« March 2009 | Main | May 2009 »
April 28, 2009
the ranks of estimable artists and men
God looks into my heart, He searches it, and knows that love for man and feelings of benevolence have their abode there! Oh! ye who may one day read this, think that you have done me injustice, and let any one similarly afflicted be consoled, by finding one like himself, who, in defiance of all the obstacles of Nature, has done all in his power to be included in the ranks of estimable artists and men.
Beethoven
Posted by amin at 10:36 PM
some books are to be chewed and digested
Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested: that is, some books are to be read only in parts, others to be read, but not curiously, and some few to be read wholly, and with diligence and attention.
Sir Francis Bacon
Posted by amin at 2:27 AM
April 23, 2009
the holy rejected spinoza!
Respectfully offer up with me a lock of hair to the manes of the holy rejected Spinoza! The high world spirit permeated him, the infinite was his beginning and end, the universe his only and eternal love; in holy innocence and deep humility he was reflected in the eternal world and saw how he too was its most lovable mirror; he was full of religion and full of holy spirit; for this reason, he also stands there alone and unequaled, master in his art but elevated above the profane guild, without disciples and without rights of citizenship.
Schleiermacher - On Religion
Posted by amin at 12:31 PM
the blackest ink
I am sure that a certain truth will be said through me, though I should be dumb, or though I should try to say the reverse. Nor do I fear skepticism for any good soul. A just thinker will allow full swing to his skepticism. I dip my pen in the blackest ink, because I am not afraid of falling into my inkpot. I have no sympathy with a poor man I knew, who, when suicides abounded, told me he dared not look at his razor. We are of different opinions at different hours, but we always may be said to be at heart on the side of truth.
Emerson - Worship
Posted by amin at 12:27 PM
April 16, 2009
realization of god
I attained realization of God, may He be glorified, by the dissolution of resolutions, and by the solution of complexities.
Imam Ali
Posted by amin at 3:04 PM
i counted myself above the most of men unblest
And now was I sorry that God had made me a man, for I feared I was a reprobate: I counted man, as unconverted, the most doleful of all the Creatures: Thus being afflicted and tossed about by my sad condition, I counted myself alone, and above the most of men unblest. Yea, I thought it impossible that ever I should attain to so much goodness of heart, as to thank God that he had made me a man.
Bunyan - Grace Abounding to the Chief of Sinners
Posted by amin at 2:59 PM
April 13, 2009
the perfect man
The Perfect Man in himself is identified with all the individualizations of existence. With his spirituality he stands with the higher individualizations, in his corporeality with the lower. His heart is identified with the Throne of God, his mind with the Pen, his soul with the Well Grounded Tablet, his nature with the elements, his capability of receiving form with matter…He stands with the angels with his good thoughts, with the demons and the devils with the doubts that beset him, with the beasts in his animality…
You must know that the Perfect Man is a copy of God, according to the saying of the Prophet, “God created Adam in image of the Merciful,” and in another tradition, “God created Adam in His own image.” Further, you must know that the Essential names and the Divine attributes belong to the Perfect Man by fundamental and sovereign right in virtue of a necessity inherent in his essence, for it is he whose “reality” is signified by these expressions and whose spirituality is indicated by these symbols: they have no other subject in existence (to which they might be attached) except the Perfect Man.
As a mirror in which a person sees the form of himself, and cannot see it without the mirror, such is the relation of God to the Perfect Man, who cannot possibly see his own form but in the mirror of the name “God”. And he is also a mirror to God, for God laid upon Himself the necessity that His names and attributes should not be seen save in the Perfect Man.
Al Jili – The Perfect Man
Posted by amin at 5:12 PM
the lover who has given his heart
There is no repose for the lover who has given his heart: his avid desire increases hour by hour; his moments of satisfaction are over in an instant, and every moment he advances to even greater aspirations. Once he has smelled the perfume of the rose, he wants to see it; and having seen it, at once he wants to pluck it.
Jami - Yusuf and Zuleikha
Posted by amin at 5:11 PM
knowing and desiring
Knowing and desiring are supposed to be one, not two things in me. Complete, constant harmony of the two to the fullest degree to which they are possible within me, unity of both in purpose and object – that is humanity, that is the final goal that is hidden within human nature. The first stipulation I assign to life is to deliver not only objects that engage each power individually but also those wherein this harmony of knowing and desiring can be revealed and those whereby this harmony can be promoted.
Schleiermacher - What Gives Value To Life
Posted by amin at 5:06 PM
April 8, 2009
no blessed delusion!
For me there is no blessed delusion! With magic bonds I am chained to serious truth like Gandalin to the veiled, the longer the better. Without knowing in advance whether beauty or ugliness is concealed under the veil of truth, I am nonetheless ever attached to it alone, and whoever robs me of truth while I am struggling for it, that one I purse with restless avidity. Accordingly, I must seek what truth there is in life. Even if it should be nothing, if one is to be able to rejoice in life only when one is deceived, I would have to know that; and then to be deliberately unhappy or to have to scorn my existence would nonetheless give me a feeling that I would not want to exchange for the small happiness of those who grope in the dark. Yet, confidently and more happily than Gandalin and Sonnemon, I have already been living for a long time – the longer the better – in the firm belief that truth and happiness are but one. The latter is the form in which it shows itself to the fools and to human foolishness, to each in one’s way, and each sees what each imagines. The former is the form in which it reveals its existence, though quite rarely itself, to those who would like to cease being fools and to what is not foolishness in humanity. Thus happiness through deception is probably not so desirable.
Schleiermacher - What Gives Value To Life
Posted by amin at 1:50 AM
April 3, 2009
the fire of gnosis
The degrees of gnosis have an analogy in fire, which may be known to some people through hearsay as an existent that reduces to nothing anything that comes into contact with it and affects everything shat is near it, as something that is not diminished by anything that may be taken away from it, and whose nature is opposed to that which is distinct from it, and that such an existent is called “fire”.
In respect of the knowledge of God, the Exalted, those who are such are called imitators (muqallid), such as those who affirm the statements of authorities in this regard without considering any proof.
And some are at a level higher than this group and their analogy is that of those who on confronting the smoke arising from the fire know that this smoke arises from something. Thereupon they infer that there is an existent whose effect is the smoke. In gnosis, those whose analogy is such are the speculative thinkers (ahl-e nazar) who know through conclusive proofs that there is a Creator, the effects of Whose power bear evidence of His existence.
Above this level are those who have felt the heat of fire by being near it and having benefited from it. In gnosis, those of this rank are the believers in the Unseen, who know the Creator from behind a veil.
Above this level are those who see the fire and their eyes behold other existents in its light. This group, in respect of gnosis, consists of the seers who are called gnostics (urafa), and it is they who possess true knowledge (ma'rifah).
Others who have higher ranks above this level are also reckoned as gnostics, and they are called `the people of certainty' (ahl al-yaqin).
And of them is a group whose knowledge is of the category of direct vision, and they are called `the people of presence' (ahl al-hudur) and to them belong special intimacy (uns) and ecstasy (inbisat).
The ultimate degree of gnosis is where the gnostic ceases to exist, like something burnt away in fire and reduced to nothing.
Nasir al-Din Tusi - Awsaf Ashraf
Posted by amin at 8:00 PM