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Passages similar to: The Conference of the Birds — Attitude of the Birds
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Sufi
The Conference of the Birds
Attitude of the Birds (2)
When a hundred thousand generations had passed, the mortal birds surrendered themselves spontaneously to total annihilation. No man, neither young nor old, can speak fittingly of death or immortality. Even as these things are far from us so the description of them is beyond all explanation or definition. If my readers wish for an allegorical explanation of the immortality that follows annihilation, it will be necessary' for me to write another book. So long as you are identified with the things of the world you will not set out on the Path, but when the world no longer binds you, you enter as in a dream; but, knowing the end, you see the benefit. A germ is nourished among a hundred cares and loves so that it may become an intelligent and acting being. It is instructed and given the necessary knowledge. Then death comes and evernhing is effaced, its dignity is thrown down. This that was a being has become the dust of the street. It has several times been annihilated; but in the meanwhile it has been able to learn a hundred secrets of which previously it had not been aware, and in the end it receives immortality', and is given honour in place of dishonour. Do you know what you possess? Enter into yourself and reflect on this. So long as you do not realize your nothingness and so long as you do not renounce your self-pride, your vanity and your self-love, you will never reach the heights of immortality. On the ay you are cast down in dishonour and raised in honour. And now my story is finished, I have nothing more to say.
Western Esoteric
Secret Teachings of All Ages
Conclusion (35)
When once the rational consciousness of man rolls away the stone and comes forth from its sepulcher, it dies no more; for to this second or...
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Western Esoteric
Secret Teachings of All Ages
The Life and Teachings of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus (46)
The rest await the Great Day when the wheels of the universe shall be stopped and the immortal sparks shall escape from the sheaths of substance. Woe ...
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Neoplatonic
The Immortality of the Soul (1)
Whether every human being is immortal or we are wholly destroyed, or whether something of us passes over to dissolution and destruction, while...
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Taoist
On Letting Alone. (8)
But I will lead you through the portals of Eternity into the domain of Infinity. My light is the light of sun and moon. My life is the life of heaven ...
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Taoist
T'ien Tzŭ Fang. (4)
Is not that indeed a cause for sorrow? "Now you fix your attention upon something in me which, while you look, has already passed away. Yet you seek f...
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Taoist
The Great Supreme. (10)
If she bid me die quickly, and I demur, then I am an unfilial son. She can do me no wrong. Tao gives me this form, this toil in manhood, this repose...
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Hindu
Sixth Vallī (15)
'When all the ties of the heart are severed here on earth, then the mortal becomes immortal--here ends the teaching.'
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Taoist
The Secret of Life. (2)
And he whose physical frame is perfect and whose vitality is in its original purity,—he is one with God. Heaven and earth are the father and mother of...
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Sufi
The Vakil of the Prince of Bokhara (32-41)
At the words, ' Strike the corpse with part of her.' O pious ones, slay the cow (of lust), If ye desire true life of soul and spirit! I died as...
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Sufi
The Knowledge of the Next World (2)
The effect of death on the composite nature of man is as follows: Man has two souls, an animal soul and a spiritual soul, which latter is of angelic...
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Taoist
Kêng Sang Ch'u. (9)
There is existence without limitation; there is continuity without a starting-point. Existence without limitation is Space. Continuity without a start...
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Gnostic
THE BLESSED INNOCENT SPIRITS (THE BLESSED INNOCENT SPIRITS)
Now I come to the main points about immortal humankind. I shall explain why the beings belonging to the immortal human are here. When a multitude of...
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Neoplatonic
Problems of the Soul (1) (24)
Now comes the question of the soul leaving the body; where does it go? It cannot remain in this world where there is no natural recipient for it; and...
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Greek
Book X (621)
Now after they had gone to rest, about the middle of the night there was a thunderstorm and earthquake, and then in an instant they were driven...
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Neoplatonic
Our Tutelary Spirit (2)
It is of this Soul especially that we read "All Soul has care for the Soulless"- though the several Souls thus care in their own degree and way. The...
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Western Esoteric
Secret Teachings of All Ages
The Human Body in Symbolism (39)
At birth only a third part of the Divine Nature of man temporarily dissociates itself from its own immortality and takes upon itself the dream of...
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Western Esoteric
Chapter V: The Mental Universe (15)
The Universe is your home, and you shall explore its farthest recesses before the end of Time. You are dwelling in the Infinite Mind of THE ALL, and y...
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Neoplatonic
On the Good, or the One (11)
This is the purport of that rule of our Mysteries: Nothing Divulged to the Uninitiate: the Supreme is not to be made a common story, the holy things...
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Western Esoteric
Secret Teachings of All Ages
The Life and Teachings of Thoth Hermes Trismegistus (38)
Then Hermes desired to know why men should be deprived of immortality for the sin of ignorance alone. The Great Dragon answered:, To the ignorant the...
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Taoist
Knowledge Travels North. (8)
Try to practise with me inaction, wherein you may rest motionless, without care, and be happy. For thus my mind becomes an abstraction. It wanders not...
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