When we recognize the gap between our awakening and its expression in our life, we appreciate the importance of transformation. Awakening is the discovery of the truth of what we are and what reality is. Transformation means the clarification and development of the organ, the instrument, so that it has enough lenses, enough limbs, to express and live that realization – The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence, Ch. 8
The process of the transformation of individual consciousness has two sides: the kenotic side and the developmental side. Kenotic means a clarification of consciousness, an emptying of the structures, rigidities, and identifications that support and constitute the sense of self. Much of the transformation that is needed is the clarification of the individual consciousness, which is occluded by all kinds of beliefs and ideas and worldviews, all kinds of delusions and concepts and reifications that don’t completely disappear just because we are enlightened or awakened to true nature…
The other side of the transformation of individual consciousness is its development. Our consciousness is not only clarified, but it is actually a growing organism. It’s an organism that evolves. Its capacity for experience, feeling, and responsiveness, and its perceptual capacities keep developing and maturing. And the various qualities, forms, and dimensions of true nature are instrumental in developing those capacities and faculties that we need not only for further realization but also for the expression of the realization we already have attained. – The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence, Ch. 8
At this point, you might be thinking that there is something called an individual consciousness that goes through something else called a process of transformation and results in another thing called a mature human being. And although this is true from one perspective, from the view of totality, we see that true nature is the transformer, the transformed, and the transformation. It is the catalyst for transformation, it is what is transformed, and it is the resulting transformation. – The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence, Ch. 8
The essence of transformation can be seen in the process of change that results in a butterfly. There are several stages. One of them is a larva; the larva eventually develops and becomes a butterfly. So when you first come, you’re a larva—small, big, yellow, black, African, European—it doesn’t matter. You say, “I want to grow,” and in your mind, growing means becoming a bigger, happier, more colorful larva. Isn’t that how it goes? You don’t think, “I’m going to be something totally different.” You don’t want to be something totally different. You want to be a bigger, more beautiful, more loving larva. It never occurs to you to be something other than a larva. The concept of butterfly never enters your head. It’s not even in the realm of possibilities. – A. H. Almaas, Diamond Heart Book One: Elements of the Real in Man, Ch. 12
The process of transformation is a maturing of individual consciousness that expands the capacities we already have and also develops new faculties that we never had, or had only in a germinal way. Our capacity for discriminating intelligence develops. This is not just the usual human intelligence, but one that becomes an objective guidance that can discriminate and know our experience directly and immediately; it makes connections that our usual intellect cannot. This discriminating intelligence also gives us the capacity to articulate our experience in a precise and alive way. These capacities to both understand experience and communicate it—which most people either don’t have or have to a limited degree—begin to develop as the individual consciousness develops. The same goes for our relational capacity, our ability to interact with and be responsive to others and the world. And our capacity to act can also expand—in its freedom, spontaneity, intelligence, and effectiveness. So our capacities to discern, to relate, and to act can all develop and evolve in unimaginable ways. – A. H. Almaas, The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence, Ch. 8
When we recognize the gap between our awakening and its expression in our life, we appreciate the importance of transformation. Awakening is the discovery of the truth of what we are and what reality is. Transformation means the clarification and development of the organ, the instrument, so that it has nough lenses, enough limbs, to express and live that realization. – A. H. Almaas, The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence, Ch. 8