energy of transformation

Pain is energy. The energy has to go somewhere. It can either eat us up and and become deeper and deeper levels of bitterness, or it can be transformed to open up the world of beauty and light. The difference is a choice and depends on awareness of what we are choosing. The greatest example for me of the energy of pain being used to transform souls is the atonement. Christ took on all of our pain and through his awareness turned that pain into mankinds salvation. The atonement can only transform us, however, as we become aware of that power and accept it in our hearts and our minds. The energy we infuse into the process is the effort we exert to be aware and overcome the powerful constructs of the physical world which work against acceptance. I think the atonement is multidimentional in that it not only bridges the gaps created through sin and ignorance, but the gaps created through our experience of pain. Pain seperates us from oneness with God, in that our instinctual reaction to pain is to try to eliminate it in a way that drives us away from God, or truth and light. We seek escape, retribution, or distraction, rather than understanding that pain could be our vehicle, our transport to what will really free us, truth and love. The atonement is really about love, but not passive love. Not the kind of love we sit back and take, but the kind that overcomes the powerful pull of the ego, a feeling of sepateness, being better or worse than other people. The kind of love that transforms us into a different kind of being. The atonement is the path Christ showed us, not a one time thing he did for us. We must be aware and choose to follow that path when our experience brings us pain to be transformed.