I once put a simple observation to him: that the Paraclete hands out strange gifts. Often excessive ones. Sometimes, I said, outright scandalous.

His answer was not about the gifts at all.

As the seeker walks the path, he said, the path widens under the attention given to it. So a second thing has to be built alongside: an inner observer. Distant. Objective. Indifferent, even. Something in you that notices what is happening and takes it in, and by doing so keeps drawing you into a deeper and deeper humility.