Humanity, divine limitation;
Divinity, human perfection.
– Hazrat Inayat Khan
The unborn and the imperishable
The ignorant think of me, who am the unmanifested spirit, as if I were really in human form. They do not understand that my supreme nature is changeless and most excellent. I am not invisible to all, for I am enveloped by the illusion of phenomenon. This deluded world does not know me as the unborn and the imperishable.
– From the Bhagavad Gita
The bond of the eternal
We look at it and do not see it;
Its name is The Invisible.
We listen to it and do not hear it;
Its name is The Inaudible.
We touch it and do not find it;
Its name is The Subtle.
These three cannot be further inquired into,
And hence merge into one.
Going up high it is not bright,
And coming down low, it is not dark.
Infinite and boundless, it cannot be given any name; It reverts to nothingness. This is called shape without shape, Form without object. It is The Vague and Elusive. Meet it and you will not see its head. Follow it and you will not see its back. Hold on to The Way of the old in order to master the things of the present. From this one may know the primeval beginning. This is called the bond of The Eternal.
– Lao Tzu
A kind of optical delusion
A human being is part of the whole, called by us ‘Universe’; a part limited in time and space. He experiences himself, his thoughts and feelings as something separated from the rest—a kind of optical delusion of his consciousness. This delusion is a kind of prison for us, restricting us to our personal desires and to affection for a few persons nearest us. Our task must be to free ourselves from this prison.
– Albert Einstein