This is an excerpt from Frank Herbert's "Children
of Dune":
"Life is a mask through which the universe
expresses itself. We assume that all of humankind and its
supportive life forms represent a natural community and that
the fate of all life is at stake in the fate of the individual.
Thus, when it comes to that ultimate self-examination, the
amor fati, we stop playing god and revert to teaching. In
the crunch, we select individuals and we set them as free
as we're able."
*
"This is a sort of graduation ceremony."
*
"I stand in the sacred human presence.
As I do now, so should you stand someday. I pray to your presence
that this be so. The future remains uncertain and so it should,
for it is the canvas upon which we paint our desires. Thus
always the human condition faces a beautifully empty canvas.
We possess only this moment in which to dedicate ourselves
continuously to the sacred presence which we share and create."