The idea vs. having a bite (The path of inner alchemy)

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I was reading this philosophical post about mental understanding and the importance of the mind concepts only. What I believe that is overlooked here is this focus on head “enlightenment”. The mind can actually be the biggest obstacle to real knowledge/perception. It’s a collective belief about how our thinking is the most important tool and that mental knowing will make us smarter and therefore how much we will gain through intellectual discernment etc. We can have all the knowledge in the world, but we can’t hide from that which is inside.

Understanding; meaning “standing-under” something, that is even more tangible and expressive.

And this is most evident when it comes to the spiritual inner experiences of an individual.We need to acknowledge that this is not about being critical or negative in any way, but that all of that is a byproduct that comes along with some practices or it can happen out of curiosity, although it may even occur spontaneously. Unquestionably it’s a path of many who are willing to explore the depths of their own psyche. It’s a process of transformation and whatever comes up in it is a necessity and essential, but should end in a harmonious way and true wholeness!

In some way we could say that a spiritual path is there to seduce us and prepare us for something much more powerful. Of course we have to take into consideration that every person on this planet has a different lesson to fulfil for a specific place and time, for their inner expansion, growth and realization, no matter how it looks or is manifested in this material reality. For some people this experience we call life can be seen as anything but spiritual and is after all very much connected to the inner realization, but is operating on a more distant, different level of perception, ultimately to reach certain destination that is also valuable and important. On the other hand, there are experiences that were there as a predisposition at birth and take place in a life of an individual to experience more subtle layers of awareness, which is in most cases very hard to integrate and ground, to become a part in everyday experience and to function in a society as we know today, especially under established paradigm that is still very much in front of other alternatives, secret teachings and esoteric knowledge. And even there we can find many misconceptions that are wrongly perceived and can lead to very unbalanced place inside the mind, which is a process of unraveling and dissolving internal barriers, belief systems and perceptions we have learned - but are only temporary structures, even though, they seem very tangible.

What happens in most cases and especially at the beginning of a spiritual search, is that there is an excitement that arises and inexplicable yearning that comes along from a deep part of our being. So that feeling can arouse a reason for someone - trying to get closer to the nature of deeper reality and that, which is unknown.

With certain experiences and knowledge that can be obtained through reading about spiritual matters for example, then this mental breakthrough can happen, that is actually not on a level of energetic opening, but can be helpful for someone to put things into perspective and with that some clarity and understanding. It’s usually a first stage of intellect transformation. We can have a lot of “aha” moments in that, but that, which is unconsciously inside us, must be brought up onto the surface. It’s when mental understanding meets a core of a pattern that is buried inside our subconscious mind and we can find out that it has quite an energetic charge and can be felt as a physical symptom. So the time when we are ready to melt parts inside our unconscious mind, as a result, many phenomena can manifest into our awareness and consequently in our outer reality. That is when we realize the difference between thinking about a taste of something vs. having a bite. It all sounds fanciful, until we bump into it and see that this isn’t just a bunch of nice airy spiritual ideas, it has a really greedy experiential reality to it.

Experiences like that can be very frightening. For someone, this can happen in a more gentle and subtle way and for someone else, this can be much more extreme and profound in nature. It all depends from what level one is experiencing an expansion like that and a purpose behind it.

It’s a natural flow of the energy to push unconscious material onto the surface and can act out in a various ways. Many people can experience the same kind of pattern, but on another level of perception. One can find himself inside a psychological plane and another at more deeper level. After all, there is no distinction between them, just that there are layers on the path to the core and what inner compass (soul) has directed for someone to see. The first can not comprehend the experience of another, because his perception operates more on a surface and can be seen as too absurd or even unrealistic. In our society, a level this deep and a denial of it can manifest as mental illness, extreme ungroundedness or even as schizophrenic tendencies. The denied aspects can be buried to such an extent, that a person can not integrate it, to have a valuable experience. If that can happen, one can gain great insight and profound realization.

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Openings like that differentiate with one another and can manifest from the mind, heart or gut level and all have qualities as well as stages, so one can find himself in really interesting and bizarre situations. The things that we feel inside our bodies have the potential to transform into a visual objects or images and there is a danger to deny the experience so we can push it outside ourselves. We see that some feelings and mind states can have specific metamorphic form and when we become aware of that, we need to stay present, because sometimes those appearances can look pretty shocking. The intensity of the process may vary from time to time, so there is a shift in perception with everything we have known before and that we have taken for granted. We can hear inner sounds and frequencies and those can be connected with opening of the “Siddhis” (attainments that are the product of spiritual advancement) written in Sanskrit. You can feel as your body is dissolving into nothingness and as there are no boundaries or awareness of a physicality. It’s like jumping out of the plane and than grasping for something material.

Experience like that can sometimes end in dissociation and depersonalization of the self, which is a part of the brain’s natural defense mechanism to protect itself from intense trauma. All of that can be linked with exploring the power of attachments that are in us and the depths of it are enormous. The energy then opens the pathways in the nervous system and the result of this can be extreme sensitivity to external influences, toxins and everything we choose to put inside our body. We need to learn how to function with this new set up and how to let go. Dreams can intensify and become more vivid and can give us important revelations. Lucid dreaming is also a common phenomena and we learn that vibration is an essence of everything. Trouble arises when we are unable to let go of control and when our unconscious suppressions get triggered and a few other artificial concepts we buried within.

On the flip side, one can be rewarded with a great insight and understanding of the processes that secretly run behind the scene and are now revealed. What happens is that many thought patterns come to light, so with an intent we can change and reprogram them, to than achieve a different kind of outcome. This is a favorable time to brake some old habits, but first the detoxification must happen, not only on a physical level, but inside the mind as well.

Is this inner realization that a real spiritual path will “kill” us. It will destroy our little Id-entity ego mind, that always wants to pull us back in a place, where we feel safe and with no fear of desolation. Because of that, one can become spiritual bipolar, which means that there is a space within us and from here we can perceive both polarities of “dark” and “light”. The battle between being conscious and being unconscious. We are now aware that the whole world is in a sleeping state and that all is just a game of “hide and seek”. We can feel that there is an aliveness within us we were not aware of it before.

As Jim Morrison said; “We are the unborn living, the living dead”, meaning we are not fully awake, so our shadow is reflected back to us through life experiences.

Nevertheless, this whole energetic unfoldment is just a first stage of an awakening and may or may not lead to a true enlightenment.

And I don’t know what happens there. :)

Author: Luka Višnikar

Art by Alex Grey