Awareness of the Self
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Thou art the One, Absolute, Infinite,
The Goodness that is the source of all goodness.
Above all that we can think or imagine,
Thou art above thou-ness itself,
Thy Essence beyond all that is, nay beyond the light of Being.
We bear witness to Thy Oneness pure.
Our selves are but veils hiding Thee from Thee,
But Thy Self resides in our heart of hearts
And our substance, pure and primordial,
Reflects now and forever the glory of Thy Oneness
-Seyyed Hossein Nasr
Bethesda, Maryland
August 11, 1996 |
© Estate of Frithjof Schuon
c/o World Wisdom Books
P.O. Box 2682 Bloomington IN 47402
I live in exile, exiled from my land of birth,
From her exalted peaks and vast deserts,
From the vivid colors of all that grows from her soil,
From her azure bright skies,
Exiled in the occident of this world.
But is not this domain of transience,
This world of birth and death,
Of shadows cast upon the cascades of light
Itself the occident, whether it be in East or West,
Of that Orient which is light pure,
Unadulterated by the imperfections of earthly life?
It is from that world that we are all exiled,
It is that world from which we all hail
And to that world that we must return,
Return after our earthly journey's end.
That Orient we carry in our hearts
At that center which is the seat of the All-Merciful,
Our very core, yet beyond our daily reach
Until we turn inward the wayward soul
And break the shell of our hearts
Hardened by the march of forgetfulness through time.
Our return from exile is return to that Center,
To our real land of birth.
I live in exile but in joy of being exiled from the world,
For did not the Blessed Prophet utter
'Happy are those who are in exile in this world?'*
Sensing as they do the home to which they belong,
The luminous Orient of all existence is ours,
joyous in the thought of their homecoming.
-Seyyed Hossein Nasr
State Park, Pennsylvania and Bethesda, Maryland
September 1997
*"Islam began in exile and shall become as it began, and
happy are those who are in exile." A hadith of the Prophet. |
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"Bright and luminous as you are, O Soul, by your own
nature, you went to the world of darkness, and engaged in combat with
it; and the world of darkness obscured your light, and encompassed you
with darkness, and blinded you, and made you lose sight of all that
you had seen, and forget all that you had known; and in the end, you
were captured and held prisoner."
-Hermes
"The happiness of solitude is not found in retreats.
It may be had even in busy centres. Happiness is not to be sought in
solitude or in busy centres. It is in the Self."
-Sri Ramana Maharshi
There is no existence for the
unreal and the real can never be non-existent. The Seers of Truth know
that nature and final ends of both.
Know That to be indestructable by which all
this is pervaded. No one is ever able to destroy that Immutable.
These bodies are perishable; but the Dweller
in these bodies is eternal, indestructible and impenetrable. Therefore
fight, O descendant of Bharata!
He who considers this (Self) as the slayer or
he who thinks that this (Self) is slain, neither of these knows the
Truth. For it does not slay, nor is it slain.
This (Self) is never born, nor does It die,
nor after once having been, does It go into non-being. This (Self) is
unborn, eternal, changeless, ancient. It is never destroyed even when
the body is destroyed.
-Bhagavad
Ghita, II. 16-20
© Estate of Frithjof Schuon
c/o World Wisdom Books
P.O. Box 2682 Bloomington IN 47402 |
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Those who knew me
Before God found me
Now know a ghost.
They sit around me,
Feeling uneasy,
Awkward and sad,
Fearing, no doubt,
That I've gone mad,
They want me back,
My "old self" again,
And I feel sorry
And wretched; but when
They've gone--the true
Good friends I've known--
I think of who is,
And isn't, alone
-Harry Woods Pal
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*
Seyyed Hossein Nasr selections are from Poems of the Way,
published in 1999 by the Foundation for Traditional Studies
* Harry Woods Pal selections are from his Terse Verse, composed from
1970 - 2000.
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