Tuesday, February 24, 2009

the alchemy of happiness



the visible world was made to correspond
to the world invisible and
there is nothing in this world but that which is a symbol
of something in that other world.

al ghazali



in "the alchemy of happiness", al ghazali writes:

"the first step to self-knowledge is to know that thou art composed of an outward shape, called the body, and an inward entity called the heart, or soul. by "heart" i do not mean the piece of flesh situated in the left of our bodies, but that which uses all the other faculties as its instruments and servants. in truth it does not belong to the visible world, but to the invisible, and has come into this world as a traveller visits a foreign country for the sake of merchandise, and will presently return to its native land. it is the knowledge of this entity and its attributes which is the key to the knowledge of God."