Dare to Enter the Pulverizer and Refiner's Fire

Purification of your mind and heart through trials and tribulations can be compared to purification of crude ore into metal. The ore is a mixture of rock and metal. To separate the metal from the rock, first the ore is dumped into a pulverizer that shakes it until it's just tiny particles of dirt or dross and metal. Then the mixture of dross and metal is sent through a fiery furnace where the dross is burned, leaving only the melted metal that is poured into ingots or forms.

I terms of ourselves, we are mixtures of virtues and vices, strengths and weaknesses, good habits and bad. Some, we inherit from past lives; others, we acquire in this life. The goal of life is to purify ourselves, leaving only the virtues. That's where the vicissitudes of life come in. We are shaken and pulverized by shocking events: the death of a loved one, the loss of a job, a serious illness, a difficult divorce, even death as in an NDE. Then we are given trials and tribulations (financial difficulties, emotional trauma, lawsuits) or take on self-imposed austerities. The result of this process is pure virtues of patience, industry, love, and wisdom.

In the life of Saint Francis od Assisi, he was the spoiled son of a wealthy merchant who went off to war to seek glory. But he returned, traumatized by the deaths of his friends and others and severely ill. This shook him to his core and broke down his ego. During his convalescence, he had a spiritual experience of being one with a sparrow and free as a bird. He then went though self-imposed trials of poverty and austerities to make that state of unity consciousness, being one with nature, permanent. He burned off the dross, leaving only the pure gold of sainthood.

Tonya Swan, in her book "Heaven and Earth: How It All Works," describes her experiences with the ascended master Kuthumi, who was Saint Francis, and her pulverizing and fiery experiences in this life and her previous lifetime in England. Everyone has a story to tell of being shaken and broken down and going through fiery trials. In my life, it was the death of my grandmother and my subsequent spiritual practices. What has been your pulverizer and refiner's fire? Perhaps you have yet to experience it. If so, dare to enter in.