Buddhism and Alchemy

At first glance, Buddhism and alchemy may seem like unrelated traditions — one a path of renunciation, meditation, and liberation; the other a mysterious art concerned with transforming metals and discovering hidden elixirs. Yet beneath the surface, the two share remarkable parallels, both aiming at the transmutation of the self.

Both traditions understand that ordinary perception is clouded by ignorance and that suffering arises from grasping at illusions. In Buddhism, these illusions are rooted in clinging to a false sense of self and to impermanent phenomena. In alchemy, they appear as the “base metals” of the soul — unrefined passions, attachments, and fragmentation.

The stages of alchemical transformation — Nigredo (blackening), Albedo (whitening), Citrinitas (yellowing), and Rubedo (reddening) — echo the Buddhist process of purification, insight, and awakening. Both traditions speak of confronting darkness, dissolving identity, and realising an unconditioned state of being.

Importantly, neither path is about adding something new. Rather, they reveal what has always been present beneath the obscurations. The Philosopher’s Stone is not so different from Buddha-nature — the inherent purity of mind, radiant and empty, once freed from delusion.

Though separated by culture, language, and symbolism, Buddhism and alchemy ultimately point toward the same mystery: the possibility of radical inner transformation that transcends suffering and reveals the unity of all things.

“The secret is not in the elements, but in their dissolution.”
— Alchemical Saying