A religious madman wept profusely in the middle of the night and said: “This is what the world is, in my view: it is like a closed chest in which we are placed, and where we give ourselves without restraint to madness. When death lifts the lid of this chest, he who has wings flies away to eternity. As for him who is without wings, he remains in the chest, prey to a thousand torments.”
Give, then, to the bird of spiritual aspiration the wing of mystical meaning; give heart to reason and ecstasy to the soul. Before the lid of this chest is removed, become a bird of the spiritual path and spread your wings and feathers—or do better still: burn your wings and feathers, and destroy yourself by fire, so as to arrive before all the rest.
Give, then, to the bird of spiritual aspiration the wing of mystical meaning; give heart to reason and ecstasy to the soul. Before the lid of this chest is removed, become a bird of the spiritual path and spread your wings and feathers—or do better still: burn your wings and feathers, and destroy yourself by fire, so as to arrive before all the rest.