21: The Flame
& The Importance of Regular Practice

The Flame represents Energy in the Firing Process

The Furnace is one of the crucial components of the Firing Process. The Furnace consists of the synergy of the Cauldron and the Flame. In the prior article we spoke at length about 3 practices associated with the Cauldron – cultivating 1) restraint, 2) quietude, and 3) non-action. In the current article we are going to investigate the importance of the Flame of Transformation. The Flame represents the Energy that is heating the Cauldron to extract the Pure Metal from the Ore.

Energy is an essential element in the process of Emergence. Heat energy from Fire is required to transform flour into bread, to separate metal from its ore and then cast it, and to turn matter into life. How do we apply these alchemical metaphors to the human condition? What kind of energy is required to refine and integrate the raw elements of our personality? How does this energy provide the refinement and integration that is essential if we are to fulfill our potentials? What is the nature of this energy? And how is it best applied?

Cooked with regular pulses on a rotisserie

To begin to answer these questions, let us return to our solar metaphor for transformation. The Sun bakes Earth's Matter to create Life. But the Sun did not just bake Matter; he roasted Matter on a rotisserie – the Earth's revolution about her axis. Dead Matter was heated and cooled patiently daily over billions of years to eventually get the desired experimental result - living matter – Life.

The Master cooks the Pupil in a similar fashion – with steady pulses of vitality over long periods of time. Due to the regular alternation of day and night, this process is never continuous - always in pulses. Both of these transformational processes are alchemical in essence. The Sun bakes Matter on Earth's rotisserie to create Life. The Master cooks the Pupil on the same rotisserie to induce transformation. Due to the parallels between these systems, the Author will employ the Rotisserie Process as a prime metaphor for spiritual transformation and growth.

Master's intent to break the bonds that attach the Pupil to Illusion

In alchemical fashion let's refine these dense notions. A primary intent of the Master's instruction is to break the bonds that tie the Student to false notions about Reality. The basic delusion is that we as Being are the Body/Mind complex that we deem to be our Person. To break the bonds that tie us to our Person, the Master cooks us with regular instruction.

Master provides Tools & Direction; Student performs the Practice.

Let's further refine the notion that the Master cooks the Pupil. In actuality the Master only provides guidance, the Pupil must cook himself with regular Practice.

The Master attempts to refine technique and intent, yet the Student must do the work. The Master's function is to provide the proper tools and point in the right direction. Using these tools and insights the Student must move down the Path on his own.

Regular Practice generates sufficient 'heat' for Transformative Experience

With regular Practice the Student cooks his Self Ore on a daily rotisserie. If the 'transformational heat' from these practice sessions is great enough, the Student is able to break the bonds that tie him to his Body/Mind complex. These transformative experiences enable the Pupil to identify with Being and differentiate from the emotional dramas of his Person.

If the Pupil's Practice is irregular, very little, if any, 'transformational heat' is generated. If this 'heat energy' is insufficient, the bonds that tie us to our illusions are not broken. Remaining Matter, we respond automatically to environmental stimuli. Unable to exert any control over our behavior, our past momentum victimizes us emotionally. Constantly upset about one thing or another we are unable to experience the glory of just Being.

If the transformative process only leaves faint traces due to irregular practice, the Student remains attached (polluted) to the notion that he is his Person. This attachment to Person draws the Student off the Path onto destructive Side Paths. The pollution jeopardizes or kills the Firing Process. Self-actualization becomes but a forgotten dream. Cultural conditioning continues to taint the direct experience of Reality. This direct experience includes the sensory delights as well as the mental clarity to accurately assess environmental conditions. For the individual to fulfill potentials, the transformational process requires a steady pulse of vitality or intentionality, which we deem Practice.

Understanding without Practice doesn't generate Transformative Heat

Although the Master can supply the impetus, motivation or inspiration, it is the Student who must perform the crucial practice. Understanding without Practice is a limited endeavor. The musician reads all about the violin and wonders why he can't play the violin. The student reads all the great books by all the wise men and wonders why he doesn't go through personal transformation. Regular Practice is a crucial component, if one seeks to actualize potentials.

If wisdom is not combined with Practice, there is no change in behavior. The Pupil remains in the throes of Fate and is unable to achieve his Destiny. He remains a victim to cultural forces, rather choosing when to participate or not. As such, the Flame's energy is associated with the transformative power of Practice in the human Firing Process.

The Rotisserie Process consists of regular Firings.

Why is regular practice so important to the Firing Process? What makes repetition special?

Let's look to our transformation metaphors to discover what we are looking for. The Sun provides energy to the Earth as she rotates upon her axis. This 24-hour rhythm defines a primary energy cycle for the life forms of our beautiful planet. Roughly speaking the solar energy begins at sunrise and ends at sunset for the majority of creatures on the planet. While the light energy from the Sun turns on and off instantaneously, the heat energy accumulates – growing to a maximum and then falling to a minimum every 24 hours. The dangers of the energy of the midday sun are well known to all, as witnessed by the proliferation of sunscreens. This regular rising and falling of heat intensity reminded the Author of a rotisserie. Pursuing the metaphor he likened the Transformation Process to a 24-hour rotisserie.

Note the solar rotisserie-effect has two synergistic processes that act together to produce the final result. One process completes the full and continuous energy cycle in a day. This energy is akin to the metal casting process where the Fire rises in intensity to a peak and never goes out until the casting is complete. This cycle is one complete Firing (or Casting).

The other complementary process takes a series of these energy cycles (Firings) to reach conclusion. This is the Rotisserie Process. To be successful, the Rotisserie Process includes a sequence of regular Firings. As such the Rotisserie Process includes the Casting Process, but not vice-versa.

Note the baking of bread, the smelting of metal ore, and the casting of metal are all types of Casting. Each requires a sustained burst uninterrupted heat to be most effective. Similarly a single Practice session also requires uninterrupted energy to be most effective. As such, a single session is also a Casting.

10,000 Practice Hours is the standard to achieve Mastery

However, just as cooking meat on a rotisserie requires regular pulses of heat to be effective, so does the human require a series of regular practice sessions to effect a change. As mentioned, it took billions of these daily rotations until Matter & Energy merged as Life. The alchemical rotisserie requires uninterrupted daily practice over years to attain mastery. Ten thousand hours is the standard in the East as well as the West.

As Malcolm Gladwell reports in his book Outliers:

"In fact, researchers have settled on what they believe is the magic number for true expertise: ten thousand hours. 'The emerging picture from such studies is that ten thousand hours of practice is required to achieve the level of mastery associated with being a world class expert – in anything," writes the neurologist David Levitin. "In study after study, of composers, basketball players, fiction writers, ice skaters, concert pianists, chess players, master criminals, and what have you, this number comes up again and again." (p. 40, 2008)

How many is 10,000 hours? At one hour a day, it would take 30 years to reach this magic number. At 3 hours a day, it would take 10 years. Similarly, personal transformation requires hours of uninterrupted Practice over years.

The importance of Practice in the process of personal Transformation is quite evident. Accordingly, Practice is equivalent to the Fire’s Flame from the alchemical perspective. The energy from the Flame extracts Pure Metal from the Ore, transforms Dough into Bread and Matter into Life.  Similarly the energy of Practice can transform an ordinary individual into a Virtuoso, a student into a Professor, or an apprentice into a Master. Practice allows us to fulfill our Potentials – achieve Self-actualization, which can include Enlightenment. The Flame’s energy is material in nature. What is the nature of the transformative energy of Practice? We certainly don’t know. You must read the next chapter to find out.

 

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