Water does not understand that it rains, the flower ignores its perfume, the star does not see its own light and the humans do not know that they are eternal.
The underground stream ends in a spring, which dies in the river, which lost itself in the ocean, which evaporated in the cloud, which disappeared from the sky and condensed as rain, which fell to earth and disappeared infiltrating into the ground.
The infiltration of the rain created an underground stream, which appeared as a spring, which turned into a river, which fed the ocean, from where a cloud was born, which produced the rain, which moistened the earth and swelled the seed.
The seed died and from it sprouted the leafy tree, which was adorned with beautiful, fragrant flowers, whose petals faded sweetly and made way for the fruit to grow, which fed the birds and bats that spread the seeds.
Far away, a star made endless circles inside the galaxy, reached the end of its millennia and became a supernova, which disappeared in a monumental explosion. The resulting cosmic dust gave birth to a nebula, which generated beautiful and mysterious celestial bodies.
Close to everything, the stream, the tree and the star, the great transformation has been going on since time was born, because they all follow the unfathomable cycles of nature’s mutations, in which death is an inseparable part of life, just as life is the inevitable sequel to death.
We drink the water, eat the fruit and receive the heat and light from the star, so we are made of the same materials as our brothers and sisters in Creation. Why wouldn’t we participate in the same cycles of transformation?
We are part of the fanciful embroidery that the Eternal makes and remakes in the fabric of space-time, which we call reality, whose thread that weaves the fabric is consciousness itself. In the frame of eternity, streams, flowers, birds and constellations appear and, when a human being appears, the Eternal sees his image reflected and smiles.
In the different stages of states of consciousness, the water does not understand that it rains, the flower ignores its perfume, the star does not know its light and the human being does not know that it is eternal.
Water has been circulating on the planet for millions of years, and its cycle is the whole of its parts. However, if these parts decided to disconnect, the clouds could refuse to rain, the rivers would stop feeding the seas, which in turn would deny evaporation. The water cycle would break down, because perpetuity belongs to the Whole, but not to its isolated parts.
If the flowers refused to die, the fruit would not appear; the fruit and seeds must die before a new tree can be born. A tree that aspired to eternity and refused to change would inevitably cease to exist, because the tree exists as a species and not as an individual.
For human beings, the evolutionary process was long, from the nomadic bands that roamed the savannas, to the emergence of an awareness of themselves, a self-awareness, which differentiates us from streams, trees and stars. By turning inward, however, self-consciousness was gradually transformed into self-centeredness, which is a characteristic of modern human society.
The human being is an inseparable fraction of the Whole, but his conscience tells him that he is disconnected. Intuitively he realizes that eternity belongs to the Whole, but not to its isolated parts and, thus, in the deepest strata of his consciousness he understands that he cannot be eternal in himself.
“This inward-looking, isolated self, this pseudo-self, pertinaciously defends itself against death, disintegration and transcendence, on the one hand, and on the other, aspires to be and pretends to be the center of the cosmos, omnipotent and immortal. … The terror of death is inherent in the perception of the separate self, the separate subject…” This perception of isolation, however, is false, as “there is no radically separate entity anywhere – the boundary between subject and object is ultimately illusory.” [2]
We breathe oxygen which is partially produced by small green diatom algae that lives in the oceans. This oxygen is transferred through the lung alveoli to the blood circulation and feeds each of our cells, tissues and organs, making life possible. In this way, we maintain an intrinsic and deep relationship with these microscopic algae. We do not realize that we are unequivocally connected to the diatom and equally to the seas, to the nutrients carried by the rivers that enabled their reproduction, to the forests and woods through which the river meandered and to the sun that promoted photosynthesis. We undoubtedly belong to the Whole.
Thus, it is necessary to transcend the illusion of separateness and understand that everything undergoes transformation. We can, in this way, follow the cycle of our existence, as we follow the upward spiral of transformation of consciousness, the end of which is not possible to discern. In this cycle, we look courageously at everything that isolates us, such as prejudices, vanities and omnipotence, allowing the light of understanding to dissolve them, like the fog that disappears under the rising sun.
And one day, we will be able to embrace the great transformation and say: “Let’s go…”
REFERENCES:
[1] ANDRADE, Fernando Teixeira. O Medo: O Maior Gigante da Alma. Available at O medo: o maior gigante da alma (Fernando Teixeira de Andrade) – Imprimir este texto – Crónicas – Luso-Poemas Accessed on 05 February 2024.
[2] WILBER, Ken, , Quest Books 1996. 260 p.
