A remarkable thing happens in the experience of a people passing from
darkness to light. Every big and little thing that has conveyed the
pain and bitter desolation of life in separation becomes a catalyst
for the restoration of life in unity. Each habit of helplessness, hostility
and self-deception is exposed to its proponents with progressively
greater clarity and force. This instructs them in the mechanics of
all their failures, and brings them by stages to realize that they
have willfully and relentlessly pursued their own misery. Thus the
thorns of life on a planet emerging from darkness may prick the awareness
of the people and awaken them to the truth.
Those still determined to stand apart may be spared the terrible realization
of their self-hatred: that they may experience the full range of its
implications in a comprehensive and thorough enactment of their choice.
But all others must pass through a white-hot fire to transmute: denial
to allowance, and falsity to truth; fear to love, and pain to pleasure;
grief to joy, and tears to laughter...
The forms of darkness will rise up ever more vividly, only to implode
with a noise and then be washed away. Although the people have taught
themselves to believe their liberation will come through a floating
up above all misery, the truth is that they must run through its searing
centre and be burned of its every trace.
