The Caterpillars and the Butterfly
by Brian Longhurst
There lived in a beautiful garden, large numbers of a particular creature who crawled about, eating the vegetation, perceiving themselves on the one hand as being superior to all the other creatures in the garden and yet on the other hand perceiving themselves as lowly, wretched and unworthy of being loved. They had many mythologies and squabbled endlessly about whose mythology was the only right one and this caused many rifts, divisions and schisms between them.
One day, a beautiful butterfly came into their presence, soaring in the sunlight, reflecting magnificent rainbow colors from his wings; so much so that he was seen as the Light of the World. Wherever he went he attracted followers, who marveled at his magnificence and the wonders he performed in their midst. He spoke in a way they had never heard before. He told them that not only was he the light but that they also were the light; that the wonders he performed, they also would perform - and even greater things - if only they could believe; that he was their brother and that they also were, in reality, beautiful butterflies, capable of soaring in the light and creating magnificent rainbow effects; that they need not concern themselves with all their mythologies and divisions and they would find all that would entirely suffice them was to love the Creator and to love each other as much as they loved themselves.
Many believed what he said but many scoffed at his words. The scoffers said among themselves, ‘He says he is our brother but it is evident there is nothing remotely similar between him and us; he has only 6 legs and two wings and lives on ambrosia whereas we have many legs, no wings and eat the vegetation. Clearly he is off his head and has no idea what he was talking about.’
A Monarch caterpillar
Even those who believed him didn’t understand him and instead perceived him and worshipped him as a God, saying they were still lowly, wretched and unworthy of being loved and he was high and exalted and eternally beyond anything they could ever be; after all, he had wings of glory on which he soared in the sunlight and only 6 legs and lived on ambrosia, whereas they had many legs and could only crawl about and eat the vegetation in the beautiful garden.
Nevertheless, he told them that if they could imagine the things he told them were like bread and the love that he outpoured upon them was like wine, they could imbibe this as sustenance at a higher level of vibration than the vegetation they believed was their source of life and nourishment. This would then enable them to perceive themselves as they saw him and the higher vibration would transform them, from their own within, into magnificent, soaring butterflies also. He also shared with them another analogy to help them grasp this enlightened perception; that he was as a vine, tended in the garden by the good husbandman and that if they could imagine themselves as being branches in the vine, they could draw their uplifting life energy through him and that this would enable them to find fulfillment of their glorious, radiant potential.
A Monarch Butterfly
Many did as he said but because the light of their inner discernment was dim, they were only able to follow his guiding as an outward ritual. Only very few were able to perceive the spiritual reality hidden within his stories. Those who did went by themselves, or perhaps with one or two of their closest, most trustworthy friends, into a secret place, away from the clamor of the world around them, wherein they contemplated his words deeply within their hearts and minds - just as he had counseled them - and gave thanks for all the wondrous gifts he had brought into their lives. In the silence of their own within they received the enlightenment he had promised that was sustenance for their souls and this helped them to perceive themselves just he had said they would.
Those who were only able to perceive his words at an outer, ritualistic, level began to quarrel amongst themselves as to who was the greatest among them, or whose interpretation of his words was the most accurate and to create ever greater numbers of rules and doctrines about these interpretations, even though the butterfly had plainly said there were only two ‘rules.’ This caused further divisions between them. Some broke away from the group structure that had been established in his name because they said that group no longer truly represented him and his teaching and was full of corruption and self-serving. In time there arose squabbling even within the breakaway groups, causing even further divisions. These groups and breakaway groups called themselves the ‘This’ denomination or the ‘That’ denomination.
All the squabbling over who was right and who was wrong in their understanding of the butterfly’s wisdom caused many of the creatures, who had at first enthusiastically joined the groups, to become disillusioned and stop attending the group meetings.
Some of those who stopped attending decided that the whole story could not be true and went back to eating the vegetation, embracing any elaborate theories placed before them by those who told them that they had a better idea than the butterfly (or those who claimed to be representing him). This led to more and more confusion in the garden and more and more division among the creatures.
Those who had never believed the butterfly, or the groups who claimed to be representing him, finally said, ‘We told you so; it was all too far fetched to be plausible in the first place.’
But those few who were able to see past the imagery of the butterfly’s stories, to the truth they contained, followed his advice to enter alone, or in groups of only two or three, into a secret place. There they attuned with him and he was there in the midst with them. There, they found an inward peace, joy, love and tranquility and spiritual illumination of the eternal realities, about which the butterfly had spoken.
Of course we all know what happens to caterpillars. They eventually stop eating the vegetation, enter alone into a secret place, away from the clamor of the world around them and there, in the solitude of their own within, recreate themselves in the image and likeness of the Butterfly. Then they emerge and soar magnificently in the sunshine, reflect glorious rainbow colors for all to see and ‘live off ambrosia,’ giving thanks, by their very beauty, to the Creator for the joy and wonder of Life.
This allegory indicates that the spiritual evolution of mankind is not yet complete, other than for a precious few, who long ago entered into their secret place, just as the Master counseled. However, we are now in the most exciting moment in the history of humanity, when the critical mass is approaching of those who have entered in and are recreating themselves from the Within into the Without into glorious, fully spiritualized, soaring Beings of the Light.
Jesus wasn’t rigid in the way he spoke of the things of the Kingdom. He constantly spoke in parables – allegories – which he knew would be interpreted by each individual according to the place each individual was on the path of Eternal Spiritual Progress.
Jesus was also unequivocal that we are all the light of the world and that the things he did, we – if only we can believe – will do also, and greater things. He came to remind us of this eternal truth and to demonstrate it, so that we would have a living example of the magnificence of the human spirit to follow and emulate.
It is inevitable that this will happen eventually to us all because that is our fundamental, essential nature, having been created in the image and likeness of the Creator. We are all a part of God. Within us is a spark of God's Consciousness that was given to us at creation. It is only a matter of when, rather than if, that we move back into full awareness of that. We are all at free choice to make that journey at any time, including right NOW.
About the author
Brian Longhurst is a lifelong Christian mystic based in England. He has prepared a web site to release his Diary of a Christ Communicant, which is filled with information from over 30 years of direct communications with the living Jesus. Brian's excellent book Synchronicity for Goodness' Sake is also available online at his web site:
http://www.honest2goodness.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
There lived in a beautiful garden, large numbers of a particular creature who crawled about, eating the vegetation, perceiving themselves on the one hand as being superior to all the other creatures in the garden and yet on the other hand perceiving themselves as lowly, wretched and unworthy of being loved. They had many mythologies and squabbled endlessly about whose mythology was the only right one and this caused many rifts, divisions and schisms between them.
One day, a beautiful butterfly came into their presence, soaring in the sunlight, reflecting magnificent rainbow colors from his wings; so much so that he was seen as the Light of the World. Wherever he went he attracted followers, who marveled at his magnificence and the wonders he performed in their midst. He spoke in a way they had never heard before. He told them that not only was he the light but that they also were the light; that the wonders he performed, they also would perform - and even greater things - if only they could believe; that he was their brother and that they also were, in reality, beautiful butterflies, capable of soaring in the light and creating magnificent rainbow effects; that they need not concern themselves with all their mythologies and divisions and they would find all that would entirely suffice them was to love the Creator and to love each other as much as they loved themselves.
Many believed what he said but many scoffed at his words. The scoffers said among themselves, ‘He says he is our brother but it is evident there is nothing remotely similar between him and us; he has only 6 legs and two wings and lives on ambrosia whereas we have many legs, no wings and eat the vegetation. Clearly he is off his head and has no idea what he was talking about.’
A Monarch caterpillar
Even those who believed him didn’t understand him and instead perceived him and worshipped him as a God, saying they were still lowly, wretched and unworthy of being loved and he was high and exalted and eternally beyond anything they could ever be; after all, he had wings of glory on which he soared in the sunlight and only 6 legs and lived on ambrosia, whereas they had many legs and could only crawl about and eat the vegetation in the beautiful garden.
Nevertheless, he told them that if they could imagine the things he told them were like bread and the love that he outpoured upon them was like wine, they could imbibe this as sustenance at a higher level of vibration than the vegetation they believed was their source of life and nourishment. This would then enable them to perceive themselves as they saw him and the higher vibration would transform them, from their own within, into magnificent, soaring butterflies also. He also shared with them another analogy to help them grasp this enlightened perception; that he was as a vine, tended in the garden by the good husbandman and that if they could imagine themselves as being branches in the vine, they could draw their uplifting life energy through him and that this would enable them to find fulfillment of their glorious, radiant potential.
A Monarch Butterfly
Many did as he said but because the light of their inner discernment was dim, they were only able to follow his guiding as an outward ritual. Only very few were able to perceive the spiritual reality hidden within his stories. Those who did went by themselves, or perhaps with one or two of their closest, most trustworthy friends, into a secret place, away from the clamor of the world around them, wherein they contemplated his words deeply within their hearts and minds - just as he had counseled them - and gave thanks for all the wondrous gifts he had brought into their lives. In the silence of their own within they received the enlightenment he had promised that was sustenance for their souls and this helped them to perceive themselves just he had said they would.
Those who were only able to perceive his words at an outer, ritualistic, level began to quarrel amongst themselves as to who was the greatest among them, or whose interpretation of his words was the most accurate and to create ever greater numbers of rules and doctrines about these interpretations, even though the butterfly had plainly said there were only two ‘rules.’ This caused further divisions between them. Some broke away from the group structure that had been established in his name because they said that group no longer truly represented him and his teaching and was full of corruption and self-serving. In time there arose squabbling even within the breakaway groups, causing even further divisions. These groups and breakaway groups called themselves the ‘This’ denomination or the ‘That’ denomination.
All the squabbling over who was right and who was wrong in their understanding of the butterfly’s wisdom caused many of the creatures, who had at first enthusiastically joined the groups, to become disillusioned and stop attending the group meetings.
Some of those who stopped attending decided that the whole story could not be true and went back to eating the vegetation, embracing any elaborate theories placed before them by those who told them that they had a better idea than the butterfly (or those who claimed to be representing him). This led to more and more confusion in the garden and more and more division among the creatures.
Those who had never believed the butterfly, or the groups who claimed to be representing him, finally said, ‘We told you so; it was all too far fetched to be plausible in the first place.’
But those few who were able to see past the imagery of the butterfly’s stories, to the truth they contained, followed his advice to enter alone, or in groups of only two or three, into a secret place. There they attuned with him and he was there in the midst with them. There, they found an inward peace, joy, love and tranquility and spiritual illumination of the eternal realities, about which the butterfly had spoken.
Of course we all know what happens to caterpillars. They eventually stop eating the vegetation, enter alone into a secret place, away from the clamor of the world around them and there, in the solitude of their own within, recreate themselves in the image and likeness of the Butterfly. Then they emerge and soar magnificently in the sunshine, reflect glorious rainbow colors for all to see and ‘live off ambrosia,’ giving thanks, by their very beauty, to the Creator for the joy and wonder of Life.
This allegory indicates that the spiritual evolution of mankind is not yet complete, other than for a precious few, who long ago entered into their secret place, just as the Master counseled. However, we are now in the most exciting moment in the history of humanity, when the critical mass is approaching of those who have entered in and are recreating themselves from the Within into the Without into glorious, fully spiritualized, soaring Beings of the Light.
Jesus wasn’t rigid in the way he spoke of the things of the Kingdom. He constantly spoke in parables – allegories – which he knew would be interpreted by each individual according to the place each individual was on the path of Eternal Spiritual Progress.
Jesus was also unequivocal that we are all the light of the world and that the things he did, we – if only we can believe – will do also, and greater things. He came to remind us of this eternal truth and to demonstrate it, so that we would have a living example of the magnificence of the human spirit to follow and emulate.
It is inevitable that this will happen eventually to us all because that is our fundamental, essential nature, having been created in the image and likeness of the Creator. We are all a part of God. Within us is a spark of God's Consciousness that was given to us at creation. It is only a matter of when, rather than if, that we move back into full awareness of that. We are all at free choice to make that journey at any time, including right NOW.
About the author
Brian Longhurst is a lifelong Christian mystic based in England. He has prepared a web site to release his Diary of a Christ Communicant, which is filled with information from over 30 years of direct communications with the living Jesus. Brian's excellent book Synchronicity for Goodness' Sake is also available online at his web site:
http://www.honest2goodness.pwp.blueyonder.co.uk
posted by chsh at
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