January 2, 2025
Principle 1. The Principle of Adaptation. First Week.
“To Go Against the Evolution of Things is to Go Against Oneself”
Last time: Changing your Destiny
This time: A New Cycle, New Paths, a Story, and of course a Game!
Week One:
This week we will focus on the general structure and implications of the principle of adaptation.
Why not start off very simply?
Consider how you understood the principle on first reading. What does it suggest? What difficulties does it present? Over the next weeks we’ll try to dig into it from different angles, from different perspectives.
To help with that we will propose seeing what it might have meant in the past, what it could mean in the present, as well as in the future.
We will also use a series of games, or challenges to help
gain some new perspectives.
This week the game is
Find It!
The rules for this week’s game are simple, and summed up in the name of the game, Find it! We are always looking for examples of the principles in our daily life and personal experience. In the game of Find It! we extend that to the cultural environment around us.
This week’s story, quotes, images might be considered as examples of what someone playing this game found. During this week keep your eyes and ears (and memory and imagination) open for things around you that illustrate the principle. Like the unusual retelling of a famous story that we present here to hopefully inspire your reflections.
Your examples can be drawn from contemporary culture, and might include jokes, songs, movies, etc. The point is that the thing you have found casts light on some aspect of this month’s principle.
Personal Reflections-
Here’s some raw material that I hope you will find useful in your own reflections.
When I ask myself about the structure of this principle I might for example, notice how the principles are presented in different ways.
For example, this principle, like most but not all of them, is stated as a matter of fact, i.e. “To go against etc”. That is it isn’t given as an if/then statement like some of the principles (6,7,8). Though of course you can restate it that way, e.g. If you go against the evolution of things then you go against etc.
Nor is it in the so-called imperative mood, like a command principle as in principle 3 (Do not oppose etc).
Perhaps I noticed that I could clump the principles together in other ways.
For example: the first three all seemed to be about cycles, putting it another ways the are about ways of dealing with (big) forces.
I thought the first principle seems to frame the rest so well because we also are trying to cultivate our personal and collective evolution. I understand that not in biological terms but in terms of becoming more awake, more free, more joyful, peaceful, and full of vital force.
This week I will continue my reflections on my overview of the structure and form of the principle. I will also set myself a new task.
Find It!
This week I will look for cultural artifacts, songs, poems, movies, books, jokes, etc. that contain examples, or restatements of this principle or at least aspects of it.
I could find the principle reflected in the lyrics of a pop or in some philosopher’s musings. Perhaps, in a story I once read, or in comic book. Maybe I see it in a folk tale, and maybe in a meme.
The media don’t matter, nor does it matter if the source is ancient or modern. What matters is the looking, the search. Perhaps, start by searching your memory, or looking around you for clues. When you are scrolling through social media, or watching a program you can seeing if they present examples.
Another related approach is to explore the “magic of the copresence” more explicitly. This is an indirect approach where you set up the search and just let it happen.
One way to reinforce this (i.e. to charge that copresent element) is to take a moment before getting out of bed and say something to yourself like: “I’m about to open my eyes and start my day. During my activities, I will try to apply this principle and also to discover examples of it around me”.
Then you drop it there, not in the centre of your consciousness but off in the edges and let it do its work.
Just before going to sleep you can reflect on it again. Just yourself what you learned about the principle during the day, and what you will with it when you get up.
To get this game started here’s an example of a traditional tale that perhaps fits with this month’s principle.
A Story-
Take a look at the following tale, versions of which appear in the folk-stories of various peoples East and West. Versions of this story can be found in Aesop’s Fables as well as in other sources. The one related here is loosely based on the version in the Indian Panchatantra. It tells of a poor turtle (aptly named, Turtleneck, or in that older version Turtleshell). Whatever the name the story always involves the reptile going to extreme lengths to escape from one situation into another. As the old saying has it the poor creature ends up going “from the frying pan into to the fire”.
Turtleneck, the turtle, lived in a beautiful and lush pond where he spent his days burrowed into the muddy bottom or floating about chatting with his good friends the geese who always summered there. Unfortunately for the visiting water birds a great drought had come, as it did every few years, and the pond was drying up. One day they said to their amphibious friend: “the water is disappearing so we must depart. We will return next year if the drought is over to pass the summer with you. If not we will certainly land to have a little chat before we fly on.”
Turtleneck responded: “I understand why you must go. I can easily live here, even if I have to burrow down into the muck of the small pond that will remain, but our needs our very different and it will not be enough water for all of you. However, life here will be very boring without you. I’m coming with.”
The geese answered: “But little wingless friend how can that be? We will be flying far and fast.” “I have a plan,” said the turtle, “two of you should pick up that stick over there and hold it tightly in your beaks. I in turn will bite it and hold it in mine.” They replied: “There are two problems with your plan, hard shelled one. First, leaving here is for us a matter of life and death, while for you it is more a matter of whimsy. Secondly, while we, your friends, find your habit of always needing to comment on everything endearing, in this case, if you forget yourself and start to talk it could precipitate a catastrophe and end your life. Perhaps it is better that you remain until we return since you can easily adapt to the coming changes.”
But Turtleneck insisted and his plan was put into effect and, with great effort, the two geese carried their friend aloft. As they flew low over the nearby village the people ran out to gaze at this miraculous sight. In their astonishment they turned to each other and asked: “what could this be”? “Can you make it out”? “Is that a chariot pulled by birds”? The turtle, remembering the stones that the village children had thrown at her as she lay in her pond wanted to impress the people with her ability to fly. Suddenly, she cried out loudly: “It is I, Turtleneck!”. Of course only the geese heard her words as she plummeted to her death. Some of the villagers who were very fond of turtle soup carried her home for dinner.
Coming Up-
This week we begin a new cycle of reflection starting by focusing on this principle in general. Over the next three weeks we will focus on its relation to past, present, and what we imagine future events hold in store. Next week we’ll consider what ramifications the application of this principle might have for our present situation.
We will also introduce our next game, its called:
Ask about it.
Worth Repeating-
The point isn’t to conform to some external code or set of rules. Rather our focus is on the register that is produced in me when I act. Am I moved towards greater unity, or toward deeper contradiction? Has my action left me feeling more in agreement with myself, or more conflicted, more at war with myself?
Remember-
Some types of meditation require you to sit down and close your eyes. Some to dive deeply and intensely into your own unfolding life. When you combine the two then things really start to get interesting!
Note:
These notes have been posted on Facebook (Community of Silo’s Message Toronto Annex) and sent to our email list. You will also find them along with other comments, and reflections on my website: dzuckerbrot.com
Thanks to Rafael Edwards for the illustrations.
