When I first read Dune, I thought the Bene Gesserit Litany Against Fear was kind of a catchy way of helping the reader to feel inspired by the main characters' struggles, as they recited it therein. Much later on, I think around when I was doing my thesis on the novel, I realized there was kind of a zen thing going on in it - that is, at the end of it, when there is that duality between there being nothing, and yet there being the self at the same time (zen in it being a paradox, perhaps pointing to something beyond it...). Even more recently, after all the research and practice I've been doing in terms of meditation, the Litany suddenly blossoms with a bit more meaning. I'm not sure how sensically I can summarize the thought, but here goes.

I'm still not sure about the first part as anything but characteristic of its source within the story, and maybe obliquely aesthetic in purpose. But facing the emotion, and accepting it (whether by acknowledging its reality, letting it pass, surrendering to it or whatever) is a common meditative practice, which doesn't seem like anything at face value within the Litany, but takes on a whole new semantic value with practical experience with that exercise. The next and last part of the Litany is doubly interesting in that regard, that is when viewed through the lense of the idea of there being an ego-self and a Self that is beyond that - with that last "I" taking on a whole new kind of emphasis when the ego-associated emotion has been nixed. And if that didn't make any sense at all, well, email me or something.

A tangential thought to all that is that after such big changes in my life and psyche, and all the effort I've put into those so far, I feel like I've come to one of those points where I want to go back through all my old favorite novels and movies and read and watch them over again - like, I feel like I got new glasses, that make things clearer, and remove the glare created by my old preconceptions to probably extend that analogy too far. So, further thoughts are probably to come, in other words.