On Spiritual Alchemy – Review of an Assignment

On Spiritual Alchemy – Review of an Assignment March 31, 2008

Posted by Geoffrey Wilson in : Feng Shui, Psychology , trackback

I thought this might be useful for all students enrolled in the Oriental Psychology distance course.

To an Oriental Psychology student,

I’ve just read your assignment.

Perhaps in your enthusiasm you forgot to follow the basic rules.

There are 4 questions.

Identify and explain the basic steps of the Firing Process as spiritual tools to rectify the negative effects of temporal conditioning. This is Q1 of the assignment for Module 2 – Spiritual Alchemy.

You start off with your personal makeup. That is not answering the question! What are the 6 steps?

Q2 is about yin and yang. You don’t ever mention yin and yang. For example, what aspects of steps 1-6 of the Firing Process relate to true and false yin and yang?

Denial is false yin isn’t it?

You need to flesh out the qualities of false yin and yang – for example, pp 61 of Spirit of Change describes false yang as the use of ‘aggression, domination or force’ and pp 193 describes false yin as ‘taking things personally’ – etc.

Still on Q2, step 3 of the Firing Process is ‘hurry when applying effort’. Is this yin or yang? Why?

What about steps 4-6? Are they yin or yang? Why? Explain.

Q3 is about you. It is related to a specific life challenge that you face. You are asked to put this in perspective and relate it to each step of the Firing Process.

Perhaps you could use the personal description of your agitation mentioned on the first page of your assignment here.

It is now important to apply the 6 steps of the Firing Process to your management of agitation. For example, the 1st step is to acknowledge that you are the embodiment of agitation. Agitation is not something apart from you – you are it – the agitation!

The second step is to deflect external influences – in this case, people or things – that you allow to be projected onto you! If you are agitated because someone has said something you don’t like, then don’t buy into it!

The third step is to hurry – meaning, don’t indulge in whatever it is someone is projecting onto you. Apply effort to not indulge!

The fourth step is to relax when everything is settled. Obviously, unless you are settled, you can’t relax into it. There is no point in trying to relax when you are agitated! Therefore, go back to the beginning and follow the first three steps.

The fifth step applies when you run out of juice and need to recharge on the good stuff to get stronger. The good stuff may be something like reading an enlightening book, or visiting an enlightened friend. Whatever you find inspiring and uplifting spiritually.

The sixth step relates to the emergence of emotion. In other words, withdraw when you are disturbed about something or someone. Review your position and review the situation. Establish the facts and make sure you are not just buying in.

Q4 is the final question and it asks you to apply the correct step of the Firing Process to your situation. As evidenced by your attempt to render a personal account at the beginning of your assignment, you need to flesh out how your emotional reactions relate to the various steps. For example, when you mention that ‘a lacking in self-respect sets off the agitation’, this could be correlated to step one of the Firing Process – i.e. a lack of self-respect is based on a judgment you have made (a non-fact, a prejudice) and is a failure to apply inward discipline.

So what is the correct application? Whenever you feel inadequate, immediately establish inward discipline. Judging yourself is not an element of discipline!

Then go through each of your behaviours and relate them to the Firing Process. For example, your desire to please other people (this is a disturbance isn’t it?), to be seen to be doing an excellent job (this is a projection isn’t it?), your inability to say no, not liking to get things wrong, hating to be late, blasting others, getting interrupted, and so on and so forth.

So, back to the beginning. Answer each of the questions. Be thorough. Enjoy the experience. Pay attention to what you are saying.

Trust that this helps,

Geoff