Freezing kills plants when the ice crystals - which are sharp and elongated, like a needle - puncture the cell walls, allowing the interior fluids to bleed out. However, some plants prevent this kind of damage by possessing an antifreeze substance in their sap. This natural chemical works to protect the plant cells by converting ice crystals from their usual needle shape into a ROUND crystal, one that has no sharp edges. Here, the ice does not disappear, but simply changes form.
Transformative spirituality does something similar. Rather than working to get rid of strong or afflictive emotions - like anger, lust or doubt - it converts them instead into a different form. Thus, for example, anger changes into a penetrative energy that pierces THROUGH the surface of the offender in order to find transparent and spacious divinity lodged there. Lust is transformed by taking one's attention off the object of desire and placing it instead on the sensation of longing lodged in one's heart. Using one's exhalations, this energy is then spread to all of the other objects in one's environment, enabling them ALL to sizzle with erotic energy.
In this way, emotions that would normally remain detrimental to one's spiritual freedom instead become sources of expanded growth. It is this kind of transformation that is one of the great gifts of spiritual practice.
Photo: Needle-like snow crystals decorate a Wild Geranium leaf, with Arthur's Rock looming in the mist; Lory State Park, CO; November 10, 2012
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