C.S. Sloan's Integral Strength

  A samurai and the love of his life had just gotten married, and were traveling by boat to their honeymoon, when a massive storm hit.*  The samurai's wife began to tremble in fear, for there was no shore in sight, and their boat was being tossed and turned in the massive waves that were sure to capsize it at any moment!  She ran to find her husband, a brave warrior who she thought would provide her comfort in their seemingly perilous situation.  But when she found him, he was peacefully looking out at the sea, as if the sun was out and the waves were calm. Lightning cracked across the sky.  Thunder rumbled from all directions.  The boat lurched forward violently. "How can you be so calm?!" the wife yelled, frantically clinging to her husband.  "We are about to die!  Do you not value your life?" When the samurai heard these words of his wife, he looked down upon her, pulled out his katana, and put it to his wife's neck.  She looked at him.  And laughed. &quo

     The following is another passage from the book "History of Mysticism" by Swami Abhayananda.  This one deals with the three "stages" of knowing God, the Absolute Reality—and then understanding It as your True Self in the end.  (By the way, there are so many "gems" in this book that I would recommend anyone who wants to truly understand mysticism to read the whole thing.) It has long been recognized as a fact of mystical psychology that, as a man comes to know God in the unitive vision, he knows in that some moment, his own true Self. This intriguing fact is expressed most succinctly in a passage from the ancient Indian epic, the Ramayana; in it, Rama, who represents the Godhead incarnate, asks his servant, Hanuman, “How do you regard me?” And Hanuman replies: dehabhavena daso’smi jivabhavena twadamshakah atmabhave twamevaham (When I identify with the body, I am Thy servant; When I identify with the soul, I am a part of Thee; But when I ident