“Chaos is good news!”

Snapshot from a computer simulation of the formation of large-scale structures in the Universe, showing a patch of 100 million light-years and the resulting coherent motions of galaxies flowing towards the highest mass concentration in the centre. The snapshot refers to an epoch about 10 billion years back in time. The colour scale represents the mass density, with the highest density regions painted in red and the lowest in black. The tiny yellow lines describe the intensity and direction of the galaxy’s velocities. Like compass needles, they map the infall pattern and measure the rate of growth of the central structure. This depends on the subtle balance between dark matter, dark energy and the expansion of the Universe. Astronomers can measure this effect using large survey of galaxies at different epochs in time, as shown by the new research.

The world is in a difficult time. We can even say it is a time of chaos. How can chaos be good news?

We came across these words from Tibetan master Chogyam Trungpa Rinpoche:

“Chaos should be regarded as very good news.”

This sentence appears in his book, The Myth of Freedom and the Way of Meditation. Here is the context.

“The Lion’s Roar is the fearless proclamation that any state of mind, including the emotions, is a workable situation, a reminder in the practice of meditation. We realize the chaotic situations must not be rejected. Nor must we regard them as regressive, as a return to confusion. We must respect whatever happens to our state of mind. Chaos should be regarded as very good news…. Whatever occurs in the samsaric mind is regarded as the path, everything is workable. It is a fearless proclamation — the lion’s roar.”

The following is a commentary on Trungpa Rinpoche’s quote in the book by Patricia Donegan, Haiku Mind: 108 Poems to Cultivate Awareness and Open Your Heart. She writes:

“It doesn’t always feel that way, but the chaos is a moment or time of lack of control and of surprise, in which anything is possible, beyond our judgment of good or bad. In Tibet it is believed that the enlightened Buddha energies manifest in either peaceful or wrathful forms, depending on what is called for, to protect and awaken us. The reason why it is ‘good news’ is because the nonfixed, chaotic state of things creates an open field in which new things can emerge and grow.”

Let us be fearless and use this opportunity to create a better world for all.

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