Transformation of Suffering

Transformation of Suffering

Man’s quest to transform the basest of metals into the most precious has been pursued since time immemorial. Changing lead into gold was never, and is still not, possible. It’s simply an imaginary effort to get something for nothing. Even so, this avaricious pursuit has cloaked it’s real meaning, probably expressed by the first esoteric schools.

When we suffer we indulge in feelings of self-pity, or injustice, or resentment, anger, etc. As discussed in previous posts, these negative emotions are buffers. They prevent us from seeing our contradictions, that is, buffers prevent us from seeing what we did or said that created the circumstances which led to the negative experience that caused these feelings. They prevent the light of consciousness from illuminating the truth about our condition, and we remain prisoners in a prison of our own making.

Transformation of suffering begins with the non-expression of negative emotions. All else is either adapting to circumstances - justifying what was said or not said, done or not done by ourselves or others - or imagination - convincing ourselves that nothing really happened, it will all work out for the best, and so on and so forth. But unlike the physical element of lead, we can transform the dense elements of suffering into the golden state of self-remembering, This is true alchemy.

This inner alchemy is a process of refinement. Our states of consciousness can be refined to the point where presence is aware of itself. A further refinement of presence aware of itself is the ability to sustain this state for extended periods. And beyond that, a state where presence aware of itself exists permanently out of time, in the eternal and immortal, now.

I died as a mineral and became a plant

I died as a plant and became an animal

I died as an animal and became a man

I died as a man and became an angel

And when I drop my angel body,

I shall become what no mortal mind can conceive.

~ Rumi

The Alchemist, by David Teniers the Younger (1610-1690) (Credit: Renevs/CC0 1.0 Universal Public Domain Dedication/Wikimedia Commons)