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"Habit is also a factor to be dealt with. The Tibetan term is 'pa chache dipa'. Defilement is also, of course, habit, but it is a little bit different. 'Pa cha che dipa' is a very subtle obstacle. An example is the way we project our own thoughts, feelings, or motivations on others. This can be very difficult to see and overcome, and it takes effort to do so. When we always find ourselves making the same mistake by misunderstanding others and judging them in an inaccurate, stupid, or uncompassionate way, we are being blocked by this habitual pattern. Later we find out that we were wrong, but usually by then it's too late, the damage is done. We can only learn from the mistake. These are subtle habitual obstacles stemming directly from the concept of 'I'."

- Tai Situ Rinpoche in the book "Awakening the Sleeping Buddha"

“I can tell you this much: you are aware that in the official science of today the role of the observer becomes more and more important. Relativity, the principle of indeterminacy, show the extent to which the observer today intervenes in all these phenomena. The secret of alchemy is: there is a way of manipulating matter and energy so as to produce what modern scientists call ‘a field of force’. This field acts on the observer and puts him in a privileged position vis-a-vis the Universe. From this position he has access to the realities which are ordinarily hidden from us by time and space, matter and energy. This is what we call “The Great Work’.”

“But what about the philosopher’s stone? The fabrication of gold?”

“These are only applications, particular cases. The essential thing is not the transmutation of metals, but that of the experimenter himself. It’s an ancient secret that a few men rediscover once in a century.””

― The People of the Secret by Ernest Scott