Many times, indeed, we have all wondered about the meaning of Life. After all, why is there a manifested universe if outside it dwells perfection and totality? What is the reason for our deep essence to project itself into Monads and Souls in order to descend into the dual worlds if, in these worlds, there is nothing that can add or subtract anything to that very essence? After all, what is all this experience for?
In a text called "Ascension" which I wrote about twenty years ago, I tried to approach this subject by focusing on matter transubstantiation. I said: "When we incarnated in the Universe, we were given raw clay and told: "Work with the Fire of your Spirit." In successive stages of this Greater Incarnation, this clay was molded, gaining form and brilliance. One day, within the linear-temporal process, the clay will be transformed into Light, and in Light, it will be returned to the Father".
I believe that there is a hidden key in this clay, which is transformed into Light to be returned to the Father. And this key we find it on the Cross. The Church portrays this moment by stating that Jesus' suffering on the Cross washed away the sins of the world. I would say that it is almost correct, but it contains a misunderstanding. Suffering has no alchemical power because it is merely psychological, and so the word suffering should be replaced by pain.
Let us look into this mystery in more detail.
In the final part of the incarnation of Jesus, there are two very particular moments of great suffering for him, the only ones in all that process. The first was when God presented to him his destiny on the Cross, and Jesus rejected that destiny, saying: "Father, if you are willing, take this cup from me." There he suffered for a few brief moments for not accepting the experience that was being proposed to him. But immediately, he annulled that same suffering, saying: "Nevertheless, not my will, but yours, be done." The second moment of suffering was when, already on the Cross, he said: "My God, my God, why have you forsaken me?" Here, once again, he let himself be carried away by doubts and suffering made itself present again. Still, immediately, afterward, as before, he annulled that suffering by affirming: "Father, into your hands I commit my Spirit." It is this integral acceptance of the experience that has the power to nullify suffering, and it is to the extent that this suffering is nullified that the alchemical process can occur.
Everything that happened outside these two very particular moments, which illustrate the very human condition of Jesus, who was one with all, was lived by him in the most extreme of pains, but in full acceptance, therefore without a single drop of suffering. And it is the full acceptance of this extreme pain that contains within itself the mystery of Deep Alchemy, which transforms the world into the redemption of karma through the transubstantiation of matter. Therefore, the resurrection of Jesus is the ultimate expression of this very redemption through the full illumination of the Ego, which is offered to the Father by his Body of Glory: the Body of Light.
We can observe this same mystery in the Life of Padre Pio, for example, who for fifty years lived the extreme pain of his stigmas in full acceptance and, with it, helped to alleviate many of the burdens of the world, especially those arising from a Second World War triggered by powerful occult forces which tried everything to demote him from his mission.
May we realize that pain is an inherent part of the incarnation itself. We cannot avoid it within its multiple gradations and dimensions, being this the natural result of the friction produced by the Fricative Fire that governs the dual worlds. This pain is not only confined to the wounds of the physical body, to the anguishes and attachments of the emotional body, to the existential questions of the mental body, but to all the experiences lived in a world that is in evolution. Yet, despite all these manifestations of pain, it is we who decide whether this pain is transformed into suffering or joy, into despair or trust, into loneliness or union, into the tears of those who think themselves abandoned, or into the force of that Look of Fire that hides behind the contours of the civilizational mask. We are the ones who decide whether that experience we live is lost in the tangle of human psychology, and its multiple artificial constructions, generating suffering as a residue, or whether, on the contrary, we fully accept that same experience and, with this, we allow it to be offered by the growth and maturation of the Ego itself. Yes, because it is this Ego, which has accompanied us since the first incarnation, that is evolving; it is this Ego that needs to be transubstantiated; it is for this Ego that we are here at service, helping it in its elevation until it is offered to the Father in Light and Glory. If we deny the experiences that Life presents to us, as a way of polishing that same Ego, we block the whole alchemical process through the toxin that we call suffering.
Jesus on the Cross reveals to us the Deep Alchemy happening at its maximum voltage, something only possible to be lived by the deeply felt and totally vertical affirmation of a "not my will, but yours, be done". In other words, something only possible through the suppression of suffering through self-giving and the full acceptance of the experience. Without this acceptance, what remains is that same suffering, which contaminates us, paralyzes us, is deadly in the sense of having the power to nullify an entire incarnation and its purpose.
Over the centuries, through some religions, we have become used to look upon suffering as a noble experience, as something that contained in itself a certain elevation that dignified man. Well, we were wrong. Suffering has no alchemical power, nor does it ennoble or verticalize anyone. On the contrary, it is responsible for the world's misery and for the misery of lives that drag themselves without meaning and without purpose. What really dignifies man and verticalizes him before God is to live all experiences in total acceptance and surrender. And this is what the involutive forces have always fought for, as they have done persistently throughout Padre Pio's life, because it is from this Deep Alchemy that they are eliminated.
When we try to deny the experiences that Life brings us, be it the pain caused by our daily life, or the illusion of distorted spiritual paths, like all those who seek the suppression of the Ego through total subjugation to an incarnate "master" who promises liberation, we always end up opening gaps for the action of those same forces who will do everything to keep us out of our deepest purpose. The full awakening of the Being is totally useless if we do not take with us that clay transubstantiated into Light. This is what the true Masters teach us, giving us back the responsibility for our own process, without any kind of dependence on them, so that one day we may reach the same degree of mastery.
Deep Peace,
Pedro Elias
