Butterfly Answers to Caterpillar Questions
Does the caterpillar have any awareness of what it is to become a butterfly? What expectations do suppose it would have to utterly change its being? And yet the blueprint of the butterfly is already within the caterpillar.
Imagine you are 25 years old and someone asks you what it was like to be 5. No problem for you to recall certain events at that age. Now imagine you are 5 years old, and someone asks you what it is like to be 25? You would say something like “Oh, they are very big, and they are very old!” At 5 you have no concept nor experience of being 25. You are speaking from your level of awareness, perspective, and perception.
Suppose you are the caterpillar, and you ask a butterfly what it is like to be one. You have a rough understanding that caterpillars do become butterflies, but the idea is beyond your understanding. Consider the butterfly has a level of awareness from its metamorphosis from its unique whole inner change experience. The caterpillar cannot imagine because the butterflies’ level of awareness is not based on the caterpillar’s imagination or conceptual thinking: it is an entirely different level of awareness. What is the innate organizing principle that metamorphoses the caterpillar to butterfly?
The butterfly responds: “Oh, you won’t need those 100 pairs of Nike’s anymore, you’ll have these things called wings and you’ll be able to fly instead of crawl. But first you will have to go through a thorough inner change experience.” “You will go through an utter transformation that will completely change the way you perceive the world.” You are fascinated with this information, but it does not reveal the profound changes you are about to experience when you are the chrysalis in the cocoon. It is so difficult to conceptualize.
The cocoon or chrysalis at the time of change is mostly caterpillar soup. Certain highly organized groups of cells remain that hold the blueprint for its evolution. There is the biofield (subtle energy consciousness beyond space/time) that holds the blueprint for the caterpillar’s change the same as you and I have a biofield (chakras, etc.) that holds the blueprint, when activated, for dramatic change from within. That can be an ever-evolving process, lasting from lifetime to lifetime.
When we are desiring to grow in our spiritual awareness, that level of comprehension is beyond our five-sense perception intellect. It is like imagining what an apple tastes like without having experienced it. The spiritual path is intimate and unique. The caterpillar certainly will have many more questions of the butterfly, but if you were the butterfly how would you choose to answer the questions put to you? How would you frame your answers in a way the caterpillar could understand? Can you grasp how spiritual teachers always point you back to yourself, to that “inner organizing principle” or inner blueprint of self-empowerment that catalyzes you to complete shifts in awareness?
I have studied the Mayans of Central America and taken groups there many times on journeys to understand the Mayan teachings and their advanced consciousness regarding space and time. They have a saying, “You are becoming another yourself.” In their teachings, the serpent (it means “wisdom,” not the reptile) sheds its skin (ego) so it can evolve to higher forms of wisdom.
The core of our being is a soul on a much higher level of being that holds the blueprint for evolution of consciousness beyond intellectual understanding alone. This is why the metaphysics of the human being is simultaneously so sublime and difficult to convey in the same moment to someone who has not the same experience.
As we have what I call “Divine Inner Revelatory Experiences,” awarenesses dawn on our consciousness that are not limited to time or space but real, nonetheless.
We are constantly emerging from our cocoons; how will you best continue that journey?
Blessings,
Dr. Richard Jelusich, Ph.D.
