The Metamorphosis Centre

By Robert St. John

Deep within us is a centre, a nucleus, from which we have the potential of complete and absolute intelligence and functional ability. This nucleus is the individual consciousness that gave us independent life from our mother at the moment of conception. It is all that, in previous times we have attributed to God, from the various points of view of the religious concepts of the world. It is a great deal more than this, because in those days we were looking at the principle of God through the structure of a religion which, however well founded, became distorted and warped by the social and political practices which have always been present.

Today we have an advantage over the patterns of the past; the nature of life has changed in a subtle way. Although the principle of God is the same as it always has been, the way in which we approach it has changed, a difference in our attitude of mind, of the way in which we direct our thoughts and feelings. For generations God, or the image of God that we created in our process of thought, has been outside of our structure, now it is not only inside, but it is the centre of our structure. That which is the consciousness of life within us is the principle of God and this is an integral part of our structure. The real difference is that formerly God was a concept apart; now this principle is the quality of our own life, not a separate part, and, if we are to function at all, must be used in the ordinary way in which we use our arms and legs, our lives or our heart. If we fail to use it in the ordinary way of life we are in considerable trouble because it is now a part of our structure.

The principle of Metamorphosis is the ability to be able to “tune in” to this centre in the ordinary practice of life. We don’t use much of it because we are a mass of diversionary “blocks” which act as alternative centres of consciousness and which are only as intelligent as the blocks of which they are composed. These blocks are genetic, karmic or various other forms of fixing and holding our attention in times which are other than the present moment. If we could function from our own centre of consciousness the block ceases to exist because it is only a product of thought, and if the block ceases to exist we “become” our own centre of consciousness and function accordingly. All of this may sound too simple; we are used to profound processes of thought with much explanation and ritual in Metamorphosis there is little or none of this. It is possible to analyze the pattern of the functions of life from the point of view of Metamorphosis and it is very interesting to do so, but it is not necessary from a practical point of view. The quality of life, consciousness, is in all of us; we are consciousness if we are alive at all, and if we are standing up or sitting here we must be alive. The potential of this principle is a normal part of our structure and can be used normally.

Although Metamorphosis is an attitude of mind and very simple to use, we have been indoctrinated over the centuries by structures of thought in religion, philosophy and education in such a way that our ability to think and function from the level of thought is tied to these same structures and we are not free to “think” from our own inner intelligence. We need some ritual to “unthink” this structure. That, in principle, is what Metamorphosis is. What physical practice there is in Metamorphosis is a symbol for the mind to change all of the indoctrination of the past and to “be come” the present.