Now here's an excerpt from the book.

Many visionaries and prophets expect there to be a huge and sudden shift
in the world's story sometime soon. Whether it happens on December 21,
2012 or a later date, a sizable proportion of them even predict that it will
be "in the twinkling of an eye" -- a sudden cascade of events that
completely changes everything everywhere.

Some paint the scenario in broad, catastrophic strokes, expecting
something -- they're not sure what -- that will have the impact of a large
meteor strike or nuclear war or pandemic disease. Others harbor a more
benign but equally fuzzy expectation, speculating that maybe some
higher psychic powers will kick in to the multitudes all at once, or that
benevolent extraterrestrials will arrive to solve our energy crisis.

What very few of the prophets do, however, is make a precise prediction
about exactly will happen. Their visions contain no assurances, no
specifics. And in my view, that's worse than useless. It fills us with a
vague buzz of fear or amorphous sense of hope, but offers no concrete
directions about what to do to prevent the dreaded thing or help create
the hoped-for thing.

And the fact is, as I see it, they can't possibly know what the Big Shift is -
- if, that is, a Big Shift is really looming. The very nature of any Big Shift
will be so unexpected, so beyond our imaginations, and so utterly alien to
what we understand, that we can't possibly delineate its contours in
advance.

I'm reminded of Jung's formula, which is that we don't so much solve our
problems as we outgrow them. We add capacities and experiences that
eventually make us bigger than the problems.

This theory can be applied in reverse: If we have not yet grown wiser than
our current predicament, then we can't see what the evolved state is
beyond the predicament. Our minds are as-yet incapable of embodying
the vision that will catapult us beyond the problem we're stuck in.

When the Big Shift comes, whether or not it comes in the twinkling of an
eye, it will be something that no one foresaw, let alone described in detail.
It will be beyond our comprehension, unlike anything we could have
visualized headed our way. (Thirty years ago, did anyone imagine the
Internet or the impact it's having?)

And if that's true, then the inescapable conclusion is: There's no use
trying to plan ahead for it. It's counterproductive to hold a particular
scenario in our mind as the likely development. And it's downright crazy
to harbor a chronic sense of dread about an unknowable, unimaginable
series of events.

The best way to prepare for a Big Shift is to cultivate mental and
emotional states that ripen us to be ready for anything:

* a commitment to not getting lost inside our own heads;

* a strategy to avoid being enthralled with the hypnotic lure of painful
emotions, past events, and worries about the future;

* a trust in empirical evidence over our time-worn beliefs and old habits;

* a talent for turning up our curiosity full blast and tuning in to the raw
truth of every moment with our beginner's mind fully engaged;

* and an eagerness to dwell gracefully in the midst of all the interesting
questions that tease and teach us.

Everything I just described also happens to be an excellent way to prime
yourself for a chronic, low-grade, always-on, simmering-at-low-heat brand
of ecstasy -- a state of being more-or-less permanently in the Tao, in the
groove, in the zone.


ROB BREZSNEY
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