There is a famous story that tells of a great emperor who once called the greatest artists of his time together to create the ultimate throne room. He prepared two rooms, divided by a curtain. On one side sat the greatest artisans of China while on the other sat the best creators from Greece.
The Chinese, with their extraordinary technique and skill, created an elaborate and ornate room befitting the emperor. In the other room, the Greeks polished a room full of mirrors, from floor to ceiling. Once the rooms were done, the emperor got a peek into them.
The Chinese room was done in rich brocade, gold and finery. On the other hand, the room prepared by the Greek artists was so well-polished that it reflected everything in the other room, yet with more brilliance and energetic shine -- whilst at the same time remaining completely empty.
Our external world can be said to be like the elaborate throne room, full of gaudy items that fill and stuff our vision and overload the senses. Our interior world, however, is the refined room of mirrors that reflects the world to us from a place of uncluttered "emptiness."
The reality of our lives is centered around how we absorb the world, take it into us -- inside us -- and transform its energy before we project it out of us again. We can be as alchemical vessels, transmuting the coarser energy of the world through us into the finer. In this way we can participate in co-creating new worlds and new realities.
To interiorize the world is an act of the imaginal. This is not our imagination -- the fantasies, escapist thoughts, etc. that dance in our heads -- but focused and conscious intentions that come from directed thought. A person's own imaginal world -- the internal visionary perspective -- can be a powerful transmutational energy for participating in the world. The imaginal world is not make believe: It is a perception of reality perceived inwardly. The reality of the "invisible interior" can work with us as an important contribution to the world. Perhaps the true alchemy is being able to successfully interiorize the world whilst simultaneously living full and balanced lives within the world.
By bringing our focused conscious interior gaze into our lives we can transcend beyond the illusion of banality. Many people recognize the lack of significant meaning in the social environments that constitute the world(s) we inhabit. The noise of distracting events, news, gimmicky sell, and gadgetry galore stuffs us as turkeys for the cooking. We are in danger of being cooked within the stew of a world accelerating into the absurd. We need to take a step back. We owe it to ourselves to make moments for stepping out and to integrate and connect with our sense of self -- we deserve it. By integrating our lives -- our outer and inner worlds -- we can also integrate our modes of consciousness, and a greater perception can be brought forth from this coherence and unifying consciousness. When our imaginal world actively participates in how we see the world around us, things begin to shift. The world responds to how we interact with it. By developing a grounded and balanced interior "imaginal world," a person is better placed for stepping out into the manifested exterior world.
A person must become as a crucible -- able to act as a synthesis -- between an energetic and vibrant cosmos and a matter-reality of action and consequence. By becoming a crucible (by definition able to withstand high temperatures), a person can act upon the world by actively participating within the sense of reality-making. This ultimately serves to create meaning and significance in everything we do -- even the small, seemingly-mundane things.
In acknowledging and understanding that the inherent interconnectedness, and thus patterns of coherence, between our interior gaze and that which we gaze upon forms a unified whole, we catalyze unity consciousness. Through this we have the capacity to transmute what our "realities" mean to us, and thus how we wish to deal with them. By working on ourselves, our interior world, we are able to also transform the world external to us, as in truth there is no separation -- each a mirror that reflects back the other.
In order to "change the world," we must first become change agents within ourselves. We must aspire to a conscious participation with the constructive forces of the world. Human consciousness is already integrated with every aspect of our reality matrix. All forces and energies are susceptible to the presence of human consciousness. If there is a separation then it is human-made -- a consequence of human thinking -- and thus askew. It is this inner sense of something being askew, or out of place, that makes us feel a lack in our lives -- whether it be a loss of meaning or sense of dislocation. Humanity is naturally integrative and does not consciously seek to separate. Unity consciousness is a conscious awareness of this, and of bringing our imaginal worlds into constructive play within our daily lives. It is as simple and as hard as that.
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