Fear is the mind-killer.
Fear is the little-death that brings total obliteration.
I will face my fear.
I will permit it to pass over me and through me.
And when it has gone past I will turn the inner eye to see its path.
Where the fear has gone there will be nothing....Only I will remain.
-Litany Against Fear from Frank Herbert's Dune
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Once again, I fell. Once again, I drowned. Once again, I died.
Once again, I was consumed by fire.
But this time, I'm the one who lit the fire. I overcame fear, and embraced the furnace.
But this time, the kiln did not harden this flesh of clay. This time, I went in pure and unadulterated by any element as basic as clay.
I went in as a stream of water. The coals were kind. They annihilated me completely. They did not allow me to walk back out, blackened and hardened, as they did last time.
Now, I am free. I am a river. I am an ocean. I am a glacier. I am a cloud. I am all things and all things are me. Only now am I capable of existence. Only when I've lost track of past and future, can I be in the present.
Letting go, I gained the world. Detaching from desire, I learned to love.
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The ship rocks back and forth, back and forth. Sleeping passengers are lulled deeper and deeper into the netherworld by the slow rocking. Suddenly, the ship cracks, then sinks swiftly to the bottom of the ocean. Momentarily, there are screams and horrors beyond horrors. Then, only sleep. No survivors.
Should we weep for the sleeping ones? Should we cry for those dreamers? Or shall we dream ourselves into a similar sleep?
Like the aquatic sleepers, we will be overwhelmed by a momentary terror, but soon face the peace of eternal slumber. Such will it be when we kill our egos. Such will it be when we let go of fear.
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