Philosophea: Solutions (Chapter 3. Metamorphosis)

EVERYWHERE things are changing, but the rate of change is different for everything; beneath the surface—the face of death—all matter rests on the seat of existence: consciousness. We perceive reality, each of us differently, as constant change, but what is not changing? Consciousness: our awareness of that state of change. In fact, we should not underestimate the power and virtue of no-thing-ness and its value as well. The more conscious you are, the more sharp, spicy, honest and complete you will be: confident and at ease.
Through consciousness we will access higher levels of understanding; by complexifying our brains, our minds, we reach new potential consciousness, and evolution of the being intrinsically takes place. That evolution can be as instantaneous as a high-speed computer. Like going from laughing to crying or vise versa; we go from great extremes to every experience in between in adult life. Can you tell me there are not some people crying inside, with a smile on their face as they conduct their day; a baby crying or laughing in response to external senses of objects is far less sad or discomforted than an adult in the world of modern slavery; the only difference is conditioning, indoctrination, and desensitization.
At every level of transcendence toward consciousness a layer of worry and self-doubt fades away; like going in and out of focus on a camera, the perspective is altered to let in different amounts of light or information. The darker the iris, the deeper the insight and the wider the more progressive; more open, therefore, the more perspective. From this we can derive that the greater absence of known, which is stored light, the more capable we are of receiving the light or receptive to new information in other words. With this openness one becomes or taps into a higher intelligence, a collective unconscious, a union with the divine as it were—or a recognition of the exotically real. This transformation, and this alone is what we seek, is it not? To be connected to something greater?
When one experiences a metamorphosis, they do not necessarily change in appearance, but interiorly they are like a butterfly. Awakening is akin to breaking through the chrysalis, a new first birth, first breath. Only a transformation of the self can bring about the transformation of the world. Each human life is a letter in the strand of Life's DNA, by altering enough of the constituents in the code, the effects can be both radical and highly contagious (by fundamental I mean at the level of causation, and by contagious I mean easily transferable or viral ideas). When we are open to a new perspective of reality, reality itself does not change, but with enough attention we can realize how reality transforms in cycles; history repeats itself like seasons continuously in transition; life is a constant introduction.
The extent to which this transformation takes place may account for the degree of approaching perfection. However, degrees of perfection are like increments of infinity—in other words, approaching perfection is an illusion of mind, rather than a quality of reality. Nonetheless, the pursuit of perfection is a valid and worthwhile goal to have. This apparent paradox can be recognized within the Declaration of Independence with the phrase “more perfect union” to describe the confederacy of states seeking their god-given sovereignty.
Some believe that such a transformation can only come about through revolution—through violent or nonviolent means; others believe that it must occur gradually, through increments, or by an ocean of conscious droplets—emerging from time to time to deliver to our desert of ignorance a mere thimbleful of wisdom. No matter the form, love is the way, and peace is the outcome. Unity, in other words, is most if not all essential, for in our time we have enough thought, technology, and business; what we need now is wisdom and pure act, and not so much of the former.
That being said, I am not condemning thought or the intellect, for ignorance is not bliss; it is slavery and suffering without realizing that it is. Rather, I propose a transformation, a transcendence of the mind through a recognition of the consciousness which observes it and a connectedness of all things and of all beings—human or not. What I propose is not a denial of the mind for the sake of embracing the heart but the full embrace of the mind in order to fully embrace the greater force known as the heart.
Thought without emotion is dull and bland; emotion without thought is misguided and inept; combined, a person displays grace, innocence, discernment, and wisdom.
In order to witness a transformation of our antiquated forms, we must transform our ways of thinking: from ‘everyone is out to get me’ to ‘I am going to try my best to show others that I am not out to get them’. When we change the environment for others, displaying grace, innocence, wisdom, and discernment, our example resonates and carries like a song—acting as a self-fulfilling prophecy. Only when you have the courage to be vulnerable and to be liberated from the shadows of measurable time will such a transformation be possible, both in you and in the world.
There is something about the transformation—from a life of distraction to total devotion to the love of life—which greatly resembles that of the caterpillar; as its chrysalis phase ends it emerges beautiful and vulnerable, and as it does, it resembles our struggle and also that of the environment, making it beautiful and good. Like the caterpillar, a metamorphosis occurs in which the once destructive, consumptive, active creatures become creative, and helpful to the process of life—the very same life that was once consumed by that creature. After the chrysalis, a genetically new creature emerges; does that butterfly have the same awareness?
When we learn something, we cannot return to the lower level of awareness that existed before we had obtained that knowledge—in other words, we cannot unlearn what we have truly learned and grown to understand; in this sense, a death of the point of view that we once possessed takes place, and the birth of a new perspective comes to replace it in an instant—or rather the new view has vanquished the old. This death and rebirth is true growth of the human being; this is true life and the ultimate value of knowledge and learning.
To transcend the boundaries of culture and narcissism, all one needs do is turn the television off and be a creative force instead of a destructive one. Such a perspective does not involve tiresome effort; it is a choice between fear and love; between death and life. Turn off the television, put your hands in the soil, your eyes in a book, and your heart in the lives of your fellow beings—this is not rocket science, it’s community, communication, and real connectedness: that is our natural state!
We have been artificially put into a state of the busybody, worker bee; the world is the way it is so you just have to submit and force yourself to be alright with it. However, this being the case, we become depressed and our world seems bleak. The solution is to let this world as we know it go and inhabit the world our hearts know is possible. This, as we have said, is not impossible, it is only seemingly impossible to those who have never tried, being complacent in their life of convenience and living fixed within the current paradigm—accepting hopelessness as an inevitability due to learned helplessness.
This stage of metamorphosis, where we become aware of the choice between life (change), and death (stagnancy), is a state of intense vulnerability. Those whose heart is guarded, their minds fortified by bars of adamant stagnation, will not allow for such vulnerability, but in doing so they ensure a self-fulfilling prophesy of hurt. Visitors who make it past those supposed protections are then prevented from leaving the attention of the protected by those same protections—acting like a bee trap—causing further pain and unneeded suffering.
Fools to love live in fear, for where there is fear, there can be no love. The end of blind selfishness starts with the vulnerability of unity, both in one's self and as a part of society. The human body is a manifestation of a unity of many parts, each independent and interdependent, always acting as both parts and as a whole.
Like an infant child who is extremely vulnerable for a very long period of time, compared to other animals, the transformation of society from a centralized government of force and coercion to a decentralized organization of human activity, being voluntary and well regulated with wisdom and reason, shall take a lifetime or several to manifest into reality, absent some catastrophic, catalyzing event. It is a total evolution of the world order and human consciousness, and the individual mind is a vulnerable and delicate development. Nonetheless, this evolution is taking place in human beings throughout the world, and this trend evinces the ultimate transcendence of our antiquated forms.
Throughout history, from tribes to cities, the centralization of power has been manifest and has caused deeper and deeper suffering and servility in the people who follow witlessly the will of the oligarchs. A world government is in its fetal stage, and it is being born through the waters of maritime banking and admiralty law—the law of the sea. However, the character of this world organism, of either egalitarianism and ecological soundness or totalitarian banking and corporate dominance, shall be determined by the choices and perspectives of human beings, here and now. In the tumultuous ocean of woman’s and man’s mind, such a gestation is always taking place; within the unconscious, avoided and discouraged by social norms and ignorance or cultivated and nourished by meditation and practicing peace.
The common notion of peace is different than a state of mind, the inner condition of peace. Without this inner condition of peace, outer peace can not arise; without the outward peace, inward peace can not arise. Everyone is a genius; everyone is similar, fighting each other over petty ideas as man’s laws and contrived justice (all artifice and vanity). When reality conflicts with the world of man’s patriarchy, man either cowers before the awesome force of nature or exacerbates the conflict by persisting and increasing in harmful behavior—rather than seeking harmony or peace with these natural forces.
When mankind stops its egocentric chatter long enough, they may come to discover that it is more practical and realistic to listen to nature than to work against it. The constant war against nature, against life and death, must end in peace—either by our destruction or in our metamorphosis into a creative force on this planet.