And right there, plain as can be, is the stated goal of every mystic or saint who has ever tried to put any of the world’s religions to the ultimate test. To die before you die. Or rather, to psychologically maim the ego—even for a brief instant—in order to be initiated into an understanding of what lies beneath all the thoughts, feelings, and memories that have gone into the lifetime construction of our false, or at the very least incomplete, sense of self. The little ego (Latin for “I”) that seems so firmly in control is just an elaborate illusion. And only half the story, as brilliantly
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