Metamorphosis

I am undergoing a metamorphosis. Recently, at a gathering, someone said this was a wonderful group of caterpillars. I paused. He said, yes… soon these will be butterflies.

A friend once said that metamorphosis was a proof of God’s existence. How else could one explain a butterfly arising from a caterpillar through purely evolutionary steps? Can such a leap in complexity be grasped in evolutionary terms at all? I am not a biologist, and it interested me only as a thought experiment. I do not believe in a Christian God anyway.

Since then, however, the thought of metamorphosis has accompanied me constantly. Out of something very complex, something else extremely complex arises through transformation. What interests me is how this works with ideas. How can one idea arise from another? Does it have something to do with creativity? Must the ‘old’ idea die to make room for a new idea? Does the caterpillar die when it becomes a butterfly?

In the West, we have the idea of the subject; thoughts arise from it, ideas are in it, its energy is the driving force… That seems improbable to me. Might it not rather be that there is a greater consciousness, a divine consciousness or absolute spirit, an immanence that acts cosmically? Might it not perhaps rather be that everything has always existed simultaneously? That all possibilities are real and we can experience only a small part of them?

Can we immerse ourselves in this great consciousness and become conscious of our participation?

Lately, I often wonder what I should do with ‘my’ old ideas. Should I write them down, preserve them, transform them, allow the metamorphosis and document it? It seems to leave traces here in this blog.