Leopard Moth Caterpillar

Amazing how many butterflies are still flitting about. And what about all those caterpillars? Today i saw a BIG black fuzzy one with red skin underneath. Turns out this is a leopard moth caterpillar, which i cannot say i have ever noticed before.

This is the fun of nature-watching. Seeing beautiful and amazing creatures I have never seen before. Though i'm pretty sure they've been here all along. I just haven't been paying close attention.

Paying close attention is what meditation is about. We begin to notice things we have previously breezed right over.

For instance, i've been paying attention to how i fall asleep in meditation. I can tell you the precursors. Sometimes i can even catch myself falling asleep.

This is one definition of awakening: When falling asleep wakes you up.

Leopard Moth photo by scooterwolf

A Monarch in Ochre

An abundance of monarch butterflies flutter around the flower garden this late summer.

The Buddha was a monarch (the prince of a small kingdom) before he left home at age 29 and became an ascetic wearing ochre robes.

Though very few of us would choose such a lifestyle, we can simplify our lives, especially when we recognize the stresses--large and small--of our busy lives.

We too have the possibility of transforming our minds from caterpillars to butterflies, which do not even have the same DNA as their previous incarnation.

It's a mystery.

Changing Our DNA

We went to a Butterfly Garden yesterday and saw 35 different species of Lepidoptera. The tour began at the pupa case where many beautiful chrysalises were hanging.

The guide told us that the DNA of a caterpillar is completely different than the DNA of a butterfly. What a brain twister! How is that even possible?

A two-week "retreat" into the solitude of a chrysalis and the creature becomes completely different.

A two-week meditation retreat of solitude can change our minds, change our mental habits in ways we never dreamed of.

Monarch on a Zinnia Throne

I saw a monarch butterfly this afternoon, sipping nectar from a zinnia, not far from a stand of milkweed.

Yesterday, i found 2 monarch caterpillars on the underside of a milkweed leaf. Although i've heard that there aren't enough milkweed, i have plenty growing in my cutting flower beds.

When is a weed a weed? And when is a flower a flower? It's all in the eye of the beholder. It all rests with your personal judgment. Every judgment is a judgment, dividing the world into good and bad, yes and no.

Or we could practice non-judgmental awareness. "Oh. It's like this."

Monarch Butterfly Caterpillars

Milkweed has shown up in one of my flowerbeds that i use for cut flowers. Two weeks ago, i was pulling out the milkweeds when i spotted 3 one-inch-long caterpillars. I stopped pulling milkweed.

Today, i can officially say a monarch butterfly caterpillar is munching milkweed leaves.

Milkweed, which is a pest to me, is home to the caterpillars that metamorphose into monarch butterflies.

Aversion, the number one weed in my mental garden, is the catalyst that keeps my attention on the ease of the Dharma.

Butterfly Birthday

My December birthday day dawned a sunny 11 degrees with snow cover frozen into a white shield on the lawn and driveway. I wore STABILicers on my boots in order to walk the quarter-mile to my neighbor's for meditation at 8 a.m.

Back at home, sitting at the breakfast table, a butterfly fluttered against the window, trying to get closer to the sun. A butterfly? Inside the house? In December?

A butterfly is the best birthday present i've ever received.

The evanescent life of the butterfly, so short, so beautiful. Our lives, too, are too short and becoming shorter by the year. 

I love the metaphor of metamorphosis: the complete and utter change-of-being from caterpillar to butterfly. Miraculous! We too have the opportunity to experience an utter change of being: from born to unborn, from believing in death to the experience of the deathless. There are no words to describe this. The non-dual can only be spoken of in metaphor.

Practice meditation now, so that you too may experience the unborn, the deathless in the most unexpected way.

STABILicer--studded snow tires for your feet