Although the ego (when used to describe the negative part of our psyche) can seem to play a large role in our lives when out of control, it is really only a small part of who we are (or surmise we are).

Sometimes I receive phone calls from people concerned about their experience with a teacher who appears to be lost in the ego. Each situation of course is unique, and each individual is responsible for taking care that they are not permitting another to abuse them, whether that other be a revered teacher or not.

Haven’t we all faced the decision whether to sacrifice a teaching or spiritual experience just because the teacher appears to have fallen from a pedestal? It’s how you respond to any circumstance, no matter how provocative, that can show you where you may need to shore up your inner reserves or make stronger connections with your inner teacher.

Your true teacher can safely guide you through any strange or treacherous emotions and thinking.

The inner teacher is always there to remind you to develop your own spiritual discernment.

If you have been developing yourself through your meditation practice and spiritual life, you may already know a deep bond that comes with your connections with the inner master. If not, it is never to late to start.

And you can find the simple truths in all the world’s traditions and philosophies to help you measure what is going on in your own heart even in response to any negative treatment by another.

The key is to first build your trust in and with your inner relationship to your own Higher Self or whatever name you have for the Source or God. Otherwise you are in danger of being hurt when that trust is placed in anyone, gifted or revered spiritual teacher, friend or loved one.

So what are tests for, after all, if not to cause you to ask where or with whom you have been placing your trust? They can give you important clues about how deeply connected you are to your own inner master.

____________
In this video, Yogiraj Gurunath Siddhanath gives an engaging talk on the pitfalls and snares of the human ego. His message is about how a person’s spiritual practice (in his school, this is Krya Yoga) can help them rise above any traps set by the ego in self or another.

I agree. To go within first no matter what is going on without is to then masterfully and effectively get on with what is really important in life.

“What’s really important in life? Sitting on a beach? Looking at television eight hours a day? I think we have to appreciate that we’re alive for only a limited period of time, and we’ll spend most of our lives working.

That being the case, I believe one of the most important priorities is to do whatever we do as well as we can. We should take pride in that.”

~Victor Kiam

Whenever you hear the term ‘life purpose‘, what comes to mind? Note any juxtaposition of thought and feeling that may come up. Maybe you feel you are not doing something grand enough to qualify for a life purpose.

What is more grand than being happy in your own skin, doing what you do with love. Even if at times you have to dig back down inside to that core, to recapture that love.

At your core is the blueprint of your being–that is your higher purpose.

It is within you, and has always been. It’s the subtle voice (or the louder voice of immediate circumstance) that reminds you of the very guiding principles you have adopted along your journey through life. That you get to put to the test, right here and now. Where you are.

But what if things seem more than you can change?

Past limitations may be thought of as being ‘placed on you’. It may be that certain limiting factors do exist.

But they can also be used by your internal guidance system that reminds you that you can use anything in your world–any circumstance or condition, any environment–to train or condition you. To make yourself more resilient. To become what you really want to be, just by being who you really are.

Think about your own resilience, and what you can do to nurture it.

Spiritual resilience is not being hardened to the point where you ignore or deny circumstance. But using your most challenging life experiences, like the akido warrior who uses humor and flexibility, to respond and–if necessary–remake yourself.

You can refit yourself to meet new challenges by going even deeper inside than you have before.

Past the outer or ego voice that agrees with the conventional thought about either the times or particular circumstances like yours. Past the supposed elephant-like memory that reminds you of times when things seemed insurmountable, but somehow forgets to emphasize how you rose to the occasion. To that stratosphere past the point where any weariness tried to convince you “it’s no use”.

Yes, down to the core of your being that knows only love and encouragement for you, and holds the lantern to show you a new way.

What inspires you to have absolute faith in this higher guidance?

You have vast resources–of experience and wisdom. Of following love’s light. Of going to the core of your power, your spiritual reserves, and using them to refine your being and better meet its experience in the world.

It has helped you and may be ofhelp others. Someone may be waiting to hear from you here at this blog. I welcome your comments.

In my article series on Alchemy, I’ve mentioned a foolproof method for successful alchemy. This method is not for sale.

So, with all this personal power you have been mastering, you should be able to just wave a magic wand and create whatever you desire, right?Not exactly and here’s why:

Although it takes spiritual alignment and alchemy to create, you need ‘something more’ to do the job successfully.  That ‘something more’? A rock solid, personal value system to hold it all together.

Sadly, such habits for preserving personal power are often the most neglected aspect of living. Their lack is usually found at the core of mediocrity or even failure. How can you ensure you are building a solid value system? By adopting or reaffirming the spiritual values listedhere as The Seven Chakra Keys.

Your new rock solid value system

The way to keep your energy and no longer lose it to even the most subtle of energy thieves, take this 7-chakra inquiry. It’s purpose is to help you change non-productive and harmful old habits and establish new ones.

If you want to do everything you can to prevent any more loss of energy that could mutate into anger, then determine to become mindful of even subtle, unrecognized anger. Or else these will develop energy blocks, which usually form the cause of your failure to materialize your dreams. Or, worse, these blocks can be at the core of illness, disease, accident or premature death.

These keys are worth a fortune in gold but I’m not selling them

They’re innate, and the only way you can have them is when you recognize that they are a part of your True Self.

So use these The Seven Chakra Keys wisely. Use them to unlock your Real Self. They are really all it takes to keep the energy you need to turn your dreams into reality:

1. First chakra: If you are with another person or a group and the conversation takes a negative turn, resolve to be silent.
2. Second chakra: Don’t even inject your opinion about a conversation that has become negative. Conserve your power.
3. Third chakra: Do you have or identify with a sense of ‘righteousness’, or have negative thoughts and emotions about the world or others? Keep these to yourself.
4. Fourth chakra: Then take the stored-up energy from these three new habits and keep all this extra power to yourself.
5. Fifth chakra: Use your new, and renewed, energy reserves to speak positively. Speak to bring your dreams and true desires into crystallized reality.
6. Sixth chakra: In one article I referred to this as the staff of your word, but it is also your vision. So hold the vision of your word in thought, writing or speech, and as a silent idea or emotion. Use your word in all these forms as the vision to discipline yourself to establish dominion over your own body-mind, which is your kingdom.
7. Seventh chakra: Relish the very idea that the staff of your word is a true magic wand, and wear your renewed wisdom as the crown of your victory!

Apply as much discipline and vigilance as you can to these keys, feel the new energy vibrate in your body, and watch your power to create with thought and emotion grow exponentially. Your crystallized, pure desires will begin to materialize in your life.

Keep storing-up your energy

Keep guard over it. Remember, your well chosen word in all its forms is your most precious possession. Even though, before now, you may have given it away rather recklessly, you never have to do so again. Ever.

Think about it this way: if you had a pot of water that was yours for the day, and you knew that no more would be given, would you spill it? So, too, preserve your word like the precious commodity it is. The energy to create positive words can be recycled. So in effect,  these are also keys to a healthy spiritual life.

I promise that if you make this practice the joy and love of your life, if you practice this discipline over your word in all its forms as I’ve stated in the Sixth Chakra Key, in very little time you will have a new habit of positivity.

It only takes 21 days to form a new habit, so give it at least that long. Make it a game. And soon you will have more and more new energy to use to create, and to attract more positive energy like itself.

To be positive in your Word is the highest practice of self-love.

Previous articles in this series

• Doesn’t everyone do this?
• Your energy creates alchemy
• Healing failure to materialize desire
• Spiritual alchemy requires energy
• Not so secret Secrets

As mentioned in my previous articles in this series on Alchemy, there are foolproof keys for successfully completing your alchemy. But it’s important to understand what opposes these keys before you can use them to shore up your reserves.

Then you can master them to safeguard and preserve all the energy you’ve hopefully begun reclaiming by following this plan.

So let’s look at another cause of most failure or sense of failure. It’s something not covered in The Secret, nor by many marketers claiming to hold the secret behind The Secret. But it’s been around forever, and is as valuable and solid as the Golden Rule.

It may well be the keynote of the Golden Rule, played on the harp strings of your chakras. To play it is to be the Alchemist of all Alchemy. But the consequence of breaking the strings on your harp, and losing the keynotes of The Golden Rule, is to become susceptible to poverty in any or all its forms.

Origin of poverty consciousness

When I speak of poverty-consciousness, I’m not referring just to financial destitution or lack, but to any sense of scarcity. These are some of what make up the ‘not’ syndromes: ‘not enough’, ‘not good enough’, ‘not healthy’, ‘not lovable’, ‘not smart enough’, etc. All untruths that have somehow been embedded in human consciousness.

Where do these mental habits of ‘lack’ come from? They are the residue of unrecognized, untransmuted, intense negative emotion. This can come from the sense of loss as well as from an actual loss of energy, usually through anger or other extreme, harmful emotion.

You’ll want help if you suffer from being exposed to or even exhibiting yourself the more overt symptoms of anger or unresolved negative emotions. Yo may wish to seek counseling, learn meditation, and maybe even seek spiritual healing or other energy treatments to clear the etheric core.

Can anger be harmless?

Being chameleon-like, anger can also come in unrecognizable shapes and sizes. It’s fueled by a root cause, which is really some variation of fear. Fear is the lowest frequency energy you can vibrate. And it can even disguise itself subtly, such as when you engage in certain types of seemingly harmless conversation.

If that last disguise doesn’t wave a red flag for you, it should. Because the most insidious of all forms of anger are those that don’t act like overt anger, and may even be enjoyable as past times.

But once you know these enemies, you can use this knowledge to realize how much in control you really are. You have the will to either be in control over this conversation or to allow yourself to continue spilling your personal energy. I say, determine to waste it no more – to the best of your ability.

To refine your energy, I will provide seven specific keys to help you discover these red flags and rout them out of your world. You’ll find them in my next article.

Previous articles in this series

• Doesn’t everyone do this?
• Your energy creates alchemy
• Healing failure to materialize desire
• Spiritual alchemy requires energy

If you have been reading my previous articles in this series on alchemy, it may be obvious by now that you need both power and balance to create.

That’s because it’s as important to learn to recharge and preserve your personal energy as it is to learn spiritual alchemy. It’s about taking responsibility in all areas of your life.

In my previous articles I covered the basics of what it takes to create, and what gets in the way. I talked about how to use energy to clear the blocks, and heal the effects of any chakra or aura damage. I also talked about replenishing your energy and personal power.

Here’s how alchemy materializes

I’m about to reveal something dark here, because it illustrates the need for the only cure. That darkness? It happens to be the number one complaint of almost all would-be or some-time alchemists. And even accomplished alchemists start out here, so take heart if you find this hits a little too close to home.

Boiled down to its common denominator, the chief distress of those who at times agonize over an alchemy that just won’t seem to materialize is a perceived or actual failure to fulfill a desire. Usually it is perceived. In fact, all failure is perception. Illusion.

To more fully understand why this is a core issue, think about how something actually does materialize from your alchemy: it’s born of the feeling in your body. And that feeling is what actually unifies your thought and emotion about what you desire.

So when you desire something, what you are doing is embodying your thought and emotion about it as an actual feeling. Even if you are not aware of it, or if you override your conscious thought and emotion with subconscious or unconscious ones, these feelings then become stored in your body.

These feelings create the quantum soup in your energy field and eventually attract some type of associated physical-life experience. Sometimes you can see the relationship, often you don’t.

This materialization is what you might call the manifestation or demonstration of your creative process. Your successful alchemy. Even if it’s what you don’t want. So what do you do to create what you want?

Consciously crystallizing your desire

You qualify the thought and emotion with feeling, consciously. Purposefully. And without reservation.

What’s different about this type of alchemy is that, unlike a materialization born of subconscious or unconscious thought and emotion, you consciously determine what you’d like to materialize.

So, when you consciously crystallize your desire this way, you actually inject it into your body-mind data bank as being ‘already there’. You infuse it into your thoughts and emotions.

And that takes energy.

So now you know why I emphasize the importance of clearing, healing and replenishing that energy into pure light. This practice of consciously crystallizing your desire takes the reinforcement by all that new, pure energy you are recycling.

The feeling you receive in your body has such a divine spiritual quality that you may feel as you do when you bathe in the pure light of your soul.

This is why alchemy is a spiritual practice: it purposely alters your consciousness like meditation does.

These principles apply to creating anything you desire: health, home, love, career, family, supply, etc. Each of these are also filled with your feelings.

Remember a previous article where I said that it takes a lot of energy to inspire yourself? It’s because you need that energy to create the enthusiasm to feel your renewed truth: that you are indeed worthy to receive.

Once you have done all you can to clear the way to be open to receive, you can accept that you are worthy. And then you can maintain that energy and hold it all together with your chakras.

Seven Chakra Keys to Alchemy

Look for these keys, which I will reveal in one of my next articles in this series. These are the key principles that make all the difference between studying about alchemy, and being an alchemist.

Use all of the information in this series to help you understand not only the esoteric mysteries of alchemy, but to neatly put this all together for more successful alchemical creations.

Previous articles in this series on alchemy:

• Doesn’t everyone do this?
• Your energy creates alchemy

Spiritual alchemy is unique to each person. And because it’s the foundation for anything you set out to do, it requires energy.

Your personal energy is stored in your chakras on all planes, and is evident in all elements: spiritual, mental, emotional and physical. You definitely miss having your energy if it’s drained or depleted. So what do you do to restore it?

What you need to replenish your power

First, understand the major role your chakras and endocrine system play in regulating your personal power. Then learn simple measures you can take, and some changes you can make, in your personal habits to restore or recharge your personal power.

These would include but are certainly not limited to the more well-known techniques for chakra clearing and balancing through energy healing, meditation, yoga, T’ai Chi Ch’uan or other practices.

Much teaching on spiritual and energy balancing has been recycled so far from the source it neglects to integrate with other simple but important aspects of empowerment. Similarly, most works on alchemy, law of attraction or metaphysical manifestation techniques don’t emphasize the aspect of even needing personal energy in the first place.

They are missing the point, because without enough personal power you can’t even begin to create. No matter how much you ‘believe’ or how hard you ‘visualize’, you need pure energy.

Any esoteric youth secrets revealed?

In my last article I mentioned a method I use to replenish my energy. If you’d also like a simple program to make the most of your precious endocrine-chakra system, I recommend regular practice of Tibetan yogic exercises.

My personal favorite resource is, unfortunately, an out of print text from the 1940′s that started a revival of this ancient practice. The original text was eclipsed in the 1980′s by a hugely popular abridged version by another author who claimed association with the originator.

I found the original text on these exercises about 11 years ago, and faithfully practiced them within the short time recommended by the author. That change in my personal routine alone restored my energy. My routine continues to help me maintain energy reserves important for empowerment in all planes, and enjoy life more fully.

Ad - Lost Tibetan Secrets

The good news is that this simple original version is now available as an eBook.You can readily find the commercial, ‘copycat’ text, but I prefer the pure unabridged version. And the eBook is a faithful, true reproduction of that version with the Tibetan rites and diet.

I like the package because, among many other surprises, it includes animated diagrams to help you learn the postures. Look for other classic and current material too.

But please don’t let the ad throw you off. It emphasizes how the program, which is designed to reverse the causes behind aging and it’s effect, will supposedly make someone look younger. That would be only a plus, in my view. My experience is that the system’s true value lies in how it makes me feel.

Bottom line? I would recommend this eBook even if I was not an affiliate (and I am). It has the out of print manual and comes with lots of bonus materials, it’s affordable and has a money back guarantee from the seller. Here’s my link.

Are you ready for the next step?

To recap, in this series of articles on personal alchemy, I’ve talked about how to eliminate blocks to personal power, and how to integrate the healing of their cause. In this article I’ve shared how I replenish energy.

Putting all of this together is so important, not only for your spiritual alchemy, but also for your health and vitality. All of this is essential for your alchemy to create.

So in my next article in this series, I’ll also discuss ways to fireproof your newly gained personal power.

___

“Sorcerer’s Apprentice”, classic scene on untrained personal power from the classic Disney movie, Fantasia:

My previous articles in this series on Alchemy:

• Doesn’t everyone do this?
• Your energy creates alchemy

Related articles by Zemanta

• How Slow Can You Go? (camptaichi.com)

What does personal power and personal energy have to do with spiritual alchemy? Plenty. Because unless you have enough personal power to follow through, it’s difficult if not impossible to successfully create. To create from your spiritual concepts, you must align them with your mental, emotional, and physical power. But it takes a great deal of personal energy just to inspire yourself to do the work of your plan, especially in its early, alchemical phases. Then it takes more energy to generate enough enthusiasm to complete your spiritual alchemy.

You need to eliminate the cause

Where does all that personal energy go? In my last article, Doesn’t everyone do this?, I pulled the curtain back somewhat on persnickety energy robbers that steal away your power to create. If you can identify those culprits, you can eliminate them; they are at the root of your troubles. It’s something you can do simultaneously with clearing and healing the damage they cause.

Eliminating the cause isn’t enough

Clearing and repairing damage to the aura while you begin to eliminate energy-draining habits that are the source of your troubles is practical spirituality and complementary energy healing at its best. Here’s why: You must be able to feel worthy to receive what you are creating, or that also will remain a block in the way of your spiritual alchemy. Your sense of worthiness is often the first line of defense to fall and be overtaken by energy robbers. It’s best to support your sense of worthiness so you can follow through with changing unhelpful habits. Many times engaging in energy-robbing behavior is a way to mask the deeper cause of unworthiness that stems from one of two false beliefs: that you are either ‘not good enough’ or ‘not lovable’. These false concepts can be corrected, and any energy records associated with them can be cleared.

How do you clear deep energy records?

You can get help from a practitioner with correcting and clearing spiritual records that block your sense of true worthiness.These records can be your own or those you pick up from other people, places or things. They may be what is blocking your chakras and compromising your spiritual energy system as well as your sense of individual power. Contact me if you would like my assistance with this. I will be happy to hear from you.

New habits to support your healing

Okay, you’re doing great work with healing and clearing these blocks. Now be sure to keep up the maintenance in between any spiritual treatments. Do this by mastering the principles of spiritual economics: they are the same as those governing the mundane law of supply and demand. Budgeting your spiritual reserves is as important as being mindful about how you spend your physical money. And they are related. So think about replenishing your spiritual reserves. Where are you going to reclaim your energy or get more? There are many energy balancing practices to generate or restore you personal power. This is because they are not just physical exercises and habits, but also work on your chakras, meridians and bio-energy field (aura). Some methods are easier than others. I like the easy approach if it gets the job done. I’ll share more on this soon.

Fireproof your spiritual power

So far in this series on alchemy, I’ve talked about why clearing blocks to your integrity and replenishing the energy they steal from your chakras and aura is essential. In my next article in this series, I’ll talk about a method I use to balance my chakras and replenish my energy on all levels.

___________

Isn’t life grand when things work out well despite our bumbling efforts? Enjoy Disney’s little teaching on the Invisible Cosmic Alchemy, set to Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance:

Will you realize once for all that it is not death that is the source of all man’s evils, and of a mean and cowardly spirit, but rather the fear of death? Against this fear then I would have you discipline yourself; to this let all your reasonings, your lectures, and your trainings be directed; and then you will know that only so do men achieve their freedom. ~Epictetus

The title of this article is from the opening line of The Discourses of Epictetus, Chapter XXVI To Those Who Fear Want. (The headline and quote are also from that chapter). Epictetus had, as do all philosophers, a lot to teach us.

But I’m not mining for nuggets in his discourse so much as from the mythology about the manner of his death. For Epictetus was also the same philosopher who is said to have leapt into a burning volcano to prove immortality.

Instead of the blazing god who was supposed to emerge as the new, improved (immortal?) Epictetus, the volcano just spit out a pair of sandals. The story goes that, posthumously, Epictetus’ followers dismissed him as a fraud.

On the surface, you could see the moral of the story as correlative to our own times: what if the followers of Epictetus didn’t wait to see if the god would emerge and just followed blindly? Could Epictetus have been a predecessor of the modern cult leader found in all strata of society–religious, political, motivational, entertainment–who takes his own philosophy a little too seriously at the peril of himself and his followers?

Who are your followers, and what do you tell them?

Metaphorically, your followers are your knee-jerk thoughts, feeling, emotions – your ego’s well educated reactions to the news and the edification of that news for you as uncertain and calamitous times. Will you take back the control from those who tell you how you should process the events of our times?

Live fully and fearlessly in the moment, or throw yourself ignobly into the volcano pretending to be fearless. It’s your choice.

So perhaps the real moral here can be as Zen as the idea that life’s ideal purpose is living as if what you have to say or do is what endures, despite your battle with human fears of failure or death. Would this testament be every bit as glorious as the belief that you can escape this life alive? Your life of personal integrity, your values lived boldly, are the golden sandals of immortality you leave behind, followers be damned.

If I asked you, “Do you reject prosperity?” you would most likely reply, “No, of course not – at least not consciously.”

And that’s true. You might be worried about finances, but you believe you wouldn’t reject the answer to improving them. Or you might feel that at least you are trying to learn what to do in an unstable economic condition.

The same is true about issues around lack in other areas of life. You wouldn’t consciously reject real solutions to concerns about health, love, joy or fulfillment either.

Just like the world economy didn’t come to it’s present condition overnight, you also have had an active role in creating your present state of energy, your feelings of self-worth.

How is that? If you have been engaged in the following practices over the years, they might well have be the core of what has ‘eaten away at your store-grains’, and decreased your personal power, your energy and feelings about having your true desires.

Short little self-examination exercise

Here’s how that might look: if over the years you have been telling stories about your hopes and dreams, you are verbally giving them away.

Or if you’ve been making public your opinions about yourself and others, or in the habit of making snap-judgments, you’ve also been giving away your power.

The same is true about declaring you will do something, and then never doing it. Or engaging in chit-chat about others. Focusing on the evening news, which is almost always negative, is another guaranteed way of wasting your energy or using it to form stumbling blocks on your own path.

What do you really want?

When people come to me to help them energetically heal issues around money or self-worth, I ask them what they do want. They don’t purposely evade the question, but they don’t tell what their dreams are either. Not because they don’t want to, mostly it’s from being out of practice.

So instead, their habit is to say something vague like, “I really do focus on thoughts and feelings of wholeness and worthiness.” Or, “I already have been working on attracting abundance (or care, comfort, good health).”

Then I ask them to tell me what that would look like, to have those things in their life. And, usually in great detail, I hear all about the things that are not happening instead of what they would like. What a pickle.

Small potatoes – don’t leave them to rot

What about you? Are you growing pickles, potatoes or dreams?

Before you decide what you do want, or to refine what you’ve already determined, let’s use that gardening analogy to first do a little ‘weeding’. A real key for anyone looking to heal their energy around having vs. lacking is to also look at their feelings of self-worth.

This is a large part of that energy, sometimes hidden, often blocked (by ‘weeds’ if you will). Because the storing of all those details about either your fears of the future, worries about what has already happened, or disappointments about what’s not happening now, are resulting in a lot more of those small potatoes. Not the tasty kind, either.

So what’s all this hoopla about then, if it’s just small potatoes?

Energy robbers are like imaginary fears:

“I do believe in spooks. I do believe in spooks. I do! I do! I do!” ~The Cowardly Lion, Wizard of Oz

When you let the imaginary spooks of fear and the small potatoes (rotten tomatoes?) of energy-robbing behaviors drop into your plans for a better future, you’ve gone into the wrong kind of farming business. The kind where status quo, and mediocre dreams (nightmares?) abound.

So don’t keep planting the seeds of your dreams along with your fears about the ‘no-things’ that could become those dreaded ‘somethings’. Or out of that compost heap will grow distorted results.

And that, my friend, is exactly what gets you down, even when you know better. It’s the inspiration behind the idiom, ‘the devil is in the details’.

And you say, “But I planted dreams!’”

Did you?

So what’s good about these reminders?

You’ve heard this before, I’m sure, probably in other ways. And maybe you’ve taken similar inventories, over and over again. So what do you do if you find you are (still) engaging in energy-robbing behaviors?

You could take comfort in the knowledge of, ‘well everyone does that.’

But don’t be that person. There’s something more you can do that helps you sort out not only the puzzle of your own life, but also how you see it fitting into the larger picture. Because it’s precisely at this point that I recommend taking a new, or renewed, tact.

The staff of your word

Whatever you do, don’t use this exercise to now feel lousy about all that energy you’ve drained, all that fear you’ve entertained! Instead, determine to hold firm the staff of the word–your word–in all it’s glory: your word in thought and feeling, and your spoken and written word. Therein lies your true power.

Decide now, that as far as you are concerned, your word is law.

_____________

Here is a video on the finer points of the kind of personal integrity that grows your dreams into reality: