The Super Chrysalis

While walking along a creek path a few weeks ago, I stopped to inspect a Monarch Waystation that had been constructed this past spring. There were a series of carefully tended planter boxes filled with Milkweed plants (the only plants that Monarch butterflies will deposit their eggs upon) and colorful Zinnias. There I met Suzanne, the Waystation’s cheerful creator, tending her caterpillars. She told me that she had just released a large batch of newly hatched butterflies, a few of which were delicately sipping nectar on the nearby blossoms. She worried that with the cooler days it might be too late for them to migrate and thrive. I was touched by her care for these delicate insects.

The journey from caterpillar to butterfly is as amazing to witness now as it was when I was a little boy. Who would expect this large, ravenous, black and yellow-striped, crawling worm to form a chrysalis, disappear for days, and then re-emerge so radically and beautifully transformed? 

This apparent magic act is often used as a metaphor for the process of spiritual awakening and transformation. At first we are like a hungry caterpillar, unconsciously devouring as much as we can. At some point, the outer world no longer satisfies us and there is a natural turning of attention inward. We begin to sense and tend the “spark of inner radiance” as Adyashanti so eloquently calls it. As we do, a natural process of transformation unfolds. We are less identified with and attached to our old stories and images and simultaneously more accepting of and intimate with our experience as it is. This catalyzes a profound transformative process. As this happens, it can sometimes feel like we are living in a house while it is being remodeled. 

Being on retreat is like being in a super chrysalis. Immersed in a shared field of presence and collectively dedicated to realizing the truth of our being, the body/mind acclimates to the light of awareness, sometimes slowly and gently, and other times quickly and tumultuously. And like a little boy who watches in awe as a butterfly emerges from its chrysalis and spreads its new orange and black wings, at the end of a retreat I marvel as many retreatants emerge from their mis-taken identities and contractions and more fully open to the spacious and loving reality of who they really are.