Transformation of Impressions

Learning notes from the lecture "Transformation of Impressions" by AGEAC Vietnam on 15.07.2016 in HCMC.

In every transformation, there is DEATH and BIRTH, or DEATH and RESURRECTION.

If our actions are controlled by:

- Being: superior, conscious acts.

- Ego: mechanical reactions, often negative and harmful.

Everyday events give us an opportunity to self-discover and eliminate from within the sources of our tensions, conflicts and disappointment, etc. If we don't change ourselves (inner work), we will attract the same circumstances. 

Everything in nature is transformed constantly: the grapes turn to wine, the clouds into rain... Every transformation requires a sacrifice. The old must die for the new to be born. For the tree to grow, the seed must die. The seed "sacrifices" itself so the tree can grow. 

Transformning our human condition

Transforming one'slife is possible - this is what the alchemists wanted: to transform lead (of the personality, the psychological aggregates) into gold (spirit). 

Man feeds on 3 types of "food". 

1. Ordinary food: digested by the stomach.

2. Air/Prana: digested by the lung

3. Impressions

1. Normal food

Food is transformed into energy for the body to function. The stomach digests what it needs, and eliminates what it doesn't need any more. We can live for few days without food.

2. Air/Prana

From the lungs, it is sent to all parts of the body through the blood stream. The body eliminates the toxic cardondioxide. We can live for a few minutes without Oxygen.

3. Impressions

The information that enters our body (all 5 centers) by the means of the 5 senses: sight, hearing, taste, smell, touch. Each moment of our live we are bombarded with impressions. We do not have a system to digest them, to keep what is useful, and to eliminate what is harmful.

Impression is an imprint of things we see, hear, touch, smell or taste. The impressions become thoughts and feelings and then they turn into beliefs and actions. Impressions are all that we know about the outer world, we receive them and accept them as reality of life, but in truth they are only that, an impression. We mistake Reality with Impressions. 

If we don't change, our past will become our future. If we want to become free, we need to transfrom both past and present impressions. Impressions about life, and about ourselves, need to be transformed if we want to change our lives.

Life is made of impressions

Life is a succession of impressions. Life for an ordinary person, through the 5 senses we have a repetitive life, seeking sensations. Thus, lacking a transcendental life, we are identified with sleepy consciousness. "Things happen" to ordinary people; lack of control, reactive attitude towards life, no true understanding. Untransformed impressions strengthen the Ego, or give birth to new psychological aggregates.

On the vertical path: The work of our life is to transform impressions and eliminate their mechanical results on our life. Each situation provides us an opportunity to self-discover and eliminate the causes of our mechanical reactions.

We can't change objetcs and people according to our wish, but we can change the reactions to impressions produced by them. Transformation is a sacrifice.

How to transform impressions

1. Never forget ourselves, our own Being: constant state of alert perception of self-observation (being present, mindful). Live in a state of alertness: what is happening within me, and why?

2. Reflection: needed constantly in order to understand and transform the events of life and the impressions they left on us. Profound reflection on what and why it happended, the effect on us and others, etc.

I am who I am: to interpose the consciousness between the impression and the mind; to manifest consciousness. Transformed impressions means transform raw energy into refined energy. Spiritual growth is about transforming what is inferior in our nature into something superior, in all situations of life.

Ex: The three poisons destroying the inner sense. Anger is transformed into peace and compassion. Greed is transformed into detachment and generosity. Hate is transformed into understanding and acceptance.

Transform Impressions through logical confrontation/comprehension, stop reacting mechanically. Understand that everything passes, do not give so much importance to what is not truly important. Eliminate the Ego to awaken Consciousness.

The solution to happiness does not lie in running away from pain, but in growing out of it, by understanding it and eliminating its sources.