Limitless

Only a Monarch Butterfly caterpillar will turn into a Monarch butterfly. There are over twenty thousand species of butterfly on the planet, and only the Monarch caterpillar will turn into a Monarch butterfly. To think of all the varieties of personality and character that each of us is imprinted with, or have created, the varieties of "expression" in "enlightenment " are truly limitless.

Limitless is a good way to look at this, as limitless is what we are dealing with here. Is it silent? Oh yes, but dynamically so. Is it stillness? Yes, among the unfolding, within the unfolding, there is stillness. Darkness? But with infinite light. Limitless. As soon as it's one thing, it's another. It's a shape changer like the butterfly.

Shape changers. We are this. I went to sleep as a boy and dreamed I was a man. I awoke to find I am a man, and the dream appears as a nightmare. But shape changers don't need to accept this illusory reality. Oh, the "rules " have to be "accepted " (the parenthesis are a kind of fingers crossed behind my back), but only the limitless reality need be actually accepted.

I can, by "God " I must, awaken that boy; that sleeping fool dreaming of being a man. But this is it isn't it? We dream of manhood or womanhood and liberation from an imagined oppression we have piled on ourselvers since we forgot the joy we traded for "security ". Along comes a guru, a teacher. He or she tells you that they have experienced "awakening ", a new view, a new life. They have books, CDs, DVDs, a newsletter (social networking!) and a website to die for.

On their Facebook page, and in their Notes, they let you know what a "real " enlightenment "experience " looks like, as opposed to, I guess, everyone else's. Yours. I have had people write me and tell me how saddened they feel when their "experiences " are held up as "inauthentic " and judged by someone else's measure. The Monarch caterpillar is born, eats, and has it's life experience on one type of plant. If it takes advice from a Swallowtail, eats what it eats, tries to imitate the life of the Swallowtail, it will die. Why? Butterflies all, seekers all?

The innumerable unfoldings that occur within the "great unfolding " of Love that each of us, sentient and non-sentient alike are "created " in, result in a kind of temporary "uniqueness ". There is but one unique "awakening " for us, built in from the "beginning ". You are not a Monarch caterpillar, no Monarch Butterfly in your future! The Swallowtail can't convince you either, as you are not a Swallowtail youngster with a Swallowtail dream. You are a unique illusory character, a puppet seeking desperately to see where your strings go as they vanish into the darkness above.

When you come to realize that the puppet you have taken yourself to be, is manipulated by none other than the observer of the show, you can open your uniquely marked wings and fly. Not as some other butterfly. Not in their colors. Not on their plant. Not parroting another's words, or behaviors, but a spreading of wings (awakening) that is yours alone, and with you since "birth". Limitless.

Peace