A Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity discussion topic

Copyright 2009 by K. Ferlic,   All Rights Reserved

One facet of ritual is about creating the seed condition that can grow into a way of being in the world. To lay the seeds for the transformation of the ego one needs a set of symbolic actions that appropriate represent what we would like to do and achieve. The coconut provides an effective analogy to help understand what needs to happen in transforming the ego of consciousness relative to our attachments to free ourselves from unnecessary pain. The coconut ritual is a reasonably good ritual to use to symbolically transform the ego. As long as we are not allergic to coconut the ritual is a safe ritual. If we don’t like coconut, probably that is even better for it would represent the dislike you have for your current ego that you wish to transform.

Consciousness and the coconut

The life of the coconut is something that can help explains what actually happens or can potentially happen at two levels of our being. The coconut is chosen because it has a very hard outer shell that must be broken into to get at that parts that are edible.

The fruit of the coconut palm contains a kernel or a seed, which we call the coconut surround by an outer vegetable like shell. The kernel or the seed, which many of us are aware, consists of a white meat enclosed in a hard shell containing a milky liquid called coconut milk. The kernel or the seed is what most people think about when one says "coconut." There are actually four parts to the coconut fruit - the outer shell surrounding the kernel or seed, the hard shell of the seed, the edible parts of the seed and the milk. Three of the four parts make up the kernel or the seed. The fourth is the vegetable/fruity outer shell.

The seed can be separated from the coconut fruit. However, when the coconut fruit is unripe and raw, if the shell is broken, the kernel will also break. In the raw coconut fruit, the seed and the shell are joined together. However, the dried ripe coconut is different. If the fruit is dried, the kernel can be removed intact. The seed of the dry coconut shrinks inside the shell and becomes separated from the shell and there is now a distance between the shell and seed. The seed contains the hard shell and a white meat can be eaten and the liquid the coconut milk can be drunk to give life.

A similar thing occurs with our consciousness. Our consciousness creates a vehicle for the physical experience (the body) and then believes it is the vehicle. It believes the shell, the vehicle in the form of the body, and the kernel, the awareness that created the vehicle are one. However, there will come a time when the consciousness becomes aware, when it become ripe. That, it is, the creator separates from its creation. We call it death. In death there is a distance or detachment between the body and the consciousness inhabiting the body but the process doesn’t stop there.

A similar phenomenon occurs with the ego. The ego too is a shell used by the consciousness to define itself and it too can be separated from the consciousness. The essence that is us is what creates the identity for the experience it has by the experiences it has. That is, what we experience defines who we think we are. Ideally when we die, the ego create as a result of being in the body also dies. However, many hold on to the ego whole or in part after death of the physical body.

The body is like the shell of the coconut seed and the ego is like the hard outer shell of the seed. It gives a form to the seed and hold and protects the edible parts inside the seed that can be used to create or sustain life. The ego can be separated from the essence that gives life. All the entities of the unseen world that have an identity are simply the egos projected by the consciousness inside the ego expressing themselves in the identity it projects. We are no different. We are the seed and that seed will create life ad infinitum in whatever realm that it exists.

However, we have a choice. We can wait till we die and have the consciousness and ego separated from the body and wander around the universe as that seed ready to create a new life in the identity we have created. If that seeds falls on fertile ground and conditions are correct it will grow into a new life repeating the life cycle all over again. This phenomenon is what gives rise to the idea of past lives and karma for unless we break the hard shell of the ego, that identity mind has created for itself continues to create generation after generation after generation based on the ego it has created slowly evolving itself bases on the experiences it has. Whether the life it creates for itself is in the seen or one of the unseen realities of Creation, that is a human being or some spirit entity in some part of the infinite Creation, a life will be created based on the seed.

But, we can if we wish, separate our awareness from our ego before body physically dies. Going one step further, we can separate our ego and mind which created the ego from the awareness that gives rise to the mind. In that awareness beyond ego and mind, we can see we have the "stuff" it takes to create any life in any form in any world. We only need to create the vehicle to do so. This is what it really means to transcend the ego and what many mystics have been trying to communicate for eons and is the source of our creative power. Learn to identify with the "stuff" inside the hard shell of the seed beyond the form that exists.

Symbolism

In addition to the coconut symbolizing our awareness, the ego and the body, the coconut is also chosen as a symbol because its three eyes - the two physical eyes and the third eye, the eye of wisdom unopened. Symbolically, when the coconut is broken it symbolizes the ego shell breaking and the heart, the essence which gives life, being allowed to come out and be made available. The contents, the heart of the coconut and the symbolically the heart of our being, can then be surrendered to be eaten and consumed to nourish a new life.

Here in needs to be noted, having broke out of the shell it is not a life that would have grow if one stayed in the form of the original seed encased in the shell of the ego. If the essence of our being stayed in the shell of the ego, the seed would act as any other seed and create a new life based on the life which created the seed. Acting as a seed creating a new life based on the seed generation after generation is another form of karma. Breaking the shell of the seed allows us to create a different life than the one creating the seed and allows us to step out of the past.

The ritual

There are times, such as in a creative endeavor, that we need to change how we think and view our life or the world as we know it. When we are forced with having to change who and what we are for whatever reason, we may contemplated performing a ritual symbolic of transformation ourselves. The coconut is one such tool.

To do this ritual, we essentially will become the scarab, a sacred symbol of ancient Egypt. The scarab eats the waste produces of the past only to recycle it into new life. We will symbolically eat the past those experiences that we have accumulated as our identity that should be discarded to be recycle into a new life and a new identity.

The coconut has a very hard shell but very and editable interior. The shell of the coconut is representative of the strong impenetrable ego shell we develop that defines ourselves and holds us to the existing creation/creation. The inner material is the soft editable material that can be used to feed and nourish a new identity by recycling the past into something more useful for our world as it is change and presents new experiences.

The coconut ritual is relatively simply. One first completes the appropriate preparation. The preparations establish what we are desiring to change and why. The ritual is to set the intention to transform oneself, in particular the ego and what we think and believe, to be open to meet the changes that are occurring in our life.

When we have done all the appropriate preparatory actions we use an appropriate instrument to shatter the shell of the coconut. Shatter is probably an inappropriate world for few shatter the shell. Most are lucky to crack the shell or put a hole in it. Shatter a coconut representing our willingness to break the hard shell and identity of the past.

Once the shell is cracked one can drain out any milk in the coconut into a container and set it aside. One then continues to shatter the shell until one can get at the interior of the coconut and pick out the edible pieces. Once the edible pieces are obtained we eat and drink the interior edible parts. Eating the edible parts is symbolically representative of recycling the past ego identity and being nourished from the past to build a new identity more suitable to the life changes that are occurring. If the individual wishes, they can share both the milk and the edible parts with any one in attendance who may be there to witness one’s actions. Whatever prayers, petitions, actions, gestures and the like one feels necessary and appropriate can be used in performing this ritual.

This ritual acts as a demarcation point. The memory of it will catalyze creating a new identity. It defines a point in time that we have shattered the past identity we have created knowing full well that we will take parts of that past to nourish our new life. However, the new identity we create is based on the seed condition that lies in the intention we set for our life as the basis as to why we wanted to shatter the old identity. If we use the memory of this ritual and makes every decision in life to move towards the intention that we created, we will find that in time, they we will become what was intended to the best our environment can support. We will also probably notice the environment itself changes to help support what we wish to create. One reason for this is we now see the opportunities we have in life to create this new identity because we have focused our attention and awareness to find the opportunities.

This ritual may appear to be a simple and little bit bizarre act but it is very power. It opens the door to our nonconscious mind to allow the changes that are necessary to occur gently and in response to life as our life changes.

Related topics
Leaving and grieving ceremony

The Password Protected Area provides access to all currently posted (click for current loading) Releasing Your Unlimited Creativity related discussion files and applications.

Top

RYUC Home   Why free?    Contact     Links     Programs     Services      Contributions   List of Topics