Into the pupa~
Into the pupa, we enter the "dark night of the soul" (Christian reference), and Buddhists would describe this stage as 'knowledge of suffering'. The pupa is a metaphor for spiritual crisis; some event or person sparks our journey of spiritual maturity and growth.
It is not fun. There is a detachment experienced that is filled with lonliness, confusion, apathy; a darkness where it all seems hopeless. And there is no clear path through this darkness. It is the death of the old 'self' and a re-birth of something new. Liken it to what happens in the chrysalis, the organs and tissue turning into a soup, and what emerges is a butterfly.
We have and will each experience this spiritual crisis in our own unique ways. I am sure more than once on this mysterious journey we call life.
Mary Oliver's poem eloquently captures the journey~
The Journey
One day you finally knew
what you had to do, and began,
though the voices around you
kept shouting
their bad advice--
though the whole house
began to tremble
and you felt the old tug
at your ankles.
"Mend my life!"
each voice cried.
But you didn't stop.
You knew what you had to do,
though the wind pried
with its stiff fingers
at the very foundations,
though their melancholy
was terrible.
It was already late
enough, and a wild night,
and the road full of fallen
branches and stones.
But little by little,
as you left their voices behind,
the stars began to burn
through the sheets of clouds,
and there was a new voice
which you slowly
recognized as your own,
that kept you company
as you strode deeper and deeper
into the world,
determined to do
the only thing you could do--
determined to save
the only life you could save.
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