The Opus & the Subplot

[Guest guest]

Evolution is one of those words which flatter us,

and that comfort us. We love to think things are,

and will, get better. The motto, the signal word,

which embodies all the hopes of our culture

is " Progress. " Darwin gave that ball a mighty

kick, and even Christians, who hate the mere

sound of the word 'evolution,' love and swear

by its identical twin, " progress. "

 

But if you believe, think, or have apperceived

God, Self, the Absolute, or just a primordial

X, as an unchanging, immutable, and eternal It,

does the word evolution apply to the whole?

 

Does not evolution imply change from

simplicity to complexity? And is the motion

toward complexity and multiplicity what we

seek? Or is it a return to simplicity and unity?

To think that the whole needs evolution is to

believe that it was, and is, somehow,

imperfect.

 

Obviously, " Life " seems to evolve, to have a

purpose. The purpose of Life seems to be to

survive, to become ever more conscious, but life

is only a minor theme, a subplot, and not the Opus.

 

We could as well say life is not evolving, but

degenerating into hellish complexity. Billions

of years ago, when life began at the unicellular

level it was very simple and free from pain and

suffering. Since reproduction was only a

matter of a cell splitting in two, cellular life had

only growth without death. So in that sense,

what we call evolution, could be seen as a

degeneration.

 

From a Buddhist point of view, life is the trap we

struggle to escape. The end of all rebirth as the

subplot, is the Nirvana we seek. The Opus cannot

evolve, and the subplot is but the dream of a

crazed composer. So Evolution, is the delusion of

seeing change as purpose toward an imagined

better state.

 

Pete