Consider the relation that our body bears to its parents. During its childhood it was fed, clothed, sheltered, and protected by those parents, so long as it remained with them and looked to them for these benefits. If it ran away and deserted them, it was likely to lose some or all of them; above everything, it would lose the visible tokens of love that accompanied them. The finite mind, being that which dwells within the body, bears the same relation to its own parent-source, the infinite Mind God. If it strays away in heart and deed from that source, it finds itself dependent on its own unhelped small and limited resources. Its life is thenceforth beset by perils, punctuated with troubles, and clouded by errors. But if it awakens, repents, and returns; if it begins by faith, prayer, action, and meditation to surrender its personal will to the higher will; if it daily seeks guidance and strength from the Soul, help begins to come into its life.
-- Notebooks Category 8: The Ego > Chapter 4 : Detaching from The Ego (Part I) > # 246
