So just as the mantra at the first level of consciousness, can bring and will bring increasing calmness of mind, equanimity, and the distractions will become less powerful over a period of time, so at this level too the mantra is going to open us to a healing power, to our own self-healing capacity. And the root of that self-healing is the Spirit, is grace. So we will simply be opening ourselves to the healing of those memories or wounds of the past without having to think about them, you don’t have to analyse them all. Now, it’s true, sometimes a thought, a memory from the past bubbles up from this, this more unconscious level, into consciousness, because we saw thinking about a person, a situation and event that happened maybe a long time ago. And we may say to ourselves, I wonder why I’m thinking about this again, after all this time. And you may need to think about it, you may need to talk about it, you may need to process it consciously. And all of this is about coming to self-knowledge.
( The Brick Wall of the Ego 1 by Laurence Freeman OSB )
