The secret preliminary exercise for students of extraordinary capacity:
Consider that That Guy you meet who reads Whitman’s Leaves of Grass on his cousin’s hammock and talks about the lesser-known Bob Dylan bootlegs — every one of these That Guys was once your mother in a previous life.
Consider also that your beloved in this life is doomed to die, is suffering, and was once The Guy Who Reads Whitman On A Hammock And Likes To Dylan in a previous life.
Consider further that in a previous life, your beloved was once your mother and Whitman On A Hammock With Dylan Guy was your father.
Refuge is now to be taken.
BEATING THE POISONED DRUM 