The way of the desert and the way of psychoanalysis are two methods by which we can be weaned away from dependence on inflated ideologies that inform and nurture our neuroses. Both methods involve attentiveness, a very way of disciplined seeing. The religious traditions have certain words for this special way of looking. In Buddhism it is simply called "emptiness;" Meister Eckhart writes of Abgescheidenheit (indifference). Hinduism speaks of detachment; the Sufis of sobriety. The early Christians speak of the desert of apatheia, which might be freely translated as a way of looking at the world without craziness. In every case, this detached way of looking is related to compassion. It is not an escapist strategy. Rather, it is a way of relating in love to the world and its inhabitants.
— Alan Jones, Soul Making