Leropa said, “Look at it all, Michael Poole. Look at these particles of
humanity trapped in the suffering of the past. And the Transcendence
loves every one of them.”

I thought I understood. “It is unbearable.”

“Yes. How can the Transcendence face the infinite possibilities of the
future, when its past is knotted up with blood and pain?”

It was the paradox of a god born of human flesh and blood. To achieve
full awareness the Transcendence had to absorb every human consciousness,
even far into the past. And that meant it had to absorb all that pain.
The Transcendence needed Redemption, a cleansing of the pain of the
past, before it could advance to the mighty possibilities of the future.

Transcendnet, Chapter 58