The ancient alchemists, as they worked refining the ingredients, both inner and outer, worked with the clear concept which says that, “within everything created is the seed of its perfection.” The effort in developing our highest spiritual potential is not one of acquiring something that is missing in our lives, but rather of revealing the seed of perfection which has always been there. The energy techniques and all the effort required to develop them are the means through which we remove what is obscuring, what the ancient Daoists called, ‘Original Mind’.

Taking into account that perfection is already within, energy work can then be divided into three broad phases: first removal of obstacles obscuring ‘Original Mind’; second strengthening and improving energy resources which help develop personal potential; and third harmonizing and stabilizing energy flow so that there are no more fluctuations in experiencing directly ‘Original Mind’.

Without the ability to detoxify, living organisms perish. The ability to clear obstacles acquired in this life or inherited, is essential for personal development. Often, for lack of clear directives, practitioners engage in practices for intensifying energy flow without first having cleared obstacles, with the result that the supplementary power magnifies what is already there, usually negative states. When energy flow is intensified and obstacles are present, the places where the energy is going to be felt most is where it encounters resistance to flow, namely, the obstacles. The interaction of increased energy flow and blockages manifests as imbalances at the emotional, mental or physical level.

Obstacles do not manifest without a previous cause; and the causes have to do with some type of action which has generated negative results. The energy principle of action and reaction is at the root of what is known as ‘karma’. The clearing of karmas begins with generating actions which produce positive results, so that, in the words of the I Ching, we “counteract the negative by increasing the positive.”

The way that we can generate positive results is nearly infinite: through kindness; positive thoughts; visualization; mantra; dedication of positive actions and so on.

At this level we become more aware of how important it is to maintain an intense program of purification practices and liberation of obstacles, at the personal level and in our relations with the world.