[page 78] I have known good and bad, sin and virtue, right and wrong; I have judged and have been judged; I have gone through birth and death, joy and pain, heaven and hell; and what I realize in the end is that I am in all and all is in me.
With these words HIK ends his essay on Auibat — life after death. It is a fitting summary of much of his writings. This is the fifth volume of his collected speeches and writings, this one from the period of 1910 - 1917. I am reading these volumes for a second time in order from Vol I to XI. Since I acquired the volumes at random and read them as I acquired them, I first read them in that random order. These orange bound books with the volume number only on the spine under the dust jacket and nowhere else are a perfect size for reading while driving. In addition the subject matter and writing style of HIK has a meditative quality that starts off each day and ends each evening of my hour long commute in a spiritual manner.
Here's an example of one of HIK's stories. Moses invites God to have dinner with him in his house. He prepares a huge feast and while waiting a dirty, starving beggar knocks and Moses says, "Wait till my guest has gone there will be much food left." The beggar wandered off. God is a no-show. Naturally Moses goes to God the next day distraught. "What have I done that you would stay away from my supper invitation?" You can guess God's response.
"Blessed are the poor in spirit. . ." from the Beatitudes takes on a beautiful new meaning in HIK's mind; he translates it as "Blessed are the mild in ego . . ." Pretty hep for fin-de-siecle writer. [Year 2000 Note: make that fin-de-previous-siecle.] HIK points out that Christ was called the Lamb of God by his contemporaries and again the mildness of the lamb points to the mildness of the ego interpretation.
[page 207] The emblem of the Sufi is a heart between two wings, meaning that when the heart is cultivated, man can soar up into the heights of heaven.
Certainly HIK can teach where he has gone, as this volume amply proves.
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