PLACES_AS_STATES
Furnaces of Experience (Hell on Earth)
The 'furnaces of experience' are not literal fires of hell in an afterlife, but the intense suffering and emotional 'burning' experienced in this earthly…
Related ideas
HellExperienceSufferingEmotional SufferingEarthly TrialsSpiritual Growth
The Pattern Man
God is Infinite Mercy, but man has to pass through the furnaces of experience − not the furnaces of fire, as they talk about it, but the furnace of experience. Do you know any greater burning than to lose someone you love dearly − a mother losing a child? It doesn’t go off for the night or the day or the week or the month, or even the year. That’s burning − a separation between two who love each other. Isn’t that burning? When you can’t sleep, you are all carried away − that’s burning. That’s a fire. That’s hell. So, you are in hell right now. All day long, the loss of a business, the loss of face, a man has a business and he’s so proud of it, he joins the best clubs, and he looks down on everyone who can’t get into that club. Then comes a blow and he loses the business and he can’t afford to remain in the club, and he has to beg now for credit, and he has no credit. He goes to the grocer’s where he was so proud before, and the grocer considers whether he will give him credit or not. Now, isn’t that hell?
The 'furnaces of experience' are not literal fires of hell in an afterlife, but the intense suffering and emotional 'burning' experienced in this earthly life, such as loss, separation, and humiliation. These experiences constitute man's 'hell' on earth.