As I mentioned at my talk "2012: End or Beginning?" the other night at the Petaluma Museum, transformation will take place naturally. It is a natural process for creatures to evolve.
I gave the analogy of a caterpillar who one day gets the notion to start building this thing - a cocoon, not having any idea what it is or what it's for. One day, when it's nearly done, she knows she has to get inside and seal it up, closing herself off from friends and family. Not understanding why or for what purpose, merely that this is what she must do.
The cocoon hangs from a branch for a period of time, but she has no idea how long she will hang there.
Letting go of all desires and needs, she feels herself dissolving. She enters a timeless state.
One day, just as mysteriously as was the beginning of the process, it is time to emerge. She makes her way out of the cocoon and realizes her whole self is transformed. No longer a creature of the earth, she now can fly. Her lumpy old body gone, instead she has wings that glimmer in the sunlight. She is nearly weightless.
She can fly from flower to flower. She is called by scent and color to travel long distances, visiting places she couldn't have imagined in her previous state. The world is all new and it is beautiful.
Once upon a time,
I dreamt
I was a butterfly...Suddenly
I awoke...Now, I do not
know whether I was then
a man dreaming I was
a butterfly, or whether I
am now a butterfly dreaming
that I am a man.
- - - - Chuang-Tzu
Tuesday, September 20, 2011
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