In order to maintain our life sensitivity and conscious awareness at a high level, it is necessary for our life energies to be kept as integrated and whole as possible.  To sit in stillness, to be silent, and to rest the dividing nature of the mind as thought, is to charge the battery and strengthen the integral unity of that packet of energy which makes up an individual as a life. Knowing how to keep one’s life energies whole through practices like Meditation, Yoga and Taichi is important for those practicing alchemy. On the other hand, it is also important to understand how one’s energies are divided and scattered through daily living, so a balance can be found.

It can be said that for the average person, any activity which unifies the energies of the body such as meditation will be found to be boring and tasteless. That which charges the battery, is the very essence of conscious boredom. In contrast, many of the things we enjoy doing that provide color and stimulation to our daily lives such as parties, conversations, hanging out with friends, watching tv, playing games, sports, festivals, listening to music, reading books, surfing the net etc., usually divides, drains and scatters the integral unity of our packet of life energy.

It is not that we should not do any of these things, but look at it this way, your life energy should be considered as energetic money in your bank so to speak, meditative activities that consolidate and charge one’s energy put “energetic money in the bank”. Activities which are stimulating, fun and exciting tend to drain the energetic money in the bank. Being aware of this, it becomes important to find a balance in one’s life so you are not “spending more energetic money than you earn”. Just as when balancing your finances, if you spend and spend without making enough money to balance that spending, you will end up in trouble. The energies of the body, mind and spirit work in a similar manner, so it would be best to be mindful of this.