Recognizing the need to get rid of one’s ego in order to reach our “true self,” I started thinking about the women medieval mystics, like, most importantly, Marguerite Porete, and Hadewijch and Mechthild, as well as, more recently, Emily Dickinson and Simone Weill, all of whom talked about becoming “nobody” or “no one” – which was necessary to approach God directly. They wrote from a state of true humbleness (because a lot of pride can be hidden behind a false face of humility). They traveled all the way to zero – to nonbeing – completely disappearing. And then looked back towards the world – where others thought that such a move was nonsensical, and yet they, repeatedly, affirmed this.
I began thinking their approach had a lot to do with freedom – that to escape one’s ego (as well as that ego’s “God”), we have to get free of our “old self,” free of old ideas and assumptions about “life” and the “world” – and so, becoming “nobody,” might do the trick!
To achieve a place where there’s only oneself and an impending meeting with God (or the Holy). And then wait.
The promise is that, out of this nothing, God is able to arrive – even through loneliness or depression – if you just wait, God will arrive – in a supersonic jet of joy.
Immediately after, when one opens one’s eyes, we’ll find ourselves looking through “fresh eyes,” that is, a newborn’s eyes, and what you’re able to see and experience at that moment is exactly what God is seeing and experiencing – through your own eyes – as if you are God and God is you.
This is what Jesus was able to do and why some people spontaneously followed him, while others wanted to kill him, because the former were filled with a joy like they’d never experienced before, and the latter, on their part, became angry that any human being would dare become this kind of person.
Diner Mystic 