Walk Softly Live Gently

By Karlfried Graf von Durckheim

“Only to the extent that man exposes himself over and over again to annihilation, can that which is indestructible arise within him. In this lies the dignity of daring. Thus the aim of (spiritual) practice (meditation, prayer) is not to develop an attitude, which allows a man to acquire a state of harmony and peace wherein nothing can ever trouble him. On the contrary, practice should teach him to let himself be assaulted, perturbed, moved, insulted, broken and battered - that is to say it should enable him to dare to let go his futile hankering after harmony, surcease from pain and a comfortable life in order that he may discover in doing battle with the forces that oppose him that which rewards him beyond the world of opposites. The first necessity is that we should have the courage to face life, and to encounter all that is most perilous in the world. When this is possible, meditation itself becomes the means by which we accept and welcome the demons which arise from the unconsciousness- a process very different from the practice of concentration on some object as a protection against such forces. Only if we venture repeatedly through zones of annihilation can our contact with Divine Being which is beyond annihilation become firm and stable.???