Visionary Heart Alchemy

The Visionary Heart Path is where the biodegradable ‘rubber’ of the Universal Core Intention meets the eco-friendly ‘road’ of the specific relative conditions of the individual. While the core intention is universal, each person’s path to the growth mandated by the core intention and the way they will benefit beings is personal and called one’s Visionary Heart Path. This is akin to what some people call ones life purpose or mission. However these terms tend to imply there is someone other then oneself who has given this purpose to you. If your spiritual tradition includes the belief in some creator outside of yourself who gave you your life then that way of understanding the Visionary Heart Path may be appropriate for you and will work well enough as a starting place. However my Visionary Heart Path has lead me to a different understanding in which the eternalist implications of life purpose are problematic. However there is some core truths that the concept of life purpose is leaning towards that are very useful. There are ways of engaging life that will feel meaningful and ways that won’t and there is no way to intellectually choose which is which. For example while being a doctor would certainly a way to benefit beings, but it may not be your way. It won’t be satisfying life choice in that case.

Even though it has a two-fold expression, the Core Intention is single and unchanging. Because the Visionary Heart Path is dependent on relative conditions it never fixed and is always plural. The specifics of the Visionary Heart Path are shaped by the intersection of the Core Intention, the relative truth of who you are (as opposed to the Absolute Truth of who you are) and by the needs of all beings. Because who you are in the relative sense is always changing as are the relative needs of all beings, so to do the specific expression of your Visionary Heart Path continually change. An example might help here. Say you got inspired to right a book that would be great benefit to lots of people. At the same time got inspired to produce a movie with a very powerful and important message. You decided to act on the movie and by the time you are done with that project someone else wrote and published a book very much like what you intended. Both inspirations could be considered authentic expression of your Visionary Heart Path. Choosing one over the other didn’t constitute a divergence from your Visionary Heart Path. Now at this point the needs of beings has changed, someone else wrote the “needed” book, and you’ve changed as well. May be this was your first time involved with making a movie and you discovered you loved it. Or perhaps your talent at it has grown and now a movie project that needed those new skills to do it justice comes to mind. It may then be that it would no longer be deep expression of your Visionary Heart Path to write the book you where previously inspired. It could still be and I will provide ways to discover that in future posts. The points are that just because something had the potential to be life choice in alignment with you Visionary Heart Path at one time doesn’t mean it will always be so and that there are often multiple possibilities for engaging life that all have equal authenticity as expressions of your Visionary Heart Path. (This example, also demonstrate the Principle of Spontaneous Compassionate Responsiveness which will be coverd in more detail later)

Because the fullness of life itself always overflows the conceptual minds ability to hold it, so to does the Visionary Heart Path, which is the living of life in alignment with the Core Intention, overflow bounds of conception. (see Life Is Weird). There is no way to map it completely out in advance. The Core Intention is like the pole star by which you can always orient yourself on your journey even if you don’t know the terrain. It is even more like the Star that Guided the Magi. They had no idea where they where going or, in full measure, what they would find when they got their but using it as their guide they arrived at a exactly the right place.

So you can see it is not possible to make a single declarative statement about what your Visionary Heart Path is. However it is possible to formulate action intentions that are aligned with your Visionary Heart Path. These are known as support intentions (or objectives once they are articulated as goals) I will be giving instruction for this in future posts. For now just understand these intentions are not fixed and must continually be evaluated to see if they continue to be aligned with the Core Intention and thus authentic possibilities for your Visionary Heart Path. These are the things that are declared as what may be changed or sacrificed. Like all relative expressions these intentions can become prey to our habits of dogmatic fixations and we will cling to them even when they no longer function in the context of our Visionary Heart Path. The only thing of Ultimate Relevance is the Core Intention and we must be willing to sacrifice all relative consideration if we desire the supreme result of alchemy (and the metaphor of lead into gold barely scratches the surface of how valuable that is) . The key word is willing. It is not that we must sacrifice all relative considerations, just that no specific consideration must be beyond that willingness. Often the need for something to be sacrifice is the unwillingness to sacrifice it. The ‘forces’ that are put into play by the declaration of our intent may force the sacrifice if our unwillingness to sacrifice is an obstacle. Had willingness been present then those same ‘forces’ would not have forced the sacrifice (These ‘forces’ will be explained in future posts.)

Technorati Tags: Core Intention, eternalism, sacrifice, Visionary Heart Path

The Core Intention Commitment Statement is a declaration that a you repeats on a daily basis in support the alignment of your life to the Core Intention. While the specific words one uses to express the core intention are not critical, there are some guidelines that need to be followed in order to fully implement the power of the Principle of the Core Intention.

1. It must be an expression of absolute commitment. To get the maximum benefit from the power of the Core Intention one must absolutely commit to it. It must become the absolute bottom line in your decision making process .
2. It must be an expression of choice. You are the one choosing to commit to living out the core intention. No one is forcing you
3. you must make the choice irrevocable. This is can be a scary element but making the choice irrevocable will magnify the transformative power of the commitment immeasurably.
4. The core intention should not be limited in scope. You don’t want to limit it to some particular expression of identity unless that particular identity is meant to encompass all aspect of life. For example the core intention shouldn’t be something like being the best businessperson you can be or the best athlete you can be even if you think that is how you can best benefit beings. These can be formulated later as support intentions as expressions of your visionary heart path but they are too limited in scope to be the core intention. On the other hand if you have some word or phrase from a spiritual tradition you practice that represents the highest attainment a human being is capable of then it is appropriate to use it even if it seems specific -  Achieve enlightenment, Accomplish the Great Work, become a Master Sacred Warrior, bring forth the fire from within, become One with God, become perfect servant of the goddess, become an Ipsissimus.
5. The core intention can be expressed as an achievable end - enlightenment - or as an ongoing process, -walking the beauty way.
6. The two parts of the core intention must be connected, for example achieving enlightenment for the sake of being of maximum benefit to all beings.
7. it must include the understanding that the everything else is sacraficable to the end of achieving the core intention.. This also may seem scary but it must be understood the living you core intention is the source of all fulfillment. Anything that is not in alignment with the core intention will not actually bring satisfaction except of the most superficial and fleeting kind, No real benefit ever comes directly from activity or pursuits that aren’t congruent with the core intention. (one may if one is smart gain learning and insight that are of potential benefit but this potential is only activated by pursuing the core activity and these benefits would have been gained more efficiently by pursuing the core objective to begin with.)

The following template may be used as a guide.

I vow and irrevocably choose to be absolutely committed to (personal expression of achieving maximum actualization of the human potential) so that I may be of maximum benefit to all beings. All the other objectives and intentions I set are to support this Core Intention and may be sacrificed or changed in service to it.

It is important to note that this statement doesn’t need to, and in fact should not conform to what are commonly considered guidelines for formulating good goals. The Core Intention commitment statement need not be very specific in the way a goal should be. If your spiritual tradition has a specific attainment that expresses the maximum potential of human life then that part can be specific. In most case even where specific terms exist what they actually mean is usually somewhat vague and hard for the conceptual mind to grasp. The only specificity in the ‘benefit to beings’ section is that it be maximum or greatest. The Core Intention Commitment Statement should not indicate how you will be of maximum benefit. The ‘How you will be of benefit’ is related to the Visionary Heart Path. You can’t actually know what maximum benefit is and you don’t need to know it to intend to be it. In life, you must make choices and it is with each of these choices that you decide, as best as you are able, to choose with the core intention as the primary guideline. With each of these choices you will never know with conceptual certainty what the greatest benefit is. One can merely choose according to ones current capacity and understanding. That is all that is required to remain congruent with the Core Intention.

The Core Intention is not measurable and may not even seem attainable. The only aspect of SMART (Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Timetable-able) goals that applies to the Core Intention Commitment Statement is relevance. The Core Intention is the most relevant of all intentions.

It may seem that committing to the Core Intention is committing to massive austerities. But, in most instances, this is not the case. The Core Intention is a universal intention. The specific way one lives in order to fulfill that intention is unique and personal. This unique and personal path is called ones Visionary Heart Path. Ones visionary path is not a static, predetermined thing. It is a dynamic; ever changing unfolding that is shaped by many factors including your special talents and you deep heart felt passions. It almost always contains multiple options. The Visionary Heart Path will be covered in more detail in a future post.

The purpose of the Core Intention Commitment Statement is to help you align yourself and you activities with the Core Intention and consciously set oneself on ones Visionary Heart Path. It aims your life at the only thing that can bring real and lasting satisfaction. It is seeking first the Kingdom of Heaven so that all else may be added unto you

Technorati Tags: Alchemical Principles, alchemy, Core Intention, Philosphers Stone, Visionary Heart, Visionary Heart Path

In the success and empowerment literature, there is much talk about finding your life purpose or mission and varying methods for articulating what this is for you. However, in my view, the methods they give skip over a crucial step - Articulating and committing to the Core Intention. Articulating the Core Intention is relatively easy because it is actually, in essences, the same for everyone. The Core Intention is an expression of the Absolute Truth of who you are and is thus unchanging, universal and has nothing to do with any of the relative conditions of your existence. It is an active expression of the Visionary Heart and is also another way of talking about the goal of alchemy as composed of two elements: the intent to achieve the highest potential of a human being and the intention to be of maximum benefit to all life. These two elements which are reflections from the Principle of Two Truths and are inseparable. One can only be of maximum benefit to all life by actualizing ones fullest potential and one cannot actualize ones fullest potential without the intention to be of maximum benefit. A life built around this understanding will be fulfilling, meaningful and powerful. It doesn’t matter if you do this intentionally because you are aware of the principle or intuitively/spontaneously, the result is the same. Failure to build your life around this understanding, either intentionally or spontaneously, is the root of all dissatisfaction. The more completely you apply this principle by absolutely committing to living out of this core intention, the more complete and lasting your satisfaction will and the more powerful you will be.

The specific words one initially chooses to use to articulate this to oneself are not critical. Whatever words that best express this intention, according to your current insight and understanding, will serve as the perfect starting place. Over time the words one uses to articulate this may change as one acquires new learning, understanding and insight. While the words may change the essential meaning will remain the same.

However one chooses to represent this core intention to oneself, one must choose to fully commit oneself to it. Fulfilling this intention is the only intention one must set in order to have a meaningful and fulfilling life. It is possible to live ones life with this as the only intention. One can set support objectives if one chooses and this can be very helpful in building your life around your core intention, however if one has absolute commitment to the Core Intention and can remain mindful of this continuously throughout the day then one would spontaneously act in ways that support the intention. The Principle of the Core Intention was expressed by Jesus as “Seek first the Kingdom of Heaven and All else shall be added unto you.” Accomplishing the Core Intention is another way of talking about the goal of alchemy. Committing to the Core Intention is committing to achieving the goal of alchemy

The benefits of genuine commitment to the Core Intention are immeasurable. It is essentially the engaged aspect of the Visionary Heart and is thus the means by which the Philosopher’s Stone of the Visionary Heart will transform you, your life and the word. It is through the Core Intention that you will use the substance of your life in all its aspects as the fuel for the supreme transformation. While the full benefits are immeasurable, specific benefits of this alignment can be named. These will be elaborated upon in the contexts they apply to in future post but just to give you a taste:

• By creating congruence with the ‘Enlightened Intent’ of the True Nature of Reality, it puts the inertia of Universe (evolution) behind you
• It gives Wisdom Guidance more power to shape the circumstance of your life in ways that benefit you.
• It is the key to generating Alchemical Wealth all day long
• It discourages expending ‘Karmic Currency’ on things that won’t actually bring satisfaction.
• It attracts, enlists and enables other beings aligned with the Core Intention to help you.

The Principle of the Visionary Heart Path is the relative truth compliment to the Core Intentions expression of Absolute Truth and is the meeting of the Core Intention with the ever changing conditions of relative existence. I will elaborate on the Visionary Heart Path in a future post. Next I will give instruction on creating a Core Intention Commitment State that will help engaging the power of Principle of the Core Intention

Technorati Tags: Alchemical Principles, alchemy, Core Intention, goal of alchemy, Philosphers Stone, Visionary Heart, Visionary Heart Path