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The Alchemy of "Pain"
04-Mar-2010
It occurs me that perhaps modern psychology and even some New Age approaches to healing
might have a few things backwards about the nature of "pain" and
"suffering" (emotional, that is). Maybe in the ascent of the human
person who is working their spiritual transformation, pain is actually
an unknown and potentially under-appreciated ally, if its true nature
is correctly grasped. So there is no need to 'let go of' anything
but rather to realize and transform. So if we are walking the Path is
it really necessary to eliminate pain at all? Perhaps transmutation
is a more appropriate way to look at this, with "pain" as such being
nothing more than a certain subtle, spiritual mode or reality needing
to flower into its bloom whatever the external causality or content of
this pain actually be.
My teacher once said to me, "always trust your feelings, but never your emotions."
When I first started out on the Ayahuasca Path, one of the first
questions I asked of the Madre was to elaborate for me this teaching,
and so She took me into a journey within the symbolism of Alchemy. She
showed that the faculty of feeling in its latency is Sulphur; unbridled emotion is Salt. The roots of feeling extend specifically into the inner worlds (eso) and that of emotion specifically into the external (exo) one. The refinement and union of the two -- which happens through the process of dissolution and coagulation (solve et coagula) that is the operation of the Great Work (magnum opus) -- is with the mercurial element, Mercury
being the middle term reconciling the two. She then left me by showing
how this is the secret and facility to the creation of the Stone (lapis) itself, i.e. the Great Elixir (iksir-i-a'zam).
So it has occured to me recently that pain is only pain when the inner
dynamic of its internal loop is in a sort of self-recoiling phase, i.e.
control.
This is so because perhaps pain is guarding the key or treasure-house
to its own precious jewel and secret, i.e. its sacred transmutation,
its hierosgamos (sacred marriage). Yet when it does, this pain actually transmutes into shakti
(power) and even a super-celestial organ of vision, if you would, the
moment the pain allows itself to unfold like a flower into its
transmutating palingenesis (resurrection).
The point is not to wallow in a stagnant modality but to actively
become the instrument of flowering it into its resurrection. Note also how in alchemical symbolism the Phoenix rises from the ashes of its
own self-immolation in fire!
In Sufism the steed to the Valley of Love
(the second of the seven valleys) is in fact pain. While one moves from
one allegorical valley to the next, the steeds of each valley actually
build upon the next like building blocks. Throughout Persian Sufi poetry
pain and longing are noted as both necessary stages of the Path as well
as organs of visionary apperception of the Divine Theophanies (tajalliyat). In the
theosophical Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi we even learn that it is a high
Divine quality, for the passive participle of the word Allah (Godhead) is Maluh (sadness, pathos), and so Divinity = sadness, pathos.
For the infidel, error—for the faithful, faith;
For Aṭṭár’s heart, an atom of Thy pain.
Ya NUR
might have a few things backwards about the nature of "pain" and
"suffering" (emotional, that is). Maybe in the ascent of the human
person who is working their spiritual transformation, pain is actually
an unknown and potentially under-appreciated ally, if its true nature
is correctly grasped. So there is no need to 'let go of' anything
but rather to realize and transform. So if we are walking the Path is
it really necessary to eliminate pain at all? Perhaps transmutation
is a more appropriate way to look at this, with "pain" as such being
nothing more than a certain subtle, spiritual mode or reality needing
to flower into its bloom whatever the external causality or content of
this pain actually be.
My teacher once said to me, "always trust your feelings, but never your emotions."
When I first started out on the Ayahuasca Path, one of the first
questions I asked of the Madre was to elaborate for me this teaching,
and so She took me into a journey within the symbolism of Alchemy. She
showed that the faculty of feeling in its latency is Sulphur; unbridled emotion is Salt. The roots of feeling extend specifically into the inner worlds (eso) and that of emotion specifically into the external (exo) one. The refinement and union of the two -- which happens through the process of dissolution and coagulation (solve et coagula) that is the operation of the Great Work (magnum opus) -- is with the mercurial element, Mercury
being the middle term reconciling the two. She then left me by showing
how this is the secret and facility to the creation of the Stone (lapis) itself, i.e. the Great Elixir (iksir-i-a'zam).
So it has occured to me recently that pain is only pain when the inner
dynamic of its internal loop is in a sort of self-recoiling phase, i.e.
control.
This is so because perhaps pain is guarding the key or treasure-house
to its own precious jewel and secret, i.e. its sacred transmutation,
its hierosgamos (sacred marriage). Yet when it does, this pain actually transmutes into shakti
(power) and even a super-celestial organ of vision, if you would, the
moment the pain allows itself to unfold like a flower into its
transmutating palingenesis (resurrection).
The point is not to wallow in a stagnant modality but to actively
become the instrument of flowering it into its resurrection. Note also how in alchemical symbolism the Phoenix rises from the ashes of its
own self-immolation in fire!
In Sufism the steed to the Valley of Love
(the second of the seven valleys) is in fact pain. While one moves from
one allegorical valley to the next, the steeds of each valley actually
build upon the next like building blocks. Throughout Persian Sufi poetry
pain and longing are noted as both necessary stages of the Path as well
as organs of visionary apperception of the Divine Theophanies (tajalliyat). In the
theosophical Sufism of Ibn 'Arabi we even learn that it is a high
Divine quality, for the passive participle of the word Allah (Godhead) is Maluh (sadness, pathos), and so Divinity = sadness, pathos.
For the infidel, error—for the faithful, faith;
For Aṭṭár’s heart, an atom of Thy pain.
Ya NUR
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The Phoenix
by Latina on Thu Mar 04, 2010 03:49 PM PSTBy Hafiz
Translated by Ralph Waldo Emerson
My phoenix long ago secured
His nest in sky-vault’s cope;
In the body’s cage immured,
He is weary of life’s hope.
Round and round this heap of ashes
Now flies the bird amain,
But in that odorous niche of heaven
Nestles the bird again.
Once flies he upward, he will perch
On Tuba’s golden bough;
His home is on that fruited arch
Which cools the blest below.
If over this world of ours
His wings my phoenix spread,
How gracious falls on land and sea
The soul-refreshing shade!
Either world inhabits he,
Sees oft below him planets roll;
His body is all of air compact,
Of Allah’s love his soul.
The vomiting etc stops
by Nur-i-Azal on Thu Mar 04, 2010 02:21 PM PSTAfter a certain stage with most ayahuasqueros it stops, usually at the 100th drink or thereabouts. The medicina aspect of Ayahuasca is only one of its many aspects. That aspect is usually for the novices. There are others far more central, like vision, telepathy, increased psychic abilities, journeying into other realms, seeing into the future and the past, etc. The shamans in the Amazonian jungles don't use the Ayahuasca just for healing purposes. They also use it to ascend to the spirit realms, to acquire their magical powers as curanderos/curanderas (healers), to commune with the jungle and to bring information for the tribe. There are stories that some tribes even used to use it for reconnaissance purposes of war with other rival tribes, not to mention for general purposes of sorcery (brujaria) against rivals in general.
Note this as well: There is currently a rumor floating around that James Cameron actually got the idea for the Avatar movie after going to Ecuador early last decade and participating in a week long Ayahuasca seminar. Does it not occur to people that the Female Deity of this film is named Eywa (Aya)? The consciousness of the Ayahuasca itself is Feminine and is what the Mestizo/Quechua people of the Amazon call the Pachamama (Mother Earth Spirit).
Finally, as far as I am concerned the Ayahuasca is in its Amazonian context what the Haoma was to our ancient Zoroastrian ancestors.
Ya NUR
Just having fun Nur
by Gavazn on Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:42 PM PSTTake it easy .... I tried reading your blog but do not understand why you need to take this stuff. Are you ill? How often do you take it?
Just trying to understand.
Ayahuasca has no side effects
by Nur-i-Azal on Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:35 PM PSTAnd in one notably documented case it has cured one individual of cancer:
//www.maps.org/news-letters/v08n3/08322top.html
//www.maps.org/news-letters/v09n2/09222top.htmlRead the post and comment on its content. Smart alleck comments reveal incapability of digesting substance. Perhaps you need to visit the Ayahuasca yourself.
Ya NUR
Side effects again
by Gavazn on Thu Mar 04, 2010 12:25 PM PSTYour pain may be due to drinking too much Ayahuasca . Swop it for a nice conventional cup of tea and you'll feel much better.
Trying to fix formatting & indentation of paragraphs was painful
by Nur-i-Azal on Wed Mar 03, 2010 11:11 PM PSTEverytime I post a written blog it does that to me. Could one of the moderators on duty kindly fix. Yek donya mamnun!