An old woman offered Bu Ali a piece of gold saying: "Accept this from me." He replied: "I can accept things only from God." The old woman retorted: "Where did you learn to see double? You are not a man of power to bind and unbind. If you were not squint-eyed would you see several things at once?" There is neither Ka'aba or Pagoda. Learn from my mouth the true doctrine--the eternal existence of Being. We must not see anyone other than Him. We are in Him, by HIm, and with Him. We may also be outside these states. Whoever is not immersed in the Ocean of Unity is not worthy of the race of men. The day will come when the Sun will draw aside the veil which covers it. So long as you are separate, good and evil will arise in you, but when you lose yourself in the sun of the divine essence they will be transcended by love. While you loiter on the road you will be held back by faults and weaknesses. Have you not yet realized that in your body there are conceit, vanity, self-pride, self-love and other dirty things! Though the serpent and the scorpion may seem to be dead within you they are only asleep; if something touches them they will wake up with the strength of a hundred dragons. In each of us is a Hell of serpents. If you make yourself secure against these unclean creatures you may remain tranquil; if not, they will sting you even in the dust of the tomb until the day of reckoning.
--Fariuddin Attar
from The Conference of the Birds
C. S. Nott version
Thanks to Steve Toth, SufiMystic
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