Whether a Law or a principle, the becoming lives. It inhabits existence. Under the curious gaze of expanding states of consciousness, it is transformation, constant change. It is in everything that is and in what is not yet. In the visible and in the invisible, the becoming happens, appears, disappears, builds, destroys, looks, stops looking.
But what is the becoming? Is it a force?
In the past, the becoming was a threat, that eternal return lurking around human experiences. Sometimes, it was punishment, revenge, a relentless judge before human frailties. Other times, a blessing, a reward for virtues.
The warning “Beware of what´s coming! Watch out for what´s coming!” said a lot about the thoughts, feelings, human relations and the state of consciousness of an era. What a pleasure to be able to “award” people some change, subjecting and frightening them by the force of a threat. What a pleasure to explain reality as a consequence of the becoming. The becoming was an illusion, a veil woven by the fear of punishment or the joy of rewards.
That was before. But what is the becoming like now?
Well… in the 18th century, the chemist Lavoisier said that in nature, “nothing is lost, nothing is created, everything is transformed.” And the becoming trembled before the conservation law. It was a change of paradigm! The becoming acquired a new meaning. It became a force propelling change, a continuous movement that, without repeating itself, generates a new seed without losing the essence.
Then, does the becoming change, but preserve a fundamental principle?
Yes, the potential emerges. It is a beginning, a middle and again a beginning, a middle… And doesn’t the end exist? Is the becoming always a beginning, a middle…? Then, how does one look at the becoming?
Santiago Bovisio, the founder of Cafh in the mid-20th century, saw the becoming stemming from the law of Renouncement. In his reflections in the text The Becoming, Bovisio describes visible and invisible worlds, where the known and the unknown kiss each other and open up a space to glimpse a potential reality. The challenge is to study, to investigate, to meditate, to make evident. An explosion of invisible events, an expansion of consciousness.
Santiago shows the becoming and Renouncement in action, from the origin of evolution, of the explosions of life and death. One can glimpse the becoming in still nebulous worlds, like in dreams, in the dance of life. The becoming is hinted at in the life of stones, of flowers, in the elementals, in the bowels of the earth, in other dimensions. It turns into intuition, knowledge, a challenge to the awakening of a new consciousness. In this dance, renouncement propels the flight of the spirit and announces the becoming as a force that pushes the human being to develop spiritually; that is, to build self-knowledge, to recognize the dense human complexity, the mysterious encounter with the divine.
Human beings transform themselves into seekers who, according to José Luis Kutscherauer, are “people who are very active, who are not satisfied and do not surrender until they find what they are looking for. Seekers are looking for something they eagerly want to find. Without stopping, they wonder what lies beyond the horizon…”. They are seekers of freedom. The becoming drives them… Renouncement and the becoming in action illuminate and transform the seeker.
And as Ana Cristina Flor says, human beings keep on becoming. Seekers find themselves in a process of expansion of consciousness. And life keeps on becoming. And the becoming also keeps on becoming. It’s the law of renouncement in action.
Thus, the becoming is a force that leads life from the finite to the infinite, towards the unknown. How? In the simplest conscious gestures, like drinking water and being grateful. It is there where the finite—water—encounters the infinite—the river, the sea, the thousands of lives whose hands hold up a glass to the mouth to live the act of drinking water.
It is life becoming to the melody of Renouncement. Everything keeps on becoming.
Have you seen the river water evaporating at dawn? Have you watched the clouds moving by the action of the wind? When you think, feel, speak, does the becoming occur? Look at this: the grammar of creation, the word of time and space in action is becoming, while becoming. As Ana Cristina Flor says, renouncement is “the oil that smooths the change”, the transformation, the becoming.
