The process of transformation, both the kenosis and the development of individual consciousness, depends on many factors. The factors have a lot to do with our history, our capacity to be present in mind, heart, and body, our commitment and sincerity to the truth. Transformation also depends on how we work with obscurations, issues, and structures. There are different methods, and some of them are effective in certain ways but not in others. And transformation also depends on the potency of the realization—its power to impact our consciousness—because the realization itself, or the awakening itself, has various degrees of eruption and intensity. In all of this, essential presence is the elixir, the red sulfur, that both awakens and transforms. It clarifies and develops the individual consciousness, the mind, and the heart. It matures the capacity for action. It ripens our faculties and imbues them with all the qualities we need to live and express our realization.

The process of the transformation of individual consciousness has two sides: the kenotic side and the developmental side. Kenotic means a clarification of consciousness, an emptying of the structures, rigidities, and identifications that support and constitute the sense of self. Much of the transformation that is needed is the clarification of the individual consciousness, which is occluded by all kinds of beliefs and ideas and worldviews, all kinds of delusions and concepts and reifications that don’t completely disappear just because we are enlightened or awakened to true nature.