I've been reading a book on centering prayer by Cynthia Bourgeault, and am enjoying it a lot. It's opening up for me, again, the central truths that are wonderfully common to all the major spiritual paths that I've become familiar with. She says, as the Buddha and Jesus and Lao Tzu and others have said, that the secret to spiritual renewal is simply letting go of our small self, surrendering our frightened little ego. It's really as simple as that, though not at all easy. 

I'm looking forward to continuing with the book.