We understand alchemy as the transformation of base metal into gold. In Vedic terms, however, it is best described as rasāvāda: the revealing of our Essence. Thus we are both the dross metal as well as the gold revealed through the alchemy of our consciousness.
Rasa which means essence also refers to the flavors of our lives: the emotional content. When we turn our emotional dross of fear, anger and grief into the gold of creativity, innocence and joy we learn to surf the waves of our lives no matter what the tide. .
When our emotional state is one of creativity, innocence and joy, we see beauty, feel compassion and instinctually open to universal waves of loving. When our emotions are dominated by fear, anger and grief, we become susceptible to the 6 enemies of the mind: lust, rage, greed, jealousy, envy and delusion.
How do we understand the emotional body? In āyurveda the mind begins in the heart, reaches downwards into the gut and upwards into the brain. The connections are easy to see as seats of instincts, feelings and sensation/thought. All our instincts and our rational thinking revolve around the mediating emotional state.
BECOMING AN ALCHEMIST OF MY EMOTIONAL BODY IS THE CLASS I SIGNED UP FOR A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO, WHEN I THOUGHT I WAS GETTING CLOSE TO EARNING MY MASTER\’S DEGREE (EGO), MY TEACHER (LIFE) LAUGHS AT ME AND GIVES POP QUIZ. I HAVE TO ADMIT. I OFTEN ALMOST FAIL…. BUT IM HERE IN THE LAB OF MY EMOTIONS STUDYING HARD TO BE READY FOR THE NEXT TEST.
