The death and resurrection of Christ are events which are always occurring at the very heart of all reality. Like sunlight diamonds that disappear into a beautiful alpine lake in order to reappear - in a slightly different position - a split-second later, each moment of our lives dies into the spacious vastness of our divine awareness, only to pop back out - miraculously reborn - in the very next moment. The purpose of spirituality is to train us to identify ourselves with that vastness instead of with the momentary flashing of our sunlight- diamond ego-selves . For the ego must die over and over again if it is to be reborn as something larger.
To use a different image, we can say that the light of spiritual insight can only occur if something within us burns up in an intense fire of transformation. We see this process occur whenever the fire of suffering stimulates us to shift our perspective in order to see life in a whole new way - enlightened. On a practical level, we recall that most new enlightening discoveries occur because of a prior suffering. New pharmaceuticals invented to cure debilitating diseases are prime examples of this principle.
Every artist knows this process of sacrifice and resurrection, of fire and light. For it is the fire of suffering that causes the artistic person to create a work of art which transforms that suffering into something beautiful. For example, we might recall that many amazing songs arise out of an experience of lost or unrequited love. But the process occurs in reverse fashion as well. As soon as an artistic work is created, doubt and disillusionment about the value of that work almost inevitably occur. The artist often thinks the artwork is despicable, and then experiences intense depression. However, transformation can occur when the artist realizes that these afflictive emotions are actually the fire of sacrifice that must occur if the artwork is to be created and sustained in existence. But there is magic occurring here:
Returning to the fire-and-light metaphor, we might imagine that the light of the work of art is so powerful, it covers up the fire of sacrifice that creates it, just as the light of the sun overwhelms our ability to see the powerful solar explosions that are continually occurring and which create that very light. Because of this magical principle, we only can perceive the fire of afflictive emotion (which actually - like a labor pain - is the source of the light) when the radiance of the new insight which arises from that fire dies down a bit.
Sacrifice and resurrection are motifs that occurs throughout all of life. Plants and animals die when we ingest them, that they might be reborn as the substance of our human lives. We have to hike over steep trails to fully appreciate the destination - a peak or lake, for example - at the end. Labor pains are necessary to bring forth a child. In all of these examples, Christ's death and resurrection are fully present as archetypal realities that empower the entire process.
Photo: Alpenglow fires the peaks near Crater Lake, Indian Peaks Wilderness, CO, August 8, 2009
