Transmogrifying
Rumi wrote a very interesting peom in his Masnavi, roughly adapted as follows:
I died as mineral became a vegetable,
I died as vegetable and rose to animal,
I died as animal and I was human,
why should I fear when was I less by dying
yet once more I shall die human
to soar with angels blessed above
and when I let my angel body go,
I shall be more than mortal mind can know.
so the argument is quite unsettlingly but kinda agree: if every earlier stage gives way to a later one, why assume the final visible break is meaningless?
a quote from one of my teachers, he says:
“Look at the seed. It is thrown upon the earth and buried, so one seeing that who does not know what it is to become would deem such an act wasteful.”
using another example, he says the wheat grain only becomes useful by being crushed, kneaded, baked, and eaten. What looks like its destruction is actually how it reaches its purpose.
there is alot to be picked from this really really beautiful piece, while i think some might see this from a spiritual standpoint, general life advice can be derived from this as well.
my favorites are:
Purpose is often revealed late. if you look too early, burial looks like waste, grinding looks like ruin. Only the outcome explains the process.
Becoming more can require ceasing to remain what you were. that is true for matter, for character, for thought, maybe for the soul too.
we normally misread transition because we are attached to the current shape, but the old form does not come along intact.
we’ve changed before, at every point, one thing disappears and something else takes its place.
have patience and transmogrify!