The Scripture of the Softened Edge
I. The Grace of the Approximate Do not search for a rigid reason for your sorrow, nor demand a perfect justice that can be measured in coin or stone. "Words! Words! The Way is beyond language" . To ask "Why?" is to stand outside the fire, shivering in the cold of analysis. To step inside is to realize that "the Great Way is not difficult for those who have no preferences" .
We live circa the Truth. We are not the finished gold, nor are we the raw ore; we are the glow in between. The mind that demands to know why the righteous suffer "is lost in confusion" , for it seeks to draw a straight line through a world that "is as vast as infinite space".
II. The Fire of Non-Resistance You have heard it said that suffering is a punishment, or a debt from ages past. But I say to you: "Do not resist an evil person", and do not resist the heat of your own life.
The fire does not burn you; it burns only your opinions. When the heat rises, "let go of longing and aversion". The pain you feel is the friction of your preferences rubbing against the Way. "Gain and loss, right and wrong—abandon all such thoughts at once" .
If you cling to the idea of who you should be, you will burn. If you "cease all thinking" about how life ought to treat you, the fire becomes light. "The lamp of the body is the eye"; when the eye stops judging the heat, the whole body is filled with the light of the fire.
III. The Treasures of the Ash Do not store up comfort in a world where "moth and rust destroy". Store up instead the softness of a heart that has been broken open.
The refining fire is not a test to see if you are perfect; it is the grace that reveals you are "void, clear, and self-illuminating". "Blessed are the poor in spirit", for they have nothing left that can be burned. "Blessed are those who mourn", for their tears have washed away the dust of the eyes.
When you walk through the flames without wishing to be elsewhere, "dualism vanishes by itself". You are no longer the metal or the smith; you are the warmth that radiates. This is the "narrow gate", the approximate path where we stumble, imperfect and radiant, into the arms of the mystery.