BOOK X

	Arise my friend, my beauty, and come, my dove perched on the crack of the rock. SOLOMON
	If they should sprinkle with such wine the ground of a tomb, the dead man would find his soul once more and his body would be revivified. OMAR IBN AL FARIDH

IVRE ET NUE

WISDOM

1

The beginning of the revolt is the rejection of all that harms; the end, is the acceptance of all that kills.

1'

The abandonment of oneself, the acceptance of remedies and the practice of divine love deliver man from the constraints of the world.

2

The ignorant one humiliates life and constructs in death. The sage separates death and makes life perfect.

2'

It is better to try and leave our prison than to attempt to improve it and to settle in it.

3

That which appears too simple often masks a sublime truth, and that which is complicated almost always hides lies and death.

3'

What is lighter than sunlight? Nevertheless, it is what gives weight to all things in the world.

4

No religion holds the monopoly on God, since he is unique and they are diverse.

4'

He who has the will to learn finds everything useful, both death and life.

5

He who searches for God has only himself to strip off and know.

5'

Blind faith obtains from God that which reason dares not conceive.

6

Only he who has found happiness can indicate the path to it, but few listen to him and no-one believes him.

6'

Detachment from the world and abandonment in God engender rapid deliverance.

7

All science, all religion and all jurisdiction that distances itself from the natural and divine laws is false and leads to death.

7'

Through nature one penetrates up to man, and through man, one reaches God.

8

He who knows and possesses the light of the holy earth is no longer restless, nor does he study and speak any longer; he communicates with heaven and teaches the world by his example.

8'

Peace is like the fixing of life in the purity of God's earth. "Oh, renovating perfection of the worlds, you ascend and descend effortlessly."

9

The scholars of the world mask their ignorance with senseless words and mad subtleties. They don’t reach anything that is neither true nor durable.

9'

All that is tiresome and complicated is not God's. But goodwill uses all that appears for the best, without discussion and without judging rashly the life that is still veiled.

10

No-one is as attached to the riches and apparent glory of this world as are the bad shepherds that lead him to death, through hate, through lie, and through greed.

10'

Let us honour in the tabernacle of our heart the memory of those who lead us towards God, and let us bless them in the Perfect One.

11

He who has rejected death and reinforced his life in God shall read the Book while trembling with surprise and weeping with joy.

11'

That which is inaccessible moves before our eyes and rests in our hands. Who shall make it visible? And who shall give it the weight of divine incarnation?

12

Devious intelligence, delirious subtleties, cunning, malice and abduction are of no use here.

12'

No hand of man could force the entrance to God's garden.

13

Modesty and love are the finery and the safeguard of the wise man.

13'

Who shall admire the most beautiful part of oneself? Who shall humiliate himself before God?

14

We are born master or slave according to God's gifts, but men distort divine justice through their proud and greedy blindness. "Teach us, Lord, our own desire, so that we are not tempted to ask for that which is not suitable for us."

14'

We can laugh at beliefs, corrupt churches, complicate laws, overturn powers, violate nature and disrupt nations; in this way we shall change nothing of the darkness of our hearts, where the light of the world waits patiently.

15

True knowledge is current and alive, silent and hidden.

15'

The sage sees nature stripped of its veils and contemplates man in his heavenly glory.

16

He who promises is celebrated. He who gives is despised. He who takes is admired. He who receives is humiliated. He who gives back is delivered. He who blesses is fulfilled. He who finds is loved.

16'

The sages have come straight to the point, but men have stopped up their ears. The saints have operated before all, but the multitude has looked the other way. God shall consume the stone in which humanity has buried its heart.

17

He who truly loves is attached to nothing because he loves in God and not for himself.

17'

Hate often takes on the face of duty and appeals to the love of humanity to seduce men better.

18

Mediocrity, hate, pride, avarice and malice are insurmountable obstacles to grace, love, knowledge, possession and repose in God.

18'

Let us become pure and transparent as crystal, and the divine rays shall enlighten us and shall fertilize us wholly.

19

Let us accept the good and the bad equally, and let us leave to the meditation of time the care of separating them within us, for the sages have said: "Patience is the ladder of the philosophers, and humility is the gate of their secret garden."

19'

Let us not be dragged along by the judgements and blind passions of the vulgar world. Let us rather dedicate our time and force to seeking him who persists through pain and death, in the joy of life that is redeemed.

20

It is absolutely necessary to abandon all, find all again and return all to God, in order to be like the Perfect One who, after having divided himself up in the multiplicity, finds himself again in unity.

20'

Those who are still passionate about the world, after having known the Book, are blinded or are extremely weak, yet God shall never abandon them completely.

21

The trickery of the ignorant one is to explain the inexplicable with senseless words until the confusion has become such that no-one dares contradict for fear of appearing backward and stupid.

21'

The wicked and the mad can become saints and sages by turning towards the God who sleeps in their heart from the beginning of their straying. "He who eats life shall inherit life. He who eats death shall inherit death."

22

It is ridiculous to speak of that which one does not know, above all with unknown or borrowed words.

22'

Let us give up being understood, encouraged or admired by the world, for it is only success in God that truly counts.

23

To accept that which comes and release that which goes is wisdom beyond desire and renunciation.

23'

Flee from misfortune and it will pursue us. Confront it and it will fade away.

24

The only efficient defences available to us against the temptations of the world are those that we build in ourselves, and not those that we borrow from others.

24'

He who acts with detachment is not soiled by any action. He who meditates without desire is not tarnished by any thought.

25

The height of madness is to speculate on the future, regret the past and ignore the present that lies within us.

25'

The intelligent man repels all work and agitation that are useless. He concentrates his thoughts on God and seeks him in himself.

26

A gentle and clean woman is a fragrant blessing from the Lord. A bad-tempered and soiled woman is a stinking curse from hell.

26'

Life and death laugh at our stupid blindness, which knows neither how to separate nor unite the marvellous light of the Lord.

27

He who knows how to maintain his life in grace, love and wisdom pities those who speak so much and yet say nothing, those who busy themselves so much yet do nothing, those who study so much yet know nothing and those who work so much yet possess nothing.

27'

Everyone can study the Book, but those who understand nothing or understand little must love and believe simply in their heart, so that the fidelity of love counterbalances in them the effects of ignorance.

28

The saint remains unknown among frantic and greedy men, just as God stays hidden to the eyes of the proud and the brutes who use force on everything.

28'

The coarse and obstinate nature of certain individuals can only be improved by the repeated blows of misfortune. Let us beg God that we be neither judges nor executioners.

29

That which cannot be accomplished naturally and supernaturally is useless, because it is without foundation and Being.

29'

It is through the grace of the Mother that the Son multiplies the love of the Father.

30

False prophets deceive the ignorant, but they are denounced by their works, which lead only to confusion and death.

30'

He who has been instructed remains in solitude, in destitution and in the peace of the perfect Being.

31

The sages teach gifted and perspicacious men; their work is recognized by the Lord's enlightened ones.

31'

Holy adoration scorns clothes, postures, rites and conventional languages.

32

The love of God and of men must never go as far as dementia, which is a destruction of oneself and others.

32'

Illumination is often expansive. Wisdom is never fanatical.

33

Our search consists in discovering life, our goal is to fuse ourselves into it and to fix it within us. Everything else is a dream without importance.

33'

God's grace and love deliver from all blame. The Lord's knowledge and possession free from all servitude.

34

The pure and perfect man shall receive no more than nine clean women and no fewer than three.

34'

A holy envoy of God justifies, balances and fertilizes an entire nation of believers united through grace and through love.

35

From the moment of conception until the moment of childbirth, the virgin shall remain in the care of the sage.

35'

The changes of the world purge creation; interior perfection leads to repose in eternal peace.

36

Divine gold is the most accomplished body of the world. Who shall know how to wash it? And who shall know how to cook it?

36'

Help given to humanity is a balm spread over oneself.

37

He who knows the two faces of creation and who invokes God in his heart commands the mirages of the world, in wakefulness, in dreams and in death.

37'

Those who understand nothing exclaim: "No-one knows anything worth knowing", and there they are, reassured in their night.

38

The madman ignores the sage, but the latter knows of his straying, and can deliver him if he is begged to do so in a holy way. "Let us never lie to flatter the world, for in any case the world will eventually abandon us."

38'

The apparent defect of beings and things deceives many intelligent men, and the secret beauty of the world is manifested only to sages and saints.

39

The word of God engenders joy and its possession provides happiness.

39'

Holy union makes us escape from the enchantments and desolations of the world.

40

When a believer scolds us, let us first examine whether there is not a small piece of truth in what he says to us, and we will end up discovering that the image presented falls way short of the reality.

40'

He who adores God in thought and in action is unable to sin, for it is the Lord who speaks and acts in him. "Let us be entirely ourselves in the freedom of the Unique One, without worrying about the eventualities of our earthly prison."

41

It is better to reach God in pieces rather than to remain whole in death.

41'

The destiny of man is God, and God is like the unity of the Being in the immensity of life.

42

Making everything perfect is accomplished through death, through resurrection and through the multiplication of the Being.

42'

The sage experiences everything with patience and detachment, until he has discovered the unique clarity and multiplied the divine seed.

43

Let us accept all patiently, let us use all modestly, let us abandon all wisely. Therefore, we shall have all and we shall be possessed by nothing, we shall savour the world and we shall not be poisoned, we shall handle the fire and we shall not be consumed. Let us not plunge anyone into death through belated reproaches, through useless exclusions or through hazardous condemnations. Let us offer love that understands all, that excuses all, that comforts, that enlightens and that leads back without constraint to the way of the truth of the Unique One. "Let us never adopt the tone of a master with anyone, so as not to offend God's freedom that lies dormant in each one of us."

43'

Humanity that has gone astray no longer knows how to nourish itself, how to rest, how to reproduce. It has forgotten prayer, meditation and play. Its men no longer know the earth, their skin has forgotten the sun, the wind and the rain, and their eyes no longer see the stars. Their mouths no longer taste healthy herbs, their noses are filled with smoke and their ears reverberate with nothing but the noise of death. They have lost the simplicity and the intelligence of their primary nature. They have blunted the astonishment that led them up to God, and the vision of the world around them no longer instructs them. They have become senseless and miserable through their proud madness. They tear each other apart and break up the world with the obstinacy of blind madness.

44

The ignorant one destroys creatures furiously; he scatters and gathers thousand of things at random.

44'

The way in which everything disappears shows us clearly how the world renews itself.

45

The wise man gently unbinds the world, separates and joins up a single thing according to nature.

45'

The man who has been instructed knows the general essence of the Universe and the particular germ of each being.

46

God is the clearest and the most hidden we possess in ourselves.

46'

Knowing and possessing water and fire in the holy earth, the sage fears nothing and desires nothing.

47

The multitude of dispersed lights in the heaven and earth is like a more or less concentrated portion of the substance of life.

47'

When the suns unite, the worlds shall be splashed with a light that shall draw them like a magnet unto God.

48

He who recoils before the terror and the stench of death remains in the darkness of ignorance.

48'

You shall rise into my light and you shall plunge into my darkness until you have found me again, says the Lord God.

49

One needs to break the stone of the fruit in order to release the seed, and one needs to consume the man to free his light.

49'

There, where water and fire do not act, men work in vain.

50

The greatest gift given or received is like the greatest test of faithfulness to God.

50'

The suns increase their perfection by condensing the dispersed light to the fixedness of their glorious Being.

51

God has given us life and freedom, and we have offered ourselves imprisonment and death.

51'

We shall once again become like the light from which we were born and like the moon and the sun that make us grow and multiply.

52

If a man weakens after having approached God, he falls back into an even more opaque death.

52'

There, where there is no mixture of opposite things death is powerless.

53

The holy and wise man judges noone, he instructs by example, just as the Lord's nature does.

53'

The mystery of God is so evident in the world that the sages are dumbfounded and stupefied.

54

We retain the world's faeces and we let our life escape over time, that is the stupidity that makes us the heirs to death. Let us abandon the filter full of filth and patiently sublimate our life in God until the perfection of eternal peace.

54'

We divide through the fire of the earth. We purify through middle water. We unite through heavenly fire. We multiply through holy water and earth.

55

He who works to unite men lends his hand with the restitution of the unity of the Being.

55'

It is in our hearts that the hidden wisdom of the Lord reposes.

56

The doubts, sarcasm, temptations and persecutions of the world are difficult obstacles to overcome. But faith, prayer, grace and love break through all the dark outer layers.

56'

The sage does not turn away from the corruption of the world, he separates that which is good and he makes it perfect in himself. Thus, the saint also separates himself from the world in order to reach God more easily.

57

We can, without danger, be rich in gifts in the world if we remain poor in spirit before God.

57'

There is he who seeks, he who loves, he who knows, but only he who possesses is like he who is.

58

Self-denial towards others is the best charity for oneself.

58'

Grace is like the water that delivers, and love is like the fire that unites.

59

We shall pray efficiently in desire, imagination and love; and not with lips, gestures and fear.

59'

God is like the water that brings together the universes, and like the fire that matures them.

60

Not being able to please everyone, let us strive at least not to oppose the Father and the Mother who engendered us in the beginning and who subsist mysteriously within us. "The wise man meditates on the light of the world until he finds it. Then he meditates on its content until he has manifested it."

60'

We adore you, Water, mother of the waters, for the living fire is at your centre, and you are excellent over and above all other lights. The sun is your magnificent production. Holy Mother of fire, come to our aid right now and at the time of the difficult passage. Let it be done this way!

61

He who is filled with the visible goods of this world is known and loved by God for his unique faithfulness; or he is abandoned as incurable and as if already dead.

61'

God chastises no-one, it is our alliance with evil and its extirpation that make us endure so many evils here below.

62

God fulfils those who are wise enough to obey the laws of creation for the love of him, but he does not disdain sometimes to satisfy those who are mad enough to dare to command the world in his NAME.

62'

We must take the balm with the poison, then separate one from the other to obtain the pure truth.

63

The sons of God gather together life from the midst of death itself and glorify it here below.

63'

He who shapes the light with his voice and gives life to it with his breath is like God.

64

Everyone wastes his time and his life before God: believers and the impious, honest men and criminals, workers and idlers, intelligent men and idiots, ascetics and libertines, scholars and ignorant men, geniuses and mediocre men, the glorious and the unknown, the skilled and the clumsy, the young and the old, the rich and the poor, the civilised and the savage, everyone, except he who searches madly for his Lord here below without distraction and without repose, except he who puts his hand on the primary slime and does the work of God.

64'

The scholars and the intelligent shall be ridiculed before God and driven far away from his light; only the simple and the believers shall find grace before him. As for the sages and the saints, their heart has always been with the Lord of wisdom and love. "The Book in which God has written his secret is heaven and earth. Therefore, the holy and wise man studies the science of the Lord in the peace of the garden of Eden."

65

We shall not change the nature of beings and of things through our little deeds and, if we restrain it for a moment, it shall then rise up stronger than ever. But God is all-mighty, for he changes even the darkness into the light of life.

65'

Oh! who shall give us absurd faith and mad perseverance? Oh! who shall teach us derisory sim- plicity and totally naked humility?

	To him who triumphs, I shall give to eat the fruit of the tree of life that is in my God's paradise. JOHN
	I am the origin, the dissolution, the place, the deposit, the seed, the unalterable. I am the cradle and the grave of everyone... It is the science of sciences, the secret of kings, the supreme lustre. KRISHNA