People often have this feeling of being on a precipice at certain stages in their journey of meditation, the fear of just being on the edge, of having to let go. There may be some kind of physiological, biological reason for it, perhaps, but this image of being on the edge, being on a precipice, is very common, very powerful; and the ego resists the final leap. The ego wants to draw back. The ego, which is this little island of consciousness, a dim light, wants to pretend that it is the whole light. And the ego, which of course has its necessary and important role to play, is not dissolved by drugs or by self-denial or by self-indulgence, or by efforts of the will. All of these tend only to reinforce it, to lock it more deeply into its fears and desires. The ego is dissolved only by love by opening itself to what lies beyond it, to the true light of which it is only a dim reflection.
(Aspects of Love 2 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
