Higher Self: Fire
Like the Sun, fire also symbolizes the prolonged state of Presence. Fire represents the idea of transforming suffering. The fuel of friction and negativity ignites the Light of Presence, a higher state of consciousness.
If a man gives way to all his desires, or panders to them, there will be no inner struggle in him, no 'friction,' no fire. But if, for the sake of attaining a definite aim, he struggles with desires that hinder him, he will then create a fire which will gradually transform his inner world into a single whole.
--Ouspensky
Very few can sit down in the middle of the fire itself.
[Rumi]
You who seek to feel the Divine fire in your heart,
who wish to know and to receive the kingdom of heaven
existing within you, come,
and I will impart to you
the science of eternal heavenly life.
-- Nicephorus the Solitary
The firing process spoken of in the alchemical classics
and writings of the Taoist masters, is a metaphor
for the order of practical spiritual work.
-- Liu Yiming
The six stages of purification by fire …
are in sequence and should never be mixed up;
only then can it produce the Golden Elixir.
-- Taoist Master Chao Pi Ch’en
Jesus said, I have cast fire upon the world,
and see, I am guarding it until it blazes.
-- Gnostic Gospel of Thomas
