Passing Through the Fire

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There is much treasures and goods awaiting people. Many need to pass through the fire first. The fire of pride, that is. Allow me to explain. If I may, I'd like to compare knowledge to an orange.

It has a peel. Then there's the real meat of the orange. And there's the inbetween white-ish looking peel part.

Just like an orange,  knowledge can have a peel.

Let's say, Karen thought she was beautiful. She was not entirely sure, but based on many things she's read, many things people have told her, and reason of deduction, she concluded that surely she must be beautiful.

At this moment, that knowledge is only in her head. Her body may not necessarily show this knowledge, meaning it may not necessarily radiate through her actions, but for now, its just in her head. (Karen, unbeknownst to her, has attached herself to the peel of this knowledge).

 Okay. So she has a bit of wisdom.  This wisdom will give her PRIDE.  This pride if left to fester for too long -i.e. no growth- can lead to arrogance, boastfulness and bragging.   Eventually, it may rot and no longer exist.  But that should not be the goal. This knowledge has to go deeper. It has to go to a higher part of her.  After a while, she becomes at ease with this knowledge.  She is beautiful and there is nothing more to say on the matter. As this knowledge sinks in, her actions begin to show it. Her whole body says, "I'm beautiful!" She 's radiating beauty now!! You could say that the knowledge has penetrated into her heart; or you could say, she "grew up" and is "beyond" all that. (Karen is getting closer to the meat of it all).

At this point, Karen has gained humility about her beauty. She is at peace, the knowledge is safely in her heart and she doesn't feel she needs to shout out to the world, "I am somebody!" She knows deep down that she is somebody. Pride gives way to CONFIDENCE.

But how to get to that point? What is it that brings the knowledge deeper, higher? In the religious world, the answer is the fear of God. This knowledge brings Karen to question her shouting. "I know I am all that and a bag of chips, " Karen thinks, "but, how can I shout this out before God? On the one hand I'm not worthless, but God is greater and He blessed me with this good." This expanding thought to God then retracting back to personal, then back to Godly thinking --this running and returning- helps us to grow.

But it should not end there!

There is a deeper and higher level still that we must grow into, that knowledge must penetrate to.

"1 And the man knew Eve his wife; and she conceived and bore Cain," (Genesis 4:1)

There is a connection with knowledge and this intimate act. And knowledge needs to be brought to that level.

If we can rise pass where our emotions and intellect and spirit are all in tuned to this knowledge, we can even transfer this knowledge to the next generation. Confidences brings actuality, new realities. (There is the essence. The new beginning. The meat of the orange!).

There is where we want all the good and positive messages that we select and accept from BWE blogs and various other sources to go. Deep deep within us and out to the next generation.

[Note: this is a very deep process codified in the Kabbalah of the Ari (master Kabbalist Rabbi Yitzhak Luria of  the16th cen.)!  Basically, as any reality, say, one's consciousness, grows, what's really happening is that higher and higher levels of reality are revealed and join together with what existed already. 
The highest level or head of any reality is called its mohin, or mental faculties.  The middle level (paralleling the heart, torso, and arms) basically takes the input of the mohin and works on actualization; the bottom part (paralleling the legs and reproductive system) is the actualization itself.  So, at stage 1 it's all in the head.  At stage two, it gets integrated into the heart (the middle).  But what really happened?  The Ari speaks about how when consciousness grows, the mohin are "pushed down" into the middle.  But on a deeper level what happened is that a new level came in, and the "head" of the old level is on the same level as the heart of the old level.  So, when the Ari says the mohin were pushed down, it means that a new level was revealed, integrated with the old, and the mohin of the old level are now on the level of the heart.  But nothing moved!
Then, at Stage 3, an even higher level gets revealed, and that which was mohin at Stage 1 is now in the lowest part.  This is the stage of complete integration and growth, because the knowledge becomes "second nature".  So, as Karen grows, the knowledge "moves down".  It all happens as two aspects of the same process. -Note by Mr. Blackfirewhitefire]