Self - Change

      

By Yuan Changming

Self-Change   During high school, I kept dreaming to change the whole world Grown up, I find I cannot improve even the back lane of my house   While dating, I strongly believed I could reform my girlfriend to a great wife But 30 years after marriage I still fail to make her close the toilet lid after use   Thinking hard about why I cannot alter anything, or anybody I find the reason lies exactly in my failure to see the harsh truth   About change: you can never hope to change what you are a tiny part of And the only person you can change is the humbler version of your self   Self-Relationship   Despite all the relationships you have developed And tried to maintain, be it with god or nature Be it with man or woman, with your father or son Your boss or fan, you have deplorably failed Even to establish one with your inner self As an independent human being to be put right At the center of your network, though you don’t know How, except for your natural tendency to treat it Like your foe, or like your soulmate   Basic Formula for Happiness/Mindfulness   Let I be me, let me be nobody, and Let all pasts and futures be a void, then   Focus your consciousness Right on the present moment Open every cell to receive cosmic light   And we get the desired result as the whole Universe conspires to make it come true   To Change Yourself Is to Change the Whole World   You know little, you know nothing About quantum entanglement? Don’t feel ignorant. Me either   But listen: once you’ve changed Your own inner being, you will Be better off, and once your self is Better off, so will your family; so will Your neighborhood; your village or city Your homeland; your (and our) Whole world. The same is true   With quantum physics, exactly As in human society     Introduction to Quantum Superposition   Certainly you cannot be in different places At once, nor can you have different true Selves in the same place, but the Monkey King Can do both on his journey to the west (supposedly In quest for the authentic Buddhist scriptures): simply By pulling a thread of hair from behind his ear Chewing it, and then blowing the broken Pieces out, they will become as many   Monkey kings. Got the idea? Few of us understand Quantum superposition, nor do we all Really need to, but aren’t we all evolved From monkeys? So we can chew our inner beings And attain many identical versions of our selves:   As a quantum state, it can be represented As a sum of multiple other distinct state; otherwise   Just choose another self on the stem cell of your mind And you will see what you can never imagine seeing     Consciousness Determines Existence   It is not the consciousness of men that Determines their existence, Marx says But their social existence that determines Their consciousness. However, the opposite May prove true, since once you change   Your way of thinking, or your frame of mind You will live a different life, which will By logical extension, change your whole Social existence, just as a single drop of dye Changes the color of a large body of water   Accumulated within your inner space     Choice Is More Significant Than Effort   If, if only we chose To see, to hear To smell, to touch And to taste what is good True or beautiful, how Desirable a human life Would be worth living   Alas, we might never hope to do so But we can at least try, and in trying We will elevate our inner being To a high frequency which will Resonate with an equally high living   Or did you?     Inner Cosmesis   We spend tones of effort, time and money To take care of our outer looks, but little On our inner being. Is this because nobody can See it, or because everyone is happy about it?   Oh, me for one, how I wish To improve both the appearance And essence of my selfhood Not with cosmetics But with surgery     How Large Is Your World   No smaller than the internet Or virtual reality itself, my world Is populated not only with those I know or know of, but also with Total strangers, expanding daily Beyond the boundaries of my senses And of my mind or imagination, a world Where my heart embraces my world My world embraces my heart, where I am my world, and my world is me   Bio: Yuan Changming co-edits Poetry Pacific with Allen Yuan. Writing credits include 16 chapbooks, 12 Pushcart nominations for poetry and 3 for fiction besides appearances in Best of the Best Canadian Poetry (2008-17), BestNewPoemsOnline and 2129 other publications across 51 countries. A poetry judge for Canada's 44th National Magazine Awards, Yuan began writing and publishing fiction in 2022. His debut novel Detaching, 'silver romance' The Tuner and short story collection Flashbacks are all available at Amazon, his duology Edening due out in 2026.