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Archive Number 1024 | ||
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Date: Mon, 4 Feb 2002 13:15:23 -0700
Dear Cristy, In response to your "wish", though at great trepidation for appearing to "know" something, here's my point of view: "Still, I do wish others on the list >might take a crack at answering that question I posed before--i.e., to >repeat: > >"What do we mean anyway when we speak of "transformation" and >how is this accomplished through story?" > Kabir, the transformational poet from India, translated by Bly, refers to a chestnut seed that contains, the tree, the future chestnuts, and (most sublimely) the cooling shade (by implication, our intimate connection to it, since it is WE who recognize/appreciate the shade). Kabir goes on to use the image of a pitcher full of water placed down on/within water. "Then you have water inside and water outside". He ends warning about "wise men" making "distinctions between the body and the soul". I have carried this poem for over 15 years, and now it seems to relate to your question about transformation. I would say there is no transformation, only awakening to where you are at that time, as the chestnut seed "transforms" into tree, new nuts, and shade. To use the common bitterfly in-mage (I had meant to write image, but I DO like the inward teacher in my typo...a more concrete, storyish version of "in-spiritus"--inspire, I suppose). So, is the caterpillar "transformed" or just on a continuum of change (my personal Taoist beliefs are leaking through, here)? I would argue that resisting change is resisting "life", just as I would argue that "true-believers" of whatever religion are really idolators and blasphemers. Certainly nothing resists creativity as strongly as static beliefs systems. In another way of thinking, the Alternatives to Violence Project, working mostly in prisons, emphasizes "transforming power" as a very literal opening to being moved/inspired...not based on cleverness but on a combination of insistence on a (usually unknown or unplanned or unformulated) non-violent response joined with an insistence on recognizing the essential humanity (and implied legitimate needs) of the potential perpetrator. It is a dual commitment both to an "unknown" possibility (of being moved) AND simultaneously a very clear (non-labeling or judgemental) seeing exactly where one is and what the situation truly holds at its core human level. Am I approaching an answer to your question, Cristy? I think I would toss out "transformation" altogether, except for moments of true "Grace", and use "awakening to possibility" instead. I don't want to say more, so there can be room for other imagings and imaginings, and, at the risk of sounding neauseatingly "newage" (rhymes with sewage), more "i-maging". Hope you enjoyed this! Bobby > > > > > _________________________________________________________________ Join the world’s largest e-mail service with MSN Hotmail. http://www.hotmail.com | ||