Exploring key dynamics of change and transformation

Dissipating into choice...

The key frame around choice and change is that of free will, which I want to quickly encompass with a quote:

"The arguments about free will are usually spurious by virtue of inadequate contextualization and reliance on the hypothetical. They then end up as discursive, circuitous intellectualizations in which the unconscious hope is that free will will be negated as a possible reality, thus avoiding spiritual responsibility or accountability."

TLC, Hawkins, 2006.

Models of Change
Among the models of change in complex systems is Prigogine's idea of a dissipative structure, a chemical analogy for life-like patterns, whereas among economists Hayek's idea of creative destruction offers another view on the same concept.

Perhaps the most dramatic and unannounced creative destruction in the history of ideas has occured in the 80s to early 90s, when Lynn Margulis' SET theory, the theory that life evolved through individuals destroying their individual integrity and collapsing together into new and more complex orders of cellular life, has swept from radical theory to accepted doctrine in a few short years. The theory of symbiosis explains beautifully how complex orders of life appear from less complex, and allows analogies to range from the level of the virus up to the level of the ecosphere and economy with comprehensive relevance and explanatory power.

Dr Hawkins on Change
The clearest exponent of this view is again Hawkins. The problem is that not only are his words different to describe change, but that the meanings of the words are of a different order again. So one can repeat the words he uses without having understood them experientally or subjectively, despite understanding the theory.

So for what it's worth my understanding of Hawkins' explanation is that individual change does not ultimately occur.

In reality, emergence occurs as the result of the overall sum of influences in the entire or whole of reality. The key condition in such emergence is intention, which inheres to the fabric of reality by virtue of being one and the same with it. Death, dissipation, disorder, chaos, collapse, illness, and on are all apparent only, and in fact bring unseen and subtle long term benefits to the whole of reality overall.

There: I've repeated the words and doubtless missed much of the significance. It's my best attempt; enjoy.

Keys to Change: Spaciousness, Non-resistance, Acceptance, and Intention
The significance of these thoughts is that change often occurs in a mysterious fashion. Sure it is possible to attempt to change oneself overall, but the overall orientation of one's life system, or imprints, or tendencies, or however you want to say it, tends to tug one back into the past and the previous. The more subtle way, then, is in the dictum of Shunryu Suzuki: if you want a cow (meaning a tendency or fixed behaviour) to settle down, place it to graze in a spacious, verdant field.

So the most sophisticated model for change I know is simply to give lots and lots of space and awareness to behaviors that one wants to change, letting go of the wantingness and needingness around the wish, and simply allowing things to settle into a new pattern around this. That is the best I've got on change, in all honesty.