The Three Metamorphoses

One of my favorite passages from Nietzsche's "Thus Spoke Zarathustra" in a more simplified, modern translation:

"I want to talk about three changes of the mind: how the mind becomes a camel, the camel becomes a lion, and finally, the lion becomes a child.

The mind can carry a lot of heavy things, like a camel. It's the kind of thing that wants to be weighed down. It asks, 'What is the heaviest thing, you heroes? Give it to me, so I can carry it and prove my strength.'

Is it this: To put yourself down in order to control your pride? Is it to show your mistakes to ridicule your wisdom? Maybe it's about giving up on our goal when it's achieving success? Or climbing high mountains to challenge the challenger?

Perhaps it's about seeking knowledge and truth, even if it means going hungry for a while. Or maybe it's about being sick, refusing comfort, and making friends with people who don't listen to your problems.

Could it be about diving into dirty water when it's the water of truth, and not minding the cold frogs and hot toads? Or is it about loving those who despise us, and reaching out to the ghost when it tries to scare us?

The mind, like a camel, takes on all these heavy things and then runs off into its wilderness.

But in the deepest wilderness, the mind changes again and becomes a lion. It wants freedom and wants to rule its own life.

It wants to fight with the 'dragon,' what it used to call its Lord and God. The dragon says, 'You must.' But the lion says, 'I will.'

The dragon is covered with golden scales, each scale saying, 'You must!' It represents the values of a thousand years, claiming that all values have been created and saying there will be no more 'I will.'

But we need the lion, the one who says 'I will,' to create new values. The lion, with its might, can create freedom for new creations.

The lion learns to say 'No' to duty and 'Yes' to its own desires, in order to create its own freedom. This is a heavy task for a mind, but it's necessary.

But what can the child do that even the lion couldn't? Why does the lion have to become a child?

The child represents innocence, forgetfulness, a new start. It's about playing, being creative, moving first, saying a holy 'Yes.'

Yes, to create, we need to say a holy 'Yes' to life. The mind now wants its own will and creates its own world.

So, I've talked about how the mind changes from a camel to a lion, and finally to a child. I said all this while I was staying in a town called The Pied Cow."