A key tool in the alchemical process is Vipassana meditation. Vipassana means seeing beyond. It is when you enter a meditative state focused on core questions about your life like:

Who am I?

Why am I here?

How did I get to where I am?

What should I do since I am here?

Why should I do or not do something?

Are my mind and thoughts or emotions one or disparate?

Who we are isn’t bound by something predetermined. Vipassana is seeing beyond the ordinary state of the intellect and physical body into your deeper spiritual nature. It is a form of insight meditation designed to help purify your consciousness of lower thoughts and emotions so that you may move closer and closer to peace and freedom.

I will take the example of Who Am I? You enter a concentrated meditative state with your question and study it from every angle. Essentially you take apart the question by answering it in every permutation possible. If you take the question Who Am I and begin to look at all of the facets that make up who you are thoroughly enough, you will be conducting a complete analysis of your psyche. You will find lower aspects that promote things like jealousy for example and higher aspects that promote things like compassion. Then you go through the process of determining what you need to let go of and what you need to nurture in order to heighten and purify your consciousness. Finally you create a new state of being based on this analysis.

It is like starting your meditation as a completed jigsaw puzzle that shows the current picture of who you are. Then you then take that puzzle apart, study the pieces and decide which to discard, which to foster into growth, etc. When you are finished taking it apart and analyzing it, you put it all back together into a jigsaw puzzle that now makes a different, more healthy picture. You have just completed a spiritual transformation!

As you begin to embrace this new version of yourself, you may find it easy to slip into old patterns. In an uncomfortable emotional or thinking situation that tries to take you back to your old state, pay attention to your breathing and your body’s sensations. If they become disregulated, acknowledge the disregulation, observe it, and actively seek to correct it or let it go. Sometimes simple awareness is enough to bring you back into balance and freedom. Sometimes you need to remove yourself from the situation around you even if just temporarily to reestablish your preferred state of being. 

The more you pay attention to your breathing and body’s sensations, the more you will be aware of your inner state of being. This is a simple way of keeping yourself in balance with the changes that come from your Vipassana meditation. Over time this technique rids one of impurities, and in my personal experience, can lead to the four immeasurables: loving kindness, compassion, joy, and equanimity. As you feel these things more and more, your interactions with the world around you will improve to reflect this. This in turn improves your environment accordingly, leading to a more liberated existence and fluid life. 

While Vipassana meditation takes discipline and hard work and the process must be refined repeatedly to bring you more in union with the divine, using it can be a powerful technique for transformation ultimately resulting in total liberation!

• Self Alchemy Seeker