Spiritual Alchemy of Freedom: Ego Lead into Golden Consciousness
Since ancient times, alchemists have sought the philosopher’s stone – a mystical substance to transmute base metals into gold. This tireless quest was, at its core, the pursuit of perfection. Not simply riches, but perfection of the soul and liberation of the spirit.
Today, we carry on this tradition through inner alchemy – the transformation of ordinary consciousness into golden awareness. Distracted thoughts become mindful presence. Reactive emotions turn into wisdom and compassion. Like medieval alchemists, we ask: How does transformation of consciousness occur? This inner alchemical work allows us to realize the golden consciousness that lies dormant within all beings.
The alchemy of consciousness reveals that freedom and enlightenment are innate within us. With perseverance and dedication to spiritual practice, we can embody our golden nature. Enter the realm of this eternal adventure of inner exploration and self-transformation.
The Alchemy of Freedom: The Philosophers’ Stone and the Secrets of Existence
Well-known spiritual teacher A. H. Almaas uses the mysterious philosopher’s stone metaphor to discuss a tremendous liberating power that leads to endless enlightenment.
For millennia, alchemists sought the philosophers’ stone, the miracle substance believed to be the key to all the secrets of existence. The quest was fueled by some of the prime questions of human existence: What am I? Why am I here? How has this world come to be?
A. H. Almaas shows that the tremendous liberating power of the philosophers’ stone is closer to us than we realize. In fact, it is the true nature of all reality—in all times and all places, without being limited to being anything in particular. Through the philosophers’ stone, real transformation can happen, our consciousness can become free, and we can open to all the possibilities of reality.
CONTENTS
Part One. Elements Necessary for Awakening
1. Necessary Awakening
2. Primary Awakening
3. The Nonhierarchical View of the Path
4. Endless Awakening
5. The Reverence of True Nature
Part Two. Expressions of Awakening
6. Self-Illuminating True Nature
7. Self-Expressing True Nature
8. The Transformer
9. The Only Teacher
Part Three. Illuminations of Awakening
- Awakening Is Awake
- The Nature of True Nature
- Enlightenment
- Reality
- Freedom
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Almaas discusses the factors that are involved in igniting the catalytic property of the philosophers’ stone and then begins to unpack the properties of true nature when it is free of constraints. Finally, we are left with the revelation that true nature is endlessly knowable, and yet nothing we can know or say about it exhausts its mystery and power. The result is a new understanding of what liberation and practice are—and a view of what it’s like when seeking ceases and life becomes a process of continual discovery. We begin to appreciate that the freedom of reality expressed in the complete and fulfilled life all human beings seek—and few find—is actually the simplicity of the ordinary.
