To be free,
as I then knew myself
to be, is to realize that all
conquest is vain, even the conquest
of self, which is the last act of egotism.
To be joyous is to carry the ego to its
last summit and to deliver it triumphantly.
To know peace is total: it is the moment after,
when the surrenderer is complete, when there is no
longer even the consciounsness of surrender.
Peace is at the centre and when it is
attained
the voice issues
forth in praise and
benediction.
Then the voice carries far and wide,
to the outermost limits of the universe.
Then it heals,
because it brings light and the warmth of compassion.

The Colossus of Maroussi (1941)
Henry Miller