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90 SPIRIT AND THE MIND
For one so centered in mind, this would be an awesome step. Harder than surrendering to the technique of free association, more difficult than revealing the secrets and fears of mental life, is the surrender to the experience of mortal fear, and the decision to seriously adopt the spiritual life for lasting peace. I could see A.T.’s mind being shaken by turmoil, as in her dream. She was being coaxed into awareness of the devotion that lay dormant, literally up her sleeve as in her dream. But first she had to take a frightening step. Was she ready now to make this contact with her innermost love? I waited, knowing that a solution at this depth of inquiry doesn’t come easily.
Notes
1. Zen Koan—A paradox used in Zen Buddhism as an instrument of meditation in training monks to despair of an ultimate dependence upon reason and to force them into sudden, intuitive enlightenment.
2. Thesurrenderingprocesshasitsowndynamicsbywhichdeeperlevelsofconflict and ignorance are opened and released. See Appendices III and IV regarding the organization and dynamics of Prana and Kundalini energy and Patanjali’s Eight-fold Path. Central to the process is developing a relationship with God, whose compassion accepts all suffering.
3. SeePatanjali’sEight-foldPath,AppendixIII,pp.292-293.