Post-traditional meditation training & spiritual practices for the twenty-first century
What is Inner Alchemy?
When are cut all, the knots of the heart here on earth, then the mortal becomes immortal! — Thus far is the instruction.
— Kaṭha Upaniṣad 6.15
Put simply, inner alchemy refers to a form of spiritual development that works on the transformation of subtle bodies. It is an approach that spans across many distinct traditions, including the Hindu and Buddhist tantric traditions of India and Tibet, the nèidān shù of Chinese Taoism, and the Hermetic tradition of the west, with it's ancient roots in the Graeco-Egyptian mysteries. In contrast to current popular notions of enlightenment, the purpose is not simply liberation from the fetters of existence, but the cultivation of a transformed vehicle of consciousness referred to as the 'body of immortality'. Beyond the mutability of birth and death, it is an illumined body that radiates the indestructible nature of divine being, akin to the paramam vapuḥ of the Upaniṣads, or glorious body of the Christian tradition.