posted October 21, 2004 01:01 AM         

… Blind delegates by blind electorate were therefore chosen to investigate the beast, and each, by feeling trunk or limb, strove to acquire an image clear of him. Thus each conceived a visionary whole, and to the phantom clung with heart and soul.

… Each one of them - wrong and misguided all - was eager his impressions to recall. Asked to describe the creature's size and shape …

Now, for his knowledge each inquiring wight, must trust to touch, being devoid of sight, so he who only felt the creature's ear, on being asked: 'How doth its heart appear?' 'Mighty and terrible,' at once replied, 'Like to a carpet, hard and flat, and wide!' Then he who on its trunk had laid his hand broke in: 'Nay, nay! I better understand! 'Tis like a water-pipe, I tell you true, hollow, yet deadly and destructive too'; While he who'd had but leisure to explore the sturdy limbs which the great beast upbore, exclaimed: 'No, no! To all men be it known, 'tis like a column tapered to a cone!'

Each had but known one part, and no man all; hence into deadly error each did fall. No way to know The All man's heart can find: can knowledge e'er accompany the blind?

(The Blind Men and The Elephant))

… He said: 'I was a hidden treasure; creation was created that you might know me.'

… The road your self must journey on lies in polishing the mirror of your heart.

… creatures comelier than angels even seem in a dagger to have devil's faces.

Your dagger will never tell you true from false: it will never serve you as a mirror. Better to seek your image in your heart, than in your mortal clay …

The way is not far from you to the friend: you yourself are that way: set out along it.

You who know nothing of the life that comes from the juice of the grape, how long will you remain intoxicated by the outward form of the grape? Why do you lie that you are drunk?

If you drink wine, keep quiet about it: a milk-drinker says nothing, so why should you?

… How can you go forward? There is no place to go. How can you leap? You have no foot. …

… Arrange things so that when death calls, he finds your soul waiting in the street. Leave this house of vagabonds: if you are at God's door, stay there; if not, make your way there now.

… As long as you cling to your self, you will wander right and left … but, if, once freed from yourself, you finally get down to work, this door will open to you within two minutes.

… The head has two ears; the heart has just one: this one hears certitude, whilst those hear doubt.

Until you throw your sword away, you'll not become a shield; until you lay your crown aside, you'll not be fit to lead.

… And when you have abandoned both individuality and understanding, this world will become that.

… pass life and body, faith and reason by, on the road to God acquire a soul.

… Whether you exist or not is indifferent to the working of God's power.

Everything is the work of God alone, - and happy is the man that knows it!

… Read the letters with your tongue, read their meaning with your soul.

As long as your desire is pleasure, and you cherish your desire, carry on playing like a child: you are not man enough for this.

You, who have brought nothing back but foam from the ocean, you, with your possessions arrayed around you, you have not grasped the essence of the pearl, being forever engrossed in the oyster shell. Leave these muddy shells alone; bring up the pure pearl from the ocean depths.

The arrow's worth lies in hitting the mark. If you are pure, the hidden sense will emerge from the framework of the written word; for until a man steps out from impurity, how can the Koran step out from the page? As long as you are veiled in self, how can you discriminate between good and evil? The letter of the Koran is in itself no panacea for the soul: Goats do not grow fat on the goatherd's call.

((The Walled Garden of Truth))

God knows what depths and shallows each soul can navigate, the draught of every creature.

… Your best life-food is a bare table. You have no desire capable of wishing for what God has already made for you.

... Don't cry your grief. God is already saying it. He hears the ant's foot touching the rock at night, and the stone shifting in the stream, and the worm's song of praise inside the ground.

… Follow what you live within, the given, or you'll come to the end swimming in an ocean of your own shame.
((Earthworm Guidance))

… Say the Name. Moisten your tongue with praise, and be the spring ground, waking.

… As you fill with wisdom, and your heart with love, there's no more thirst.

There's only an unselfed patience waiting on the doorsill, a silence which doesn't listen to advice from people passing in the street.

((The Wild Rose of Praise))

… Decades it takes a child
to change into a poet.

((The Time Needed))

If you want the pearl, leave the inland dessert, and wander by the sea.

Even if you don't find it, at least you've been near the water.

Be a warrior! Desire something powerfully! Saddle your horse and get ready for the quest.

… Be energetic in the work that takes you to God!

The weak and sickly only think about surrender.
Lie down before the door you long to go through.

Open your loving completely.
Only a dog sits idly licking a bone.

posted October 23, 2004 12:54 AM         

I think no other quote has stuck with me and challenged me so much as this one has:

"As long as your desire is pleasure,
And you cherish your desire,
Carry on playing like a child;
You are not man enough for this."
- Hakim Sanai