The Hot Coal

The Hot Coal

Once there was a very sad and disappointed man. Try as he might he couldn’t not understand why his generosity and his vision had not been repaid and why he continued to suffered setbacks and disappointments when all he really wanted to do was play and have fun. “What did I say or do to deserve this?” He thought.

One day a woman came to him and told him a story about a hot coal, how generation after generation this hot coal is passed down to the one who would hold it. Every time the coal is passed down the reaction is “I don’t like this at all!” and it is passed or, thrown, or projected on to “nearest and dearest” without anyone quite knowing what’s happened. Something didn’t feel good but what to do or how to get rid of it became a process of denial: ”I didn’t do anything wrong.” The hot coal continued down the generations.

Finally there was someone who realized that the hot coal was a source of pain for anyone who held it and said, “I’m going to find out what this is all about.” For many years the person felt like a victim, that everything was happening to them, and they had no control. “Why me?” they said and the answer came back “Why not? Might as well be you.”

Many years passed as the coal burned and twisted and filled the person with many experiences and there was no getting away from it. The person tried to make it the “other’s” fault at great destruction to the hearts of those who loved them. In the end the person surrendered and sat with the coal until it cooled down. The mere action of no action made the heat dissipate, while the tossing and the resistance caused friction and made the coal burn brighter.

Talking to the coal the person said, “who are you and what do you want?” After a long time of listening the coal said “I am the disowned part of you. The one you don’t want and you “don’t like. I am the unfelt feeling of life times. I am the part of the spark that was given to each person when they entered the world, and I am your treasure.”

I help to you discriminate and let you know what you don’t want so that you see what you do want. I am divisive, I make the differences seen and felt, and I have a tremendous energy that can be used for good or ill. Once you know who and what I am, as part of yourself, you will be able to use me to do anything with this vast reserve of energy that I Am. If you resist me I will drain you of everything you think you have.”

The person was thoughtful and realized that rather than resisting, and running from this “problem,” that in sitting with it, it had a lot to say. Instead of running from, ignoring or denying the so called “problems” that came up in the course of life, these experiences were transformed into rich “compost” that fruited the vines of the beautiful garden the Master sat in.

Many people came to learn the lessons that the coal had to teach: transmutation and discernment from sitting with that which burns the hottest and listening to the messages that these experiences had to gift. Much was understood and continued to unfold in the coming time, but from now on the hot coal and the person where one, and all was well.