Peacock Potency

I was quietly reading Dale Pendell’s exquisite essay “Amrita: The Neuropharmacology of Nirvana,” and I came across this slightly baroque quote by Dharmaraksita:

“And thus Bodhisattvas are likened to peacocks:
They live on delusions—those poisonous plants.
Transforming them into the essence of Practice.
They thrive in the jungle of the everyday.
Whatever is presented they always accept,
While destroying the poison of clinging desire.”

Likening the regal buddhas of colorful compassion to a colorful bird that can display enormous plumage is an interesting and novel idea. Likening the peacock and the bodhisattva to beings who subsist on delusions—those elusive “poisonous plants”—is even more interesting and novel. It is interesting because delusions are usually things that are shunned, vilified, neglected, and thrown away. Delusions, for some, are like the monsters that invaded our rooms when we were young lads and lassies. They came as ragged and abject shadows that poked and prodded the porous flesh of our delicate and budding imaginations. Now we are taught that the delusive monsters of our psyches need to be thrown down the sink and never seen again. We are taught to be saints who never give monsters, delusions, and sins an opportunity to see the light of reason and discrimination. This, in my opinion, is a mistake.

Intrinsically, there is nothing wrong with monsters, delusions, and sins. All of these things are still threads that help make up the fabric of us. The mosaic of the self is incomplete without monstrous notions, peculiar delusions, and quirky sins. Now I am not saying we let these things get the best of us. I am saying it all boils down to attaining psychic equilibrium. This is achieved by using the “poisonous plants” (delusions) in a way conducive to self-transformation. This takes tact, courage, and imagination. It also takes one other thing:

Solve et coagula

“Solve” is the untying part of alchemy. First we go into the inner wasteland, the malodorous pile inside the shadowy self, and find all the hidden shit. Then we take this shit, claim it, own it, and then release it. Then this shit ascends to the heavenly peacock. The heavenly peacock takes it all in and transforms it into something new, useful, adaptable, and durable. Then the process of fermentation occurs. When the time is right, the heavenly peacock-rocking ferment then descends in the “coagula” phase. Then the wasteland turns into a paradise and the self is happy and whole.

Solve et coagula

This is definitely something I try to do on a daily basis.

And finally…

It’s amazing how alchemy uses various birds to describe the various stages of the path of the soul. These birds are: the raven, the swan, the peacock, the pelican, and the phoenix. Adam McLean had this to say about the peacock stage:

“With the Peacock stage, the alchemist has entered into the inner experience of the astral world, which initially appears as ever shifting patterns of colour. This experience is often symbolised in alchemy by the appropriate image of the peacock's tail with its splendid iridescence of colour. In terms of this series of five stages, the turning point is reached with the Peacock.”

Now I am going to admire my vase filled with opulent peacock feathers and read.