Metamorphosis: Change of Being

There is nothing static about Being. One way or another, it is always changing. Being is indistinguishable from the act of becoming different – a moving target. Who “I” am – this Being dwelling inside of Marie Michaels – is constantly in flux, changing externally and internally regardless of whether I make efforts towards consciousness or not. The essential question is do I actually have some agency in the act of waking up and becoming different? If so, can I advance or even accellerate awakening? Can I influence my progress in a conscious direction through intentional efforts of my own? Is there help from others who are ahead of me on this conscious journey? Who is the “I” that is asking these questions?

What do we need to escape? Being. What prevents us from acquiring it? Lack of effort. Effort must become a way of life if one is to change one’s level of being. Change leads to transformation. — The Teacher

To help me think about the meaning of the term “Being” in relationship to the idea of conscious evolution and the system of the Fourth Way, I find no better instruction on this topic than to consider the regenerative life cycle of a butterfly. Below is a shortened excerpt taken from Scientific America describing the life cycle of a butterfly.

How Does a Caterpillar Turn into a Butterfly?

To become a butterfly, a caterpillar first digests itself by releasing enzymes to dissolve all of its tissues. But certain groups of cells survive, turning the soup into eyes, wings, antennae and other adult structures. If you were to cut open a cocoon or chrysalis at just the right time, caterpillar soup would ooze out.

As the death-bed whereon it must expire, consumed with that which it was nourished by. — Shakespeare

In the final ethereal stage, the butterfly has gone from a heavier form into a lighter Being, capable of flight and escaping its earthbound existence.

To become conscious, a human Being first digests itself by dissolving all of its illusions, imaginary picture and false personality, lying, negative emotions, identification, unnecessary talk, and many other obstacles to change of Being. If who “I” am – dwelling inside of Marie Michaels – were cut open at just the right time, the many ‘I’s disconnected to presence – human soup – would ooze out. But through awareness certain groups of “cells” gather and survive, groups of Work ‘I’s, the Observer, and the Steward, which are capable of turning this soup into Third Eye, Higher Emotional Center, Higher Intellectual Center, consciousness and final crystalization into a Conscious Being. The amorphous soup is reassembled or “re-membered” and transformed into a different Being, progressing from a heavier, earthbound form into a lighter Being, able to fly from sleep and escape its earthly existence.

Metamorphosis or transformation are major changes in form. Each form has a distinct level of Being with different influences, requirements and potential. The human Being has the potential to transcend from the world of form into the state of a Conscious Being.

Nothing is ever finally achieved till death, and even that must at the same time be merely a new beginning with new equipment. ― Rodney Collin

The agency I have in the act of waking up and changing my level of Being, specific efforts I can make to accelerate my progress in a conscious direction, arise through self observation. Maurice Nicoll says, “Only self-observation can help. You yourself, by seeing yourself, can yield to yourself.”

Now as regards efforts on being … If you practice non-identifying, it becomes conscious effort. Only do it for a certain time—say an hour—and keep conscious and observe yourself carefully. For instance, make your aim not to object to anything for an hour ... [or] bear the unpleasant manifestations of others … Nothing can change being so much as this practice—namely, to take the unpleasant things in life as an exercise. You cannot do this unless you have seen in yourself what you dislike in others. When we are properly conscious of something in ourselves, we are on the way to changing it. — Maurice Nicoll

Finally, yes. There is help from others who have gone before me on this conscious journey. Guru Nanak writes, “Let no man in the world live in delusion. Without a Guru none can cross over to the other shore.”

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Inscription with Putti, Andrea Mantegna (1431–1506)