What is Alchemy?

[Todd]

I am inspired to ask this question in light of our different approaches to the matter.

 

I'll give it a first go.

 

I'll just begin with the example of conversation. I find that conversation in the correct spirit can be a powerful alchemical tool. With one friend in particular, I found myself accessing all sorts of interesting states with nothing more than some tea and a conversation until 5 am. It probably helped that I had no concept of spirituality beyond something that I wasn't much interested in. The concepts of spirituality do not much hinder our conversations now, though... they are still in the same spirit.

 

Posting on this form seems like a form of alchemy at times, as well. It is both a powerful distraction and a stimulating force. Our views come up, and are challenged. We rub off on one another. I can find it difficult to sleep after posting something on here. It just stirs up so much energy, and attachment. At times I want to stay away from the forum, if only to free up time, but my integrity keeps pulling me back (mysteriously to me).

 

Then there are the more traditional forms of alchemy, such as meditation, breathwork, mindfulness, meditative and/or spontaneous movement. These are some of the activities that the mind first calls up when alchemy is mentioned in the Daoist context. There may be disagreements about what actually constitutes alchemy, however. Perhaps one person feels visualizing qi moving is just mental masturbation, while another cannot imagine alchemy without it. Or else one needs to visualize just this thing, or do just that, to make this, which one trades for that, and so on.

 

I feel that all programmatic notions of alchemy are incomplete. They may have powerful uses and effects, but they are weakened by their predetermined nature. They create the mind frame that alchemy is something that resides within and is the result of a practice. This in turn creates the mind frame that one is engaging in these practices to achieve some level, to make something that one can then rest on in other words. The practice becomes separate from life, even if only in very subtle ways.

 

Those subtle separations separate heaven from hell however.

 

So what is alchemy if it is not to be contained within any programmatic paths?

 

Alchemy is very simple. It is happening at every moment. We do not notice it, or enjoy it, until we can recognize it and say YES. Any moment that we say YES to becomes the most powerful alchemical agent possible. This is because every time we say YES, it increases our capacity to say YES. At first it might seem like only a trickle, but thanks to the power of YES, that trickle begins to grow, until it is beyond our imagination.

 

Most of us have already started saying YES in many ways. This movement often starts well before we are aware of it.

 

For anyone who feels that this is too simple, I would suggest that you try it. Find something that you resist, and then say YES to it. Watch what happens when you allow what is, to actually be. What is it like to say YES and to let that YES carry through, from one moment to the next, even in pain and discomfort?

 

The funny thing is that the moment we say YES, we lose our power, and the world begins to move us. We dive into uncertainty, right within the moment we have always known.

 

 

Well thats my attempt for now. Anyone else?

[VeeCee]

 

Posting on this form seems like a form of alchemy at times, as well. It is both a powerful distraction and a stimulating force. Our views come up, and are challenged. We rub off on one another. I can find it difficult to sleep after posting something on here. It just stirs up so much energy, and attachment. At times I want to stay away from the forum, if only to free up time, but my integrity keeps pulling me back (mysteriously to me).

 

 

Interesting. I had a lot of dreams last night - mostly about ego. Times when my ego erupted full force, and I wasn't able to do things anyway but MY WAY. I'm up against this again in real life - and I think a lot of the conversation last night stirred things up. I do think that interacting with others does change you - help you to see outside the box. Is MY WAY always the right way? No - but understanding that intellectually and accepting it emotionally are two different things.

[rex]

I think alchemy is a particular aesthetic sensibility. It's an art, a science, and a metaphysics all rolled into one. To me it's about establishing the connection of the outer elements to the inner elements, and the inner elements to their true source and then following this connection back again to the outer. Of course I haven't established any of these connections.

[Todd]

Rex,

 

What about the the inner and outer elements and the void being connected would be different than what is happening right now?

 

I like what you said about alchemy being a kind of aesthetic sensibility. I'll riff off of that for a bit. Please let me know if any of this resonates for you.

 

If we take alchemy to be a kind of aesthetic sensibility, then we are really speaking about an attitude. There is an attitude that leads to freshness, and enjoyment, and transformation. It frees up energy to play. It is this attitude that drives alchemy. There are many different words that refer in some way to this attitude: song, relaxation, surrender, enjoyment, love, awe, exploration. They all point to different aspects of the same attitude, which can never really be captured with a word.

 

Perhaps a lot of words will do a better job? hehehe... Well here goes anyway.

 

The difficulty of capturing the attitude of alchemy is its radical simplicity. Even the YES that I referred to above is too complex. To say YES as a word, is to go very far from alchemy. Anyone who tried to say that YES probably just felt kind of bound up and false, unless it just happened to resonate with them, and they went beyond the YES. They saw where the YES was coming from and spent a moment there, checking it out.

 

So where does the YES come from? Actually, thats not what we are talking about. To describe alchemy, we need to describe what that place is like. What is it like to stop before the YES?

 

When we stop there, waves and waves of YES crash over our shoulders. We do not know where we are, but we can feel the force of the universe changing everything that we see and feel. The funny thing about this, is that more often than not (for me at least) such a sensation doesn't really register the way that it might seem to from its description. There are no words for that sensation, so there is nothing to grab onto. Feeling everything as it moves, is more like feeling nothing, in terms of words, but that nothing is the force that moves the world. Most people grab onto something very soon after entering this perception, and that something has a lot of power to it, since it is derived from the place of true power. That something also leads straight to suffering, until one lets go. It is a pattern that we repeat until we do not repeat it any more. Assuming such a thing actually happens, which isn't necessarily important for us in this inquiry.

 

Upon hearing such a description, a person might have many different responses. It might be dismissed. It might be analyzed for consistency with previous experiences, or received teachings. It might be recognized and let go of as mere description. It might be thought of as something beyond where one has gone, and as more reason to buckle down and meditate more. I love meditation, but why should we sell ourselves short? We actually live in this space, whether we know it or not. It is merely recognizing it that is often left out. That is where we started this whole discussion. Alchemy is an attitude. And one of the biggest obstacles to this attitude is thinking that it is somehow special, or distant, or alien. I need to do this, and this, and that, and more of that, in this way to get that view.

 

What if none of that was true? Not really. All of the things that we do to achieve this view, are things that are done within it. The view already exists. That might seem like abstract theory, but its not. The view already exists. It doesn't exists just within me. It exists within you, right now. It has enjoyed every moment of your life.

 

So how do we recognize that view? It is very simple. Where is your enjoyment? What is enjoyment? What brings enjoyment on? What enjoys?

 

I know. Its too simple, and its even simpler than that.

 

 

Well anyway, let me know if any of that resonated with you. It wasn't really directed at you, but just playing around. A bunch of junk, but thats only if we are looking for truth.

 

I'm also still interested in your response to the question I started this post with.

 

...

 

 

Vicki,

 

Ain't that the truth.

 

 

Peace,

 

Todd

Edited November 13, 2007 by Todd

[Todd]

The last two nights I have tried to express something, and both nights I have failed pretty badly. I'll try once more, in the spirit of walking into the unknown.

 

What I want to express is a vision of the dynamics of existence that is not rooted in any particular tradition. By not being rooted in a particular tradition, it can be applied more freely than those that come from tradition. It is not that there is anything wrong with joining a tradition. It is just that my personality finds them limiting, and distorting. There is truth in most traditions, but due to the nature of words and thoughts, as they become codified, they become twisted. That is a really interesting inquiry in and of itself. How do the people who are most intensely seeking, and even finding truth, end up creating such monsters? I don't believe that it is actual evil intent, but more just an innocent misperception. If there is evolution in the sense of from bad to good, then it would be this misperception that would have to be outgrown. It is a stretch to assume such an evolution, and in fact, nothing I am about to say will really support such notions. I am digressing, though.

 

In order to construct a vision of the dynamics of existence not based in tradition, we might be best off starting really simply, and then seeing if it is necessary to add anything else. We are speaking of dynamics, since it is readily observable that the world changes. Nothing stays the same, not completely. Oftentimes times things will radically alter. I can look at you, and then you walk away, and I am looking at the window you were standing in front of. That much is readily observable. Another way that things tend to change, is that over time our bodies change; we get older. Opinions change. Interests change. People die. In noticing this change, many, if not all of us, begin to want to affect the way that this change develops. Since things are changing all the time, we reason, why shouldn't they start getting better and better and better? This is the birth of ideas about how the world can be a better place. This is the birth of ideas about magic and about alchemy and about religion and about science. All of these disciplines have historically been intertwined with the movement to make the world a better place. It doesn't matter if the world is defined as an individual or the collective. It is a drive toward a change that is subjectively perceived to be superior to some other change.

 

How do all of these disciplines go about accomplishing this project? There are many ways that have been, and are being tried. However, within all of these disciplines there is a thread of selflessness. They have all recognized on some level that we just don't seem to get what we want for very long, unless we somehow are able to give up the seeking (and the seeking creates the self, hence the term selflessness). The seeking is what created the disciplines in the first place, so that puts the practitioner in kind've a pickle. Most practitioners end up giving up the seeking within certain limited contexts, while diving full force into the seeking in other contexts. We play this game in so many ways, that I can only barely begin to explore it in this discussion. We only need to look to our own lives for examples of this, though. We have all managed to let go of the effort to get something, and then things have worked out really well. We may even be able to do this with regularity in certain contexts, such as playing a musical instrument, or meditating, but what about when someone does something that really annoys us? How do we react then, even if only inwardly? Or else, maybe we still really think that the desire for enlightenment is actually noble, and is helping us to get closer to truth. "Everyone should do what I do, and achieve the results I have achieved. Or even if they shouldn't, they would probably be better off if they did." The whole time, we are ignoring the fact that it was only by letting go of our demands on the world in some limited area that we achieved anything at all. Oftentimes we achieve something through a kind of control, but that achievement is not really an achievement, since the limited progress in one area is actually due to regression in other areas. Its kind've funny actually. We can export the attempt to control from one area of our life to another area.

 

It seems then, that as long as we are attempting to honor the principle of selflessness in only a limited area of our lives, hoping that somehow this honoring will seep into the rest of our lives, we aren't likely to get very far. It is true that within the limited area that we are able to realize selflessness, we will see tremendous development, but this is often at the expense of regression in other areas. I might realize that I am the universe through a practice, or even through just looking at things in the right way, but then I start thinking that not many people know this, and isn't that too bad. If I do this, I have just taken a tremendous insight into my true nature, and turned it into a giant wedge between myself and others, immediately obscuring that true nature.

 

The question arises. Is there a way to tap into the power of letting go, without making the trade off described above? The answer, in my experience, is maybe. This vision that I am sharing is more of hypothesis than anything else, but maybe we can let go, with all of the wonderful benefits that that entails, without grabbing on tighter somewhere else. The key, once more a hypothesis, which can only be proven or disproven in our own experience, is awareness of the pattern. We need to realize that if we are going to let go in a way that isn't merely rearranging furniture, then we need to let go all the way. Not only can it not be achieved by effort in some small corner of our lives, such as the hour and a half or four hours or 12 hours that we meditate each day, but if there is any corner of our lives into which letting go has not penetrated, then the desire for control will concentrate there, and burst out upon us again, undiminished, as soon as we give up vigilance.

 

This is not a call to give up practices, but merely a call to explore the power behind our practices, and to invite that power into the rest of our lives. What happens to any moment, when we allow it to be as it actually is? In our practices, we have already found the answer to this question. Amazing things happen. Beauty happens. Joy happens. Insight happens. Compassion happens. Just so action happens. It feels good. Things transform. That is why we do our practices. But why not give recognition to what is actually happening. Why not give recognition to where all of these good things come from? They come from moments of letting go and watching what occurs.

 

What would happen if we did this in every moment of our lives?

 

My hypothesis is that any moment that we are able to let go, whether it is a formal practice or not, becomes imbued with the same power that our practices are imbued with. Any moment can be alchemy. This is an invitation to notice, and to explore.

[rex]

Todd,

 

I haven't read your latest message on this thread so this is just a response to the first two.

 

What you say about alchemy as attitude resonates with me though this attitude as expressed through the YES can be applied to any endeavour and not just alchemy in its more specific spiritual art and science sense.

 

The moment we ascent to the YES we acknowledge the possibility of other ways of being. That the process can start before conscious awareness implies that some other aspect of our being is calling for change. The actual source of this YES is an intriguing question and one that different approaches answer in their own way. I probably fall into he camp who experiences the YES and sees it's origin as the true source of power, but interprets it through the filter of teachings already received. Following through the YES calls for trust in the source and the process itself, so part of the aesthetic sensibility is openness and courage, so the energy locked up in limiting habitual patterns can find a more spontaneous expression suited to prevailing conditions.

 

What about the inner and outer elements and the void being connected would be different than what is happening right now.

The difference is between conscious active participation and unconscious passive participation. Conscious active participation involves method and wisdom for particular finite results, mediation (NB not meditation) and expansion of the boundaries of the self. Edited November 14, 2007 by rex

[Todd]

Todd,

 

I haven't read your latest message on this thread so this is just a response to the first two.

 

What you say about alchemy as attitude resonates with me though this attitude as expressed through the YES can be applied to any endeavour and not just alchemy in its more specific spiritual art and science sense.

 

 

 

Yeah, I understand. Its a big block of words, after a bunch of other words. This application of the attitude of alchemy to the rest of our lives was what I was trying to point at with all of those words. It took me a long time to get there, but if you didn't read anything that I wrote in this thread, this quote would be the take home message:

 

This is not a call to give up practices, but merely a call to explore the power behind our practices, and to invite that power into the rest of our lives. What happens to any moment, when we allow it to be as it actually is? In our practices, we have already found the answer to this question. Amazing things happen. Beauty happens. Joy happens. Insight happens. Compassion happens. Just so action happens. It feels good. Things transform. That is why we do our practices. But why not give recognition to what is actually happening. Why not give recognition to where all of these good things come from? They come from moments of letting go and watching what occurs.

 

What would happen if we did this in every moment of our lives?

 

My hypothesis is that any moment that we are able to let go, whether it is a formal practice or not, becomes imbued with the same power that our practices are imbued with. Any moment can be alchemy. This is an invitation to notice, and to explore.

 

 

 

I guess I'm trying to blur the line between conscious active participation and unconscious participation, if that makes any sense. I get the apparent need, but we end up where we started in a way. In fact, I am guessing that our arrival is in proportion to our realization that we never went anywhere and that that is a very beautiful thing. We never went anywhere and all that stuff happened!

 

Well anyway, more words. Thanks for participating.

[rex]

Any moment can be alchemy. This is an invitation to notice, and to explore .

I guess I'm trying to blur the line between conscious active participation and unconscious participation, if that makes any sense.

Makes perfect sense Todd.

The opportunity for formal sitting/standing practice is not always available, so everyday life becomes an alchemical laboratory if approached with a certain attitude.

[Taomeow]

"Alchemy" is a word derived from Arabic, meaning "Allah's chemistry." The Arabs learned it from the Chinese taoists, then taught us Europeans (source: "Lost Discoveries," by Dick Teresi). "Allah" is simply "god" to them, so alchemy is "god's chemistry."

 

Now god's chemistry is biophysics. If you can do that, you can do alchemy. It's not something that's happening "in the mind," it's not a "state of mind," it's a state of energies of the world. Manipulating them deliberately and expertly is alchemy; just watching them being manipulated by whatever influences -- your state of mind, your practice, substances taken, other people, crude (human) chemistry -- is not. Example: you meet someone who turns you on, there's "chemistry" between the two of you -- that's just god's chemistry, al-chemie, working on you. Altertnaively: you mix sulphur, three kinds of artemisia, and a drop of blood from your middle finger under the full moon, with approppriate incantations, throw it on charcoal, observe the smoke and look for an image of the heart of the person you have chosen to influence so as to get their "chemistry" going; once it appears, inhale it into yours. If the process has been done correctly, it will work towards whatever purpose you've intended. This will have been your practice in god's chemistry, al-chemie, worked by you.

 

So... the difference between alchemy and non-alchemy is whether you do it or just observe it being done to you. God (or, in the original it was derived from by a one-god-bent culture interacting with taoism, the tao) doesn't submit to being "worked on" -- it "works," and if you "work like the tao," you are doing alchemy, while if you are being "worked on by the tao," you are not. My humble, of course.

[Todd]

Ok, but how does the Tao work?

 

Something tells me that it doesn't have a concept of itself, "The Tao", doing what it does. This is where the words "more like a certain attitude" and "watching" come in. These words are relatively close to what experience is like without an experiencer, which is close to what the Tao is like.

 

I am not trying to make one point stand out over another. I am merely raising the question of what it is that powers alchemy. You have said that it is working like the Tao works, and not having the Tao working on one. That works for me. It is true, that if there is one for the Tao to work on, then the highest alchemy is being obscured. But how does the Tao work?

 

Lets take the example of that you gave of working with blood and artemisia and smoke. What part of that performance holds the most power? It is true that many conditions must be met, and anyone of them failing would ruin the whole affair. But assuming all of these conditions are met, including prerequisite knowledge, ingredients, timing, ect, what aspect of our actual performance is most critical? What holds the magic? I'm guessing that it was the moment of waiting for the shape of the heart of the person, whom one wants to influence, to appear in the smoke. One waits, and watches, which is what allows the heart to appear, and also allows one to take advantage of it when it does. If we take in the smoke hastily, then all of our effort will be wasted, and if we are lax in our attention, then the heart will pass and once more our efforts will be wasted. It is worth considering what role such an attitude plays, or could play, in the rest of our lives.

 

It can be interesting to find that the attitude is not really an attitude, but I'm not feeling that at the moment, so these are just words.

 

Also, it is not my intention to step on your more experienced alchemical toes, by using a word that you call your own, but the question that I raise might be useful to some of us. Then again, there is always the whole boiling point thing to consider too.

 

I won't be able to respond for awhile, but I'll give it a try when I return if you want to continue the conversation.

[Maddie]

I have been pondering inner vs outter alchemy. All things being equal I perfer inner alchemy, but when one is not feeling well, doing inner alchemy becomes difficult. When I feel bad, I tend to lean more on outter alchemy in the form of homeopathy, flower essences, crystals/gemstones, ect... It is my impression that things such as homeopathy and flower essences are sort of like taking Qigong in a bottle or a pill form. I think they affect your energetic body as well. My intuition tells me that they can only take you so far, but until you reach that point I think they are excelent methods of energy cultivation.

[The Observer]

Return hate with love. This is the essence of real alchemy.

[Birch]

Return hate with love. This is the essence of real alchemy.

 

 

Interesting, thanks!

 

I think it's a good illustration but it's only one example. What do you return "bitterness" with? What do you resolve "fear" with? I'm not trying to be annoying but I don't reckon (and from experience, know) that "love" is going to do everything for everyone. I have only experimented with the opposites of the current emotion I feel (and by "feel" I mean the bodily sensations, not the words on top) and I'm not convinced that's the most effective use of "alchemy". It seems to me that the love/fear association retains one in dualism for longer than is necessary to "get it" and as a result I'm somewhat leery of recommendations that use "love" as a universal aspirin. Although I'm willing to read posts to the contrary.

[Aetherous]

Maybe returning everything to its origin.

[Birch]

Maybe returning everything to its origin.

 

Maybe. That was well cryptic. I don't know what the origin of everything is. Some days I figure I know, other days I don't. I think (maybe I have some evidence) that everyhing is taking part in the desire to resolve separation, but as was posted elsewhere (I think it was the Zazen thread) they're all doing it on their own time and agenda and I have pretty much nothing to say in the matter. Of course, had I not allowed myself/accepted the deal to be separated in the first place,I might not now be spending all this time/space/energy/effort trying to catch up.

 

Bleh.

[C T]

 

I think (maybe I have some evidence) that everyhing is taking part in the desire to resolve separation...

And then some say that the separation exists only in our over-active imagination, and we create this false urgency to do many things to recompense a mirage-like situation and ironically end up even further away from union than if we had not begun 'groping and searching' in the first instance.

 

 

 

This clip has a nice way of summing up what's been said here. I have posted it before, but the newer Bums may not have seen it, so.... here:

 

 

[Birch]

And then some say that the separation exists only in our over-active imagination, and we create this false urgency to do many things to recompense a mirage-like situation and ironically end up even further away from union than if we had not begun 'groping and searching' in the first instance.

 

 

 

This clip has a nice way of summing up what's been said here. I have posted it before, but the newer Bums may not have seen it, so.... here:

 

 

 

Thanks Mr Cow!

 

Besides quite appreciating the odd grope from time to time I can't (presently) accept that we are dealing with anything else than an imposed situation. Yes, by all means accept "responsability" but in order to do so, one has to travel some kind of path (I reckon). Almost without fail, I see the practices and the processes and the realizations. They all seem (to me) to be pretty similar. I repeat (and rinse) that "Taosim" would not need to exist unless something else that is f*king things up also exists.

 

So I wonder, do we have an inherent human consciousness problem (of course played upon and reinforced by those whose role it is to play upon us)? - is there something more sinister going on? Something else?

[The Observer]

Interesting, thanks!

 

I think it's a good illustration but it's only one example. What do you return "bitterness" with? What do you resolve "fear" with? I'm not trying to be annoying but I don't reckon (and from experience, know) that "love" is going to do everything for everyone. I have only experimented with the opposites of the current emotion I feel (and by "feel" I mean the bodily sensations, not the words on top) and I'm not convinced that's the most effective use of "alchemy". It seems to me that the love/fear association retains one in dualism for longer than is necessary to "get it" and as a result I'm somewhat leery of recommendations that use "love" as a universal aspirin. Although I'm willing to read posts to the contrary.

Granted certain situations require one to act in ways that may seem "mean". But then again when I refer to love it is not always the soft, smooshy sort of love we've been trained to accept as the only love that exists. Love can be stern and hard, but the intention is always to help!

It's also about behaving in a way were you seek a friend in everyone instead of acting for ego's benefit (aka going into tunnel vision survival mode) will place you in happier situations than the reverse.

Edited October 27, 2010 by The Observer