Michael Meade writes in "Fate and Destiny" that we all experience pain, which emerges when our smaller, egoic selves obscure the greater nature of the universe that wishes to freely express itself through us. However difficult the pain may feel, the pain itself is both the illness as well as a signal and a beacon to light the way to our growth and transformation. Meade quotes Rumi, that "the cure for the pain is in the pain."