewhere. They are brought to life, felt, and then they drift away. They are in constant motion, naturally replaced with a revolving stream of new experience.
You aren’t responsible for what flows down the river.”
I thoroughly recommend that you take a few minutes to read the article, but what Johnson is pointing to is a truth which is at the centre of many spiritual traditions, which is that the essence of what we are is not the thoughts or emotions that pass down the river but that which witnesses them.
As the revered Indian sage Sri Ramana Maharshi put it:
“Thoughts come and go. Feelings come and go. Find out what it is that remains.”
This is a vital shift of perspective that can help us break free from unhelpful habits. For example, let’s say we have decided to take a break from drinking alcohol, perhaps for Dry January, and halfway through the month, we find ourselves craving a drink. Our usual response would be to think, “I am really craving a drink” or perhaps “I really need a drink.”
With this perspective shift, we can re-frame this as “I notice that I am having cravings for a drink”. Now, of course, this doesn’t magically make the cravings disappear, but what it does is to make us more open to curiosity – “Hmm, that’s interesting, I wonder why I am suddenly craving a drink? What prompted that?”. We can also observe how the cravings come and go. There’s a technique called ‘urge surfing’ where instead of hiding from our urges we embrace the discomfort and ask ourselves questions, such as:
How does this urge feel?
What are our thoughts about it?
What emotions are we experiencing?
We can also track the intensity of the urge over time. The surprising thing about urges is that they don’t just keep on intensifying – they crest and fall away. The reason that we often cave-in to urges is that we are scared by them, but the truth is, they are paper tigers; when we face them down they are not nearly as scary as they look.
Another of the quotes attributed to Heraclitus is Panta rhei or “Everything flows; Everything Changes". Now as I mentioned earlier, I’m not an expert on Heraclitus so I am not sure what he meant by ‘everything’, but from what I have learned, there is one thing that doesn’t change or flow, and that is the witness that observes our thoughts, sensations and feelings. When I look in the mirror I can see that my body has changed; my thoughts, sensations and feelings change every second, but I can’t discern any change to the witness.
Not only does it not change, but the thoughts, sensations and feelings that it witnesses are not me. How could they be, when I am the one observing them? There must be a subject-object relationship between ‘me’ and those passing thoughts and feelings. As Amy Johson put it in her book, “Just a Thought”:
“First, what you think, feel and do doesn't mean anything about who-you-are. The habitual, insecure, ego-based, critical me-me-me thoughts that run through your mind all day, every day, and not “you”, and they are not “yours”. They are the output of a machine brain. They are just what minds do”.
The great spiritual teacher Ram Dass put it like this:
“One way to get free of attachment is to cultivate the witness consciousness, to become a neutral observer of your own life. The witness place inside you is simple awareness, the part of you that is aware of everything — just noticing, watching, not judging, just being present, being here now.
The witness is actually another level of consciousness. The witness coexists alongside your normal consciousness as another layer of awareness, as the part of you that is awakening. Humans have this unique ability to be in two states of consciousness at once. Witnessing yourself is like directing the beam of a flashlight back at itself. In any experience — sensory, emotional, or conceptual — there’s the experience, the sensory or emotional or thought data, and there’s your awareness of it. That’s the witness, the awareness, and you can cultivate that awareness in the garden of your being.”[i]
So recognise that whatever challenges you face in life, there is nothing wrong with you. The only reason we feel as if we are damaged is because we mistake what we think and feel for who we are. Making that perspective shift is a big step to living a more peaceful and fulfilling life.
Amy Johnson's Books
The Little Book of Big Change: The No-Willpower Approach to Breaking Any Habit by Amy Johnson PhD, Kathleen Mary Carthy, et al.
Just a Thought: A No-Willpower Approach to Overcome Self-Doubt and Make Peace with Your Mind by Amy Johnson PhD, Amy Johnson, et al.
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