Information and Transformation (by Swifty Flame-Anderson)
"If you let go of trying to become someone, you will realise all that you ARE." Happy Cow
The accumulation of information or knowledge is usually promoted in Western society as universally virtuous. We are urged throughout our adult lives to pursue ‘life long learning’ and this is seen as synonymous with 'continual growth'.
Is this really necessary? Does it really serve any purpose?
Most physicists and cosmologists agree that we live in either an infinite universe or in one finite universe out of infinite finite universes. The concept ‘infinite’ is impossible for a finite human mind to grasp, but I would like you to ponder it for a moment. Something with no boundary, no edge. Not just something ‘really really big’, but something with no edge at all, ever.
Now consider the fact that you are trying to gather knowledge about this infinite universe and keep it inside a finite mind. So any amount of knowledge you gather is a fraction of infinity. Any number divided by infinity can be approximated to zero (a mathematician will pedantically argue that it is actually infinitesimally larger than zero in every case). But the point is that however much knowledge you can amass about an infinite universe, you still know almost nothing (or an infinitesimally small amount).
So why bother? What is the point of it all?
I am reminded of a caterpillar. During the caterpillar stage of life, the biological process which will later become a butterfly goes around simply eating and eating and eating. Getting larger and larger and larger. This is analogous to a human mind gathering more and more information, a larger and larger knowledge set.
At some point, the caterpillar suddenly changes behaviour and starts building a cocoon around itself. We might compare this with a person stopping the gathering of knowledge and going into a phase of aloneness, meditation, self study, a period in which they turn from looking out to looking in. They turn from looking at the world they see ‘out there’ and contemplate who it is who is doing the seeing, who it is that is aware of that 'outside' world.
This ‘pupa stage’ may take a little while, both for the caterpillar and the human being.
And then one day, all of a sudden - TRANSFORMATION. The caterpillar is no longer a caterpillar. That fat body is no longer needed and the period of isolation that was an integral part of transformation has come to an end. The cocoon is broken and out from it emerges the magnificent butterfly, wonderfully light, free to fly from flower to flower tasting the nectar.
After a period of self-contemplation a human too will begin to realise that the ‘body’ of accumulated knowledge is completely unnecessary and can just be left behind. They can break free from their cocoon and emerge as a magnificent individual, unique and indefinable.
With a new and wonderful lightness of being, with the wings of new-found courage, they are finally free to fly about the whole of infinity, tasting its infinite wonders. They are free to show their magnificent new colours to the world.
Listen very carefully and you will occasionally hear butterflies calling to caterpillars. Enough eating now. Enough knowledge. You are ready. Just take a while to look inside and you will see.
You are ready NOW.
"And the day came when the risk to remain tight in a bud was more painful than the risk it took to blossom. " Anais Nin
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