1. Activity or motion that is often unduly hurried; haste, often due to agitation, pressure or eagerness to accomplish something. 2. Commotion or agitation; disturbance, tumult; bustle. hurries, hurried, hurrying.
1. A physical likeness or representation of a person, animal, or thing, photographed, painted, sculptured, or otherwise made visible. 2. A mental representation; idea; conception. 3. Form; appearance; semblance. 4. A type; embodiment. 5. An idol or representation of a deity. 6. A person or thing that resembles another closely; counterpart, double or copy. 7. A concrete representation, as in art, literature, or music, that is expressive or evocative of something else. images, image-face.
1. A sweet yellowish or brownish viscid fluid produced by various bees from the nectar of flowers and used as food. 2. Something sweet, delicious or delightful. 3.* Fig. Sweetness. *honey-buds, honey-drunk, honey-fire, honey-packed, honey-sweet, honey-wine.
1. Confident belief in the truth, value, or trustworthiness of a person, idea, or thing. 2. The spiritual apprehension of divine truths, or of realities beyond the reach of sensible experience or logical proof.
1. Disappeared gradually; vanished. 2. Having lost freshness, brilliance of colour, etc.
1. Made or produced a likeness of; mirrored or reflected; mentally pictured; imagined. 2. Decorated with an image or images. many-imaged.
1. Misfortunes, calamities, disasters; adversities. 2. Bodily disorder, disease, sickness.
1. Of or pertaining to the structure of waxy, hexagonal cells formed by bees for the production and storage of honey. 2.* Fig.* Anything containing sweetness likened to honey.
1. That which is untrue; error, falsehood. 2. Untruthfulness, treachery. falsity"s.
1. The state or quality of being immense; vastness; enormity; boundlessness. 2. Something immense or infinite. 3. Enormous expanse, distance, or volume. Immensity, immensities.
1. To become dim, as light, or lose brightness of illumination. 2.* Become less clearly visible or distinguishable; disappear gradually or seemingly, lit. and fig. *3. To lose strength or vitality; wane. 4. To vanish slowly; die out. 5. To grow dim, fade away, become less loud. fades, faded, fading.
1. To be inadequate or insufficient; fall short. 2. To fall short of success or achievement in something expected, attempted, desired, or approved. 3. To dwindle, pass, or die away. 4. To decline, as in strength or effectiveness; fig. of the heart. 5. Of some expected or usual resource: To prove of no use or help to. 6. Of a material thing: To break down under strain or pressure. fails, failed, failed.
1. To give light to; illuminate; shine on. 2. Make lighter or brighter. 3. To bestow spiritual enlightenment. 4. To enlighten, as with knowledge. 5. To make lucid or clear; throw light on (a subject). 6. To make resplendent or illustrious. 7. To decorate (a manuscript, book, etc.) with colours and gold or silver, as was often done in the Middle Ages. illumines, illumined, illumining, half-illumined.
1. Touchstone; a very smooth, fine-grained, black or dark-coloured variety of quartz or jasper (also called basanite), used for testing the quality of gold and silver alloys by the colour of the streak produced by rubbing them upon it; a piece of such stone used for this purpose. 2. *fig.* That which serves to test or try the genuineness or value of anything; a test, criterion.
abandon ::: 1. To give oneself up, devote oneself to (a person or thing); to yield oneself without restraint. 2. To withdraw one"s support or help from, especially in spite of duty, allegiance, or responsibility; desert: leave behind. 3. To give up; discontinue; withdraw from. abandons, abandoned, abandoning.
"A basis can be created for a subjective illusion-consciousness which is yet part of Being, if we accept in the sense of an illusory subjective world-awareness the account of sleep and dream creation given to us in the Upanishads. For the affirmation there is that Brahman as Self is fourfold; the Self is Brahman and all that is is the Brahman, but all that is is the Self seen by the Self in four states of its being. In the pure self-status neither consciousness nor unconsciousness as we conceive it can be affirmed about Brahman; it is a state of superconscience absorbed in its self-existence, in a self-silence or a self-ecstasy, or else it is the status of a free Superconscient containing or basing everything but involved in nothing. But there is also a luminous status of sleep-self, a massed consciousness which is the origin of cosmic existence; this state of deep sleep in which yet there is the presence of an omnipotent Intelligence is the seed state or causal condition from which emerges the cosmos; — this and the dream-self which is the continent of all subtle, subjective or supraphysical experience, and the self of waking which is the support of all physical experience, can be taken as the whole field of Maya.” The Life Divine
A being of the lower vital planes who has assumed the discarded vital sheath of a departed human being or a fragment of his vital personality and appears and acts in the form and perhaps with the surface thoughts and memories of that person.
absolute ::: adj. 1. Free from all imperfection or deficiency; complete, finished; perfect, consummate. 2. Of degree: Complete, entire; in the fullest sense. 3. Having ultimate power, governing totally; unlimited by a constitution or the concurrent authority of a parliament; arbitrary, despotic. 4. Existing without relation to any other being; self-existent; self-sufficing. 5. Capable of being thought or conceived by itself alone; unconditioned. 6. Considered independently of its being subjective or objective. n. 7. Something that is not dependent upon external conditions for existence or for its specific nature, size, etc. (opposed to relative). Absolute, Absolute"s, absolutes, absoluteness.
absolute reality ::: Sri Aurobindo: "I would myself say that bliss and oneness are the essential condition of the absolute reality, and love as the most characteristic dynamic power of bliss and oneness must support fundamentally and colour their activities; . . . .” Letters on Yoga
absolve ::: 1. To free from guilt, blame or their consequences; discharge (from obligations, liabilities, etc.). 2. To set free, release. 3. To clear off, discharge, acquit oneself of (a task, etc.); to perform completely, accomplish, finish. absolves, absolved.
accept ::: 1. To take or receive (a thing offered) willingly, or with consenting mind; to receive (a thing or person) with favour or approval. 2. To take formally (what is offered) with contemplation of its consequences and obligations; to take upon oneself, to undertake as a responsibility. 3. To agree or consent to. 4. To regard as true or sound; believe. accepts, accepted, accepting.
aching ::: 1. Having the sensation of continuous or ever-recurring pain, throbbing painfully. 2. Full of or precipitating nostalgia, grief, loneliness, etc.
::: "A cosmic Will and Wisdom observant of the ascending march of the soul"s consciousness and experience as it emerges out of subconscient Matter and climbs to its own luminous divinity fixes the norm and constantly enlarges the lines of the law — or, let us say, since law is a too mechanical conception, — the truth of Karma.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
acquired ::: gained for oneself through one"s actions or efforts.
"Action is a resultant of the energy of the being, but this energy is not of one sole kind; the Consciousness-Force of the Spirit manifests itself in many kinds of energies: there are inner activities of mind, activities of life, of desire, passion, impulse, character, activities of the senses and the body, a pursuit of truth and knowledge, a pursuit of beauty, a pursuit of ethical good or evil, a pursuit of power, love, joy, happiness, fortune, success, pleasure, life-satisfactions of all kinds, life-enlargement, a pursuit of individual or collective objects, a pursuit of the health, strength, capacity, satisfaction of the body.” The Life Divine*
adamant ::: n. 1. Any impenetrably or unyieldingly hard substance. 2. A legendary stone of impenetrable hardness, formerly sometimes identified with the diamond. adj. **3. Unshakeable, inflexible, utterly unyielding. 4. Incapable of being broken, dissolved, or penetrated; immovable, impregnable. adamantine.**
adj. 1. Lacking in colour or brightness, vividness, clearness, loudness, strength, etc. 2. Indistinct, ill-defined; dim; faded; slight. 3. Feeble through hunger, fear, exhaustion, etc. 4. Inclined to ‘faint" or swoon. faintest, faint-foot. v. 5. To lose strength, brightness, colour, courage etc.; to fade. 6. To grow weak. 7. To feel weak, dizzy or exhausted; falter; about to lose consciousness. 8. To weaken in purpose or spirit. faints, fainted, fainting.
adj. 1. Rousing (something) or being aroused, as if from sleep. n. awakenings. 2. Recognitions, realizations, or coming into awareness of things.
adoration ::: 1. The act of paying honour, as to a divine being; worship. 2. Reverent homage. 3. Fervent and devoted love. **adoration"s.*Sri Aurobindo: "Especially in love for the Divine or for one whom one feels to be divine, the Bhakta feels an intense reverence for the Loved, a sense of something of immense greatness, beauty or value and for himself a strong impression of his own comparative unworthiness and a passionate desire to grow into likeness with that which one adores.” Letters on Yoga*
affections ::: emotions; kind feelings, love, fondness, loving attachment.
*[Agni]. Sri Aurobindo: "Agni is the leader of the sacrifice and protects it in the great journey against the powers of darkness. The knowledge and purpose of this divine Puissance can be entirely trusted; he is the friend and lover of the soul and will not betray it to evil gods. Even for the man sitting far off in the night, enveloped by the darkness of the human ignorance, this flame[Agni] is a light which, when it is perfectly kindled and in proportion as it mounts higher and higher, enlarges itself into the vast light of the Truth. Flaming upward to heaven to meet the divine Dawn, it rises through the vital or nervous mid-world and through our mental skies and enters at last the Paradise of Light, its own supreme home above where joyous for ever in the eternal Truth that is the foundation of the sempiternal Bliss the shining Immortals sit in their celestial sessions and drink the wine of the infinite beatitude.” *The Secret of the Veda
aimless ::: without aim; purposeless. aimlessness.
alas ::: an exclamation expressive of unhappiness, grief, sorrow, pity, or concern.
". . . a limited consciousness growing out of nescience is the source of error, a personal attachment to the limitation and the error born of it the source of falsity, a wrong consciousness governed by the life-ego the source of evil. But it is evident that their relative existence is only a phenomenon thrown up by the cosmic Force in its drive towards evolutionary self-expression.” The Life Divine
". . . all division is intended to enrich by an experience of various sweetness of unification the joy of realised unity.” The Life Divine
::: "All energies put into activity — thought, speech, feeling, act — go to constitute Karma. These things help to develop the nature in one direction or another, and the nature and its actions and reactions produce their consequences inward and outward: they also act on others and create movements in the general sum of forces which can return upon oneself sooner or later. Thoughts unexpressed can also go out as forces and produce their effects. It is a mistake to think that a thought or will can have effect only when it is expressed in speech or act: the unspoken thought, the unexpressed will are also active energies and can produce their own vibrations, effects or reactions.” Letters on Yoga*
"All ethics is a construction of good in a Nature which has been smitten with evil by the powers of darkness born of the Ignorance, . . . .” The Life Divine
"All evolution is in essence a heightening of the force of consciousness in the manifest being so that it may be raised into the greater intensity of what is still unmanifest, from matter into life, from life into mind, from the mind into the spirit.” The Life Divine
"All existence, – as the mind and sense know existence – is manifestation of an Eternal and Infinite which is to the mind and sense unknowable but not unknowable to its own self-awareness.” The Hour of God
all- ::: prefix: Wholly, altogether, infinitely. Since 1600, the number of these [combinations] has been enormously extended, all-** having become a possible prefix, in poetry at least, to almost any adjective of quality. all-affirming, All-Beautiful, All-Beautiful"s, All-Bliss, All-Blissful, All-causing, all-concealing, all-conquering, All-Conscient, All-Conscious, all-containing, All-containing, all-creating, all-defeating, All-Delight, all-discovering, all-embracing, all-fulfilling, all-harbouring, all-inhabiting, all-knowing, All-knowing, All-Knowledge, all-levelling, All-Life, All-love, All-Love, all-negating, all-powerful, all-revealing, All-ruler, all-ruling, all-seeing, All-seeing, all-seeking, all-shaping, all-supporting, all-sustaining, all-swallowing, All-Truth, All-vision, All-Wisdom, all-wise, All-Wise, all-witnessing, All-Wonderful, All-Wonderful"s.**
All these centres are in the middle of the body; they are supposed to be attached to the spinal cord; but in fact all these things are in the subtle body, suksma deha , though one has the feeling of their activities as if in the physical body when the consciousness is awake.” Letters on Yoga
almighty ::: 1. *Orig. and in the strict sense used as an attribute of the Deity, and joined to God or other title. 2. Absol. The Almighty; a title of God. 3. All-powerful (in a general sense); omnipotent. Almighty"s, Almightiness, almightiness.
aloof ::: 1. At a distance; distant; hence, detached, unsympathetic. 2. Away at some distance (from), with a clear space intervening, apart. aloofness.
ambition ::: an earnest desire for some type of achievement or distinction, as power, honour, fame, or wealth, and the willingness to strive for its attainment. ambitions.
ambitioned ::: aspired to; desired; sought after earnestly.
A mental formation stamped by the thoughts and feelings of a departed human being on the atmosphere of a place or locality, wandering about there or repeating itself, till that formation either exhausts itself or is dissolved by one means or another. This is the explanation of such phenomena as the haunted house in which the scenes attending or surrounding or preceding a murder are repeated over and over again and many other similar phenomena.
anarchy ::: a state of society without government or law ; lawlessness, confusion, chaos, disorder.
**Angel of the Way *Sri Aurobindo: "Love fulfilled does not exclude knowledge, but itself brings knowledge; and the completer the knowledge, the richer the possibility of love. ‘By Bhakti" says the Lord in the Gita ‘shall a man know Me in all my extent and greatness and as I am in the principles of my being, and when he has known Me in the principles of my being, then he enters into Me." Love without knowledge is a passionate and intense, but blind, crude, often dangerous thing, a great power, but also a stumbling-block; love, limited in knowledge, condemns itself in its fervour and often by its very fervour to narrowness; but love leading to perfect knowledge brings the infinite and absolute union. Such love is not inconsistent with, but rather throws itself with joy into divine works; for it loves God and is one with him in all his being, and therefore in all beings, and to work for the world is then to feel and fulfil multitudinously one"s love for God. This is the trinity of our powers, [work, knowledge, love] the union of all three in God to which we arrive when we start on our journey by the path of devotion with Love for the Angel of the Way to find in the ecstasy of the divine delight of the All-Lover"s being the fulfilment of ours, its secure home and blissful abiding-place and the centre of its universal radiation.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
::: "An incarnation is something more, something special and individual to the individual being. It is the substitution of the Person of a divine being for the human person and an infiltration of it into all the movements so that there is a dynamic personal change in all of them and in the whole nature; not merely a change of the character of the consciousness or general surrender into its hands, but a subtle intimate personal change. Even when there is an incarnation from the birth, the human elements have to be taken up, but when there is a descent, there is a total conscious substitution.” Letters on Yoga
another ::: adj. 1. Being one more or more of the same; further; additional. 2. Very similar to; of the same kind or category as. 3. Different; distinct; of a different period, place, or kind. pron. **4. A person other than oneself or the one specified. 5. One more; an additional one. another"s**.
anthem ::: a song, as of praise, devotion, patriotism or gladness.
anxious ::: full of mental distress or uneasiness because of fear of danger or misfortune; greatly worried.
a person who is practised in or who studies geometry, the branch of mathematics that deals with the deduction of the properties, measurement, and relationships of points, lines, angles, and figures in space from their defining conditions by means of certain assumed properties of space. World-Geometer"s.
appeal ::: 1. An earnest request for aid, support, sympathy, mercy, etc.; entreaty; petition; plea. 2. An application or proceeding for review by a higher tribunal. 3. The power or ability to attract, interest; attraction. appealed, appealing, sense-appeal.
apsaras ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Apsaras are the most beautiful and romantic conception on the lesser plane of Hindu mythology. From the moment that they arose out of the waters of the milky Ocean, robed in ethereal raiment and heavenly adornment, waking melody from a million lyres, the beauty and light of them has transformed the world. They crowd in the sunbeams, they flash and gleam over heaven in the lightnings, they make the azure beauty of the sky; they are the light of sunrise and sunset and the haunting voices of forest and field. They dwell too in the life of the soul; for they are the ideal pursued by the poet through his lines, by the artist shaping his soul on his canvas, by the sculptor seeking a form in the marble; for the joy of their embrace the hero flings his life into the rushing torrent of battle; the sage, musing upon God, sees the shining of their limbs and falls from his white ideal. The delight of life, the beauty of things, the attraction of sensuous beauty, this is what the mystic and romantic side of the Hindu temperament strove to express in the Apsara. The original meaning is everywhere felt as a shining background, but most in the older allegories, especially the strange and romantic legend of Pururavas as we first have it in the Brahmanas and the Vishnoupurana.
arcanes ::: of things known or understood by very few; mysterious; secret; obscure; esoteric. (Employed by Sri Aurobindo as a noun.)
arch ::: 1. An upwardly curved construction, for spanning an opening, consisting of a number of wedgelike stones, bricks, or the like, set with the narrower side toward the opening in such a way that forces on the arch are transmitted as vertical or oblique stresses on either side of the opening, either capable of bearing weight or merely ornamental; 2. Something bowed or curved; any bowlike part: the arch of the foot. 3. An arched roof, door; gateway; vault; fig. the heavens. arches.
architect ::: the deviser, maker, or creator of anything; one who builds up something, as, men are the architects of their own fortunes. Architect, architects.
ardour ::: great warmth of feeling, passion or desire; zeal, fervour, eagerness, enthusiasm.
a religious official among the Romans, whose duty it was to predict future events and advise upon the course of public business, in accordance with omens derived from the flight, singing, and feeding of birds. Hence extended to: A soothsayer, diviner, or prophet, generally; one that foresees and foretells the future. (Sri Aurobindo employs the word as an adjective.) augured.
artifice ::: 1. An artful or crafty expedient; a stratagem. 2. Cleverness or skill; ingenuity; inventiveness.
ascent ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The ascent or the upward movement takes place when there is a sufficient aspiration from the being, i.e., from the various mental, vital and physical planes.” *Letters on Yoga
::: "As for immortality, it cannot come if there is attachment to the body, — for it is only by living in the immortal part of oneself which is unidentified with the body and bringing down its consciousness and force into the cells that it can come. I speak of course of yogic means. The scientists now hold that it is (theoretically at least) possible to discover physical means by which death can be overcome, but that would mean only a prolongation of the present consciousness in the present body. Unless there is a change of consciousness and change of functionings it would be a very small gain.” Letters on Yoga
ashamed ::: feeling shame; distressed or embarrassed by feeling of guilt, foolishness, or disgrace.
". . . as Mind is only a final operation of Supermind, so Life is only a final operation of the Consciousness-Force of which Real-Idea is the determinative form and creative agent. Consciousness that is Force is the nature of Being and this conscious Being manifested as a creative Knowledge-Will is the Real-Idea or Supermind.” The Life Divine
aspirant ::: n. **1. One who seeks with eagerness and steady purpose. adj. 2. Aspiring, striving for a higher position; mounting up, ascending. aspirants.**
aspiration ::: 1. A strong desire for high achievement. 2. A steadfast longing for something above oneself. **aspiration"s.
"A SPIRITUAL evolution, an evolution of consciousness in Matter in a constant developing self-formation till the form can reveal the indwelling Spirit, is then the keynote, the central significant motive of the terrestrial existence. This significance is concealed at the outset by the involution of the Spirit, the Divine Reality, in a dense material Inconscience; a veil of Inconscience, a veil of insensibility of Matter hides the universal Consciousness-Force which works within it, so that the Energy, which is the first form the Force of creation assumes in the physical universe, appears to be itself inconscient and yet does the works of a vast occult Intelligence.” The Life Divine
assail ::: 1. To attack vigorously or violently; assault. 2. To impinge upon; make an impact on; beset. 3. To take upon oneself a difficult challenge with the intention of mastering it. assailed, assailing.
assume ::: 1. To take upon oneself, to adopt an aspect, form, or attribute. 2. To take on titles, offices, duties, responsibilities. 3. To take on as one"s own, to adopt. assumes, assumed, assuming.
"As supramental Truth is not merely a sublimation of our mental ideas, so Divine Love is not merely a sublimation of human emotions; it is a different consciousness, with a different quality, movement and substance.” Letters on Yoga
astuce ::: astuteness, i.e. of keen penetration or discernment, sagacious.
aswapati ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Aswapati, the Lord of the Horse, her [Savitri"s] human father, is the Lord of Tapasya, the concentrated energy of spiritual endeavour that helps us to rise from the mortal to the immortal planes; . . . .” (From a letter written by Sri Aurobindo) Aswapati"s.
a temple; sanctuary. fanes.
"At every turn it is the divine Reality which we can discover behind that which we are yet compelled by the nature of the superficial consciousness in which we dwell to call undivine and in a sense are right in using that apellation; for these appearances are a veil over the Divine Perfection, a veil necessary for the present, but not at all the true and complete figure.” The Life Divine
"A third step is to find out that there is something in him other than his instrumental mind, life and body, not only an immortal ever-developing individual soul that supports his nature but an eternal immutable self and spirit, and to learn what are the categories of his spiritual being, until he discovers that all in him is an expression of the spirit and distinguishes the link between his lower and his higher existence; thus he sets out to remove his constitutional self-ignorance. Discovering self and spirit he discovers God; he finds out that there is a Self beyond the temporal: he comes to the vision of that Self in the cosmic consciousness as the divine Reality behind Nature and this world of beings; his mind opens to the thought or the sense of the Absolute of whom self and the individual and the cosmos are so many faces; the cosmic, the egoistic, the original ignorance begin to lose the rigidness of their hold upon him.” The Life Divine
auspice-hour ::: an auspice is any divine or prophetic token; a favourable sign or propitious circumstance, esp. an indication of a happy future. Sri Aurobindo combines the word ‘hour" with auspice to emphasize a special moment.
avenues ::: lines or means of approach or access; paths of entrance or exit; often fig.
"Awake, God"s ray and witness in my breast, ::: In the undying substance of my soul
awake ::: v. 1. To arouse from sleep or inactivity. 2. Fig. To rise from a state resembling sleep, such as death, indifference, inaction; to become active or vigilant. 3. To come or bring to an awareness, to become cognizant, to be fully conscious, to appreciate fully (often followed by to). awakes, awoke, awaking. *adj.* 4. Not asleep; conscious; vigilant, alert. half-awake.
babel ::: "The reference is to the mythological story of the construction of the Tower of Babel, which appears to be an attempt to explain the diversity of human languages. According to Genesis, the Babylonians wanted to make a name for themselves by building a mighty city and tower ‘with its top in the heavens". God disrupted the work by so confusing the language of the workers that they could no longer understand one another. The tower was never completed and the people were dispersed over the face of the earth.” (Encyclopaedia Britannica) Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works Sri Aurobindo: "The legend of the Tower of Babel speaks of the diversity of tongues as a curse laid on the race; but whatever its disadvantages, and they tend more and more to be minimised by the growth of civilisation and increasing intercourse, it has been rather a blessing than a curse, a gift to mankind rather than a disability laid upon it. The purposeless exaggeration of anything is always an evil, and an excessive pullulation of varying tongues that serve no purpose in the expression of a real diversity of spirit and culture is certainly a stumbling-block rather than a help: but this excess, though it existed in the past, is hardly a possibility of the future. The tendency is rather in the opposite direction. In former times diversity of language helped to create a barrier to knowledge and sympathy, was often made the pretext even of an actual antipathy and tended to a too rigid division. The lack of sufficient interpenetration kept up both a passive want of understanding and a fruitful crop of active misunderstandings. But this was an inevitable evil of a particular stage of growth, an exaggeration of the necessity that then existed for the vigorous development of strongly individualised group-souls in the human race. These disadvantages have not yet been abolished, but with closer intercourse and the growing desire of men and nations for the knowledge of each other"s thought and spirit and personality, they have diminished and tend to diminish more and more and there is no reason why in the end they should not become inoperative.” The Human Cycle
balance ::: n. **1. A state of equilibrium or equipoise; mental, psychological or emotional. 2. A weighing device, especially one consisting of a rigid beam horizontally suspended by a low-friction support at its center, with identical weighing pans hung at either end, one of which holds an unknown weight while the effective weight in the other is increased by known amounts until the beam is level and motionless. 3. An undecided or uncertain state in which issues are unresolved. v. 4. To have an equality or equivalence in weight, parts, etc.; be in equilibrium. adj. 5. Being in harmonious or proper arrangement or adjustment, proportion. 6. Mental steadiness or emotional stability; habit of calm behaviour, judgement. balanced, balancing.**
bank ::: a business establishment in which money is kept for saving or commercial purposes or is invested, supplied for loans, or exchanged.
bare ::: v. 1. To make bare; uncover or reveal. 2. Fig. To expose. bared, baring. adj. 3. Lacking clothing or covering; naked 4. Fig. Exposed to view; undisguised. 5. Just sufficient; mere. 6. Lacking embellishment or ornamentation; unembellished; simple; plain. 7. Unprotected; without defence. 8. Devoid of covering, a leafless trees. 9. Sheer, as bare cliffs. heaven-bare, bareness.
bearing witness to, affirming the truth or genuineness of; testifying to, certifying, vouching for. attests.
beatific ::: showing, producing, or experiencing exalted joy or blessedness.
beatitude ::: supreme blessedness or happiness. beatitude"s, beatitudes.
behaviour ::: 1. Manner of behaving or conducting oneself. 2. The aggregate of the responses or reactions or movements made by an organism in any situation, or the manner in which a thing acts under such circumstances. behaviour"s.
being ::: 1. The state or quality of having existence. 2. The totality of all things that exist. 3. One"s basic or essential nature; self. 4. All the qualities constituting one that exists; the essence. 5. A person; human being. 6. The Divine, the Supreme; God. Being, being"s, Being"s, beings, Beings, beings", earth-being"s, earth-beings, fragment-being, non-being, non-being"s, Non-Being, Non-Being"s, world-being"s.
Sri Aurobindo: "Pure Being is the affirmation by the Unknowable of Itself as the free base of all cosmic existence.” *The Life Divine :::
"The Absolute manifests itself in two terms, a Being and a Becoming. The Being is the fundamental reality; the Becoming is an effectual reality: it is a dynamic power and result, a creative energy and working out of the Being, a constantly persistent yet mutable form, process, outcome of its immutable formless essence.” *The Life Divine
"What is original and eternal for ever in the Divine is the Being, what is developed in consciousness, conditions, forces, forms, etc., by the Divine Power is the Becoming. The eternal Divine is the Being; the universe in Time and all that is apparent in it is a Becoming.” Letters on Yoga
"Being and Becoming, One and Many are both true and are both the same thing: Being is one, Becomings are many; but this simply means that all Becomings are one Being who places Himself variously in the phenomenal movement of His consciousness.” The Upanishads :::
"Our whole apparent life has only a symbolic value & is good & necessary as a becoming; but all becoming has being for its goal & fulfilment & God is the only being.” *Essays Divine and Human
"Our being is a roughly constituted chaos into which we have to introduce the principle of a divine order.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
believed in ::: was persuaded of the truth or existence of; had faith in the reliability, honesty, benevolence, etc. of.
benignancies ::: qualities of kindness, gentleness and benevolence.
beyond ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The language of the Upanishad makes it strikingly clear that it is no metaphysical abstraction, no void Silence, no indeterminate Absolute which is offered to the soul that aspires, but rather the absolute of all that is possessed by it here in the relative world of its sojourning. All here in the mental is a growing light, consciousness and life; all there in the supramental is an infinite life, light and consciousness. That which is here shadowed, is there found; the incomplete here is there the fulfilled. The Beyond is not an annullation, but a transfiguration of all that we are here in our world of forms; it is sovran Mind of this mind, secret Life of this life, the absolute Sense which supports and justifies our limited senses.” The Upanishads *
"Birth is an assumption of a body by the spirit, death is the casting off [of] the body; there is nothing original in this birth, nothing final in this death. Before birth we were; after death we shall be. Nor are our birth and death a single episode without continuous meaning or sequel; it is one episode out of many, scenes of our drama of existence with its denouement far away in time.” Essays Divine and Human*
bitter ::: 1. Having or being a taste that is sharp, acrid, and unpleasant. 2. Difficult or distasteful to accept, admit; bear or endure. 3. Proceeding from or exhibiting strong animosity. 4. Causing a sharply unpleasant, painful, or stinging sensation; harsh; severe. bitterness.
bizarrerie ::: strangeness or grotesqueness, especially strange or unconventional behaviour.
blank ::: n. 1. Fig. Any void space. blanks. adj. 2. Empty, without contents, void, bare. 3. Devoid of activity, interest, or distinctive character; empty. 4. Mere, bare, simple. 5. Lacking expression; expressionless, showing no interest or emotion, vacant. 6. Absolute; complete. blankness.
blessing ::: 1. Something promoting or contributing to happiness, well-being, or prosperity; a boon. 2. A ceremonial prayer invoking divine protection, grace, etc.
blind ::: adj. 1. Unable to see; lacking the sense of sight; sightless. Also fig. 2. Unwilling or unable to perceive or understand. 3. Lacking all consciousness or awareness. 4. Not having or based on reason or intelligence; absolute and unquestioning. 5. Not characterized or determined by reason or control. 6. Purposeless; fortuitous, random. 7. Undiscriminating; heedless; reckless. 8. Enveloped in darkness; dark, dim, obscure. 9. Dense enough to form a screen. 10. Covered or concealed from sight; hidden from immediate view. 11. Having no openings or passages for light; (a window or door) walled up. blindest, half-blind. v. 12. To deprive of sight permanently or temporarily. 13. To make sightless momentarily; dazzle. blinded.* n. 14. A blind person, esp. as pl., those who are blind. 15. Fig.* Any thing or action intended to conceal one"s real intention; a pretence, a pretext; subterfuge.
blindfold ::: fig. With the awareness or clear thinking impaired, the mind blinded and without perception.
blindness ::: 1. A lack or impairment of vision. 2. *Fig.* Lack of vision or awareness.
bliss ::: perfect happiness; serene joy or ecstasy. (See delight for Sri Aurobindo"s definitions.) **self-bliss, World-Bliss.
bloom ::: n. **1. The flower of a plant. 2. Fig. A condition or time of vigour, freshness, and beauty; prime. 3. Fig. Glowing charm; delicate beauty. blooms. v. 4. To bear flowers; to blossom. Also fig. 5. To be in a healthy, glowing, or flourishing condition. 6. To flourish or grow. 7. To cause to flourish or grow; to flourish. Chiefly fig. blooms, bloomed.**
blur ::: a smudge or smear that partially obscures; indistinctness.
"Body is the outward sign and lowest basis of the apparent division which Nature plunging into ignorance and self-nescience makes the starting-point for the recovery of unity by the individual soul, unity even in the midst of the most exaggerated forms of her multiple consciousness.” The Life Divine
boldness or daring without regard for conventional thought or other restrictions.
breadth ::: 1. The measure or the second largest dimension of a plane or solid figure; width. 2. Freedom from narrowness or restraint; liberality. 3. Tolerance; broadmindedness. breadths.
brevity ::: shortness of time or duration; briefness.
bright ::: 1. Emitting or reflecting light readily or in large amounts; shining; radiant. 2. Magnificent; glorious. 3. Favourable or auspicious. 4. Fig. Characterized by happiness or gladness; full of promise and hope. 5. Distinct and clear to the mind, etc. 6. Intensely clear and vibrant in tone or quality. 7. Polished; glistening as with brilliant color. brighter, brightest, bright-hued, bright-pinioned, flame-bright, moon-bright, pearl-bright, sun-bright.
brightly ::: with brightness; brilliantly.
brightness ::: the state or quality of being bright, luminous.
brilliance ::: extreme brightness or radiance, splendour. brilliances, Brilliances.
bubble ::: anything that lacks firmness, substance, or permanence.
bureau ::: 1. A chest of drawers, especially a dresser for holding clothes, often with a desk top. 2. An office, usually of large organization, that is responsible for a specific duty such as administration, public business, etc.
business ::: 1. One"s rightful or proper concern or interest. 2. A specific occupation or pursuit; an action in which one is engaged.
"But always the whole foundation of the gnostic life must be by its very nature inward and not outward. In the life of the Spirit it is the Spirit, the inner Reality, that has built up and uses the mind, vital being and body as its instrumentation; thought, feeling and action do not exist for themselves, they are not an object, but the means; they serve to express the manifested divine Reality within us: otherwise, without this inwardness, this spiritual origination, in a too externalised consciousness or by only external means, no greater or divine life is possible.” The Life Divine
"But in a higher than our present mental consciousness we find that this duality is only a phenomenal appearance. The highest and real truth of existence is the one Spirit, the supreme Soul, Purushottama, and it is the power of being of this Spirit which manifests itself in all that we experience as universe. This universal Nature is not a lifeless, inert or unconscious mechanism, but informed in all its movements by the universal Spirit. The mechanism of its process is only an outward appearance and the reality is the Spirit creating or manifesting its own being by its own power of being in all that is in Nature. Soul and Nature in us too are only a dual appearance of the one existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
"By Force I mean not mental or vital energy but the Divine Force from above — as peace comes from above and wideness also, so does this Force (Shakti). Nothing, not even thinking or meditating can be done without some action of Force. The Force I speak of is a Force for illumination, transformation, purification, all that has to be done in the yoga, for removal of hostile forces and the wrong movements — it is also of course for external work, whether great or small in appearance does not matter — if that is part of the Divine Will. I do not mean any personal force egoistic or rajasic.” Letters on Yoga
cabbala ::: 1 A body of mystical Jewish teachings based on an interpretation of hidden meanings in the Hebrew Scriptures. Among its central doctrines are, all creation is an emanation from the Deity and the soul exists from eternity. 2. Any secret or occult doctrine or science. 3. "Esoteric system of interpretation of the Hebrew scriptures based on the assumption that every word, letter, number, and accent in them has an occult meaning. The system, oral at first, claimed great antiquity, but was really the product of the Middle Ages, arising in the 7th century and lasting into the 18th. It was popular chiefly among Jews, but spread to Christians as well. (Col. Enc.)” Glossary and Index of Proper Names in Sri Aurobindo"s Works
call ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All Yoga is in its nature a new birth; it is a birth out of the ordinary, the mentalised material life of man into a higher spiritual consciousness and a greater and diviner being. No Yoga can be successfully undertaken and followed unless there is a strong awakening to the necessity of that larger spiritual existence. The soul that is called to this deep and vast inward change, may arrive in different ways to the initial departure. It may come to it by its own natural development which has been leading it unconsciously towards the awakening; it may reach it through the influence of a religion or the attraction of a philosophy; it may approach it by a slow illumination or leap to it by a sudden touch or shock; it may be pushed or led to it by the pressure of outward circumstances or by an inward necessity, by a single word that breaks the seals of the mind or by long reflection, by the distant example of one who has trod the path or by contact and daily influence. According to the nature and the circumstances the call will come.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
calm ::: n. 1. Serenity; tranquillity; peace. 2. Nearly or completely motionless as a condition of no wind. Calm, Calm"s, calms, calmness. adj. 3. Not excited or agitated; composed; tranquil; 4. Without rough motion; still or nearly still. calmer, calm-lipped, stone-calm. *adv. calmly.
Sri Aurobindo: "Calm is a still unmoved condition which no disturbance can affect — it is a less negative condition than quiet.” Letters on Yoga*
"Calm is a positive tranquillity which can exist in spite of superficial disturbances.” *Letters on Yoga
"Calm is a strong and positive quietude, firm and solid — ordinary quietude is mere negation, simply the absence of disturbance.” *Letters on Yoga
"But more powerful still is the giving up of the fruit of one"s works, because that immediately destroys all causes of disturbance and brings and preserves automatically an inner calm and peace, and calm and peace are the foundation on which all else becomes perfect and secure in possession by the tranquil spirit.” Essays on the Gita
The Mother: "Calm is self-possessed strength, quiet and conscious energy, mastery of the impulses, control over the unconscious reflexes.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14*.
cancel ::: 1. To annul, make void or invalidate. 2. To equalize or make up for; offset. 3. To cross out with lines or other markings, making something invalid. cancels, cancelled, cancelling, self-cancelling.
candid ::: 1. Characterized by openness and sincerity of expression; unreservedly straightforward. 2. Free from prejudice; impartial. 3. Clear or pure 4. Not posed or rehearsed.
capital stock ::: accumulated wealth, esp. any of various shares of ownership in a business.
carelessness ::: the quality of not being careful or taking pains; being negligent.
caress ::: n. 1. A gentle touch or gesture of fondness, tenderness, or love. v. 2. To touch or stroke lightly in a loving or endearing manner. caressed, caressing.
cavernous ::: like a cavern in vastness, depth, or hollowness.
"Certainly, ideals are not the ultimate Reality, for that is too high and vast for any ideal to envisage; they are aspects of it thrown out in the world-consciousness as a basis for the workings of the world-power. But they are primary, the actual workings secondary. They are nearer to the Reality and therefore always more real, forcible and complete than the facts which are their partial reflection.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
Certainly, ideals are not the ultimate Reality, for that is too high and vast for any ideal to envisage; they are aspects of it thrown out in the world-consciousness as a basis for the workings of the world-power. But they are primary, the actual workings secondary. They are nearer to the Reality and therefore always more real, forcible and complete than the facts which are their partial reflection. Reflections themselves of the Real, they again are reflected in the more concrete workings of our existence. The Supramental Manifestation
changelessness ::: the quality of being unchangeable; having a marked tendency to remain unchanged.
cheat ::: v. 1. To deceive by trickery; swindle. 2. To mislead; fool. n. **3.** A fraud or swindle; a dishonest trick.
check ::: v. 1. To investigate, examine or verify as to correctness; examine carefully or in detail; to ascertain the truth about. 2. To inspect so as to determine accuracy, authenticity, quality, or other condition; test. checked.* n. *3. A person or thing that stops, limits, slows, or restrains.
cherished ::: treated with affection and tenderness; held dear.
chiaroscuro ::: 1. The arrangement of light and dark elements in a pictorial work of art. 2. *Poetic*: Contrasting sense as in, darkness and light, ‘joy and gloom", ‘praise and blame," etc.
childlike ::: like or befitting a child, as in innocence, trustfulness, or candour.
chrysolites ::: brown or yellow-green olivine found in igneous and metamorphic rocks and used as gemstones such as topaz, etc.
clarities ::: having qualities of clearness, lucidity.
clarity ::: 1. Clearness or lucidity as to perception or understanding; freedom from indistinctness or ambiguity. 2. The state or quality of being clear or transparent to the eye; pellucidity; brightness, splendour.
clear ::: 1. Not obscured or darkened; bright. 2. Free from darkness, obscurity, or cloudiness; transparent. 3. Serene; calm; untroubled. 4. Free from doubt or confusion; certain. 5. Easily perceptible to the eye or ear; distinct. 6. Easily understood; without ambiguity. 7. Free from impediment, obstruction, or hindrance; open. clearer, sun-clear, surface-clear.
clearness ::: purity; transparency.
clumsy or ponderous as in movement or expressiveness.
coarse ::: 1. Composed of relatively large parts or particles. 2. Lacking in fineness or delicacy of texture, structure, etc. Not refined or delicate, rough.
coma ::: a state of deep, often prolonged unconsciousness, usually the result of injury, disease, or poison, in which an individual is incapable of sensing or responding to external stimuli and internal needs.
common ::: 1. Belonging equally to or shared alike by two or more. 2. Of or relating to the community or humanity as a whole. 3. Belonging equally to or shared equally by two or more; joint. 4. Not distinguished by superior or noteworthy characteristics; average; ordinary. 5. Occurring frequently or habitually; usual. commonest.
commonness ::: the quality of being commonplace and ordinary; undistinguished.
commune ::: 1. To communicate intimately with; be in a state of heightened, intimate receptivity. 2. To be in intimate communication or rapport. communes, communed, communing.
complete ::: adj. 1. Having all necessary or normal parts, components, or steps; entire. 2. Thorough; consummate; fully realised. n. completeness. *v. *3. To bring to a finish or an end.
"Concentration means fixing the consciousness in one place or on one object and in a single condition.” Letters on Yoga
"Concentration simply means a fixing of consciousness on something.” Guidance from Sri Aurobindo by Nagin Doshi - Vol. 1
confident ::: 1. Having or showing confidence or certainty; sure. 2. Sure of oneself; having no uncertainty about one"s own abilities, correctness, successfulness, etc.; self-confident; bold.
confine ::: 1. To enclose within bounds, limit, restrict. 2. To shut or keep in; prevent from leaving a place because of imprisonment, illness, discipline, etc. confined.
confines ::: 1. The limits of a space or area; the borders. 2. A bounded scope. 3. Restraining elements.
conscious ::: 1. Having an awareness of one"s environment and one"s own existence, sensations, and thoughts. 2. Conscious implies being awake or awakened to an inner realization of a fact, a truth, a condition. half-conscious, half-consciously.
*consciousforce. ::: Sri Aurobindo: "In actual fact Mind measures Time by event and Space by Matter; but it is possible in pure mentality to disregard the movement of event and the disposition of substance and realise the pure movement of Conscious-Force which constitutes Space and Time; these two are then merely two aspects of the universal force of Consciousness which in their intertwined interaction comprehend the warp and woof of its action upon itself. And to a consciousness higher than Mind which should regard our past, present and future in one view, containing and not contained in them, not situated at a particular moment of Time for its point of prospection, Time might well offer itself as an eternal present. And to the same consciousness not situated at any particular point of Space, but containing all points and regions in itself, Space also might well offer itself as a subjective and indivisible extension, — no less subjective than Time.” The Life Divine
consciousness, cosmic ::: see: cosmic consciousness
::: "Consciousness is not only power of awareness of self and things, it is or has also a dynamic and creative energy. It can determine its own reactions or abstain from reactions; it can not only answer to forces, but create or put out from itself forces. Consciousness is Chit but also Chit Shakti.” Letters on Yoga
::: "Consciousness is usually identified with mind, but mental consciousness is only the human range which no more exhausts all the possible ranges of consciousness than human sight exhausts all the gradations of colour or human hearing all the gradations of sound — for there is much above or below that is to man invisible and inaudible. So there are ranges of consciousness above and below the human range, with which the normal human has no contact and they seem to it unconscious, — supramental or overmental and submental ranges.” *Letters on Yoga
consciousness
::: ‘Consecration" generally has a more mystical sense but this is not absolute. A total consecration signifies a total giving of one"s self; hence it is the equivalent of the word ``surrender"", not of the word (soumission} which always gives the impression that one accepts'' passively. You feel a flame in the wordconsecration"", a flame even greater than in the word offering''. To consecrate oneself isto give oneself to an action""; hence, in the yogic sense, it is to give oneself to some divine work with the idea of accomplishing the divine work.” Questions and Answers, MCW Vol. 4*.
"Consecration is a process by which one trains the consciousness to give itself to the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
context ::: 1. The part of a text or statement that surrounds a particular word or passage and determines its meaning. 2. The set of circumstances or facts that surround a particular event, situation, etc.
contours ::: outlines of figures or bodies, edges or lines that define or bound shapes, objects or forms.
contrived ::: planned with cleverness or ingenuity; devised.
corner ::: 1. The position at which two lines, surfaces, or edges meet and form an angle. 2. The area enclosed or bounded by an angle formed in this manner. 3. A region, part, quarter. 4. A remote, secluded, or secret place. corners, corner-Mind.
corrupt ::: 1. To destroy or subvert the honesty or integrity of. 2. To ruin morally; pervert. 3. To cause to become rotten; spoil. 4. To taint; contaminate. corrupted, corrupting.
cosmic consciousness
cosmic force ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . universal force and universal consciousness are one, — cosmic force is the operation of cosmic consciousness.” *The Life Divine
cosmic mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Nevertheless, the fact of this intervention from above, the fact that behind all our original thinking or authentic perception of things there is a veiled, a half-veiled or a swift unveiled intuitive element is enough to establish a connection between mind and what is above it; it opens a passage of communication and of entry into the superior spirit-ranges. There is also the reaching out of mind to exceed the personal ego limitation, to see things in a certain impersonality and universality. Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; universality, non-limitation by the single or limiting point of view, is the character of cosmic perception and knowledge: this tendency is therefore a widening, however rudimentary, of these restricted mind areas towards cosmicity, towards a quality which is the very character of the higher mental planes, — towards that superconscient cosmic Mind which, we have suggested, must in the nature of things be the original mind-action of which ours is only a derivative and inferior process.” *The Life Divine
"If we accept the Vedic image of the Sun of Truth, . . . we may compare the action of the Higher Mind to a composed and steady sunshine, the energy of the Illumined Mind beyond it to an outpouring of massive lightnings of flaming sun-stuff. Still beyond can be met a yet greater power of the Truth-Force, an intimate and exact Truth-vision, Truth-thought, Truth-sense, Truth-feeling, Truth-action, to which we can give in a special sense the name of Intuition; . . . At the source of this Intuition we discover a superconscient cosmic Mind in direct contact with the supramental Truth-Consciousness, an original intensity determinant of all movements below it and all mental energies, — not Mind as we know it, but an Overmind that covers as with the wide wings of some creative Oversoul this whole lower hemisphere of Knowledge-Ignorance, links it with that greater Truth-Consciousness while yet at the same time with its brilliant golden Lid it veils the face of the greater Truth from our sight, intervening with its flood of infinite possibilities as at once an obstacle and a passage in our seeking of the spiritual law of our existence, its highest aim, its secret Reality.” The Life Divine
"There is one cosmic Mind, one cosmic Life, one cosmic Body. All the attempt of man to arrive at universal sympathy, universal love and the understanding and knowledge of the inner soul of other existences is an attempt to beat thin, breach and eventually break down by the power of the enlarging mind and heart the walls of the ego and arrive nearer to a cosmic oneness.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"[The results of the opening to the cosmic Mind:] One is aware of the cosmic Mind and the mental forces that move there and how they work on one"s mind and that of others and one is able to deal with one"s own mind with a greater knowledge and effective power. There are many other results, but this is the fundamental one.” Letters on Yoga
"The cosmic consciousness has many levels — the cosmic physical, the cosmic vital, the cosmic Mind, and above the higher planes of cosmic Mind there is the Intuition and above that the overmind and still above that the supermind where the Transcendental begins. In order to live in the Intuition plane (not merely to receive intuitions), one has to live in the cosmic consciousness because there the cosmic and individual run into each other as it were, and the mental separation between them is already broken down, so nobody can reach there who is still in the separative ego.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmic Self ::: Sri Aurobindo: "When one has the cosmic consciousness, one can feel the cosmic Self as one"s own self, one can feel one with other beings in the cosmos, one can feel all the forces of Nature as moving in oneself, all selves as one"s own self. There is no why except that it is so, since all is the One.” Letters on Yoga (See also Cosmic Spirit)
"Impersonality is the first character of cosmic self; . . . .” *The Life Divine
"An eternal infinite self-existence is the supreme reality, but the supreme transcendent eternal Being, Self and Spirit, — an infinite Person, we may say, because his being is the essence and source of all personality, — is the reality and meaning of self-existence: so too the cosmic Self, Spirit, Being, Person is the reality and meaning of cosmic existence; the same Self, Spirit, Being or Person manifesting its multiplicity is the reality and meaning of individual existence.” The Life Divine
"But this cosmic self is spiritual in essence and in experience; it must not be confused with the collective existence, with any group soul or the life and body of a human society or even of all mankind.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"It is the Cosmic Self and Spirit that is in and behind all things and beings, from which and in which all is manifested in the universe — although it is now a manifestation in the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga*
cosmic Truth ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Cosmic Truth is the view on things of a cosmic consciousness in which things are seen in their true essence and their true relation to the Divine and to each other.” *Letters on Yoga
cover ::: n. 1. Fig. Something, such as darkness, that screens, conceals, or disguises. v. 2. To spread over a surface to protect or conceal or warm something. 3. To hide from view or knowledge; conceal. covers, covered, covering.
crave ::: 1. To have an intense desire for. 2. To need urgently; require. 3. To beg earnestly for; implore. craves, craved, craving.
creepered ::: covered with vines (creepers).
creepers ::: plants that spread by means of stems that creep or climb; vines.
criss-cross ::: a mark, pattern or network made of crossing lines.
crooked ::: 1. Bent, angled or winding; deformed or contorted. 2. Dishonest or unscrupulous; fraudulent; perverse.
crookedness ::: fig. The quality of being deceitful and underhanded.
cross ::: 1. A structure consisting essentially of an upright and a transverse piece, upon which persons were formerly put to a cruel and ignominious death by being nailed or otherwise fastened to it by their extremities. 2. A representation or delineation of a cross on any surface, varying in elaborateness from two lines crossing each other to an ornamental design painted, embroidered, carved, etc.; used as a sacred mark, symbol, badge, or the like. 3. A trouble, vexation, annoyance; misfortune, adversity; sometimes anything that thwarts or crosses. v. 4. To go or extend across; pass from one side of to the other: pass over. 5. To extend or pass through or over; intersect. 6. To encounter in passing. crosses, crossed, crossing.
crouch ::: 1. To stoop, especially with the knees bent esp. in fear, humility or submission. 2. (of animals) to lie close to the ground, in fear, readiness for action etc. crouches, crouched, crouching.
cunning ::: 1. Skill or adeptness in execution or performance; dexterity. 2. Artfully subtle or shrewd. 3. Cunning implies a shrewd, often instinctive skill in concealing or disguising the real purposes of one"s actions. cunningly.
cup ::: 1. A small open container, usually with a flat bottom and a handle, used for drinking, or something resembling it. cup"s 2. *Fig.* Something that one must endure; one"s lot to be experienced or endured with pain or happiness, as these lines in Savitri:
curious ::: 1. Eager to learn more. 2. Arousing interest because of novelty or strangeness.
cynic ::: 1. A person who believes all people are motivated by selfishness and whose outlook is scornfully and often habitually negative. 2. *adj. *Bitterly or sneeringly distrustful, contemptuous, or pessimistic.
dare ::: 1. To have the boldness and courage to try; venture; hazard; risk. 2. To meet defiantly; face courageously. dares, dared, daring.
daring ::: n. 1. Adventurous courage; boldness. daring"s. adj. 2. Bold or courageous; fearless or intrepid; adventurous.
dark ::: adj. 1. Lacking or having very little light. 2. Concealed or secret; mysterious. 3. Difficult to understand; obscure. 4. Characterized by gloom; dismal. 5. Fig. Sinister; evil; absent moral or spiritual values. 6. (used of color) Having a dark hue; almost black. 7. Showing a brooding ill humor. 8. Having a complexion that is not fair; swarthy. darker, darkest, dark-browed, dark-robed.* n. 9. Absence of light; dark state or condition; darkness, esp. that of night. 10. A dark place: a place of darkness. 11. The condition of being hidden from view, obscure, or unknown; obscurity. *in the dark: in concealment or secrecy.
darkness ::: 1. Absence of light or illumination. 2. Fig. Absence of moral or spiritual values. 3. Obscurity; lack of knowledge or enlightenment; an unenlightened state. 4. A condition of secrecy, mystery, characterized by things hidden. 5. Wickedness or evil. Darkness, darkness", darknesses.
darkness, the giant sons of
dear ::: 1. Precious in one"s regard; cherished. 2. Loved and cherished: Highly esteemed or regarded. 3. Heartfelt; earnest. dearer, dearest.
deathbound ::: also **death-bound. ::: **"A deathbound littleness is not all we are:”
deep ::: n. 1. A vast extent, as of space or time; an abyss. 2. Fig. Difficult to penetrate; incomprehensible to one of ordinary understanding or knowledge; as an unfathomable thought, idea, esp. poetic. Deep, deep"s, deeps. adj. 3. Extending far downward below a surface. 4. Having great spatial extension or penetration downward or inward from an outer surface or backward or laterally or outward from a center; sometimes used in combination. 5. Coming from or penetrating to a great depth. 6. Situated far down, in, or back. 7. Lying below the surface; not superficial; profound. 8. Of great intensity; as extreme deep happiness, deep trouble. 9. Absorbing; engrossing. 10. Grave or serious. 11. Profoundly or intensely. 12. Mysterious; obscure; difficult to penetrate or understand. 13. Low in pitch or tone. 14. Profoundly cunning, crafty or artful. 15. The central and most intense or profound part; "in the deep of night”; "in the deep of winter”. deeper, deepest, deep-browed, deep-caved, deep-concealed, deep-etched, deep-fraught, deep-guarded, deep-hid, deep-honied, deep-pooled, deep-thoughted. *adv. *16. to a great depth psychologically or profoundly.
defied ::: opposed or resisted with boldness and assurance; unaffected by; resisted or withstood. defying.
delicacy ::: fineness of appearance, construction or execution; elegance.
delirium ::: 1. A more or less temporary disorder of the mental faculties, as in fevers, disturbances of consciousness, or intoxication, characterised by restlessness, excitement, delusions, hallucinations, etc. 2. A state of violent excitement or emotion.
deliver ::: 1. To give into another"s possession or keeping; surrender. 2. To set free or liberate; emancipate, release. 3. To rescue or save. 4. To assist (a female) in bringing forth young. 5. To disburden (oneself) of thoughts, opinions, etc. delivered, delivering, deliverers.
depth ::: 1. The quality of a state of consciousness. 2. Beyond one"s knowledge or capability. 3. Emotional intensity, profundity. 4. The quality of being deep; deepness. 5. Complexity or profundity. 6. The extent, measurement, or distance downwards, backwards, or inwards. depths, depths", spirit-depths, wave-depths.
desperate ::: actuated by a feeling of hopelessness; that leaves little or no room for hope; such as to be despaired of; extremely dangerous or serious.
destiny ::: 1. Something that is to happen or has happened to a particular person or thing; lot or fortune. 2. The predetermined, usually inevitable or irresistible, course of events. 3. The power or agency that determines the course of events. 4. *(Cap.) This power personified or represented as a goddess. *Destiny, destinies, world-destiny.
detached ::: 1. Impartial or objective; disinterested; unbiased. 2. Not involved or concerned; aloof. ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Detachment means that one stands back from [imperfections and weakness of the nature, etc.] , does not identify oneself with them or get upset or troubled because they are there, but rather looks on them as something foreign to one"s true consciousness and true self, rejects them and calls in the Mother"s Force into these movements to eliminate them and bring the true consciousness and its movements there.” Letters on Yoga
determined ::: 1. Settled, decided, resolved. 2. Caused, effected, or controlled. determines, determining, name-determined.
dialect ::: 1. The manner or style of expressing oneself in language. 2. A form of a language that is considered inferior.
difference ::: 1. The quality or condition of being unlike or dissimilar. 2. An instance of disparity or unlikeness. differences.
diligent ::: quietly and steadily persevering especially in detail or exactness while serving others.
dim ::: 1. Obscure to the mind or the senses. 2. Not clearly seen; indistinct; faint. 3. Having weak or indistinct vision. 4. Faintly outlined; indistinct. 5. Lacking in brightness. v. 1. To cause to seem less bright, as by comparison. 2. Make dim or lusterless. dimly, dim-eyed, dim-heart, dim-hearted, dim-masked, dim-souled.
dimension ::: 1. A property of space; extension in a given direction; extension in time. 2. Measurement in length, width and thickness; scope, importance. dimensions.
dimmed ::: v.**1. Made or became dim; lost brightness. Also fig. adj. 2. Not brilliant; dull in lustre. 3.** Dulled; indistinct; not seen clearly or in detail as of sight or vision.
dimming ::: making or becoming dim, lacking sharpness or brightness; indistinct; obscure to the mind or the senses.
dimness ::: the quality of being dim; lacking sharpness or clarity of understanding or perception.
dines ::: takes a meal.
dingy ::: 1. Of a dark, dull, or dirty colour or aspect; lacking brightness or freshness. 2. Shabby; dismal.
dionysian ::: 1. Of or relating Dionysus, the Greek god of wine, fruitfulness, and vegetation, worshipped in orgiastic rites and festivals in his name. He was also known as the bestower of ecstasy and god of the drama, and identified with Bacchus. 2. Recklessly uninhibited; unrestrained.
dips ::: 1. Plunges briefly into water or another liquid and removes quickly. 2. Sinks or drops down, or below a particular level, as if dipping into water; goes down, sinks, sets. 3. Has a downward inclination; inclines or slopes downwards; is inclined to the horizon. dipped, dipping.
discernment ::: **The act or process of exhibiting keen insight and keen perception; acuteness of judgement, discrimination and understanding. discernment"s.**
disciples ::: those who are pupils or adherents of the doctrines of another; followers.
disciplines ::: branches of knowledge as well as training for the improvement of physical powers, self-control, etc.
discord ::: 1. An inharmonious combination of musical tones sounded together. 2. Lack of concord or harmony between persons or things. discords.
disengage ::: 1. To release from something that holds fast, connects, or entangles. 2. To free or detach oneself; withdraw. disengaging.
disquieting ::: causing anxiety or uneasiness; disturbing.
dissects ::: examines minutely part by part, to analyze.
distance ::: 1. The extent of space between two objects or the fact or condition of being apart in space; remoteness. 2. The interval between two points of time; an extent of time. 3. Separation or remoteness in relationship; disparity. distances.
divine ::: adj. **1. Of or pertaining to God or the Supreme Being. 2. Of, relating to, emanating from, or being the expression of a deity. 3. Being in the service or worship of a deity; sacred. 4. Heavenly, celestial. 5. Supremely good or beautiful; magnificent. diviner, divinest, divinely, half-divine. v. 6. To perceive by intuition or insight. divines, divined, divining.**
divine life ::: Sri Aurobindo: "A life of gnostic beings carrying the evolution to a higher supramental status might fitly be characterised as a divine life; for it would be a life in the Divine, a life of the beginnings of a spiritual divine light and power and joy manifested in material Nature.” *The Life Divine ::: "The ascent to the divine Life is the human journey, the Work of works, the acceptable Sacrifice. This alone is man"s real business in the world and the justification of his existence, without which he would be only an insect crawling among other ephemeral insects on a speck of surface mud and water which has managed to form itself amid the appalling immensities of the physical universe.” The Life Divine
divine love ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Divine Love, in my view of it, is again not something ethereal, cold and far, but a love absolutely intense, intimate and full of unity, closeness and rapture using all the nature for its expression.” *Letters on Yoga
divine Mother ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The One whom we adore as the Mother is the divine Conscious Force that dominates all existence, one and yet so many-sided that to follow her movement is impossible even for the quickest mind and for the freest and most vast intelligence. The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Supreme and far above all she creates.” *The Mother
divine Reality ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Divine Reality is infinite in its being; in this infinite being, we find limited being everywhere, — that is the apparent fact from which our existence here seems to start and to which our own narrow ego and its ego-centric activities bear constant witness. But, in reality, when we come to an integral self-knowledge, we find that we are not limited, for we also are infinite.” *The Life Divine
dizzy ::: causing giddiness or confusion.
dogmas ::: prescribed doctrines proclaimed as unquestionably true by a particular group and authoritatively laid down.
doubt ::: n. 1. Lack of belief in or conviction about something. v. 2. To be undecided or skeptical about: tend to disbelieve or distrust. doubts, doubting, doubtful, doubtfully, doubtfulness.
dove ::: 1. Any bird of the family Columbid, esp. the smaller species with pointed tails. 2. A pure white member of this species, used as a symbol of innocence, gentleness, tenderness, and peace. dove"s, doves.
drab ::: 1. Dull; cheerless; lacking in spirit, brightness, etc. 2. Dull grey; dull browning or yellowish grey. drab-hued.
dragon of the dark foundation ::: Sri Aurobindo: "All this action and struggle and ascension is supported by Heaven our Father and Earth our Mother, Parents of the Gods, who sustain respectively the purely mental and psychic and the physical consciousness. Their large and free scope is the condition of our achievement. Vayu, Master of life, links them together by the mid-air, the region of vital force. And there are other deities, — Parjanya, giver of the rain of heaven; Dadhikravan, the divine war-horse, a power of Agni; the mystic Dragon of the Foundations; Trita Aptya who on the third plane of existence consummates our triple being; and more besides.” The Secret of the Veda
draw ::: 1. To cause to move in a given direction or to a given position, as by leading. 2. To bring towards oneself or itself, as by inherent force or influence; attract. 3. To cause to come by attracting; attract. 4. To cause to move in a particular direction by or as by a pulling force; pull; drag. 5. To get, take or obtain as from a source; to derive. 6. To bring, take, or pull out, as from a receptacle or source. 7. To draw a (or the) line (fig.) to determine or define the limit between two things or groups; in modern colloquial use (esp. with at), to lay down a definite limit of action beyond which one refuses to go. 8. To make, sketch (a picture or representation of someone or something) in lines or words; to design, trace out, delineate; depict; also, to mould, model. 9. To mark or lay out; trace. 10. To compose or write out in legal format. 11. To write out (a bill of exchange or promissory note). 12. To disembowel. 13. To move or pull so as to cover or uncover something. 14. To suck or take in (air, for example); inhale. 15. To extend, lengthen, prolong, protract. 16. To cause to move after or toward one by applying continuous force; drag. draws, drew, drawn, drawing, wide-drawn.
drawing ::: a picture or plan made by means of lines on a surface, esp. one made with a pencil or pen without the use of colour; a sketch, plan or outline.
dream ::: 1. A series of images, ideas, emotions, and sensations occurring involuntarily in the mind during certain stages of sleep. 2. A vision occurring to a person while awake. 3. A person or thing that is as pleasant, or seemingly unreal, as a dream 4. An ideal or aspiration; goal; aim. 5. A wild or vain fancy. Dream, dream"s, Dream"s, dreams, dream-brood, dream-brush, dream-built, dream-caught, dream-fact, dream-fate, dream-god"s, dream-happiness, dream-hued, dream-life, dream-light, dream-made, dream-mind, dream-notes, dream-print, dream-sculptured, dream-shores, dream-smiles, dream-splendour, dream-truth, dream-vasts, dream-white, dream-world, half-dream, self-dream, sun-dream, world-dream. *adj. 6. Of a colour: misty, dim, or cloudy. v. 7. To have an image (of) or fantasy (about) in or as if in a dream. dreams, dreamed, *dreaming.
drive ::: v. 1. To impel; constrain; urge; compel. 2. To manoeuvre, guide or steer the progress of. 3. To impel (matter) by physical force; to cause (something) to move along by direct application of physical force; to propel, carry along. 4. To send, expel, or otherwise cause to move away or out by force or compulsion. 5. To strive vigorously and with determination toward a goal or objective. 6. To cause and guide the movement of (a vehicle, an animal, etc.). n. 7. A strong organized effort to accomplish a purpose, with energy, push or aggressiveness. 8. Impulse; impulsive force. adj. 9. Urged onward, impelled. 10. Pertaining to an inner urge that stimulates activity or inhibition. drives, drove, drov"st, driving, driven.
drowse ::: a sleepy condition; the state of being half asleep; sluggishness, lethargy, torpor. drowsy, half-drowse, world-drowse.
dull ::: adj. **1. Causing boredom; tedious; uninteresting. 2. Not brisk or rapid; sluggish. 3. Lacking responsiveness or alertness; insensitive. 4. Not clear and resonant; sounding as if striking with or against something relatively soft. 5. (of color) Very low in saturation; highly diluted; 6. Slow to learn or understand; lacking intellectual acuity. duller, dull-eyed, dull-hued, dull-visioned. v. 7. To make numb or insensitive. 8. To make or become dull or sluggish. 9. To make less lively or vigorous. dulls, dulled.**
dully ::: without liveliness; sluggish.
dumb ::: 1. Lacking the power of speech. 2. Producing no sound; silent; mute. dumbness.
dumbness ::: the condition of lacking the power of speech; being dumb; muteness.
dusk ::: n. **1. The state or period of partial darkness between day and night; the dark part of twilight. 2. Partial darkness; shade; gloom. Dusk. adj. 3. Poetic. shady; gloomy. dusky.**
"Each inner experience is perfectly real in its own way, although the values of different experiences differ greatly, but it is real with the reality of the inner self and the inner planes. It is a mistake to think that we live physically only, with the outer mind and life. We are all the time living and acting on other planes of consciousness, meeting others there and acting upon them, and what we do and feel and think there, the forces we gather, the results we prepare have an incalculable importance and effect, unknown to us, upon our outer life.” Letters on Yoga
"Each person follows in the world his own line of destiny which is determined by his own nature and actions — the meaning and necessity of what happens in a particular life cannot be understood except in the light of the whole course of many lives. But this can be seen by those who can get beyond the ordinary mind and feelings and see things as a whole, that even errors, misfortunes, calamities are steps in the journey, — the soul gathering experience as it passes through and beyond them until it is ripe for the transition which will carry it beyond these things to a higher consciousness and higher life.” Letters on Yoga*
earthiness ::: fig. Grossly material, coarse, dull, unrefined.
earthly ::: 1. Terrestrial; not heavenly or divine. 2. Worldly. earthliness.
edged ::: 1. Having or provided with an edge or border. ::: 2. Having a cutting edge or especially an edge or edges as specified (often used in combination). 3. keen-edged. Sharpness with reference to the mind.
edge ::: n. 1. A dividing line; a border. Also fig. 2. Poet. A thin, sharpened side, as of the blade of a cutting instrument. 3. Fig. A brink or verge. 4. Sharpness or keenness of language, argument, tone of voice, appetite, desire, etc. flame-edge. *v. 5. To put a border or edge on . 6. Fig. To give keenness, sharpness, or urgency to. *edging.
efface ::: 1. To wipe out; do away with; expunge. 2. To rub out, erase, or obliterate (outlines, traces, inscriptions, etc.). 3. To make (oneself) inconspicuous; withdraw (oneself). effaced, effacing.
elaborate ::: 1. Worked out with great care and nicety of detail; executed with great minuteness. 2. Marked by intricate and often excessive detail; complicated.
elfin ::: suggestive of an elf in strangeness and otherworldliness; in reference to legendary beings with magical powers, usually characterized as small, manlike, and mischievous.
elude ::: 1. To avoid or escape by speed, cleverness, trickery, etc.; evade. 2. To escape the understanding, perception, or appreciation of. eludes.
elysian ::: of the nature of, or resembling, what is in Elysium the dwelling place of the blessed after death, a state or place of ideal happiness, perfect bliss.
emotion ::: 1. An affective state of consciousness in which joy, sorrow, fear, hate, or the like, is experienced, as distinguished from cognitive or volitional states of consciousness. Also abstract ‘feeling" as distinguished from the other classes of mental phenomena. 2. A state of mental agitation or disturbance. **emotion"s, emotions.
emptiness ::: 1. The state of containing nothing. 2. An empty area or space; a vacuum.
"Emptiness is not in itself a bad condition, only if it is a sad and restless emptiness of the dissatisfied vital. In sadhana emptiness is very usually a necessary transition from one state to another. When mind and vital fall quiet and their restless movements, thoughts and desires cease, then one feels empty. This is at first often a neutral emptiness with nothing in it, nothing in it either good or bad, happy or unhappy, no impulse or movement. This neutral state is often or even usually followed by the opening to inner experience. There is also an emptiness made of peace and silence, when the peace and silence come out from the psychic within or descend from the higher consciousness above. This is not neutral, for in it there is the sense of peace, often also of wideness and freedom. There is also a happy emptiness with the sense of something close or drawing near which is not yet there, e.g. the closeness of the Mother or some other preparing experience.” Letters on Yoga*
engine ::: 1. An agent, instrument, or means of accomplishment. 2. Any instrument or device. engines.
engross ::: 1. To devote (oneself) fully to; consume all of one"s attention or time. 2. To acquire the entire use of, take altogether to itself; to occupy entirely, monopolise. engrossed, engrossing.
enhanced ::: made greater, increased or intensified, as in value, beauty, or effectiveness; augmented.
enjoy ::: 1. To receive pleasure or satisfaction from; take delight in. 2. To find or experience pleasure for (oneself). enjoyed, enjoying.
ennui ::: a feeling of utter weariness and discontent resulting from satiety or lack of interest; boredom.
ensnare ::: 1. To catch or trap in a snare. 2. To trap or gain power over someone by dishonest or underhand means.
entreated ::: asked (a person) earnestly; beseeched; implored.
envy ::: a feeling of discontent or covetousness with regard to another"s advantages, success, possessions, etc.; longing to possess something awarded to or achieved by another.
episode ::: 1. An incident in the course of a series of events, in a person"s life or experience, etc. 2. One of a number of loosely connected, but usually thematically related, scenes or stories constituting a literary work.
"Equality is the chief support of the true spiritual consciousness and it is this from which a sadhak deviates when he allows a vital movement to carry him away in feeling or speech or action. Equality is not the same thing as forbearance, — though undoubtedly a settled equality immensely extends, even illimitably, a man"s power of endurance and forbearance. Letters on Yoga
". . . equality is the sign of unity with the Brahman, of becoming Brahman, of growing into an undisturbed spiritual poise of being in the Infinite. Its importance can hardly be exaggerated; for it is the sign of our having passed beyond the egoistic determinations of our nature, of our having conquered our enslaved response to the dualities, of our having transcended the shifting turmoil of the gunas, of our having entered into the calm and peace of liberation. Equality is a term of consciousness which brings into the whole of our being and nature the eternal tranquillity of the Infinite.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
::: Equality means a quiet and unmoved mind and vital, it means not to be touched or disturbed by things that happen or things said or done to you, but to look at them with a straight look, free from the distortions created by personal feeling, and to try to understand what is behind them, why they happen, what is to be learnt from them, what is it in oneself which they are cast against and what inner profit or progress one can make out of them; it means self-mastery over the vital movements, — anger and sensitiveness and pride as well as desire and the rest, — not to let them get hold of the emotional being and disturb the inner peace, not to speak and act in the rush and impulsion of these things, always to act and speak out of a calm inner poise of the spirit.” *Letters on Yoga
equality ::: the condition of being equal; sameness; uniformity. equality"s.
error ::: 1. A wrong action attributable to bad judgment or ignorance or inattention; a deviation from accuracy or correctness. 2. The act or an instance of deviating from an accepted code of behaviour. **error"s, errors, errorless.
espouse ::: to take to oneself, make one"s own (a cause, quarrel, etc.); to adopt, embrace (a doctrine, opinion, theory, profession, mode of life).
ethereal ::: 1. Of the celestial spheres; heavenly. 2. Characterized by lightness and insubstantiality; as impalpable or intangible as air. 3. Characterized by unusual lightness and delicacy 4. Of heaven or the spirit. ethereal-tressed.
ethics ::: 1. A system of moral principles. 2. The branch of philosophy dealing with values relating to human conduct, with respect to the rightness and wrongness of certain actions and to the goodness and badness of the motives and ends of such actions. **ethics".
eudaemonised ::: made happy. In ethics, the view that the ultimate justification of virtuous activity is happiness. Virtuous activity may be conceived as a means to happiness, or well-being, or as partly constitutive of it.
evanescent ::: 1. Vanishing; fading away; fleeting. 2. Tending to become imperceptible; scarcely perceptible.
::: "Even Science believes that one day death may be conquered by physical means and its reasonings are perfectly sound. There is no reason why the supramental Force should not do it. Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
everlasting ::: lasting for ever; eternal. everlastingness. ::: the Everlasting. God, the Eternal. the Everlasting"s.
everlastingness ::: absolute eternity, without beginning or end.
". . . evil is the fruit of a spiritual ignorance and it will disappear only by the growth of a spiritual consciousness and the light of spiritual knowledge.” The Life Divine
"Evolution is an inverse action of the involution: what is an ultimate and last derivation in the involution is the first to appear in the evolution; what was original and primal in the involution is in the evolution the last and supreme emergence.” The Life Divine ::: "Evolution, as we see it in this world, is a slow and difficult process and, indeed, needs usually ages to reach abiding results; but this is because it is in its nature an emergence from inconscient beginnings, a start from nescience and a working in the ignorance of natural beings by what seems to be an unconscious force. There can be, on the contrary, an evolution in the light and no longer in the darkness, in which the evolving being is a conscious participant and cooperator, and this is precisely what must take place here.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
evolution ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Evolution is nothing but the progressive unfolding of spirit out of the density of material consciousness and the gradual self-revelation of God out of this apparent animal being.” *The Hour of God
exchange ::: the act, process or an instance of exchanging; interchange, trade, traffic, business, commerce. Exchange.
::: "Experiences are of all kinds and take all forms in the consciousness. When the consciousness undergoes, sees or feels anything spiritual or psychic or even occult, that is an experience — in the technical yogic sense, for there are of course all sorts of experiences that are not of that character.” Letters on Yoga
exploits ::: acts or deeds, especially brilliant or heroic ones.
extravagance ::: unrestrained or fantastic excess, as of actions or opinions; lavishness.
eyrie ::: the nest of an eagle or other bird of prey, built in a high inaccessible place.
faintness
::: "Faith is the soul"s witness to something not yet manifested, achieved or realised, but which yet the Knower within us, even in the absence of all indications, feels to be true or supremely worth following or achieving.” *Letters on Yoga
fastened or tied; tethered; harnessed.
fastness
fathomless ::: 1. Impossible to measure the depth of; bottomless. 2. Impossible to understand; incomprehensible. fathomlessness.
fatigue ::: weariness from exertion.
feeble ::: 1. Lacking in volume, loudness, brightness, distinctness, etc. 2. Lacking in force, strength or effectiveness.
felicitous ::: 1. Marked by happiness or good fortune. 2. Exhibiting an agreeably appropriate manner or style. felicitously
felicity ::: an instance of great happiness; bliss. felicity"s, felicities.
fight ::: n. 1. Fig. A confrontation between opposing groups in which each attempts to harm or gain power over the other, as with bodily force or weapons. fights. v. 2. To contend with physically or in battle; attempt to defend oneself against or to subdue, defeat, or destroy an adversary. fighting, fought.
figure ::: n. 1. The form or shape of anything; appearance, aspect. 2. The human form, esp. as regards size or shape. 3. A representation or likeness of the human form.4. An emblem, type, symbol. 5. An amount or value expressed in numbers. 6. A written symbol other than a letter. v. 7. To compute or calculate. 8. To represent by a pictorial or sculptured figure, a diagram, or the like; picture or depict. 9. To shape to; symbolize; represent. figures, figured, figuring, figure-selves.**
filth ::: 1. Foul or dirty matter. 2. Extreme physical or moral uncleanliness; pollution.
finality ::: the state, quality, or fact of being final; conclusiveness or decisiveness.
fineness ::: the state or quality of being fine, esp. of immaterial things.
finite ::: 1. Having bounds; limited. 2. Subject to limitations or conditions, as of space, time, circumstances, or the laws of nature. finite"s, finiteness.
firm ::: 1. Resistant to externally applied pressure. 2. Not subject to change; fixed and definite.; not likely to change. 3. Securely fixed in place. 4. Steadfast and determined. 5. Indicating firmness and steadfastness. 6. Definitely established; decided; settled. firm-based.
flash ::: n.** 1. A brief, sudden burst of bright light. 2. A sudden thought, insight, inspiration, or vision. 3. A momentary brightness. 4. A very brief moment; instant. flashes, lightening-flash. v. 5. To move or proceed rapidly. 6. To communicate or reveal through flashes. 7. To appear or occur suddenly; come into perception. 8. To cause to flash, as powder by ignition or a sword by waving. flashes, flashed, flashing.**
folly ::: 1. Lack of good sense, understanding, or foresight. 2. An act or instance of foolishness. follies.
footmark ::: a mark or trace of mud, wetness, etc., left by a person"s foot on a surface.
::: " . . . for Dawn is the illumination of the Truth rising upon the mentality to bring the day of full consciousness into the darkness or half-lit night of our being.” The Secret of the Veda
forego ::: to abstain from, go without, deny to oneself; to let go or pass, omit to take or use; to give up, part with, relinquish, renounce, resign. foregone.
foreknowledge ::: knowledge or awareness of something before its existence or occurrence; prescience.
"For good is all that helps the individual and the world towards their divine fullness, and evil is all that retards or breaks up that increasing perfection.” The Synthesis of Yoga ::: *goodness.
"For Life is Force and Force is Power and Power is Will and Will is the working of the Master-Consciousness.” The Life Divine
formless ::: having no definite form; shapeless. Also fig. Formless (Sri Aurobindo also employs the word as a n.), formlessness, formlessly.
"Forms on earth do not last (they do in other planes) because these forms are too rigid to grow expressing the progress of the spirit. If they become plastic enough to do that there is no reason why they should not last.” Letters on Yoga
"For the essence of consciousness is the power to be aware of itself and its objects, . . . .” The Life Divine
"For the main business of the heart, its true function is love. It is our destined instrument of complete union and oneness; for to see oneness in the world by the understanding is not enough unless we also feel it with the heart and in the psychic being, and this means a delight in the One and in all existences in the world in him, a love of God and all beings. The heart"s faith and will in good are founded on a perception of the one Divine immanent in all things and leading the world.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
"For we have seen that universal force and universal consciousness are one, — cosmic force is the operation of cosmic consciousness.” The Life Divine*
foul ::: offensive to the senses; revolting. foulness.
frank ::: direct; ingenuous, open, sincere; undisguised; straightforward. frankness.
fullness ::: completeness or entirety.
giant sons of Darkness, the
glad ::: 1. Accompanied by or causing joy or pleasure. 2. Feeling joy or pleasure; delighted; pleased. 3. Experiencing or exhibiting joy and pleasure. 4. Filled with happiness pleased; contented. gladness, self-glad.
gloom ::: total or partial darkness; dimness often used to describe depression or melancholy. gloom"s, glooms, gloomy.
glory ::: n. 1. Majestic and radiant beauty and splendour; resplendence. 2. Great honour, praise, or distinction accorded by common consent; renown. 3. A state of extreme happiness or exaltation. 4. A state of absolute happiness; gratification. Glory, glory"s, glories, self-glory. v. 5. Rejoice proudly (usually followed by in). glories, gloried, glorying.
gloss ::: 1. A surface shininess or luster. 2. A superficially or deceptively attractive appearance. 3. An misleading interpretation or explanation.
godhead ::: Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the Godhead is all that is universe and all that is in the universe and all that is more than the universe. The Gita lays stress first on his supracosmic existence. For otherwise the mind would miss its highest goal and remain turned towards the cosmic only or else attached to some partial experience of the Divine in the cosmos. It lays stress next on his universal existence in which all moves and acts. For that is the justification of the cosmic effort and that is the vast spiritual self-awareness in which the Godhead self-seen as the Time-Spirit does his universal works. Next it insists with a certain austere emphasis on the acceptance of the Godhead as the divine inhabitant in the human body. For he is the Immanent in all existences, and if the indwelling divinity is not recognised, not only will the divine meaning of individual existence be missed, the urge to our supreme spiritual possibilities deprived of its greatest force, but the relations of soul with soul in humanity will be left petty, limited and egoistic. Finally, it insists at great length on the divine manifestation in all things in the universe and affirms the derivation of all that is from the nature, power and light of the one Godhead.” *Essays on the Gita
"God is the All and that which exceeds, transcends the All; there is nothing in existence which is not God but God is not anything in that existence, except symbolically, in image to His own consciousness.” The Life Divine
golden Sphinx ::: Sri Aurobindo: "…the luminous veiled Sphinx of the infinite Consciousness and eternal Wisdom.” The Life Divine
grace ::: Sri Aurobindo: "Grace is something spontaneous which wells out from the Divine Consciousness as a free flow of its being. ::: It is a power that is superior to any rule, even to the Cosmic Law — for all spiritual seers have distinguished between the Law and Grace. Yet it is not indiscriminate — only it has a discrimination of its own which sees things and persons and the right times and seasons with another vision than that of the Mind or any other normal Power. A state of Grace is prepared in the individual often behind thick veils by means not calculable by the mind and when the state of Grace comes, then the Grace itself acts. ” *Letters on Yoga
gracious ::: 1. Characterized by kindness and warm courtesy. 2. Pleasantly kind, benevolent, and courteous; charming and elegant. 3. Tender, mild, gentle. 4. Of a merciful or compassionate nature.
grandeur ::: 1. Nobility or greatness of character. 2. The quality of being magnificent or splendid or grand. Grandeur, grandeur"s, grandeurs.
grandiose ::: characterized by greatness of scope or intent; grand.
grey ::: 1. A neutral tone, intermediate between black and white, that has no hue and reflects and transmits only a little light. 2.* Fig. Dismal or dark, esp. from lack of light; gloomy. 3. Dull, dreary or monotonous. 4. Used often in reference to twilight or a gloomy or an overcast day. greyer, grey-eyed, grey-hued, silver-grey. n. *greyness.
grief ::: 1. Deep or intense sorrow or distress, esp. at the death of someone. 2. Something that causes great unhappiness. grief"s, griefs, griefless.
grudging ::: displaying or reflecting unwillingness, reluctance; resentfulness, envy.
hang ::: 1. To fasten or attach (pictures, etc.) to a wall. 2. To suspend (something) around or in front of anything. 3.* Fig. To remain unresolved or uncertain. 4. To make (an idea, form, etc.) dependent on the situation, structure, concept, or the like, usually derived from another source. 5. To fasten or be fastened from above, esp. by a cord, chain, etc.; suspend. 6. To be suspended or poised; hover. 7. To bend forward or downward; to lean over. *hangs, hung, hanging, flower-hung, shadow-hung. ::: hung on: Remained clinging, usually implying expectation or unwillingness to sever one"s connection.
haphazard ::: characterized by lack of order or planning, by irregularity, or by randomness; determined by or dependent on chance; aimless.
harmony ::: 1. A pleasing combination of elements in a whole. 2. Agreement in feeling or opinion; accord. 3. Combination of sounds considered pleasing to the ear. 4. A simultaneous combination of tones, esp. when blended into chords pleasing to the ear; chordal structure, as distinguished from melody and rhythm. harmony"s, harmonies, harmonious, harmoniously.
harnessed ::: brought under conditions for effective use; gained control over for a particular end.
haste ::: n. 1. Swiftness of motion; speed; hurry, rush. v. 2. To move or act swiftly; hurry. ::: to make haste: To hurry.
haunting ::: remaining in the consciousness; not quickly forgotten.
haunt ::: n. 1. A place frequently visited. haunts. v. 2. To recur persistently to the consciousness of; remain with. 3. To visit often; frequent. 4. To inhabit, visit, or appear to in the form of a ghost or other supernatural being. haunts, haunted.
haze ::: 1. An aggregation in the atmosphere of very fine, widely dispersed, solid or liquid particles, or both, giving the air an opalescent appearance that subdues colours. 2. Reduced visibility in the air as a result of condensed water vapour, dust, etc., in the atmosphere. 3. Vagueness of obscurity, as of the mind or perception; confused or vague thoughts, feelings, etc.
heal ::: 1. To restore to health or soundness; cure. 2.* Fig. To restore (a person) to spiritual wholeness. 3. To become whole and sound; return to health. 4. To bring to an end or conclusion, as conflicts between people or groups, usually with a strong implication of restoring former amity; settle; reconcile. *heals, healed, healing.
heaven ::: 1. Any of the places in or beyond the sky conceived of as domains of divine beings in various religions. 2. The sky or universe as seen from the earth; the firmament. 3.* Fig. A condition or place of great happiness, delight, or pleasure. *Heaven, heaven"s, Heaven"s, heavens, heaven-air, heaven-bare, heaven-bliss, heaven-born, heaven-bound, heaven-fire, heaven-hints, heaven-leap, Heaven-light, heaven-lights, Heaven-nature"s, heaven-nymphs, heaven-pillaring, heaven-pleased, heaven-rapture"s, heaven-sent, heaven-sentience, heaven-surrounded, heaven-truth, heaven-use, heaven-worlds.
heavenly ::: of or relating to the firmament as the abode of God; celestial. heavenlier, heavenliest, heavenliness.
heaviness ::: the quality of being weighed down; burdensome.
heavy ::: 1. Having relatively great weight. lit. and fig. 2. Weighed down; burdened. 3. Marked by or exhibiting weariness. 4. Without vivacity or interest; ponderous; dull. 5. Not easily borne; oppressive; burdensome; harsh. 6. Hard to cope with; trying; difficult. 7. Weighed down with sorrow or grief; sorrowful, sad, grieved, despondent. 8. Deep, profound, intense. 9. Of great import or seriousness; grave. 10. Sober, serious, sombre or tragic. 11. With great force, intensity, turbulence, etc. 12. Having considerable thickness or substance. 13. Lacking vitality; deficient in vivacity or grace. 14. Emotionally weighed down; despondent. heavier.
helpless ::: adj. **1. Deprived of strength or power; powerless; incapacitated. 2.* Unable to help oneself; weak or dependent. adv. helplessly. n.* helplessness.
"Here we live in an organisation of mortal consciousness which takes the form of a transient world; there we are liberated into the harmonies of an infinite self-seeing which knows all world in the light of the eternal and immortal. The Beyond is our reality; that is our plenitude; that is the absolute satisfaction of our self-existence. It is immortality and it is ‘That Delight".” The Upanishads *beyond
heroic ::: having, displaying, or characteristic of the qualities appropriate to a hero, such as bravery and courageousness.
**"I certainly won"t have ‘attracted" [in place of ‘allured"] — there is an enormous difference between the force of the two words and merely ‘attracted by the Ecstasy" would take away all my ecstasy in the line — nothing so tepid can be admitted. Neither do I want ‘thrill" [in place of ‘joy"] which gives a false colour — precisely it would mean that the ecstasy was already touching him with its intensity which is far from my intention.Your statement that ‘joy" is just another word for ‘ecstasy" is surprising. ‘Comfort", ‘pleasure", ‘joy", ‘bliss", ‘rapture", ‘ecstasy" would then be all equal and exactly synonymous terms and all distinction of shades and colours of words would disappear from literature. As well say that ‘flashlight" is just another word for ‘lightning" — or that glow, gleam, glitter, sheen, blaze are all equivalents which can be employed indifferently in the same place. One can feel allured to the supreme omniscient Ecstasy and feel a nameless joy touching one without that Joy becoming itself the supreme Ecstasy. I see no loss of expressiveness by the joy coming in as a vague nameless hint of the immeasurable superior Ecstasy.” Letters on Savitri*
"Ideals are truths that have not yet effected themselves for man, the realities of a higher plane of existence which have yet to fulfil themselves on this lower plane of life and matter, our present field of operation. To the pragmatical intellect which takes its stand upon the ever-changing present, ideals are not truths, not realities, they are at most potentialities of future truth and only become real when they are visible in the external fact as work of force accomplished. But to the mind which is able to draw back from the flux of force in the material universe, to the consciousness which is not imprisoned in its own workings or carried along in their flood but is able to envelop, hold and comprehend them, to the soul that is not merely the subject and instrument of the world-force but can reflect something of that Master-Consciousness which controls and uses it, the ideal present to its inner vision is a greater reality than the changing fact obvious to its outer senses. The Supramental Manifestation*
::: "Identity is the first truth of existence; division is the second truth; all division is a division in oneness. There is one Existence which looks at itself from many self-divided unities observing other similar and dissimilar self-divided unities by the device of division. Being is one; division is a device or a secondary condition of consciousness; but the primary truth of consciousness also is a truth of oneness and identity.” Essays Divine and Human
"If we take this fourfold status as a figure of the Self passing from its superconscient state, where there is no subject or object, into a luminous trance in which superconscience becomes a massed consciousness out of which the subjective status of being and the objective come into emergence, then we get according to our view of things either a possible process of illusionary creation or a process of creative Self-knowledge and All-knowledge.” The Life Divine
ignorance ::: the state or fact of being ignorant; lack of knowledge, learning, information. Ignorance, ignorance"s, Ignorance"s, ignorance", world-ignorance, World-Ignorance.
Sri Aurobindo: "Ignorance is the absence of the divine eye of perception which gives us the sight of the supramental Truth; it is the non-perceiving principle in our consciousness as opposed to the truth-perceiving conscious vision and knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"Ignorance is the consciousness of being in the successions of Time, divided in its knowledge by dwelling in the moment, divided in its conception of self-being by dwelling in the divisions of Space and the relations of circumstance, self-prisoned in the multiple working of the unity. It is called the Ignorance because it has put behind it the knowledge of unity and by that very fact is unable to know truly or completely either itself or the world, either the transcendent or the universal reality.” The Life Divine
"Ignorance means Avidya, the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life that flow from it and all that is natural to the separative consciousness and the egoistic mind and life. This Ignorance is the result of a movement by which the cosmic Intelligence separated itself from the light of the Supermind (the divine Gnosis) and lost the Truth, — truth of being, truth of divine consciousness, truth of force and action, truth of Ananda. As a result, instead of a world of integral truth and divine harmony created in the light of the divine Gnosis, we have a world founded on the part truths of an inferior cosmic Intelligence in which all is half-truth, half-error. . . . All in the consciousness of this creation is either limited or else perverted by separation from the integral Light; even the Truth it perceives is only a half-knowledge. Therefore it is called the Ignorance.” The Mother
". . . all ignorance is a penumbra which environs an orb of knowledge . . . .”The Life Divine
"This world is not really created by a blind force of Nature: even in the Inconscient the presence of the supreme Truth is at work; there is a seeing Power behind it which acts infallibly and the steps of the Ignorance itself are guided even when they seem to stumble; for what we call the Ignorance is a cloaked Knowledge, a Knowledge at work in a body not its own but moving towards its own supreme self-discovery.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
"Knowledge is no doubt the knowledge of the One, the realisation of the Being; Ignorance is a self-oblivion of Being, the experience of separateness in the multiplicity and a dwelling or circling in the ill-understood maze of becomings: . . . .” The Life Divine*
"I have said that the Avatar is one who comes to open the Way for humanity to a higher consciousness —. . . .” Letters on Yoga
"I have started writing about doubt, but even in doing so I am afflicted by the ‘doubt" whether any amount of writing or of anything else can ever persuade the eternal doubt in man which is the penalty of his native ignorance. In the first place, to write adequately would mean anything from 60 to 600 pages, but not even 6000 convincing pages would convince doubt. For doubt exists for its own sake; its very function is to doubt always and, even when convinced, to go on doubting still; it is only to persuade its entertainer to give it board and lodging that it pretends to be an honest truth-seeker. This is a lesson I have learnt from the experience both of my own mind and of the minds of others; the only way to get rid of doubt is to take discrimination as one"s detector of truth and falsehood and under its guard to open the door freely and courageously to experience.” Letters on Yoga
illumined mind ::: Sri Aurobindo: "This greater Force is that of the Illumined Mind, a Mind no longer of higher Thought, but of spiritual light. Here the clarity of the spiritual intelligence, its tranquil daylight, gives place or subordinates itself to an intense lustre, a splendour and illumination of the Spirit: a play of lightnings of spiritual truth and power breaks from above into the consciousness and adds to the calm and wide enlightenment and the vast descent of peace which characterise or accompany the action of the larger conceptual-spiritual principle, a fiery ardour of realisation and a rapturous ecstasy of knowledge.” *The Life Divine
"The Illumined Mind does not work primarily by thought, but by vision; . . . .” The Life Divine
"As the Higher Mind brings a greater consciousness into the being through the spiritual idea and its power of truth, so the Illumined Mind brings in a still greater consciousness through a Truth-sight and Truth-light and its seeing and seizing power.” The Life Divine*
"I may say that the opening upwards, the ascent into the Light and the subsequent descent into the ordinary consciousness and normal human life is very common as the first decisive experience in the practice of yoga and may very well happen even without the practice of yoga in those who are destined for the spiritual change, especially if there is a dissatisfaction somewhere with the ordinary life and a seeking for something more, greater or better.” Letters on Yoga*
"Immortality is one of the possible results of supramentalisation, but it is not an obligatory result and it does not mean that there will be an eternal or indefinite prolongation of life as it is. That is what many think it will be, that they will remain what they are with all their human desires and the only difference will be that they will satisfy them endlessly; but such an immortality would not be worth having and it would not be long before people are tired of it. To live in the Divine and have the divine Consciousness is itself immortality and to be able to divinise the body also and make it a fit instrument for divine works and divine life would be its material expression only.” *Letters on Yoga
imperfect ::: 1. Of, pertaining to, or characterized by defects or weaknesses; faulty. 2. Not perfect; lacking completeness; deficient.
imperishable ::: not subject to decay or deterioration. Imperishable, imperishable"s, Imperishable"s, imperishableness, imperishably.
impoverished ::: deprived of richness and strength.
*"In a certain sense all genius comes from Overhead; for genius is the entry or inrush of a greater consciousness into the mind or a possession of the mind by a greater power.”
inarticulate ::: 1. Lacking the ability to express oneself, esp. in clear and effective speech. 2. Not articulate; not uttered or emitted with expressive or intelligible modulations.
incarnation ::: Sri Aurobindo: "An incarnation is the Divine Consciousness and Being manifesting through the body.” *Letters on Yoga
inconscience ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscience is an inverse reproduction of the supreme superconscience: it has the same absoluteness of being and automatic action, but in a vast involved trance; it is being lost in itself, plunged in its own abyss of infinity.” *The Life Divine
"All aspects of the omnipresent Reality have their fundamental truth in the Supreme Existence. Thus even the aspect or power of Inconscience, which seems to be an opposite, a negation of the eternal Reality, yet corresponds to a Truth held in itself by the self-aware and all-conscious Infinite. It is, when we look closely at it, the Infinite"s power of plunging the consciousness into a trance of self-involution, a self-oblivion of the Spirit veiled in its own abysses where nothing is manifest but all inconceivably is and can emerge from that ineffable latency. In the heights of Spirit this state of cosmic or infinite trance-sleep appears to our cognition as a luminous uttermost Superconscience: at the other end of being it offers itself to cognition as the Spirit"s potency of presenting to itself the opposites of its own truths of being, — an abyss of non-existence, a profound Night of inconscience, a fathomless swoon of insensibility from which yet all forms of being, consciousness and delight of existence can manifest themselves, — but they appear in limited terms, in slowly emerging and increasing self-formulations, even in contrary terms of themselves; it is the play of a secret all-being, all-delight, all-knowledge, but it observes the rules of its own self-oblivion, self-opposition, self-limitation until it is ready to surpass it. This is the Inconscience and Ignorance that we see at work in the material universe. It is not a denial, it is one term, one formula of the infinite and eternal Existence.” *The Life Divine
"Once consciousnesses separated from the one consciousness, they fell inevitably into Ignorance and the last result of Ignorance was Inconscience.” Letters on Yoga
*inconscience.
inconscient ::: Sri Aurobindo: "The Inconscient and the Ignorance may be mere empty abstractions and can be dismissed as irrelevant jargon if one has not come in collision with them or plunged into their dark and bottomless reality. But to me they are realities, concrete powers whose resistance is present everywhere and at all times in its tremendous and boundless mass.” *Letters on Savitri
". . . in its actual cosmic manifestation the Supreme, being the Infinite and not bound by any limitation, can manifest in Itself, in its consciousness of innumerable possibilities, something that seems to be the opposite of itself, something in which there can be Darkness, Inconscience, Inertia, Insensibility, Disharmony and Disintegration. It is this that we see at the basis of the material world and speak of nowadays as the Inconscient — the Inconscient Ocean of the Rigveda in which the One was hidden and arose in the form of this universe — or, as it is sometimes called, the non-being, Asat.” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient itself is only an involved state of consciousness which like the Tao or Shunya, though in a different way, contains all things suppressed within it so that under a pressure from above or within all can evolve out of it — ‘an inert Soul with a somnambulist Force".” Letters on Yoga
"The Inconscient is the last resort of the Ignorance.” Letters on Yoga
"The body, we have said, is a creation of the Inconscient and itself inconscient or at least subconscient in parts of itself and much of its hidden action; but what we call the Inconscient is an appearance, a dwelling place, an instrument of a secret Consciousness or a Superconscient which has created the miracle we call the universe.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga :::
"The Inconscient is a sleep or a prison, the conscient a round of strivings without ultimate issue or the wanderings of a dream: we must wake into the superconscious where all darkness of night and half-lights cease in the self-luminous bliss of the Eternal.” The Life Divine
"Men have not learnt yet to recognise the Inconscient on which the whole material world they see is built, or the Ignorance of which their whole nature including their knowledge is built; they think that these words are only abstract metaphysical jargon flung about by the philosophers in their clouds or laboured out in long and wearisome books like The Life Divine. Letters on Savitri :::
"Is it really a fact that even the ordinary reader would not be able to see any difference between the Inconscient and Ignorance unless the difference is expressly explained to him? This is not a matter of philosophical terminology but of common sense and the understood meaning of English words. One would say ‘even the inconscient stone" but one would not say, as one might of a child, ‘the ignorant stone". One must first be conscious before one can be ignorant. What is true is that the ordinary reader might not be familiar with the philosophical content of the word Inconscient and might not be familiar with the Vedantic idea of the Ignorance as the power behind the manifested world. But I don"t see how I can acquaint him with these things in a single line, even with the most. illuminating image or symbol. He might wonder, if he were Johnsonianly minded, how an Inconscient could be teased or how it could wake Ignorance. I am afraid, in the absence of a miracle of inspired poetical exegesis flashing through my mind, he will have to be left wondering.” Letters on Savitri
**inconscient, Inconscient"s.**
"Indian devotion has especially seized upon the most intimate human relations and made them stepping-stones to the supra-human. God the Guru, God the Master, God the Friend, God the Mother, God the Child, God the Self, each of these experiences — for to us they are more than merely ideas, — it has carried to its extreme possibilities.” Essays in Philosophy and Yoga
indistinct ::: not clearly distinguishable or perceptible, as to the eye, ear, or mind. indistinctness.
indolence ::: habitual laziness; sloth.
indulgent ::: characterised by benign leniency or permissiveness; forbearing, tolerant. indulgence.
inert ::: 1. Unable to move or act; immobile, unmoving, lifeless, motionless. 2. Inactive or sluggish by habit or nature. inertness.
inertia ::: inertness, esp. with regard to effort, motion, action, and the like; inactivity; sluggishness. Inertia, Inertia"s.
inescapable ::: impossible to escape or avoid; inevitable. inescapably.
infallible ::: 1. Incapable of failure or error. 2. Not liable to failure; certain; sure. 3. Absolutely trustworthy or sure. 4. Unfailing in effectiveness or operation; certain. infallibly, infallibility.
ingenious ::: 1. Characterised by cleverness or originality of invention or construction. 2. Cleverly inventive or resourceful. ingeniously.
ingenuity ::: 1. Inventive skill or imagination; cleverness. 2. An ingenious or imaginative contrivance.
iniquity ::: gross injustice or wickedness; infamy, depravity. iniquities.
::: ". . . in such a view, the word consciousness changes its meaning. It is no longer synonymous with mentality but indicates a self-aware force of existence of which mentality is a middle term; below mentality it sinks into vital and material movements which are for us subconscient; above, it rises into the supramental which is for us the superconscient. But in all it is one and the same thing organising itself differently. This is, once more, the Indian conception of Chit which, as energy, creates the worlds.” *The Life Divine
"In Supermind being, consciousness of knowledge and consciousness of will are not divided as they seem to be in our mental operations; they are a trinity, one movement with three effective aspects. Each has its own effect. Being gives the effect of substance, consciousness the effect of knowledge, of the self-guiding and shaping idea, of comprehension and apprehension; will gives the effect of self-fulfilling force. But the idea is only the light of the reality illumining itself; it is not mental thought nor imagination, but effective self-awareness. It is Real-Idea.” The Life Divine
"In the subconscient knowledge or consciousness is involved in action, for action is the essence of Life.” The Life Divine
::: "I regard the spiritual history of mankind and especially of India as a constant development of a divine purpose, not a book that is closed, the lines of which have to be constantly repeated.” Letters on Yoga
"It [death] has no separate existence by itself, it is only a result of the principle of decay in the body and that principle is there already — it is part of the physical nature. At the same time it is not inevitable; if one could have the necessary consciousness and force, decay and death is not inevitable. But to bring that consciousness and force into the whole of the material nature is the most difficult thing of all — at any rate, in such a way as to annul the decay principle.” Letters on Yoga
"It is a call of the being for higher things — for the Divine, for all that belongs to the higher or Divine Consciousness.” Guidance
"It is not possible for the individual mind, so long as it remains shut up in its personality, to understand the workings of the Cosmic Will, for the standards made by the personal consciousness are not applicable to them. A cell in the body, if conscious, might also think that the human being and its actions are only the resultant of the relations and workings of a number of cells like itself and not the action of a unified self. It is only if one enters into the Cosmic Consciousness that one begins to see the forces at work and the lines on which they work and get a glimpse of the Cosmic Self and the Cosmic Mind and Will.” Letters on Yoga
"It is only divine Love which can bear the burden I have to bear, that all have to bear who have sacrificed everything else to the one aim of uplifting earth out of its darkness towards the Divine.” On Himself
"Man, born into the world, revolves between world and world in the action of Prakriti and Karma. Purusha in Prakriti is his formula: what the soul in him thinks, contemplates and acts, that always he becomes. All that he had been, determined his present birth; and all that he is, thinks, does in this life up to the moment of his death, determines what he will become in the worlds beyond and in lives yet to be. If birth is a becoming, death also is a becoming, not by any means a cessation.” Essays on the Gita
"Moreover we see that this cosmic action or any cosmic action is impossible without the play of an infinite Force of Existence which produces and regulates all these forms and movements; and that Force equally presupposes or is the action of an infinite Consciousness, because it is in its nature a cosmic Will determining all relations and apprehending them by its own mode of awareness, and it could not so determine and apprehend them if there were no comprehensive Consciousness behind that mode of cosmic awareness to originate as well as to hold, fix and reflect through it the relations of Being in the developing formation or becoming of itself which we call a universe.” The Life Divine
n. 1. Stillness; silence. v. 2. To make silent or quiet. hushed.
n. 1. The discomfort, weakness, or pain caused by a prolonged lack of food. v. 2.* Fig. To have a strong desire or craving. Hunger, *hunger"s, hungers hungered, hungering.
of or pertaining to geometry, the branch of mathematics that deals with the deduction of the properties, measurement, and relationships of points, lines, angles, and figures in space.
". . . One Being and Consciousness is involved here in Matter. Evolution is the method by which it liberates itself; consciousness appears in what seems to be inconscient, and once having appeared is self-impelled to grow higher and higher and at the same time to enlarge and develop towards a greater and greater perfection. Life is the first step of this release of consciousness; mind is the second; but the evolution does not finish with mind, it awaits a release into something greater, a consciousness which is spiritual and supramental. The next step of the evolution must be towards the development of Supermind and Spirit as the dominant power in the conscious being. For only then will the involved Divinity in things release itself entirely and it become possible for life to manifest perfection.” On Himself
::: "One Godhead, occult in all beings, the inner Self of all beings, the all-pervading, absolute without qualities, the overseer of all actions, the witness, the knower.” The Life Divine
"Ordinarily we mean by it [consciousness] our first obvious idea of a mental waking consciousness such as is possessed by the human being during the major part of his bodily existence, when he is not asleep, stunned or otherwise deprived of his physical and superficial methods of sensation. In this sense it is plain enough that consciousness is the exception and not the rule in the order of the material universe. We ourselves do not always possess it. But this vulgar and shallow idea of the nature of consciousness, though it still colours our ordinary thought and associations, must now definitely disappear out of philosophical thinking. For we know that there is something in us which is conscious when we sleep, when we are stunned or drugged or in a swoon, in all apparently unconscious states of our physical being. Not only so, but we may now be sure that the old thinkers were right when they declared that even in our waking state what we call then our consciousness is only a small selection from our entire conscious being. It is a superficies, it is not even the whole of our mentality. Behind it, much vaster than it, there is a subliminal or subconscient mind which is the greater part of ourselves and contains heights and profundities which no man has yet measured or fathomed.” Letters on Yoga
"Our ego is only a face of the universal being and has no separate existence; our apparent separative individuality is only a surface movement and behind it our real individuality stretches out to unity with all things and upward to oneness with the transcendent Divine Infinity. Thus our ego, which seems to be a limitation of existence, is really a power of infinity; the boundless multiplicity of beings in the world is a result and signal evidence, not of limitation or finiteness, but of that illimitable Infinity.” The Life Divine
"Perishable and transitory delight is always the symbol of the eternal Ananda, revealed and rapidly concealed, which seeks by increasing recurrence to attach itself to some typal form of experience in material consciousness. When the particular form has been perfected to express God in the type, its delight will no longer be perishable but an eternally recurrent possession of mental beings in matter manifest in their periods & often in their moments of felicity.” Essays Divine and Human*
pictorial images; likenesses or representations.
"Practically, therefore, all form is only an operation of consciousness impressing itself with presentations of its own workings.” The Upanishads
::: "Pressure, throbbing, electrical vibrations are all signs of the working of the Force. The places indicate the field of action — the top of the head is the summit of the thinking mind where it communicates with the higher consciousness; the neck or throat is the seat of the physical, externalising or expressive mind; the ear is the place of communication with the inner mind-centre by which thoughts etc. enter into the personal being from the general Nature.” Letters on Yoga
"Pulling comes usually from a desire to get things for oneself — in aspiration there is a self-giving for the higher consciousness to descend and take possession — the more intense the call the greater the self-giving.” Letters on Yoga
"Remind yourself always that the Divine Force is there, that you have felt it and that, even if you seem to lose consciousness of it for a time or it seems something distant, still it is there and is sure to prevail. For those whom the Force has touched and taken up, belong thenceforth to the Divine.” Letters on Yoga
restored to freshness of appearance or good condition; polished; gave a new look to.
see Darkness, giant sons of.
::: **"See God everywhere and be not frightened by masks. Believe that all falsehood is truth in the making or truth in the breaking, all failure an effectuality concealed, all weakness strength hiding itself from its own vision, all pain a secret & violent ecstasy.” Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: "Akshara, the immobile, the immutable, is the silent and inactive self, it is the unity of the divine Being, Witness of Nature, but not involved in its movement; it is the inactive Purusha free from Prakriti and her works.” Essays on the Gita
*(Sri Aurobindo: "And finally all is lifted up and taken into the supermind and made a part of the infinitely luminous consciousness, knowledge and experience of the supramental being, the Vijnana Purusha.” The Synthesis of Yoga*) ::: Angel of the House. The guardian spirit of the home.
Sri Aurobindo: "As there are Powers of Knowledge or Forces of the Light, so there are Powers of Ignorance and tenebrous Forces of the Darkness whose work is to prolong the reign of Ignorance and Inconscience. As there are Forces of Truth, so there are Forces that live by the Falsehood and support it and work for its victory; as there are powers whose life is intimately bound up with the existence, the idea and the impulse of Good, so there are Forces whose life is bound up with the existence and the idea and the impulse of Evil. It is this truth of the cosmic Invisible that was symbolised in the ancient belief of a struggle between the powers of Light and Darkness, Good and Evil for the possession of the world and the government of the life of man; — this was the significance of the contest between the Vedic Gods and their opponents, sons of Darkness and Division, figured in a later tradition as Titan and Giant and Demon, Asura, Rakshasa, Pisacha; the same tradition is found in the Zoroastrian Double Principle and the later Semitic opposition of God and his Angels on the one side and Satan and his hosts on the other, — invisible Personalities and Powers that draw man to the divine Light and Truth and Good or lure him into subjection to the undivine principle of Darkness and Falsehood and Evil.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "But if the individual is a persistent reality, an eternal portion or power of the Eternal, if his growth of consciousness is the means by which the Spirit in things discloses its being, the cosmos reveals itself as a conditioned manifestation of the play of the eternal One in the being of Sachchidananda with the eternal Many.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "But what do we mean by the individual? What we usually call by that name is a natural ego, a device of Nature which holds together her action in the mind and body. This ego has to be extinguished, otherwise there is no complete liberation possible; but the individual self or soul is not this ego. The individual soul is the spiritual being which is sometimes described as an eternal portion of the Divine, but can also be described as the Divine himself supporting his manifestation as the Many. This is the true spiritual individual which appears in its complete truth when we get rid of the ego and our false separative sense of individuality, realise our oneness with the transcendent and cosmic Divine and with all beings.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "But when I speak of the Divine Will, I mean something different, — something that has descended here into an evolutionary world of Ignorance, standing at the back of things, pressing on the Darkness with its Light, leading things presently towards the best possible in the conditions of a world of Ignorance and leading it eventually towards a descent of a greater power of the Divine, which will be not an omnipotence held back and conditioned by the law of the world as it is, but in full action and therefore bringing the reign of light, peace, harmony, joy, love, beauty and Ananda, for these are the Divine Nature.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "By aesthesis is meant a reaction of the consciousness, mental and vital and even bodily, which receives a certain element in things, something that can be called their taste, Rasa, which, passing through the mind or sense or both, awakes a vital enjoyment of the taste, Bhoga, and this can again awaken us, awaken even the soul in us to something yet deeper and more fundamental than mere pleasure and enjoyment, to some form of the spirit"s delight of existence, Ananda.” *Letters on Savitri
Sri Aurobindo: "Concentration is a gathering together of the consciousness and either centralising at one point or turning on a single object, e.g., the Divine; there can also be a gathered condition throughout the whole being, not at a point. In meditation it is not indispensable to gather like this, one can simply remain with a quiet mind thinking of one subject or observing what comes in the consciousness and dealing with it.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Consciousness is a fundamental thing, the fundamental thing in existence — it is the energy, the motion, the movement of consciousness that creates the universe and all that is in it — not only the macrocosm but the microcosm is nothing but consciousness arranging itself.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Consecration becomes in its fullness a devoting of all our being to the Divine; therefore also of all our thoughts and our works.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Destruction in itself is neither good nor evil. It is a fact of Nature, a necessity in the play of forces, as things are in this world. The Light destroys the Darkness and the Powers of Darkness, and that is not a movement of Ignorance!” *Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . every weakness and failure is a first sounding of gulfs of power and potentiality. . . .” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Fifty, hundred, a thousand are numbers symbolic of completeness.” The Secret of the Veda
Sri Aurobindo: "Finally, we have the goddess Dakshina who may well be a female form of Daksha, himself a god and afterwards in the Purana one of the Prajapatis, the original progenitors, — we have Dakshina associated with the manifestation of knowledge and sometimes almost identified with Usha, the divine Dawn, who is the bringer of illumination. I shall suggest that Dakshina like the more famous Ila, Saraswati and Sarama, is one of four goddesses representing the four faculties of the Ritam or Truth-consciousness, — Ila representing truth-vision or revelation, Saraswati truth-audition, inspiration, the divine word, Sarama intuition, Dakshina the separative intuitional discrimination.” *The Secret of the Veda
Sri Aurobindo: "Further, vision is of value because it is often a first key to inner planes of one"s own being and one"s own consciousness as distinguished from worlds or planes of the cosmic consciousness. Yoga-experience often begins with some opening of the third eye in the forehead (the centre of vision in the brows) or with some kind of beginning and extension of subtle seeing which may seem unimportant at first but is the vestibule to deeper experience.” *Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "He is the Cosmic Spirit and all-creating Energy around us; he is the Immanent within us. All that is is he, and he is the More than all that is, and we ourselves, though we know it not, are being of his being, force of his force, conscious with a consciousness derived from his; even our mortal existence is made out of his substance and there is an immortal within us that is a spark of the Light and Bliss that are for ever. No matter whether by knowledge, works, love or any other means, to become aware of this truth of our being, to realise it, to make it effective here or elsewhere is the object of all Yoga.” *The Synthesis of Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Human life is itself only a term in a graded series, through which the secret Spirit in the universe develops gradually his purpose and works it out finally through the enlarging and ascending individual soul-consciousness in the body. This ascent can only take place by rebirth within the ascending order; an individual visit coming across it and progressing on some other line elsewhere could not fit into the system of this evolutionary existence.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "In fact it [the world] is not an illusion in the sense of an imposition of something baseless and unreal on the consciousness, but a misinterpretation by the conscious mind and sense and a falsifying misuse of manifested existence.” Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "In other words, ethics is a stage in evolution. That which is common to all stages is the urge of Sachchidananda towards self-expression. This urge is at first non-ethical, then infra-ethical in the animal, then in the intelligent animal even anti-ethical for it permits us to approve hurt done to others which we disapprove when done to ourselves. In this respect man even now is only half-ethical. And just as all below us is infra-ethical, so there may be that above us whither we shall eventually arrive, which is supra-ethical, has no need of ethics. The ethical impulse and attitude, so all-important to humanity, is a means by which it struggles out of the lower harmony and universality based upon inconscience and broken up by Life into individual discords towards a higher harmony and universality based upon conscient oneness with all existences. Arriving at that goal, this means will no longer be necessary or even possible, since the qualities and oppositions on which it depends will naturally dissolve and disappear in the final reconciliation.” The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "It [falsehood] is created by an Asuric (hostile) power which intervenes in this creation and is not only separated from the Truth and therefore limited in knowledge and open to error, but in revolt against the Truth or in the habit of seizing the Truth only to pervert it. This Power, the dark Asuric Shakti or Rakshasic Maya, puts forward its own perverted consciousness as true knowledge and its wilful distortions or reversals of the Truth as the verity of things. It is the powers and personalities of this perverted and perverting consciousness that we call hostile beings, hostile forces. Whenever these perversions created by them out of the stuff of the Ignorance are put forward as the Truth of things, that is the Falsehood, in the yogic sense, . . . .” Letters on Yoga
"Sri Aurobindo: "It has been held that ecstasy is a lower and transient passage, the peace of the Supreme is the supreme realisation, the consummate abiding experience. This may be true on the spiritual-mind plane: there the first ecstasy felt is indeed a spiritual rapture, but it can be and is very usually mingled with a supreme happiness of the vital parts taken up by the Spirit; there is an exaltation, exultation, excitement, a highest intensity of the joy of the heart and the pure inner soul-sensation that can be a splendid passage or an uplifting force but is not the ultimate permanent foundation. But in the highest ascents of the spiritual bliss there is not this vehement exaltation and excitement; there is instead an illimitable intensity of participation in an eternal ecstasy which is founded on the eternal Existence and therefore on a beatific tranquillity of eternal peace. Peace and ecstasy cease to be different and become one. The Supermind, reconciling and fusing all differences as well as all contradictions, brings out this unity; a wide calm and a deep delight of all-existence are among its first steps of self-realisation, but this calm and this delight rise together, as one state, into an increasing intensity and culminate in the eternal ecstasy, the bliss that is the Infinite.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . it is this emptiness inward and outward that often in yoga becomes the first step towards a new consciousness.” *Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "It is true that when Matter first emerges it becomes the dominant principle; it seems to be and is within its own field the basis of all things, the constituent of all things, the end of all things: but Matter itself is found to be a result of something that is not Matter, of Energy, and this Energy cannot be something self-existent and acting in the Void, but can turn out and, when deeply scrutinised, seems likely to turn out to be the action of a secret Consciousness and Being: when the spiritual knowledge and experience emerge, this becomes a certitude, — it is seen that the creative Energy in Matter is a movement of the power of the Spirit.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "It might be said again that, even so, in Sachchidananda itself at least, above all worlds of manifestation, there could be nothing but the self-awareness of pure existence and consciousness and a pure delight of existence. Or, indeed, this triune being itself might well be only a trinity of original spiritual self-determinations of the Infinite; these too, like all determinations, would cease to exist in the ineffable Absolute. But our position is that these must be inherent truths of the supreme being; their utmost reality must be pre-existent in the Absolute even if they are ineffably other there than what they are in the spiritual mind"s highest possible experience. The Absolute is not a mystery of infinite blankness nor a supreme sum of negations; nothing can manifest that is not justified by some self-power of the original and omnipresent Reality.” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Matter, body is only a massed motion of force of conscious being employed as a starting-point for the variable relations of consciousness working through its power of sense.” *Essays on the Gita
Sri Aurobindo: "Our sense by its incapacity has invented darkness. In truth there is nothing but Light, only it is a power of light either above or below our poor human vision"s limited range.” *Essays Divine and Human
**Sri Aurobindo: [referring to the following lines]
Sri Aurobindo: ” See God everywhere and be not frightened by masks. Believe that all falsehood is truth in the making or truth in the breaking, all failure an effectuality concealed, all weakness strength hiding itself from its own vision, all pain a secret & violent ecstasy. If thou believest firmly & unweariedly, in the end thou wilt see & experience the All-true, Almighty & All-blissful.” Essays Divine and Human*
::: Sri Aurobindo: "Spiritual force has its own concreteness; it can take a form (like a stream, for instance) of which one is aware and can send it quite concretely on whatever object one chooses. This is a statement of fact about the power inherent in spiritual consciousness. But there is also such a thing as a willed use of any subtle force — it may be spiritual, mental or vital — to secure a particular result at some point in the world. Just as there are waves of unseen physical forces (cosmic waves etc.) or currents of electricity, so there are mind-waves, thought-currents, waves of emotion, — for example, anger, sorrow, etc., — which go out and affect others without their knowing whence they come or that they come at all, they only feel the result. One who has the occult or inner senses awake can feel them coming and invading him.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "the black dragon of the Inconscience sustains with its vast wings and its back of darkness the whole structure of the material universe; its energies unroll the flux of things, its obscure intimations seem to be the starting-point of consciousness itself and the source of all life-impulse.” The Life Divine ::: **Unused, guarded beneath Night"s dragon paws,**
Sri Aurobindo: "The cosmic consciousness is that of the universe, of the cosmic spirit and cosmic Nature with all the beings and forces within it. All that is as much conscious as a whole as the individual separately is, though in a different way. The consciousness of the individual is part of this, but a part feeling itself as a separate being. Yet all the time most of what he is comes into him from the cosmic consciousness. But there is a wall of separative ignorance between. Once it breaks down he becomes aware of the cosmic Self, of the consciousness of the cosmic Nature, of the forces playing in it, etc. He feels all that as he now feels physical things and impacts. He finds it all to be one with his larger or universal self.” *Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: ". . . the divine Ananda, the principle of Bliss [is that] from which, in the Vedic conception, the existence of Man, this mental being, is drawn. A secret Delight is the base of existence, its sustaining atmosphere and almost its substance. This Ananda is spoken of in the Taittiriya Upanishad as the ethereal atmosphere of bliss without which nothing could remain in being. In the Aitareya Upanishad Soma, as the lunar deity, is born from the sense-mind in the universal Purusha and, when man is produced, expresses himself again as sense-mentality in the human being. For delight is the raison d"être of sensation, or, we may say, sensation is an attempt to translate the secret delight of existence into the terms of physical consciousness.” The Secret of the Veda
Sri Aurobindo: "The duality is a position taken up, a double status accepted for the operations of the self-manifestation of the being; but there is no eternal and fundamental separateness and dualism of Being and its Consciousness-Force, of the Soul and Nature.” *The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "The earth is a material field of evolution. Mind and life, supermind, Sachchidananda are in principle involved there in the earth-consciousness; but only Matter is at first organized; then life descends from the life plane and gives shape and organization and activity to the life principle in Matter, creates the plant and animal; then mind descends from the mind plane, creating man. Now supermind is to descend so as to create a supramental race.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The first is the discovery of the soul, not the outer soul of thought and emotion and desire, but the secret psychic entity, the divine element within us. When that becomes dominant over the nature, when we are consciously the soul and when mind, life and body take their true place as its instruments, we are aware of a guide within that knows the truth, the good, the true delight and beauty of existence, controls heart and intellect by its luminous law and leads our life and being towards spiritual completeness.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: ".The Herds and the Waters are the two principal images of the Veda; the former are the trooping Rays of the divine Sun, herds of the luminous Consciousness;” The Secret of the Veda
Sri Aurobindo: "The idea is the realisation of a truth in Consciousness as the fact is its realisation in Power.” *The Supramental Manifestation
*Sri Aurobindo: "The Indian explanation of fate is Karma. We ourselves are our own fate through our actions, but the fate created by us binds us; for what we have sown, we must reap in this life or another. Still we are creating our fate for the future even while undergoing old fate from the past in the present. That gives a meaning to our will and action and does not, as European critics wrongly believe, constitute a rigid and sterilising fatalism. But again, our will and action can often annul or modify even the past Karma, it is only certain strong effects, called utkata karma, that are non-modifiable. Here too the achievement of the spiritual consciousness and life is supposed to annul or give the power to annul Karma. For we enter into union with the Will Divine, cosmic or transcendent, which can annul what it had sanctioned for certain conditions, new-create what it had created, the narrow fixed lines disappear, there is a more plastic freedom and wideness. Neither Karma nor Astrology therefore points to a rigid and for ever immutable fate.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Nature-body and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Darkness that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Darkness and the Falsehood, borne to pass though the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother.” The Mother
*Sri Aurobindo: "There are some who often or almost invariably have the contact whenever they worship, the Deity may become living to them in the picture or other image they worship, may move and act through it; others may feel him always present, outwardly, subtle-physically, abiding with them where they live or in the very room, but sometimes this is only for a period. Or they may feel the Presence with them, see it frequently in a body (but not materially except sometimes), feel its touch or embrace, converse with it constantly — that is also a kind of milana. The greatest milana is one in which one is constantly aware of the Deity abiding in oneself, in everything in the world, holding all the world in him, identical with existence and yet supremely beyond the world — but in the world too one sees, hears, feels nothing but him, so that the very senses bear witness to him alone — . . . .” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "There is no difference between the terms ‘universal" and ‘cosmic" except that ‘universal" can be used in a freer way than ‘cosmic". Universal may mean ‘of the universe", cosmic in that general sense. But it may also mean ‘common to all", e.g., ‘This is a universal weakness" — but you cannot say ‘This is a cosmic weakness".” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "There is no ignorance that is not part of the Cosmic Ignorance, only in the individual it becomes a limited formation and movement, while the Cosmic Ignorance is the whole movement of world consciousness separated from the supreme Truth and acting in an inferior motion in which the Truth is perverted, diminished, mixed and clouded with falsehood and error.” Letters on Yoga
*Sri Aurobindo: "The timeless Spirit is not necessarily a blank; it may hold all in itself, but in essence, without reference to time or form or relation or circumstance, perhaps in an eternal unity. Eternity is the common term between Time and the Timeless Spirit. What is in the Timeless unmanifested, implied, essential, appears in Time in movement, or at least in design and relation, in result and circumstance. These two then are the same Eternity or the same Eternal in a double status; they are a twofold status of being and consciousness, one an eternity of immobile status, the other an eternity of motion in status.” The Life Divine ::: "The spiritual fullness of the being is eternity; . . . ” The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The true soul secret in us, — subliminal, we have said, but the word is misleading, for this presence is not situated below the threshold of waking mind, but rather burns in the temple of the inmost heart behind the thick screen of an ignorant mind, life and body, not subliminal but behind the veil, — this veiled psychic entity is the flame of the Godhead always alight within us, inextinguishable even by that dense unconsciousness of any spiritual self within which obscures our outward nature. It is a flame born out of the Divine and, luminous inhabitant of the Ignorance, grows in it till it is able to turn it towards the Knowledge. It is the concealed Witness and Control, the hidden Guide, the Daemon of Socrates, the inner light or inner voice of the mystic. It is that which endures and is imperishable in us from birth to birth, untouched by death, decay or corruption, an indestructible spark of the Divine.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "The word ‘descend" has various meanings according to the context — I used it here in the sense of the psychic being coming down into the human consciousness and body ready for it.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "This descent is felt as a pouring in of calm and peace, of force and power, of light, of joy and ecstasy, of wideness and freedom and knowledge, of a Divine Being or a Presence — sometimes one of these, sometimes several of them or all together.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: "Very usually, altruism is only the sublimest form of selfishness.” *Essays Divine and Human
Sri Aurobindo: "We see at once that if such an Existence is, it must be, like the Energy, infinite. Neither reason nor experience nor intuition nor imagination bears witness to us of the possibility of a final terminus. All end and beginning presuppose something beyond the end or beginning. An absolute end, an absolute beginning is not only a contradiction in terms, but a contradiction of the essence of things, a violence, a fiction. Infinity imposes itself upon the appearances of the finite by its ineffugable self-existence.” *The Life Divine
*Sri Aurobindo: "When there is some lowering or diminution of the consciousness or some impairing of it at one place or another, the Adversary — or the Censor — who is always on the watch presses with all his might wherever there is a weak point lying covered from your own view, and suddenly a wrong movement leaps up with unexpected force. Become conscious and cast out the possibility of its renewal, that is all that is to be done.” Letters on Yoga
Sri Aurobindo: ". . . wrong will and falsehood of the steps, . . . separative egoism inflicting by its ignorance and separate contrary will harm on oneself or harm on others, self-driven to a wrong dealing with one"s own soul, mind, life or body or a wrong dealing with the soul, mind, life, body of others, . . . is the practical sense of all human evil.” *The Life Divine
Sri Aurobindo: "Yet all the time the universal forces are pouring into him without his knowing it. He is aware only of thoughts, feelings, etc., that rise to the surface and these he takes for his own. Really they come from outside in mind waves, vital waves, waves of feeling and sensation, etc., which take particular form in him and rise to the surface after they have got inside. But they do not get into his body at once. He carries about with him an environmental consciousness (called by the Theosophists the Aura) into which they first enter. If you can become conscious of this environmental self of yours, then you can catch the thought, passion, suggestion or force of illness and prevent it from entering into you. If things in you are thrown out, they often do not go altogether but take refuge in this environmental atmosphere and from there they try to get in again. Or they go to a distance outside but linger on the outskirts or even perhaps far off, waiting till they get an opportunity to attempt entrance.” *Letters on Yoga
"Stability and movement, we must remember, are only our psychological representations of the Absolute, even as are oneness and multitude. The Absolute is beyond stability and movement as it is beyond unity and multiplicity. But it takes its eternal poise in the one and the stable and whirls round itself infinitely, inconceivably, securely in the moving and multitudinous.” The Life Divine
::: "The ancient Vedanta presents us with . . . the conception and experience of Brahman as the one universal and essential fact and of the nature of Brahman as Sachchidananda [Existence, Consciousness, Bliss]. In this view the essence of all life is the movement of a universal and immortal existence, the essence of all sensation and emotion is the play of a universal and self-existent delight in being, the essence of all thought and perception is the radiation of a universal and all-pervading truth, the essence of all activity is the progression of a universal and self-effecting good.” The Life Divine
"The Avatar comes as the manifestation of the divine nature in the human nature, the apocalypse of its Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood, in order that the human nature may by moulding its principle, thought, feeling, action, being on the lines of that Christhood, Krishnahood, Buddhahood transfigure itself into the divine. The law, the Dharma which the Avatar establishes is given for that purpose chiefly; the Christ, Krishna, Buddha stands in its centre as the gate, he makes through himself the way men shall follow.” Essays on the Gita
"The call, once decisive, stands; the thing that has been born cannot eventually be stifled. Even if the force of circumstances prevents a regular pursuit or a full practical self-consecration from the first, still the mind has taken its bent and persists and returns with an ever-increasing effect upon its leading preoccupation. There is an ineluctable persistence of the inner being, and against it circumstances are in the end powerless, and no weakness in the nature can for long be an obstacle.” The Synthesis of Yoga
"The centre of vision is between the eyebrows in the centre of the forehead. When it opens one gets the inner vision, sees the inner forms and images of things and people and begins to understand things and people from within and not only from outside, develops a power of will which also acts in the inner (yogic) way on things and people etc. Its opening is often the beginning of the yogic as opposed to the ordinary mental consciousness.” Letters on Yoga
"The child (when it does not mean the psychic being) is usually the symbol of something new-born in some part of the consciousness.” Letters on Yoga
::: "The Conscious Being, Purusha, is the Self as originator, witness, support and lord and enjoyer of the forms and works of Nature.” *The Life Divine
"The cosmic consciousness is that in which the limits of ego, personal mind and body disappear and one becomes aware of a cosmic vastness which is or filled by a cosmic spirit and aware also of the direct play of cosmic forces, universal mind forces, universal life forces, universal energies of Matter, universal overmind forces. But one does not become aware of all these together; the opening of the cosmic consciousness is usually progressive. It is not that the ego, the body, the personal mind disappear, but one feels them as only a small part of oneself. One begins to feel others too as part of oneself or varied repetitions of oneself, the same self modified by Nature in other bodies. Or, at the least, as living in the larger universal self which is henceforth one"s own greater reality. All things in fact begin to change their nature and appearance; one"s whole experience of the world is radically different from that of those who are shut up in their personal selves. One begins to know things by a different kind of experience, more direct, not depending on the external mind and the senses. It is not that the possibility of error disappears, for that cannot be so long as mind of any kind is one"s instrument for transcribing knowledge, but there is a new, vast and deep way of experiencing, seeing, knowing, contacting things; and the confines of knowledge can be rolled back to an almost unmeasurable degree. The thing one has to be on guard against in the cosmic consciousness is the play of a magnified ego, the vaster attacks of the hostile forces — for they too are part of the cosmic consciousness — and the attempt of the cosmic Illusion (Ignorance, Avidya) to prevent the growth of the soul into the cosmic Truth. These are things that one has to learn from experience; mental teaching or explanation is quite insufficient. To enter safely into the cosmic consciousness and to pass safely through it, it is necessary to have a strong central unegoistic sincerity and to have the psychic being, with its divination of truth and unfaltering orientation towards the Divine, already in front in ::: —the nature.” Letters on Yoga*
"The Cosmic Will is not, to our ordinary consciousness, something that acts as an independent power doing whatever it chooses; it works through all these beings, through the forces at play in the world and the law of these forces and their results — it is only when we open ourselves and get out of the ordinary consciousness that we can feel it intervening as an independent power and overriding the ordinary play of the forces." Letters on Yoga
"The Divine is that from which all comes, in which all lives, and to return to the truth of the Divine now clouded over by Ignorance is the soul"s aim in life. In its supreme Truth, the Divine is absolute and infinite peace, consciousness, existence, power and Ananda.” Letters on Yoga
"The Divine is transcendent Being and Spirit, all bliss and light and divine knowledge and power, and towards that highest divine existence and its Light we have to rise and bring down the reality of it more and more into our consciousness and life.” Letters on Yoga ::: *Divine"s.
::: "The Divine Mother is the Consciousness and Force of the Divine — which is the Mother of all things.” *The Mother
"The form of that which is in Time is or appears to be evanescent, but the self, the substance, the being that takes shape in that form is eternal and is one self, one substance, one being with all that is, all that was, all that shall be. But even the form is in itself eternal and not temporal, but it exists for ever in possibility, in power, in consciousness in the Eternal.” Essays Divine and Human
"The ideation of the gnosis is radiating light-stuff of the consciousness of the eternal Existence; each ray is a truth. The will in the gnosis is a conscious force of eternal knowledge; it throws the consciousness and substance of being into infallible forms of truth-power, forms that embody the idea and make it faultlessly effective, and it works out each truth-power and each truth-form spontaneously and rightly according to its nature. Because it carries this creative force of the divine Idea, the Sun, the lord and symbol of the gnosis, is described in the Veda as the Light which is the father of all things, Surya Savitri, the Wisdom-Luminous who is the bringer-out into manifest existence.” The Synthesis of Yoga*
"The individual ego is a pragmatic and effective fiction, a translation of the secret self into the terms of surface consciousness, or a subjective substitute for the true self in our surface experience. . . .”The Life Divine
"The individual is a centre of the whole universal consciousness; . . . .” The Life Divine
The Ineffable: *Sri Aurobindo: "It is this essential indeterminability of the Absolute that translates itself into our consciousness through the fundamental negating positives of our spiritual experience, the immobile immutable Self, the Nirguna Brahman, the Eternal without qualities, the pure featureless One Existence, the Impersonal, the Silence void of activities, the Non-being, the Ineffable and the Unknowable. On the other side it is the essence and source of all determinations, and this dynamic essentiality manifests to us through the fundamental affirming positives in which the Absolute equally meets us; for it is the Self that becomes all things, the Saguna Brahman, the Eternal with infinite qualities, the One who is the Many, the infinite Person who is the source and foundation of all persons and personalities, the Lord of creation, the Word, the Master of all works and action; it is that which being known all is known: these affirmatives correspond to those negatives. For it is not possible in a supramental cognition to split asunder the two sides of the One Existence, — even to speak of them as sides is excessive, for they are in each other, their co-existence or one-existence is eternal and their powers sustaining each other found the self-manifestation of the Infinite.” The Life Divine
"The ‘I" or the little ego is constituted by Nature and is at once a mental, vital and physical formation meant to aid in centralising and individualising the outer consciousness and action. When the true being is discovered, the utility of the ego is over and this formation has to disappear — the true being is felt in its place.” Letters on Yoga
The Mother: "And this Vibration (which I feel and see) gives the feeling of a fire. That"s probably what the Vedic Rishis translated as the "Flame” – in the human consciousness, in man, in Matter. They always spoke of a "Flame.” It is indeed a vibration with the intensity of a higher fire. Mother"s Agenda 25 March 1964.
::: The Mother: "Consciousness is the faculty of becoming aware of anything through identification. The Divine Consciousness is not only aware but knows and effects.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol.15*. Consciousness.
"The Mother is the consciousness and force of the Divine — or, it may be said, she is the Divine in its consciousness-force.” *The Mother
*The Mother: "To conquer the Adversary is not a small thing. One must have a greater power than his to vanquish him. But one can liberate oneself totally from his influence. And from the minute one is completely free from his influence, one"s self-giving can be total. And with the self-giving comes joy, long before the Adversary is truly vanquished and disappears.”
The Mother: "True humility consists in knowing that the Supreme Consciousness, the Supreme Will alone exists and that the I is not.” Words of the Mother, MCW Vol. 14.
"The one original transcendent Shakti, the Mother stands above all the worlds and bears in her eternal consciousness the Supreme Divine. Alone, she harbours the absolute Power and the ineffable Presence; containing or calling the Truths that have to be manifested, she brings them down from the Mystery in which they were hidden into the light of her infinite consciousness and gives them a form of force in her omnipotent power and her boundless life and a body in the universe.” The Mother
"The personal and the impersonal are themselves posited and experienced by mind as separate realities and one or other is declared and seen as supreme, so that the personal can have laya in the Impersonal or, on the contrary, the impersonal disappears into the absolute reality of the supreme and divine Person — the impersonal in that view is only an attribute or power of the personal Divine. But at the summit of spiritual experience passing beyond mind one begins to feel the fusion of all these things into one. Consciousness, Existence, Ananda return to their indivisible unity, Sachchidananda. The personal and the impersonal become irrevocably one, so that to posit one as against the other appears as an act of ignorance.” *Letters on Yoga
the quality or condition of being humble; the opposite of pride or haughtiness.
"There are, we might say, two beings in us, one on the surface, our ordinary exterior mind, life, body consciousness, another behind the veil, an inner mind, an inner life, an inner physical consciousness constituting another or inner self. This inner self once awake opens in its turn to our true real eternal self. It opens inwardly to the soul, called in the language of this yoga the psychic being which supports our successive births and at each birth assumes a new mind, life and body. It opens above to the Self or Spirit which is unborn and by conscious recovery of it we transcend the changing personality and achieve freedom and full mastery over our nature.” Letters on Yoga
"There is always the personal and the impersonal side of the Divine and the Truth and it is a mistake to think the impersonal alone to be true or important, for that leads to a void incompleteness in part of the being, while only one side is given satisfaction. Impersonality belongs to the intellectual mind and the static self, personality to the soul and heart and dynamic being. Those who disregard the personal Divine ignore something which is profound and essential.” Letters on Yoga ::: Impersonal"s.
"The spiritual change is the established descent of the peace, light, knowledge, power, bliss from above, the awareness of the Self and the Divine and of a higher cosmic consciousness and the change of the whole consciousness to that.” Letters on Yoga
::: "The third step is to know the Divine Being who is at once our supreme transcendent Self, the Cosmic Being, foundation of our universality, and the Divinity within of which our psychic being, the true evolving individual in our nature, is a portion, a spark, a flame growing into the eternal Fire from which it was lit and of which it is the witness ever living within us and the conscious instrument of its light and power and joy and beauty.” *The Life Divine
the trait of lacking boldness and courage.
::: "The true emptiness is the beginning of what I call in the Arya ‘sama ‘ — the rest, calm, peace of the eternal Self — which has finally to replace tamas, the physical inertia. Tamas is the degradation of sama , as rajas is the degradation of Tapas, the Divine Force.” *Letters on Yoga
"The vital is the. . . being behind the Force of Life; in its outer form in the Ignorance it generates the desire-soul which governs most men and which they mistake often for the real soul. ::: The vital as the desire-soul and desire-nature controls the consciousness to a large extent in most men, because men are governed by desire.” Letters on Yoga
"This body of ours is a symbol of our real being. . . .” Letters on Yoga ::: ". . . the body itself is only a constant act of consciousness of the spirit.” Essays on the Gita
"This Divine may lead us often through darkness, because the darkness is there in us and around us, but it is to the Light he is leading and not to anything else.” Letters on Yoga*
"This universal aesthesis of beauty and delight does not ignore or fail to understand the differences and oppositions, the gradations, the harmony and disharmony obvious to the ordinary consciousness; but, first of all, it draws a Rasa from them and with that comes the enjoyment, Bhoga. and the touch or the mass of the Ananda. It sees that all things have their meaning, their value, their deeper or total significance which the mind does not see, for the mind is only concerned with a surface vision, surface contacts and its own surface reactions. When something expresses perfectly what it was meant to express, the completeness brings with it a sense of harmony, a sense of artistic perfection; it gives even to what is discordant a place in a system of cosmic concordances and the discords become part of a vast harmony, and wherever there is harmony, there is a sense of beauty. ” Letters on Savitri*
"To me, for instance, consciousness is the very stuff of existence and I can feel it everywhere enveloping and penetrating the stone as much as man or the animal. A movement, a flow of consciousness is not to me an image but a fact. If I wrote "His anger climbed against me in a stream", it would be to the general reader a mere image, not something that was felt by me in a sensible experience; yet I would only be describing in exact terms what actually happened once, a stream of anger, a sensible and violent current of it rising up from downstairs and rushing upon me as I sat in the veranda of the Guest-House, the truth of it being confirmed afterwards by the confession of the person who had the movement. This is only one instance, but all that is spiritual or psychological in Savitri is of that character. What is to be done under these circumstances? The mystical poet can only describe what he has felt, seen in himself or others or in the world just as he has felt or seen it or experienced through exact vision, close contact or identity and leave it to the general reader to understand or not understand or misunderstand according to his capacity. A new kind of poetry demands a new mentality in the recipient as well as in the writer.” Letters on Savitri
::: "Universal forces means all forces good or bad, favourable or hostile, of light and darkness that move in the cosmos.” *Letters on Yoga
"Usha is the divine illumination and Dakshina is the discerning knowledge that comes with the dawn and enables the Power in the mind, Indra, to know aright and separate the light from the darkness, the truth from the falsehood, the straight from the crooked, vrinîta vijânan.” The Secret of the Veda*
v. To form a mental picture or image of. imagines, imagined, imagining.
"We are not the body, but the body is still something of ourselves. With realisation the erroneous identification ceases — in certain experiences the existence of the body is not felt at all. In the full realisation the body is within us, not we in it, it is an instrumental formation in our wider being, — our consciousness exceeds but also pervades it, — it can be dissolved without our ceasing to be the self.” Letters on Yoga
"We now begin to have reason for concluding that the Flame, which is only another aspect of Light, is the Vedic symbol for the Force of the divine consciousness, of the supramental Truth.” The Secret of the Veda
"We speak of the evolution of Life in Matter, the evolution of Mind in Matter; but evolution is a word which merely states the phenomenon without explaining it. For there seems to be no reason why Life should evolve out of material elements or Mind out of living form, unless we accept the Vedantic solution that Life is already involved in Matter and Mind in Life because in essence Matter is a form of veiled Life, Life a form of veiled Consciousness.” The Life Divine
". . . what is this strongly separative self-experience that we call ego? It is nothing fundamentally real in itself but only a practical constitution of our consciousness devised to centralise the activities of Nature in us. We perceive a formation of mental, physical, vital experience which distinguishes itself from the rest of being, and that is what we think of as ourselves in nature — this individualisation of being in becoming. We then proceed to conceive of ourselves as something which has thus individualised itself and only exists so long as it is individualised, — a temporary or at least a temporal becoming; or else we conceive of ourselves as someone who supports or causes the individualisation, an immortal being perhaps but limited by its individuality. This perception and this conception constitute our ego-sense.” The Life Divine
::: "Yet the highest power and manifestation is only a very partial revelation of the Infinite; even the whole universe is informed by only one degree of his greatness, illumined by one ray of his splendour, glorious with a faint hint of his delight and beauty.” *Essays on the Gita
"Yet there is still the unknown underlying Oneness which compels us to strive slowly towards some form of harmony, of interdependence, of concording of discords, of a difficult unity. But it is only by the evolution in us of the concealed superconscient powers of cosmic Truth and of the Reality in which they are one that the harmony and unity we strive for can be dynamically realised in the very fibre of our being and all its self-expression and not merely in imperfect attempts, incomplete constructions, ever-changing approximations.” The Life Divine*
KEYS (10k)
1 AN
NEW FULL DB (2.4M)
11 Ernest Hemingway
9 Anonymous
7 Ernest Cline
6 Horace
4 Toba Beta
4 Rajneesh
4 Emile Verhaeren
3 Seneca
3 Ovid
3 Laozi
3 Jon Jones
3 Jo Nesb
3 Emílio de Meneses
3 Émile Nelligan
3 Emil Aarestrup
3 Abbi Glines
2 Simon Haynes
2 Rumi
2 Nora Ephron
2 Jane Austen
1:Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ~ AN, TB, 1 Corinthians 13:7, NES, #KEYS
*** WISDOM TROVE ***
*** NEWFULLDB 2.4M ***
1:Les Vieux Chênes
~ Emile Verhaeren,#NFDB
2:Jay-bird don't rob his own nes'. ~ Joel Chandler Harris, #NFDB
3:Saber a qué le tememos, es sabes quiénes somos. ~ Guillermo del Toro, #NFDB
4:Ceux qui ne bougent pas ne sentent pas leurs chaînes. ~ Rosa Luxembourg, #NFDB
5:Nes meilei reikia rytojaus, o mūsų žinioj buvo tik akimirkos ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
6:¿Quiénes se creen los demás para decidir cómo han de ser nuestras vidas? ~ Jojo Moyes, #NFDB
7:Cuando alguien no sabe quiénes somos... podemos ser quienes queramos. ~ El sabet Benavent, #NFDB
8:Un des rares avantages du célibat est de ne pas avoir à souffrir de scènes de ménage ~ Marc Levy, #NFDB
9:En France, que de gens à longues oreilles : ânes en littérature, lièvres en politique ! ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
10:Si queréis formar juicio acerca de un hombre, observad quiénes son sus amigos. Fénelo ~ Mario Escobar, #NFDB
11:Porque um homem é feito dessas histórias, não é de adê-énes e músculos e ossos. Histórias. ~ Afonso Cruz, #NFDB
12:Mes turime kalbėtis, sverdami kiekvieną žodelį, nes, kitaip, žūsime nuo dviprasmiškumo. ~ William Shakespeare, #NFDB
13:Veidrodis atspindi tikrą vaizdą: jis nieko neiškraipo, nes nemąsto. Mąstyti - vadinasi, klysti. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
14:Para saber quién es verdaderamente una persona, creo que tienes que saber primero quiénes fueron. ~ Tarryn Fisher, #NFDB
15:La prochaine étape de l'évolution humaine consistera à nous libérer des chaînes de l'évolution. ~ Danielle Tremblay, #NFDB
16:¿Sabes quiénes basan sus vidas enteras en las emociones? Los niños de tres años. Y los perros. ¿Sabes ~ Mark Manson, #NFDB
17:Dicho del Profeta
Práctica
¿Quiénes son los sabios? Aquéllos que ponen en práctica lo que saben. ~ Idries Shah,#NFDB
18:En el amor descubrimos quiénes queremos ser.
En la guerra descubrimos quiénes somos en realidad. ~ Kristin Hannah,#NFDB
19:Love bears all things, believes all things, hopes all things, endures all things. ~ AN, TB, 1 Corinthians 13:7, NES, #NFDB
20:Las personas no pueden elegir de quiénes se enamoran. Sólo pueden elegir de quién seguir enamorados. ~ Colleen Hoover, #NFDB
21:Me di cuenta entonces que no es suficiente saber cómo se llama alguien.
Tienes que saber quiénes son. ~ Gayle Forman,#NFDB
22:¿No sabéis quiénes son los críticos? Aquellos que no han tenido éxito en la literatura y en el arte. ~ Benjamin Disraeli, #NFDB
23:«Dificultad» es el nombre de una antigua herramienta, creada simplemente para ayudarnos a definir quiénes somos. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
24:El propósito de la existencia es reparar, enmendar y soltar lo que no somos y descubrir quiénes somos en verdad. ~ Mabel Katz, #NFDB
25:«Dificultad» es el nombre de una antigua herramienta, creada simplemente para ayudarnos a definir quiénes somos. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
26:quiénes son entonces -preguntó- los que llamas filósofos verdaderos? -Los que gustan de contemplar la verdad -respondí. ~ Plato, #NFDB
27:Es negribu ne kāpt, ne vīties. Cik viegli nu ir atsacīties no zābakiem, kas mani nes, no putekļiem uz palodzes. ~ Imants Ziedonis, #NFDB
28:Patys pamišę yra visi - didžiausi pamišėliai tie, kurie nesižino esą pamišę, nes tik kartoja, ką jiems liepia kiti. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
29:Van zee hield zij alleen vanwege de stormen, en van gras uitsluitend als het schaars opschoot tussen de ruïnes. ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
30:La creatividad significa saber quiénes somos. Es jazz sin música, es un flujo de energía. Ser creativos es ser valientes ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
31:Nes visa tai įvyko plakant mano širdžiai; buvo vėjas, saulė ir debesys, visi jie sruvo per mano širdį ir per mano rankas. ~ Hermann Broch, #NFDB
32:era sólo una historia sobre personas y ratas. Y la parte difícil era decidir quiénes eran las personas, y quiénes eran las ratas ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
33:Žmogaus dieviškumą paslėpsime jo sielos gelmėse, nes tai vienintelė vieta, kurioje jis niekada nemėgins jos ieškoti. Brahma ~ Laurent Gounelle, #NFDB
34:Nes tėra tik vienas didis nuotykis - vidinis skverbimasis į save, o tam neturi įtakos nei laikas, nei erdvė, nei netgi veiksmai. ~ Henry Miller, #NFDB
35:„… lietuvių tauta privalo būti išsaugota, nes joje slypi raktas visoms mįslėms – ne tik filologijos, bet ir istorijos — įminti”. ~ Immanuel Kant, #NFDB
36:¿Por qué y cómo se construyó esta potente alegoría? ¿Qué hay detrás de El Álamo? ¿Quiénes reinventaron la batalla de El Á ~ Paco Ignacio Taibo II, #NFDB
37:Vosotros, las personas, tenéis nombres porque no sabéis quiénes sois. Nosotros sabemos quiénes somos, por eso no necesitamos nombres. ~ Neil Gaiman, #NFDB
38:Porque nós somos feitos de histórias, não de a-dê-énes e códigos genéticos, nem de carne e músculos e pele e cérebros. É de histórias. ~ Afonso Cruz, #NFDB
39:Si algo he aprendido en mi larga vida es esto: en el amor descubrimos quiénes queremos ser; en la guerra descubrimos quiénes somos. ~ Kristin Hannah, #NFDB
40:¿Quiénes son los infortunados a quien la tarde no calma, y toman, como los búhos, la llegada de la noche por señal de aquelarre? ~ Charles Baudelaire, #NFDB
41:Nes juk galų gale gyvenimas yra ne tai, ką mes darome, o tik laukimas kažko kito, ir mirtis yra tai, kuo galime be dvejonių pasikliauti. ~ Bram Stoker, #NFDB
42:Sin duda, sería maravilloso si todos supiéramos exactamente quiénes somos. Pero ese conocimiento no nos viene de fuera, sino de dentro. ~ Cassandra Clare, #NFDB
43:Whiteness, Fanon asserts, has become a symbol of purity, of Justice, Truth, Virginity. It defi nes what it means to be civilized, modern and human ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
44:Ils tombèrent dans cette redoutable erreur de prendre l'obéissance du soldat pour le consentement de la nation. Cette confiance-là perd des trônes. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
45:Todos somos extraños para nosotros mismos, y si tenemos alguna sensación de quiénes somos, es solo porque vivimos dentro de la mirada de los demás. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
46:C’était une de ces scènes qui se gravent dans votre tête pour se transformer en souvenir. Au bout du compte, de quoi la vie est-elle faite sinon de souvenirs ~ Dave Duncan, #NFDB
47:Meilės kaltės bus atleistos,
nes tyroj meilėj nėra nieko pikta. Bet jausmingoj
meilėj yra tiek pat neapykantos, egoizmo ir
apmaudo, kiek ir meilės. ~ Anatole France,#NFDB
48:Es el reto al que nos enfrentamos todos. ¿Qué podemos hacer para mejorar nosotros y este país? ¿Qué podemos hacer para ser recordados? ¿Quiénes queremos ser? ~ Melissa de la Cruz, #NFDB
49:Šiandien esu įsitikinusi, kad niekas nieko nepraranda, nes niekas niekam ir nepriklauso. Štai tikroji laisve: turėti svarbiausią dalyką pasaulyje, bet jo nesisavinti. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
50:Como decía Kandinski, en el arte no hay reglas porque el arte es libre. Y si te sientes feliz pintando para ti sola, ¿quiénes somos los demás para decirte que cambies? ~ Javier Ruescas, #NFDB
51:Je crois encore au merveilleux en amour, je crois à la réalité des rêves, je crois aux héroïnes de la nuit, aux belles de nuit pénétrant dans les coeurs et dans les lits. ~ Robert Desnos, #NFDB
52:(Los padres obsesivos saben quiénes son y generalmente se sienten orgullosos de ello; los padres no obsesivos también saben quiénes son y tienden a burlarse de ellos.) La mayor ~ Steven D Levitt, #NFDB
53:Todo acaba volviendo, dicen, y aunque nunca he podido aclarar quiénes son esos misteriosos sabios que <>, sin duda están en lo cierto en lo relativo a los viajes en el tiempo. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
54:Kai aš buvau vaikas, mano mama man pasakė, kad aš esu mažas gabalėlis dangaus, kuris atėjo į pasaulį, nes mama ir tėtis ją labai mylėjo! Tik vėliau aš supratau, jog tai nebuvo tiesa. ~ Jodi Picoult, #NFDB
55:Tavo, Karna, labai gležna išorė. Bet niekis, nes į tavo vidų atsitrenki kaip į uolą. Man — priešingai. O kai nepridengta uoliena suskyla, viskas užgriūna ant to, kas stovi arčiausiai. ~ Herbj rg Wassmo, #NFDB
56:Creo que ahora veo la diferencia, entre amar a alguien desde lejos y amar a alguien desde cerca. Cuando lo ves de cerca, ves quiénes son en realidad, pero también ellos ven quién eres tú realmente. ~ Jenny Han, #NFDB
57:Aš pažįstu jus tik savaitę, ir būtų per anksti sakyti: "Aš tave myliū". Per anksti ir sykiu per vėlai, nes man liko gyventi tik ši naktis. Bet didžiausia vyro ir moters beprotybė būtent ir yra meilė. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
58:Tuomet mes iš tikrųjų buvome pasiekę dugną - nesakau "prarajos", nes nuo tada patyriau, kad praraja dugno neturi ir kad mes visi galim mušti gylio rekordus, niekada neišsemdami tos įdomios institucijos galimybių. ~ Romain Gary, #NFDB
59:-Rómpeme el corazón. Rómpemelo mil veces, si quieres. De todos modos solo ha sido tuyo, desde el principio.
-Te querré hasta mi último aliento. Cada latido de mi corazónes tuyo. No quiero morir sin que lo sepas. ~ Kiera Cass,#NFDB
60:La vie est une sitcom: une suite de scènes qui se déroulent toujours dans les mêmes décors, avec à peu près les mêmes personnages, et dont on attend les prochains épisodes avec une impatience teintée d'abrutissement. ~ Fr d ric Beigbeder, #NFDB
61:¡Por última vez! ¿Quiénes son tus cómplices? TÚPAC AMARU (Alzando a duras penas la cabeza, abre los ojos y habla por fin).—Aquí no hay más cómplices que tú y yo. Tú por opresor, y yo por libertador, merecemos la muerte. ~ Eduardo Galeano, #NFDB
62:Dans ses études, l´homme a pris la fâcheuse habitude de tout morceler, de se spécialiser, pour employer le terme consacré. Seule une vue globale et synthétique des phénomènes peut donner les clés de la véritable compréhension. ~ Daniel Meurois, #NFDB
63:Pero me entristece que nos hayamos olvidado de nuestros nombres. De entre todas las cosas, esa me parece la más trágica. Echo de menos mi nombre y lamento la perdida de los demás, porque me gustaría quererlos, pero no sé quiénes son. ~ Isaac Marion, #NFDB
64:-¿Y cómo se consigue ser suficiente para una misma?
-Si algún día encuentro la fórmula, la compartiré con vos. Pero creo que decidir quiénes queremos ser, al margen de los límites que otros nos hayan puesto, es un buen comienzo. ~ Iria G Parente,#NFDB
65:Je sentis inconsciemment que tu mènes une double vie, une vie dont une face claire est franchement tournée vers le monde, tandis que l'autre, plongée dans l'ombre, n'est connue que de toi seul. Cette profonde dualité, le secret de ton existence ~ Stefan Zweig, #NFDB
66:64Pero hay algunos de vosotros que no creéis. Porque Jesús sabía desde el principio quiénes eran los que no creían, y quién era el que le iba a traicionar. 65Y decía: Por eso os he dicho que nadie puede venir a mí si no se lo ha concedido el Padre. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
67:Vadinas, varomoji jėga yra ne individo sąžinė, o santykis, atsiradęs tarp jo ir kitų žmonių. Ne todėl blogai elgiamės, kad sunaikinome savyje Dievą, o todėl, kad Dievas ir net Šetonas tampa nesvarbūs, nes sankciją veiksmui suteikia kitas žmogus. ~ Witold Gombrowicz, #NFDB
68:Dijo Tennyson que si pudiéramos comprender una sola flor sabríamos quiénes somos, y qué es el mundo. Tal vez quiso decir que no hay hecho, por humilde que sea, que no implique la historia universal y su infinita concatenación de efectos y causas. ~ Jorge Luis Borges, #NFDB
69:Pasaulis turėtų siekti teisybės ir teisingumo, bet visą dėmesį sutelkia į daiktus, po pusmečio jie tampa beverčiais ir vietoj jų perkami kiti, nes tik esant tokiai apyvartai pasaulio viršūnėse gali išsilaikyti menkystos, šiandien susirinkusieji Kanuose. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
70:Quand par hasard elle changeait de chaîne, toutes ces famines, ces épidémies, ces guerres télévisuelles l'affolaient. (...) Elle considérait famines, génocides et purifications ethniques comme autant de phénomènes susceptibles de mettre son mobilier en péril. ~ Arundhati Roy, #NFDB
71:Existimos para nosotros mismos, quizá, y a veces vislumbramos quiénes somos, pero al final nunca podemos estar seguros, y mientras nuestras vidas continúan, nos volvemos cada vez más opacos para nosotros mismos, más y más conscientes de nuestra propia incoherencia ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
72:Romanistas priverčia mus per vieną valandą išgyventi visų galimų džiaugsmų ir sielvartų audrą, kai tikrovėje praeitų metų metai, kol patirtume kai kuriuos iš jų, o stipriausieji mums taip ir neatsiskleistų niekados, nes randasi jie iš lėto ir mes negalime to suvokti. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
73:Cada libro, cada tomo que ves, tiene alma. El alma de quién lo escribió, y el alma de quiénes lo leyeron y vivieron y soñaron con él. Cada vez que un libro cambia de manos, cada vez que alguien desliza la mirada por sus páginas, su espíritu crece y se hace fuerte. ~ Carlos Ruiz Zaf n, #NFDB
74:Žinoma, mes pamišę, Hari. Pamišę ir sveikiausi pasaulyje. Nes kai žmonės sako, kad tai, ką padariau, yra beprotybė, kad mano širdis išsigimusi, aš klausiu: kuri širdis labiau išsigimusi - ta, kuri negali liautis mylėjusi, ar ta, kuri yra mylima, bet negali atsakyti į meilę? ~ Jo Nesb, #NFDB
75:Ich hatte einst ein schönes Vaterland.
Der Eichenbaum
Wuchs dort so hoch, die Veilchen nickten sanft.
Es war ein Traum.
Das küßte mich auf deutsch, und sprach auf deutsch
(Man glaubt es kaum,
Wie gut es klang) das Wort: "Ich liebe dich!"
Es war ein Traum. ~ Heinrich Heine,#NFDB
76:Zwölf ist ein wunderschönes und bemerkenswertes Alter; um diese Zeit fangen Kinder an, große Töne zu spucken und zu überlegen, wie sie es allein schaffen könnten: genau wie Engel, unmittelbar bevor sie aus dem Himmel vertrieben werden. Sie haben solch unschuldige und gefährliche Ideen. ~ Heather O Neill, #NFDB
77:Wenn mir Musik die Seele bewegte, dann verstand ich ohne Worte doch alles, fühlte in der Tiefe alles Lebens reine Harmonie und glaubte zu wissen, daß ein Sinn und schönes Gesetz in allem Geschehen verborgen sei. Wenn es auch eine Täuschung war, ich lebte doch darin und war darin beglückt. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
78:Un mundo sin novelas es un mundo estancado, cuya visión de sí mismo se estanca, cuya identidad se estanca; en el caso de pueblos nuevos como lo eran los americanos, desesperados por saber quiénes eran y cual era su lugar en el mundo, esta carencia puede tener consecuencias dramáticas. ~ Juan Gabriel V squez, #NFDB
79:Nos volvemos efigies tan falsas, que llegamos al punto de no saber ya quiénes somos. Porque, por otra parte, nosotros, que somos efigies falsas, no sabemos lo que somos realmente. El único modo de estar de acuerdo con la vida es estar en desacuerdo con nosotros mismos. Lo absurdo es lo divino. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
80:Aš esu Šviesa ir Gėris. Aš esu Meilė ir manyje nėra tamsos. Šviesa ir Gėris tikrai egzistuoja. Taigi, jeigu atsiskirsi nui manęs, - panirsi į tamsą. Jeigu pasiskelbsi nepriklausomas,- tai baigsis blogiu, nes be manęs galėsi kliautis tik savimi. Tai mirtis, nes atsiskirsi nuo manęs - Gyvenimo. ~ William Paul Young, #NFDB
81:Die Teesträucher fließen die Hügel hinab; es sind kleine Büsche von rundem Wuchs mit länglichen Blättern, die dicht nebeneinander gepflanzt werden: von oben betrachtet sehen die Felder aus wie ein grünes, eng gelegtes Mosaik aus Knöpfen, bemoosten Kugeln, die sich über die Hänge des Himalaya ziehen. ~ Mathias nard, #NFDB
82:Les échos de la bombe d'amour allaient et venaient. Mon cœur en aurait longtemps encore des acouphènes. Cette sensation d'extraordinaire gâchis continuait de me hanter. Neutraliser la bombe d'amour était un exercice terriblement mélancolique. Le tout était de ne pas la faire exploser une nouvelle fois ~ Mathias Malzieu, #NFDB
83:Todos deberíamos [...] agradecer qué somos, pero no conformarnos con quiénes somos. Los grandes, los que pueden verse desde lejos en medio de una multitud, y no hablo de altura, se han atrevido a ir un poco más allá, a enfrentarse con sus demonios y vencerlos. De eso se trata. De luchar contra uno mismo. ~ Benito Taibo, #NFDB
84:Il y avait des chênes rugueux, énormes, qui se convulsaient, s'étiraient du sol, s'étreignaient les uns les autres, et, fermes sur leurs troncs, pareils à des torses, se lançaient avec leurs bras nus des appels de désespoir, des menaces furibondes, comme un groupe de Titans immobilisés dans leur colère. Quelque ~ Gustave Flaubert, #NFDB
85:En aquellos tiempos, si le hubieras preguntado a Southwest quiénes eran sus competidores, te habrían dicho: «Competimos con el coche y el autobús». Aunque lo que querían decir era: «Somos los defensores del hombre de la calle». Ese era el PORQUÉ de que fundaran la aerolínea. Esa era su causa, su finalidad, su razón para existir. ~ Simon Sinek, #NFDB
86:NES?” asked Julian, proud of himself for at least remembering what RPG meant. Tim sighed. “Nintendo Entertainment System. Jesus, didn’t you have a childhood? What the fuck did you do all summer?” “I went to the pool, rode my bike, played outside with my friends.” Cooper put his hand on Julian’s shoulder. “You poor, poor bastard. ~ Robert Bevan, #NFDB
87:Kai žmogus ieško, tada lengvai atsitinka, kad jo akys mato tik tą dalyką, kurio ieško, ir jis nieko kito neįstengia pastebėti ar suvokti, nes visą laiką galvoja tik apie ieškomą daiktą - jis turi tikslą, apsėstas savo tikslo. Ieškoti- tai turėti tikslą. Bet rasti - vadinasi, būti laisvam, atviram pojūčiams, neturėti jokio tikslo. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
88:Der geliebte Freund des Freunds des Herrn,
Uwais al-Qarani im Lande Jemen.
Er lügt niemals, er ißt niemals Verbot'nes,
Uwais al-Qarani im Lande Jemen.
Er stand früh auf und ging auf seinem Pfade,
gedenkend Gottes tausend und ein Male,
"Allah, Allah!" sprache er, Kamele leitend,
Uwais al-Qarani im Lande Jemen. ~ Yunus Emre,#NFDB
89:Les peuples une fois accoutumés à des maîtres ne sont plus en état de s'en passer. S'ils tentent de secouer le joug, ils s'éloignent d'autant plus de la liberté, que, prenant pour elle une licence effrénée qui lui est opposée, leurs révolutions les livrent presque toujours à des séducteurs qui ne font qu'aggraver leurs chaînes. ~ Jean Jacques Rousseau, #NFDB
90:Standing drunk in the yard, while the rain soaked his hair and spread cold through the cloth of his doublet, Jerott thought of the fine design, firmly executed, of the campaign of Guînes and of Calais. And of his own joy and his liberation, after these huckstering years, to be again under the hand of this man, his arts at their meridian. ~ Dorothy Dunnett, #NFDB
91:les chiens montent la garde au cas où des sirènes sortiraient du trou pour se jeter sur moi.
Je suis empereur d'une berge, seigneur de mes chiots, roi des Cèdres du Nord, protecteur des mésanges, allié des lynx et frère des ours. Je suis surtout un peu gris parce que après deux heures d'abattage de bois, je viens de m'envoyer un fond de vodka. ~ Sylvain Tesson,#NFDB
92:Ez a „most” az egyetlen realitás, amit ismerünk; a már-nem színes semmijét követi, és a jövő abszolút semmijét előzi meg. Így egészen szó szerinti értelemben mondhatjuk, hogy a tudatos emberi élet mindig csak egy pillanatig tart, mert a saját tudatáramunkra irányuló szándékos figyelem egyetlen pillanatában sem tudhatjuk, hogy követi-e újabb pillanat. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
93:Il est étrange que pour nos chrétiens les prétendues désordres de la chair constituent le mal par excellence, dit méditativement Zénon. Personne ne punit avec rage et dégoût la brutalité, la sauvagerie, la barbarie, l'injustice. Nul demain ne s'avisera de trouver obscènes les bonnes gens qui viendront regarder mes tressautements dans les flammes. ~ Marguerite Yourcenar, #NFDB
94:Kas tai yra meilė? Nieko nėra pasaulyje, nei žmogaus, nei velnio, nei kito dalyko, kuris man atrodytų toks pat įtartinas, kaip meilė, nes ji įsilaužia į sielą giliau nei kas kitas, ir nėra nieko kito, kas taip pripildytų ir supančiotų širdį, kaip meilė. Todėl per meilę siela nugarma į giliausius pragarus, nebent jei turi ginklų, kuriais gali jai atsispirti. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
95:...moteris panaši į katę, kaip ir aistra panaši į katę. Jos letenėlės minkštos, tačiau slepia aštrius nagelius, negailestingai susmingančius iki širdies. Moteris iš tiesų panaši į katę, nes katei taip pat malonu vilioti auką ir nageliais suteikti jai skausmo, tas žaidimas jai niekada nepabosta. Vos aukai susmukus, katė ją suėda ir tipena ieškoti naujos aukos. ~ Mika Waltari, #NFDB
96:Rytas mano gyvenimo perspektyvą nuspalvino nauja spalva ir taip pašviesino, kad viskas atrodė kur kas geriau. Labiausiai sąmonę dabar slėgė mintys apie tas šešias dienas, kurios skyrė mane nuo išvykimo, nes niekaip negalėjau nuvyti šalin būkštavimų, kad per tą laiką Londonui kas nors atsitiks ir tenai nuvykęs rasių jį labai sumenkusį arba visai pradingusį. ~ Charles Dickens, #NFDB
97:Todo es símbolo y atraso, y nosotros, los que somos dioses, sólo tenemos un grado más alto en una Orden, cuyos Superiores Incógnitos no sabemos quiénes son. Dios es el segundo en la Orden manifiesta, y no me dice quién es el Jefe de la Orden, el único que conoce (se conoce) los Jefes Secretos. Cuántas veces Dios me ha dicho: 'Hermano mío, no sé quién soy'. ~ Fernando Pessoa, #NFDB
98:Sofa und starrt die Wand an. Das grüne Auto braust in den Teppich. Das rote folgt. Dann das gelbe. Bumm! Aber Mommy merkt’s nicht. Ich mach’s noch mal. Bumm! Aber Mommy sieht’s nicht. Ich ziele mit dem grünen Auto auf ihre Füße. Es verschwindet unter dem Sofa. Ich komme nicht ran. Meine Hand ist zu groß für den Spalt darunter. Mommy merkt’s nicht. Ich will mein grünes ~ E L James, #NFDB
99:¿Sabes qué creo? Que deberíamos aceptar que todo el mundo cambia. Cada día. Cada segundo. Así de rápido. Yo el primero. Pero se nos olvida, supongo. O nos da miedo. Constantemente descubrimos cosas de nosotros que un minuto antes no sabíamos, y algunas de esas cosas redefinen por completo quiénes somos para protegernos de toda la mierda que pasa a nuestro alrededor. ~ Javier Ruescas, #NFDB
100:Tuo metu aš buvau įsimylėjęs teatrą, žinoma, platoniška meile, nes tėvai dar niekad nebuvo leidę man tenai nueiti, ir tokį menką teturėjau supratimą, kas tai per malonumas, kad bemaž tikėjau, jog teatre kiekvienas žiūri tartum pro stereoskopą į dekoracijas, rodomas jam vienam, nors ir visai panašias į tūkstančius kitų, kurias mato visi žiūrovai, tiktai kiekvienas atskirai. ~ Marcel Proust, #NFDB
101: ¿Considerarías como operación propia del caballo o de otro ser cualquiera aquella que sólo, o de mejor manera que por otros, pudiera hacerse por él? No entiendo dijo. Sea esto: ¿puedes ver con otra cosa que con los ojos? No de cierto. ¿O acaso oír con algo distinto de los oídos? De ningún modo. ¿No podríamos, pues, decir que ésas son operaciones propias de ellos? Bien de cierto. ~ Plato, #NFDB
102:Los ejecutivos actuales viven con menos claridad y ninguna certeza a largo plazo; los competidores, los clientes e incluso las principales líneas de productos pueden cambiar radicalmente en pocos años. Como resultado, las compañías y sus ejecutivos deben hacerse hoy preguntas que en otro tiempo hubieran parecido estúpidas y poco plausibles: ¿quiénes somos?, ¿qué estamos tratando de lograr? ~ Chris Lowney, #NFDB
103:Buvau jaunas, jaunesnis nei maniau. Ir vis dėlto mano naivumas buvo jau senas ir be iliuzijų. Tiesą pasakius, jis amžinas: įžvelgiu jį kiekvienoje naujoje kartoje, pradedant 1947 metų Sen Žermen de Prė "žiurkėmis" ir baigiant Kalifornijos beat generation, pas kuriuos kartais apsilankau, nes man smagu kitose vietose ir kituose veiduose atpažinti grimasas, kurias darydavau dvidešimtmetis. ~ Romain Gary, #NFDB
104:Jei su aplinkiniais elgiamės draugiškai ir pasikliaudami, patys nurimstame ir atsipalaiduojame. Mes atsikratome baimės ir įtarumo, kurie paprastai lydi bendraujant su kitais žmonėmis, nes jų nepažįstame arba manome, kad šie kelia mums grėsmę, verčia varžytis. Kai esame ramūs ir atsipalaidavę, sugebame aiškiai mąstyti, taigi kad ir ką darytume – mokytumės ar dirbtume, – mums seksis daug geriau. ~ Dalai Lama XIV, #NFDB
105:Chicas medio locas, ambas deslumbrantes y autodestructivas, profundamente excitantes para ti, pero apenas llegabas a entenderlas. Las inventabas. Las utilizabas como ficticias encarnaciones de tus propios deseos, dejando de lado sus problemas e historias personales, sin comprender quiénes eran al margen de tu propia imaginación, y sin embargo, cuanto más te eludían, más apasionadamente las deseabas. ~ Paul Auster, #NFDB
106:Elle ne s'intéressait pas aux livres dans lesquels les enfants grandissaient, car (dans la vie comme en littérature) ce processus entrainait un affaiblissement accéléré et inexplicable du caractère ; de façon totalement inattendue, les héros et les héroïnes renonçaient à leurs aventures pour un amour insipide, se mariaient et fondaient une famille, et, en général, se comportaient comme un troupeau de vaches. ~ Donna Tartt, #NFDB
107:Soy el peor de los demonios para aquellas mujeres de rostro bonito que carecen de alma y corazón, que se revelan como seres aburridos, frívolos y de mal carácter, sin embargo, con quiénes tienen la mirada diáfana y la lengua elocuente, fuego en el alma, y un carácter flexible que se incline pero nunca se rompe, personas a la vez dúctiles y tiernas, tratables y coherentes, soy siempre considerado y sincero ~ Charlotte Bront, #NFDB
108:Ella decía que éramos seres llenos de fealdad e insignificancia; pero, aunque yo sabía hasta qué punto era yo mismo capaz de cosas innobles, me desolaba el pensamiento de que también ella podía serlo, que seguramente lo era. ¿Cómo? -pensaba-, ¿con quiénes, cuándo? Y un sordo deseo de precipitarme sobre ella y destrozarla con las uñas y de apretar su cuello hasta ahogarla y arrojarla al mar iba creciendo en mí. ~ Ernesto Sabato, #NFDB
109:Mes esame nelaimingi vieni, ir mes nelaimingi bendruomenėje; vedę ir nevedę; mes lyg ežiai, besiburią šilimai, mums nepatogu, kai mes sugrūsti, ir mes dar nelaimingesni išsiskyrę; optimizmas yra karti pajuoka iš žmogaus sielvarto; gyvenimas - blogis, nes gyvenimas - karas; kuo tobulesnis organizmas, tuo tobulesnis kentėjimas; istorijos motto: eadem sed aliter*.
* Tas pats, bet kitaip (lot.) ~ Antanas k ma,#NFDB
110:- Bref, dit Frank, d’après mes cousins de Pylos, le dieu enchaîné qu’on doit trouver à Sparte est mon père. Enfin, Arès, pas Mars. Apparemment, les Spartiates gardaient dans leur ville une statue de lui couvert de chaînes pour que l’esprit de la guerre ne les quitte jamais.
– D’accord, dit Léo. Les Spartiates étaient grave zoum-zoum. En même temps, nous, avec la Victoire ficelée dans l’écurie, on peut pas la ramener. ~ Rick Riordan,#NFDB
111:El problema principal de los fantasmas es que la mayoría han perdido sus voces. En los campos de Asfódelos, millones de fantasmas deambulan sin rumbo tratando de recordar quiénes eran. ¿Sabes por qué acaban así? Porque en vida nunca se posicionaron. Nunca dijeron lo que pensaban, así que nadie los oyó. Tu voz es tu identidad. Si no la usas -dijo encogiéndose de hombros-, ya estás a medio camino de los Campos de Asfódelos. ~ Rick Riordan, #NFDB
112:Taip, vis dėlto, tęsia Pivo, tai buvo išskirtinė motina. Ji tapo išskirtine, atsako Gary, nes "Aušros pažadas" ją ištraukė iš užmaršties, kurioje nuskęsta visos motinos. Neaprėpiama galybė nepaprastų motinų prapuolė užmaršty, nes jų sūnūs negalėjo parašyti "Aušros pažado", štai ir viskas. Istorijos naktyje pilna nuostabių, nežinomų, nepažintų, visiškai nesuvokiančių savo didybės motinų, kokia buvo ir mano motina. ~ Fran ois Henri D s rable, #NFDB
113:Vivre, c'est d'abord se tenir prêt à recevoir le ciel sur la tête. Si tu pars du principe que l'existence n'est qu'une épreuve, tu es équipé pour gérer ses peines et ses surprises. Si tu persistes à attendre d'elle ce qu'elle ne peut te donner, c'est la preuve que tu n'as rien compris. Prends les choses comme elles viennent, n'en fais pas un drame ni un plat ; ce n'est pas toi qui mènes ta barque, mais le cours de ton destin. ~ Yasmina Khadra, #NFDB
114:Je ne me suis jamais vraiment intéressée à la psychogénéalogie ni aux phénomènes de répétition transmis d'une génération à une autre qui passionnent certains de mes amis. J'ignore comment ces choses (l'inceste, les enfants morts, le suicide, la folie) se transmettent.
Le fait est qu'elles traversent les familles de part en part, comme d'impitoyables malédictions, laissent des empreintes qui résistent au temps et au déni. ~ Delphine de Vigan,#NFDB
115:[...] Notons qu'un soi-disant "sociobiologiste"-- ce mot est tout un programme -- a poussé l'ingéniosité jusqu'à remplacer la matière par des "gênes" dont l'égoïsme aveugle, combiné avec un instinct de fourmis ou d'abeilles, aurait fini par constituer non seulement les corps mais aussi la conscience et en fin de compte l'intelligence humaine, miraculeusement capable de disserter sur les gênes qui se sont amusés à la produire. ~ Frithjof Schuon, #NFDB
116:Ko sveši spēki man var padarīt
jo tagad zinu es, kā gaisma krīt
ka neesmu es šajā zemē viens
ka pietur mani zelta pavediens
un neredzams - cik reizes nav jau justs
pār manu galvu griežas ugunskrusts
tas visu laiku nes man kaut ko klāt
es nezinu, vai tas ir - dāvināt
nē, drīzāk mani tā kā stādu lej
un tad es stiprs jūtos pasaulei
un tad es saprotu, ko zvana zvani
un pasaule kļūst stiprāka ar mani ~ Imants Ziedonis,#NFDB
117:Jaunas žmogus kenčia supratęs, kad gyvenimas ne toks, kokį įsivaizdavo. Jei nori, kad sektųsi, turi dantim ir nagais kabintis tik savo naudos, nes niekas kitas tavo nauda nepasirūpins. Bet tie, kuriems sekasi, žaloja sielą, todėl reikėtų rast nuosaikų vidurio kelią - kad turėtum sėkmę, bet ir be žalos sielai. Nebūti blogiausiam iš blogųjų, doriausiam iš dorųjų, pervirš išdidžiam tarp išdidėlių ir pernelyg nuolankiam tarp nuolankiųjų. ~ Mika Waltari, #NFDB
118:Jaunas žmogus kenčia supratęs, kad gyvenimas ne toks, kokį įsivaizdavo. Jei nori, kad sektųsi, turi dantim ir nagais kabintis tik savo naudos, nes niekas kitas tavo nauda nepasirūpins. Bet tie, kuriems sekasi, žaloja sielą. todėl reikėtų rast nuosaikų vidurio kelią - kad turėtum sėkmę, bet ir be žalos sielai. Nebūti blogiausiam iš blogųjų, doriausiam iš dorųjų, pervirš išdidžiam tarp išdidėlių ir pernelyg nuolankiam tarp nuolankiųjų. ~ Mika Waltari, #NFDB
119:(...) mais, mets-te le dans la tête, pour ne jamais l'oublier : les loups et les agneaux ne se regardent pas avec des yeux doux. » Que me fallait-il donc, à moi, qui rejetais, avec tant de dégoût, ce qu'il y avait de plus beau dans l'humanité! ce qu'il me fal-lait, je n'aurais pas su le dire. Je n'étais pas encore habitué à me rendre un compte rigou-reux des phénomènes de mon esprit, au moyen des méthodes que recommande la philosophie. ~ Comte de Lautr amont, #NFDB
120:Les polluants organiques persistants s’accumulent en effet dans les tissus graisseux des animaux et entrent ainsi dans l’alimentation humaine. Ces polluants organiques persistants se retrouvent également dans la chair des poissons d’élevage, lesquels sont nourris d’aliments concentrés fabriqués notamment à partir de protéines animales. Ces molécules sont cancérigènes et toxiques pour le développement du système nerveux du fœtus et des jeunes enfants ~ Matthieu Ricard, #NFDB
121:posible. Hoy, otra vez, no tuve remordimientos. Hoy, otra vez, triunfé". El resultado acumulado de dichos esfuerzos es una vida de gran victoria. No debemos compararnos con los demás. Debemos comparar quiénes somos hoy con quiénes fuimos ayer, quiénes somos hoy con quiénes seremos mañana. Aunque esto parece ser sencillo y obvio, la verdadera felicidad se halla en una vida de constante avance. Y las mismas preocupaciones que podrían habernos hecho desdichados ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
122:Je me refuse à tout commerce avec le monde immonde qu'on m'a imposé, où l'on m'a jetée sans procès comme des esclaves aux galères. Ils m'ont jetée au milieu d'une chiourme si gueule, si ventre, qu'elle ne s'aperçoit même pas qu'elle a une âme, une chiourme prête à toutes les chaînes, à tous les crimes contre l'âme et la fierté, pour avoir accès à l'auge que, trois fois par jour, les maîtres lui donnent à lécher. Ô maîtres, je mangerai plutôt mes excréments! ~ R jean Ducharme, #NFDB
123:L'avenir n'est pas seulement tapi quelque part devant nous, toujours prêt à se jeter sur le monde. Il est aussi du passé prolongé et travaillé par le temps. Il y a naturellement chez lui quelque chose de nouveau. Il imagine. Il invente. Il nous apporte de l'inconnu et une sorte de création continue. Mais il ne peut pas faire ce qu'il veut. Il est commandé par un passé qui lui tient les rênes très serrées. Le passé est ce qui empêche l'avenir d'être n'importe quoi. ~ Jean d Ormesson, #NFDB
124:- <..> Bet aš norėjau tau taip pasakyti. Jeigu jau mes skirtingi, aš džiaugiuosi, kad tu esi Robertas, o aš Marija. Bet jeigu tu panorėtum pasikeisti, aš su džiaugsmu pasikeisčiau. Aš būčiau tu, nes aš tave taip myliu.
- Aš nenoriu keistis. Geriau būkime viena būtybė, ir kiekvienas likime, kas esame.
- Ir dabar mudu būsime viena būtybė, ir niekad nebus kitaip. - Paskui pridūrė: - Aš būsiu tu, kai tavęs čia nebebus. O, aš tave taip myliu ir privalau tavim rūpintis. ~ Ernest Hemingway,#NFDB
125:Todos nosotros somos la culminación de una parte transcendental de nuestros padres y su pasado. Una parte vital de las circunstancias en las que fuimos criados. Todo lo que nos pasa, bueno o malo, deja una impresión duradera en nuestras almas. Toma una parte de eso, y podrás volver a escribir algo completamente esencial de nosotros. Por lo general, no son las cosas grandes las que nos dan forma. Si no las pequeñas, día a día lo que nos hacen ser quienes somos y quiénes vamos a ser. ~ Sherrilyn Kenyon, #NFDB
126:Žmogus silpnas, todėl visada bando nuo savęs nuslėpti didžiąją Mirties tiesą. Jis nesuvokia, jog tiktai ji skatina gyvenime atlikti pačius didžiausius darbus. Žmogus bijo nuklysti į tamsą, jį siaubingai gąsdina nežinomybė, ir tą baimę įmanoma įveikti tik nepamirštant, kad jo dienos suskaičiuotos. Žmogus nesupranta, jog, susitaikęs su Mirtimi, sugebėtų ryžtis didesniems darbams, pasiekti nepalyginamai didesnių pergalių savo kasdienėje kovoje, nes neturi ko prarasti - Mirtis neišvengiama. ~ Paulo Coelho, #NFDB
127:Lo único libre son los precios. En nuestras tierras, Adam Smith necesita a Mussolini. Libertad de inversiones, libertad de precios, libertad de cambios: cuanto más libres andan los negocios, más presa está la gente. La prosperidad de pocos maldice a todos los demás. ¿Quién conoce una riqueza que sea inocente? En tiempos de crisis, ¿no se vuelven conservadores los liberales, y fascistas los conservadores? ¿Al servicio de quiénes cumplen su tarea los asesinos de personas y países? Orlando ~ Eduardo Galeano, #NFDB
128:Yra didelė, bet visiškai kasdieniška paslaptis. Visi žmonės su ja susiję, kiekvienas ją žino, bet tik nedaugelis apie ją pagalvoja. Dauguma paprasčiausiai su ja taikstosi ir nė kiek nesistebi. Toji paslaptis - tai laikas. Jam matuoti yra kalendoriai ir laikrodžiai, bet tas nedaug ką sako, nes kiekvienas žino, kad kartais viena valanda atrodo kaip amžinybė, o kitais kartais ji prabėga kaip akimirka - nelygu, ką žmogus tą valandą patiria. Laikas yra gyvenimas, o gyvenimo būstas - žmogaus širdis. ~ Michael Ende, #NFDB
129:– Labiausiai norėčiau suprasti, – prisipažino jis man vieną dieną. – Niekada
nieko nesupranti ar labai mažai ką, – kalbėjo toliau. – Žmonės gyvena tarsi
neregiai, ir jiems to pakanka. Net, sakyčiau, to jie ir siekia: išvengti galvos
skausmo ir svaigimo, prisikimšti pilvą, miegoti, įsisprausti tarp žmonos šlaunų,
kai per daug užkaista kraujas, kariauti, nes jiems liepia taip daryti, o tada mirti,
per daug nenutuokiant, kas laukia paskui, bet vis dėlto tikintis, kad kas nors
laukia. ~ Philippe Claudel,#NFDB
130:Les héroïnes de Laclos, de Stendhal, de Hemingway sont sans mystère: elles n'en sont pas moins attachantes. Reconnaître dans la femme un être humain, ce n'est pas appauvrir l'expérience de l'homme: celle-ci ne perdrait rien de sa diversité, de sa richesse, de son intensité si elle s'assumait dans son intersubjectivité; refuser les mythes, ce n'est pas détruire toute relation dramatique entre les sexes [...] c'est seulement demander que conduites, sentiments, passions soient fondés dans la vérité. ~ Simone de Beauvoir, #NFDB
131:De plus en plus, les théories qui tentaient d’expliquer les phénomènes économiques, de prévoir leurs évolutions, lui apparaissaient a peu prés également inconsistantes, hasardeuses, elle était de plus en plus tentée de les assimiler a du charlatanisme pur et simple; il était même surprenant, se disait-elle parfois, qu’on attribue un prix Nobel d’économie, comme si cette discipline pouvait se prévaloir du même sérieux méthodologique, de la même rigueur intellectuelle que la chimie, ou que la physique. ~ Michel Houellebecq, #NFDB
132:Lo que se halla por debajo del umbral de la conciencia es el concepto de personalidad, la información que usamos para representarnos a nosotros mismos quiénes somos. Y ser capaces de olvidarnos temporalmente de quiénes somos parece ser muy agradable. Cuando no estamos preocupados por nuestras personalidades, realmente tenemos la oportunidad de expandir el concepto de quiénes somos. La pérdida de auto conciencia puede llevar a la transcendencia, un sentimiento de que se han sobrepasado los límites de nuestro yo. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
133:Aš bjaurus, bet aš galiu nupirkti gražiausią moterį. Vadinasi, aš nesu bjaurus, nes bjaurumo poveikį, jo atbaidančią jėgą panaikina pinigai. Tegu aš - pagal savo individualybę - luošas, bet pinigai man suteikia 24 kojas. Vadinasi, aš nesu luošas. Aš blogas, nedoras, nesąžiningas, menko proto žmogus, bet pinigai gerbiami, vadinasi, gerbiamas jų savininkas. Pinigai yra didžiausias gėris - vadinasi, geras ir jų savininkas. Be to, pinigai išvaduoja mane nuo vargo būti nedoram, - todėl ir anksto manoma, jog aš doras. ~ Karl Marx, #NFDB
134:Si los tiempos hubieran sido otros, tal vez habría llorado, tal vez se habría desesperado, tal vez se habría dado golpes en el pecho y en la cabeza, pero siendo las cosas como son, prácticamente el mundo acaba de ser inaugurado, nos faltan todavía muchas palabras para intentar decir quiénes somos y no siempre daremos con las que mejor lo expliquen, por eso se contentó con repetir las que ya había pronunciado hasta que perdieran su significado y no fueran más que una serie de sonidos inconexos, unos balbuceos sin sentido. ~ Jos Saramago, #NFDB
135:Cette humanité qu’a mûrie la femme dans la douleur et dans l’humiliation verra le jour quand la femme aura fait tomber les chaînes de sa condition sociale. Et les hommes qui ne sentent pas venir ce jour seront surpris et vaincus. Un jour […], la jeune fille sera; la femme sera. Et ces mots « jeune fille », « femme » ne signifient plus seulement le contraire du mâle, mais quelque chose de propre, valant en soi-même; non point un simple complément, mais une forme complète de la vie: la femme dans sa véritable humanité. ~ Rainer Maria Rilke, #NFDB
136:Last month, coming out of the Rue d'Athènes, where they were showing Le Sang d'un Poète, I told Gide that I couldn't bear to see the film again because each shot is so slow. He replied that I was wrong, that this slowness was a rhythm, and that these slow shots coming one after another formed a special tempo, my tempo, a procedure of my own.
No doubt he's right, and it would be dangerous to upset a rhythm that comes from within oneself, through fear of this rhythm, and to impose another, artificial, one which would not suit it. ~ Jean Cocteau,#NFDB
137:–Oh. –Me miró, por fin–. Hola.
–Hola –lo saludé con educación.
–No te conozco. –Una pausa–. ¿Quién eres?
–Soy Kvothe.
–Pareces muy seguro de ello –repuso él mirándome de hito en hito. Otra pausa–. A mí ellos me llaman Títere.
–¿Quién es <>?
–¿Quiénes <> ellos? –me corrigió levantando un dedo.
Sonreí.
–¿Quiénes son ellos, entonces?
–¿Quiénes <> ellos entonces?
–¿Quiénes son ellos <>? –aclaré, y ensanché la sonrisa.
Me devolvió la sonrisa también con aire distraído e hizo un vago ademán. ~ Patrick Rothfuss,#NFDB
138:Tačiau prisiklausęs austrų daktaro kalbų apie kolumbietiškų kvaišalų naudą, galiu pasakyti, kad religija yra ir kokainas liaudžiai, nes būtent ji skatino ir tebeskatina karus, kitatikių skerdynes, tai tinka krikščionims, musulmonams bei kitiems stabmeldžiams, ir jei afrikiečiai seniau galabydavo tik vieni kitus, tai misionieriai atvertę juos padarė kolonijų kariūnais, tinkamais mirti pirmose linijose, o užėmus miestą žaginti baltaodes moteris. Žmonės niekada su tokiu atsidavimu ir įkarščiu nepridirba tiek blogo, kiek padaro iš religinių įsitikinimų. ~ Umberto Eco, #NFDB
139:Mon Visage Est Fletri
Mon visage est flétri des regards du soleil.
Mon pied blanc sous la ronce est devenu vermeil.
J'ai suivi tout le jour le fond de la vallée;
Des bêlements lointains partout m'ont appelée.
J'ai couru: tu fuyais sans doute loin de moi:
C'étaient d'autres pasteurs. Où te chercher, ô toi
Le plus beau des humains? Dis-moi, fais-moi connaître
Où sont donc tes troupeaux, où tu les mènes paître,
Pour que je cesse enfin de courir sur les pas
Des troupeaux étrangers que tu ne conduis pas.
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
140:Nos resulta imposible ver quiénes somos verdaderamente; nos resulta imposible ver que no somos libres. Esta es la razón por la cual los seres humanos nos resistimos a la vida. Estar vivos es nuestro mayor miedo. No es la muerte; nuestro mayor miedo es arriesgarnos a vivir: correr el riesgo de estar vivos y de expresar lo que realmente somos. Hemos aprendido a vivir intentando satisfacer las exigencias de otras personas. Hemos aprendido a vivir según los puntos de vista de los demás por miedo a no ser aceptados y de no ser lo suficientemente buenos para otras personas. ~ Miguel Ruiz, #NFDB
141:The book has one of the scariest mise-en-scènes in all of science fiction: a world that is a smothering, riotous tangle of human arms and limbs. Stand on Zanzibar is an information overload on topics that sensible people would never want to learn about. Even the characters fear what the book’s world is direly telling them: as the brightest among them rather pitifully remarks, “Whatever happens in present circumstances there’s going to be trouble.” Their world is a kaleidoscope of whatever. Its darkly troubled whateverness oozes from its walls with lysergic intensity. ~ John Brunner, #NFDB
142:L'idée surgit brutalement. Et aussitôt, sans hésiter, il comprit, il sentit que l'idée était juste. Il vit une explication neuve, extraordinairement neuve, des phénomènes nucléaires qui, jusqu'alors, semblaient inexplicables; soudain, les gouffres s'étaient changés en passerelles. Quelle simplicité, quelle clarté! Que cette idée était gracieuse et belle! Il lui semblait que ce n'était pas lui qui l'avait fait naître, mais qu'elle était montée à la surface, simple et légère, comme une fleur blanche sortie de la profondeur tranquille d'un lac, et il s'exclama de bonheur en la voyant si belle... ~ Vasily Grossman, #NFDB
143:A Vesper
O quel que soit ton nom, soit Vesper, soit Phosphore,
Messager de la nuit, messager de l'aurore,
Cruel astre au matin, le soir astre si doux!
Phosphore, le matin, loin de nos bras jaloux,
Ta fais fuir nos amours tremblantes, incertaines,
Mais le soir, en secret, Vesper, tu les ramènes,
La vierge qu'à l'hymen la nuit doit présenter
Redoute que Vesper se hâte d'arriver.
Puis, au bras d'un époux, elle accuse Phosphore
De rallumer trop tôt les flambeaux de l'aurore,
Brillante étoile, adieu, le jour s'avance, cours,
Ramène-moi bientôt la nuit et mes amours.
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
144:Un examen un tant soit peu exhaustif de l'humanité doit nécessairement prendre en compte ce type de phénomènes. De tels êtres humains, historiquement, ont existé.Des êtres humains qui travaillaient toute leur vie, et qui travaillaient dur, uniquement par dévouement et par amour; qui donnaient littéralement leur vie aux autres dans un esprit de dévouement et d'amour; qui n'avaient cependant nullement l'impression de se sacrifier; qui n'envisageaient en réalité d'autre manière de vivre que de donner leur vie aux autres dans un esprit de dévouement et d'amour.
En pratique, ces êtres humains étaient généralement des femmes. ~ Michel Houellebecq,#NFDB
145:Ils niaient tranquillement, contre toute évidence, que nous ayons jamais connu ce monde insensé où le meurtre d'un homme était aussi quotidien que celui des mouches, cette sauvagerie bien définie, ce délire calculé, cet emprisonnement qui apportait avec lui une affreuse liberté à l'égard de tout ce qui n'était pas le présent, cette odeur de mort qui stupéfait tous ceux qu'elle ne tuait pas, ils niaient enfin que nous ayons été ce peuple abasourdi dont tous les jours une partie, entassée dans la gueule d'un four, s'évaporait en fumées grasses, pendant que l'autre, chargée des chaînes de l'impuissance et de la peur, attendait son tour. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
146:Le regard analytique et le regard intuitif sur la vie ne peuvent s'harmoniser dans un même être que dans la mesure où le premier est subordonné au second. C'est du second, et notamment du sentiment de beauté et de compassion qu'il enferme, que découle le sens de la totalité de même que celui des équilibres et de la limite. Le regard intuitif est la condition de la sagesse sans laquelle le regard analytique peut conduire à des excès suicidaires. L'analyse des phénomènes donne de la puissance sur eux, elle permet de dominer la nature, mais elle n'enferme aucune indication quant aux limites qu'il convient d'assigner à cette puissance. ~ James E Lovelock, #NFDB
147:Ils niaient tranquillement, contre toute évidence, que nous ayons jamais connu ce monde insensé où le meurtre d’un homme était aussi quotidien que celui des mouches, cette sauvagerie bien définie, ce délire calculé, cet emprisonnement qui apportait avec lui une affreuse liberté à l’égard de tout ce qui n’était pas le présent, cette odeur de mort qui stupéfiait tous ceux qu’elle ne tuait pas, ils niaient enfin que nous ayons été ce peuple abasourdi dont tous les jours une par- tie, entassée dans la gueule d’un four, s’évaporait en fumées grasses, pendant que l’autre, chargée des chaînes de l’impuissance et de la peur, attendait son tour. ~ Albert Camus, #NFDB
148:Les puissants, qu'ils soient prêtres, chefs militaires, rois ou capitalistes, croient toujours commander en vertu d'un droit divin ; et ceux qui leur sont soumis se sentent écrasés par une puissance qui leur paraît divine ou diabolique, mais de toutes manières surnaturelle. Toute société oppressive est cimentée par cette religion du pouvoir, qui fausse tous les rapports sociaux en permettant aux puissants d'ordonner au-delà de ce qu'ils peuvent impser ; il n'en est autrement que dans les moments d'effervescence populaire, moments où au contraire tous, esclaves révoltés et maîtres menacés, oublient combien les chaînes de l'oppression sont lourdes et solides. ~ Simone Weil, #NFDB
149:[…] beaucoup d’Orientaux, prenant par ignorance les Textes sacrés à la lettre, tout en maintenant arbitrairement le sens purement symbolique de certains passages, croient à la réincarnation au sens vulgaire de ce mot ; ils ne se rendent manifestement pas compte que, si l’on voulait prendre au pied de la lettre tous les Textes brahmaniques, à commencer par le Vêda, on arriverait à une monstrueuse divinisation de phénomènes physiques et par conséquent à un culte grossier de la nature, et l’on devrait admettre, en comprenant par exemple le Rig Vêda littéralement, que les âmes des défunts montent à la lune et redescendent dans la pluie, et d’autres choses de ce genre. ~ Frithjof Schuon, #NFDB
150:- Kaip ir dauguma žmonių. Kai aš sustoju prie tavęs, tai vyksta dabartyje. Ne praeityje, nors daug ką galima prisiminti ir išmokti grįžus į praeitį - bet tik trumpam, ilgai neužsibūnant. Ir J jau tikrai nebūnu ateityje, kurią tu įsivaizduoji ar apie kurią svajoji. Makai, tavo įsivaizduojamoje, kurią visada padiktuoja baimė, manęs beveik niekada nebūna. Supranti?
- Kodėl aš taip elgiuosi? - paklausė.
- todėl, kad bandai žūtbūt valdyti tai, ko negali. Tu negali suvaldyti ateities, nes ji nėra reali. Mėgini būti Dievu isivaizduodamas, kad blogis, kurio baiminiesi, gali tapti realybe, ir tada imi kurti planus, ruoštis nenumatytiems atvejams, kad išvengtum to, ko bijai. ~ William Paul Young,#NFDB
151:- T'as pas apporté des fleurs à Irina?
-Offrir des fleurs aux femmes est une hérésie. Les fleurs sont des sexes obscènes, elles symbolisent l'éphémère et l'infidélité, elles s'écartèlent sur le bord des chemins, s'offrent à tous les vents, à la trompe des insectes, aux nuages de graines, aux dents des bêtes; on les foule, on les cueille, on y plonge le nez. A la femme qu'on aime il faudrait offrir des pierres, des fossiles, du gneiss, enfin une de ces choses qui durent éternellement et survivent à la flétrissure.
C'est ce que j'aurai aimé répondre à Volodia mais mon russe est trop faible et je dis:
-Si! mais elles ont fané en route. Le banya, Volodia, tu l'as préparé? ~ Sylvain Tesson,#NFDB
152:Tu regardes les choses se mouvoir, tu observes les gens qui vont et viennent, ceux qui collent à la pierre, ceux qui donnent leur corps à l'usure, ceux qui tirent un cheval invisible et content l'histoire d'Antar et Abla, une histoire inachevée, interminable, ceux qui nourrissent des hyènes qu'ils lâcheront sur une foule en colère, ceux qui cirent les bottes et vendent les cigarettes au détail, ceux qui s'isolent en haut du minaret en attendant l'aube pour se pencher jusqu'à chuter sur l'asphalte. Tu tends l'oreille pour entendre des cœurs battre, des poitrines suffoquer, une terre remuer, un cimetière se déplacer, la terre respirer, étouffer et rejeter des mains retenues par les pierres. ~ Tahar Ben Jelloun, #NFDB
153:Ainsi notre cœur change, dans la vie, et c’est la pire douleur; mais nous ne la connaissons que dans la lecture, en imagination: dans la réalité il change, comme certains phénomènes de la nature se produisent, assez lentement pour que, si nous pouvons constater successivement chacun de ses états différents, en revanche la sensation même du changement nous soit épargnée.
Trans. The heart changes, and it is our worst sorrow; but we know it only through reading, through our imagination: in reality its alteration, like that of certain natural phenomena, is so gradual that, even if we are able to distinguish, successively, each of its different states, we are still spared the actual sensation of change. ~ Marcel Proust,#NFDB
154:Skaitome tam, kad iš naujo patirtume laimę atrasti ten išminčių ir draugą - knygą išminčių arba knygą beprotį (nes tik tokia yra tikra knyga - išminčius ir beprotis, išmintis būti bepročiu ir išminties beprotybė). Skaitome nebijodami, kad prarasime puslapis po puslapio augantį džiaugsmą, nes jau seniai supratome, kad taip sunaikindamas mylimą knygą jos neprarasi: vos ją perskaitę, užmirštame, skaitome ir užmirštame, skaitome tam, kad užmirštume, dukart užmirštume, užmirštume visiškai saugiai, nes ten, knygoje, esame užkerėti keleiviai, ir galiausiai užmiršta knyga spindulingai atsitraukia, vėl atgula į kapą tarsi brangi mylimoji, pasiruošusi grįžti vos išgirdusi savo vardą, kad pagelbėtų tuomet, kai reikia. ~ H l ne Cixous, #NFDB
155:En revenant de faire les courses avec sa mère, alors qu'elles tendaient le bras pour héler un taxi, elles avaient aperçu un escargot réfugié sur le bord de l'avenue, rétracté sous sa coquille, tentant de passer inaperçu sous une feuille morte. Sa mère s'était penchée, l'avait ramassé et lui avait fait traverser l'avenue. .../... Hortense avait secoué la tête, exaspérée.
- T'es obligée de t'occuper de tous les escargots que tu rencontres?
- Mais il se serait fait écraser en traversant!
- Qu'est-ce que t'en sais? peut-être qu'il a mis trois semaines pour franchir la chaussée, qu'il se reposait, soulagé, avant d'aller retrouver sa copine et toi, en dix secondes, tu le ramènes à son point de départ! ~ Katherine Pancol,#NFDB
156:Las personas solemos creer saber quiénes somos, pero a veces, un día te despiertas e inesperadamente eres consciente de que nada de lo que te rodea tiene sentido, de que has dejado que la vida te lleve por un camino sin arriesgar, sin luchar por lo que de verdad sigue latiendo dentro de ti, esperando su momento. Y no ha ocurrido porque te falte personalidad o sangre en las venas, sino porque es demasiado sencillo dejarse arrastrar por el dinero, por la belleza y por lo que los demás esperan de ti, hasta que te das cuenta de que si nada de eso te llena ni te impulsa a levantarte por las mañanas, ni te hace sonreír ni querer ser mejor persona ni reírte a carcajadas…, ¿qué sentido tiene? Ninguno, no tiene ningún sentido. ~ Ne ra, #NFDB
157:Mais il conviendrait d'ajouter que cet orgueil, cet absolu - sur le plan intellectuel, tout au moins - ne sont pas le fait d'une "classe" sociale particulière, comme on vient de le montrer.
C'est la culture maternelle même qui pêche en Europe et fausse chez l'individu, dès son enfance, sa conception du monde et de l'humanité. L'histoire et la civilisation commencent, pour lui, à Athènes, font un ricochet à Rome, disparaissent soudain pendant plus d'un millénaire, et reparaissent brusquement à la Renaissance, à Paris ou à Londres.
Avant Athènes qu'y avait-il? Du vide. Entre Aristote et Descartes, qu'y a-t-il? Du vide. [...] C'est cette optique particulière qui fausse d'emblée l'humanisme occidental, qui fausse la politique européenne. ~,#NFDB
158:Kai akys mato spalvas - tai yra geismas.
Kai ausys girdi garsus - tai yra geismas.
Kai nosis užuodžia kvapus - tai yra geismas.
Kai vienintelė mintis tiesiog dygsta - tai irgi vadinama geismu.
Kūnas kyla iš aistros, tad natūralu, jog stipriai jaučia ir geidžia. Tačiau tokiame kūne yra ir geismų nepažįstanti prigimtis, tiesiog ji paslėpta už karštakošiškumo, o jos esmė sunkiai matoma. Šią prigimtį sunku apsaugoti. nes ji žvelgia į dešimt tūkstančių daiktų išoriniame pasaulyje, ji užklota Šešiais geismais ir glūdi po jais. (Šeši geismai - geismai, kilę iš šešių jutimų: regos, klausos, uoslės, skonio, lytėjimo ir mąstymo. Arba tai gali būti kūniški potraukiai, kylantys iš spalvų, formų, laikysenos, garsų, švelnios odos ir gražių veido bruožų.) ~ Takuan Soho,#NFDB
159:Par curiosité, par désœuvrement, par politesse, des Esseintes fréquenta cette famille et il subit, plusieurs fois, dans son hôtel de la rue de la Chaise, d’écrasantes soirées où des parentes, antiques comme le monde, s’entretenaient de quartiers de noblesse, de lunes héraldiques, de cérémoniaux surannés.
Plus que ces douairières, les hommes rassemblés autour d’un whist, se révélaient ainsi que des êtres immuables et nuls ; là, les descendants des anciens preux, les dernières branches des races féodales, apparurent à des Esseintes sous les traits de vieillards catarrheux et maniaques, rabâchant d’insipides discours, de centenaires phrases. De même que dans la tige coupée d’une fougère, une fleur de lis semblait seule empreinte dans la pulpe ramollie de ces vieux crânes. ~ Joris Karl Huysmans,#NFDB
160:Athènes devint à partir de 450 avant Jésus-Christ la capitale culturelle du monde grec. La philosophie aussi prit un nouveau tournant.
Les philosophes de la nature étaient avant tout des hommes de science qui s'intéressaient à l'analyse physique du monde et, à ce titre, ils tiennent une place importante dans l'histoire de la science. Mais, à Athènes, l'étude de la nature fut supplantée par celle de l'homme et sa place dans la société.
Petit à petit, une démocratie avec des assemblées du peuple et des juges populaires vit le jour. Une condition sine qua non pour l'établissement de la démocratie était que le peuple fût assez éclairé pour pouvoir participer au processus démocratique. Qu'une jeune démocratie exige une certaine éducation du peuple, nous l'avons bien vu de nos jours. ~ Jostein Gaarder,#NFDB
161:Plus nous nous efforçons d'expliquer rationnellement ces phénomènes historiques, plus ils nous apparaissent dénués de sens et incompréhensibles.
Tout homme vit pour soi, profite de sa liberté pour atteindre ses buts personnels et sent de tout son être qu'il peut à chaque instant accomplir ou ne pas accomplir tel acte; mais une fois qu'il l'aura accompli, cet acte accompli à un moment précis du temps deviendra irrévocable et appartiendra à l'histoire qui, de libre qu'il était, le rend nécessaire. (...) L'homme consciemment vit pour soi, mais il sert inconsciemment d'instrument à des fins historiques et sociales. (...) a tort et raison celui qui prétend que c'est le dernier coup de pioche qui a fait s'écrouler la colline que l'on creusait. (Guerre et Paix, livre troisième, 1ère partie, ch. I) ~ Leo Tolstoy,#NFDB
162:Natürlich gibt es sehr viele Menschen, denen das Leben leichter fällt und die scheinbar oder wirklich “glücklicher” sind; es sind die nicht stark Individualisierten, die keine Probleme kennen. Sich mit ihnen zu vergleichen hat für uns andere keinen Sinn; wir müssen unser eigenes Leben leben, und das bedeutet etwas Neues und Eigenes, immer Schwieriges und auch immer Schönes für jeden Einzelnen. Es gibt keine Norm für das Leben, es stellt jedem eine andere, einmalige Aufgabe, und so gibt es auch nicht eine angeborene und vorbestimmte Untauglichkeit zum Leben, sondern es kann der Schwächste und Ärmste an seiner Stelle ein würdiges und echtes Leben führen, und anderen etwas sein, einfach dadurch dass er seinen nicht selbstgewählten Platz im Leben und seine besondere Aufgabe annimmt und zu verwirklichen sucht. ~ Hermann Hesse, #NFDB
163:-¿Y qué? ¿No ves mendigos en las ciudades regidas oligárquicamente? -Casi todos lo son -dijo- excepto los gobernantes. -¿No pensaremos, pues -dije yo-, que también hay en ellas muchos malhechores dotados de aguijones a quienes el gobierno se preocupa de contener por la fuerza? -Así lo pensamos -dijo. -¿Y no diremos que es por ignorancia y mala educación y mala organización política por lo que se da allí esa clase de gentes? -Lo diremos. -Tal será, pues, la ciudad regida oligárquicamente y tantos, o quizá más todavía, los vicios que contiene. -Quizá -dijo. -Dejemos, pues, completamente descrito también este sistema -dije yo- que es llamado oligarquía y tiene aquellos gobernantes que determine el censo. Y después de esto, examinemos al hombre semejante a ella: veamos cómo nace y cómo es una vez nacido. -Ciertamente -dijo. ~ Plato, #NFDB
164:Con toda modestia, pero también con toda la determinación del espíritu, propongo que hagamos ahora y aquí el compromiso de concebir y fabricar un arca de la memoria, capaz de sobrevivir al diluvio atómico. Una botella de náufragos siderales arrojada a los océanos del tiempo, para que la nueva humanidad de entonces sepa por nosotros lo que no han de contarle las cucarachas: que aquí existió la vida, que en ella prevaleció el sufrimiento y predominó la injusticia, pero que también conocimos el amor y hasta fuimos capaces de imaginarnos la felicidad. Y que sepa y haga saber para todos los tiempos quiénes fueron los culpables de nuestro desastre, y cuán sordos se hicieron a nuestros clamores de paz para que esta fuera la mejor de las vidas posibles, y con qué inventos tan bárbaros y por qué intereses tan mezquinos la borraron del Universo. ~ Gabriel Garc a M rquez, #NFDB
165:Un ejercicio interesante puede ser anotar en una hoja los recursos externos que yo tengo, y sobre todo,
quiénes son las personas de mi mundo con las que cuento y para qué cuento.
Con algunas personas cuento para divertirme, con otras para charlar, para que me den un abrazo cuando
lo necesito, para que me presten dinero, para que me cobijen o me protejan o para que me den un buen
consejo económico. En fin, esto es infinito. Les sugiero que investiguen con quiénes cuentan y para qué en
cada caso.
Como es un ejercicio de uno para con uno, no hay necesidad de mentir. Al hacer esta lista es probable
que nos llevemos algunas sorpresas. Por ejemplo, que una persona figure muchas veces; que alguien que a
priori uno pensaba que no iba a figurar, figure tercero; que otro que uno había pensado que seguramente
figuraría, no figure ni último... ~ Jorge Bucay,#NFDB
166:Praėjusią savaitę ponia Modžeri paskolino man knygą. Ji vadinasi "Oksfordo šiuolaikinės poezijos antologija, 1892-1935". Jie leido tokiam žmogui, pavarde Jytsas, atrinkti eilėraščius. Geriau jau būtų to nedarę. Kas jis toks - ir ką jis išmano apie eiles? Perverčiau visą knygą, ieškodamasVilfredo Ouveno arba Zygfrido Sasūno eilėraščių. Neradau - nė vieno. Ir žinote kodėl? Nes tas ponas Jytsas sako - taigi, jis sako: "Aš sąmoningai nuspredžiau NEĮTRAUKTI nė vieno eilėraščio iš Pirmojo pasaulinio karo. Man jie nepatinka. Pasyvi kančia - netinkama tema poezijai." PASYVI KANČIA? PASYVI KANČIA! Manęs vos neištiko priepuolis. Kas tam žmogui yra? Leitenantas Ouvenas parašė tokią eilutę: "Ir krintančius palydi ne varpai, / O piktas ir rūstus pabūklų griausmas." Norėčiau žinoti, kas čia yra pasyvaus? Būtent taip jie miršta. Mačiau tai savo akimis, ir sakau: velniop tą poną Jytsą. ~ Mary Ann Shaffer, #NFDB
167:Tūkstantrankė Kanona turi tūkstantį rankų ant vienintelio kūno. Jei jos mąstymas apsiribotų ties viena lanką laikančia ranka, kitos devyni šimtai devyniasdešimt devynios liktų bevertės. Tačiau jos gali tarnauti visos, nes mintis nėra pririšta prie vienos, tad ir visos rankos yra naudingos.
O kam Kanonai reikia tūkstančio rankų, priaugusių prie vieno kūno - Tai skirta parodyti, jog jei žmonės leis nepajudinamai išminčiai atsiskleisti, tai net kūnas, turintis tūkstantį rankų, gebės jomis pasinaudoti.
Jei žiūrėdamas į medį matytum tik vieną iš jo raudonų lapų, nepastebėtum kitų. Kai akis nenukreipta nė į vieną iš lapų, o tu stebi medį apie nieką negalvodamas, bet koks kiekis lapų tampa matomas be ribų. Bet jei kuris nors vienas lapas prikausto žvilgsnį, atrodo, jog kitų lapų tiesiog nėra.
Tam, kuris suprato, nėra skirtumo tarp medžio ir tūkstantrankės bei tūkstantakės Kanonos. ~ Takuan Soho,#NFDB
168:Nintendo released its NES version of “Tetris”—slickly redesigned, with a score of Russian music—and it sold rapidly, remaining on the Nintendo top-ten most-popular game list (behind “Super Mario Bros. 3”) for over a year. Pajitnov laughed when he heard that when millions of American children watched the evening news and saw a shot of St. Basil’s Cathedral in Red Square, they shouted excitedly, “Look, the ‘Tetris’ towers!” Similarly, Tchaikovsky lost credit for his “Dance of the Sugarplum Fairy;” kids knew it only as “the ‘Tetris’ song.” On a modest level, Pajitnov’s dream that his game would be a bridge between cultures was realized. “Tetris” contest winners were awarded a ten-day tour of Kiev, Leningrad, and Moscow, “home of Alexey Pajitnov.” Nintendo Power ran features about his homeland, and kids who played the game saw that something wonderful had come from the former “evil empire. ~ David Sheff, #NFDB
169:Ez idő tájt szokásban volt az Amerikába indulók között, hogy színes fonalgombolyagokat vittek magukkal a fedélzetre, egyik végüket kidobták a partra, hogy a búcsúzkodó rokonok megragadhassák. Megszólal a Giulia kürtje, és a hajó lassan elhagyja a partot. A színes fonalak megfeszülnek a víz felett. Mindenki ordít, hadonászik, búcsúszavak harsannak, csecsemőket emelnek a magasba egy búcsúpillanatra, amire egyikük sem fog emlékezni. Felzúgnak a hajócsavarok, zsebkendők repkednek, a fedélzetről a partra ívelő fonalak megfeszülnek, ettől pörögni kezdenek, először csak lassan, aztán egyre gyorsabban, piros, sárga, kék, zöld színek cikáznak, miközben a hajó is egyre gyorsul. Az utasok tartják a fonalakat, amíg bírják, próbálják minél később elveszteni a fonal túlsó végén az arcokat, végül azonban a fonalak elszakadnak, egyik a másik után, s a végük ott himbálódzik a hullámokon, szabadon. ~ Jeffrey Eugenides, #NFDB
170:Apenas recuerdo a ningún hombre. Estaban por todas partes, claro está –maridos, padres, hermanos–, pero sólo recuerdo a las mujeres. Y las recuerdo a todas tan toscas como la señora Drucker o tan feroces como mi madre. Nunca hablaban como si supiesen quiénes eran, como si comprendieran el trato que habían hecho con la vida, pero a menudo actuaban como si lo supiesen. Astutas, irascibles, iletradas, parecían sacadas de una novela de Dreiser. Había años de aparente calma y, de repente, cundían el pánico y la locura: dos o tres vidas marcadas (quizá arruinadas) y el tumulto se apagaba. De nuevo calma silenciosa, letargo erótico, la normalidad de la abnegación cotidiana. Y yo –la niña que crecía entre todas ellas, formándose a su imagen y semejanza– me empapaba de ellas como de cloroformo impregnado en un paño apretado contra mi cara. He tardado treinta años en entender cuánto entendí de ellas. ~ Vivian Gornick, #NFDB
171:Allez, philosophes, enseignez, éclairez, allumez, pensez haut, parlez haut, courez joyeux au grand soleil, fraternisez avec les places publiques, annoncez les bonnes nouvelles, prodiguez les alphabets, proclamez les droits, chantez les Marseillaises, semez les enthousiasmes, arrachez des branches vertes aux chênes. Faites de l'idée un tourbillon. Cette foule peut être sublimée. Sachons nous servir de ce vaste embrasement des principes et des vertus qui pétille, éclate et frissonne à de certaines heures. Ces pieds nus, ces bras nus, ces haillons, ces ignorances, ces abjections, ces ténèbres, peuvent être employés à la conquête de l'idéal. Regardez à travers le peuple et vous apercevrez la vérité. Ce vil sable que vous foulez aux pieds, qu'on le jette dans la fournaise, qu'il y fonde et qu'il y bouillonne, il deviendra cristal splendide, et c'est grâce à lui que Galilée et Newton découvriront les astres. ~ Victor Hugo, #NFDB
172:Camino del parque me pregunta Mershawn cómo sabía que el tío tenía enfisema, y le enumero los síntomas visibles que mostraba. Luego le digo:
- Lección de hoy, Mershawn. ¿Quiénes silban?
- ¿Los gilipollas?
- Vale. ¿Quién más?
Mershawn reflexiona un instante.
- La genet que está pensando en algo y que, de manera subliminal, lo asocia a una canción. Como cuando examinas un nervio del undécimo par craneal y empiezas a silbar "Mantén la cabeza erguida".
- Bien - apruebo -. Pero mucha gente también silba porque subconscientemente intenta incrementar la presión de aire en los pulmones, para hacer que pase más oxígeno entre los tejidos.
- No joda.
- Sin joder. ¿Te acuerdas de los enanitos de Blancanieves, que trabajan en la mina?
- Sí, vale.
- Si tienes silicosis, también te dejas el culo silbando.
- La hostia.
- Eso.
Hasta llegar a la esquina me siento como el Profesor Marmoset. ~ Josh Bazell,#NFDB
173:[...] l'exigence de chasteté des jeunes filles prive les jeunes gens d'objets d'amour, ce qui crée les conditions typiques de notre ordre social, inévitables quoique non désirées en elles-mêmes: le mariage monogamique donne naissance à l'adultère, la chasteté des filles donne naissance à la prostitution. L'adultère et la prostitution sont le lot de la double morale sexuelle qui accorde à l'homme, avant comme pendant le mariage, ce qu'elle refuse à la femme, pour des raisons économiques. Etant donné les urgences naturelles de la sexualité, la rigueur de la morale sexuelle engendre l'opposé de ce à quoi elle vise ; l'immoralité au sens réactionnaire, c'est-à-dire l'adultère et les relations sexuelles extra-matrimoniales, se redouble en phénomènes sociaux grotesques: la perversion sexuelle d'une part, et la sexualité mercenaire, à l'intérieur comme à l'extérieur du mariage, d'autre part. (p. 85-86) ~ Wilhelm Reich, #NFDB
174:Iš tūkstančio gal šimtas mąsto taip, kad verti žmogaus vardo.Iš to šimto gal vienas iš tikrųjų tiki, o dešimt visą gyvenimą abejoja, bet tai irgi tikėjimo požymis, nors kol kas tu šito gal nesupranti. Keli silpnuoliai puola į burtus ir slaptuosius mokslus, nes patys save apgaudinėja. Bet visi kiti – taip, jie pasirenka įprastą dalią ir tyli. Bažnyčia jiems tampa įpročiu, kurio laikosi dėl tvarkos, ir, jei praradę tikėjimą, jie dar ką nors mąsto, tai gal mąsto, kad pasilikę Bažnyčioje, nieko nepraras, o bėdos ištikti galbūt pelnys amžinąjį gyvenimą, jeigu išsipildys tai, kas neįtikimiausia, ir jeigu siela iš tiesų nemirtinga. Jie lošia tuščią žaidimą, nūsdami daug laimėti, bet manding, išloš tik tuščią nieką. Taigi. Apie tai niekas nekalba. Bet apsižvalgyk aplinkui. Ta pati tuštybė. Krikščionybė pavargus ir praradus tikėjimą. Užtat draskosi karuose ir sekinasi disputuose, kurie jau niekur nenuves, nes nebėra tikėjimo. ~ Mika Waltari, #NFDB
175:Iš tūkstančio gal šimtas mąsto taip, kad verti žmogaus vardo. Iš to šimto gal vienas iš tikrųjų tiki, o dešimt visą gyvenimą abejoja, bet tai irgi tikėjimo požymis, nors kol kas tu šito gal nesupranti. Keli silpnuoliai puola į burtus ir slaptuosius mokslus, nes patys save apgaudinėja. Bet visi kiti – taip, jie pasirenka įprastą dalią ir tyli. Bažnyčia jiems tampa įpročiu, kurio laikosi dėl tvarkos, ir, jei praradę tikėjimą, jie dar ką nors mąsto, tai gal mąsto, kad pasilikę Bažnyčioje, nieko nepraras, o bėdos ištikti galbūt pelnys amžinąjį gyvenimą, jeigu išsipildys tai, kas neįtikimiausia, ir jeigu siela iš tiesų nemirtinga. Jie lošia tuščią žaidimą, nūsdami daug laimėti, bet manding, išloš tik tuščią nieką. Taigi. Apie tai niekas nekalba. Bet apsižvalgyk aplinkui. Ta pati tuštybė. Krikščionybė pavargus ir praradus tikėjimą. Užtat draskosi karuose ir sekinasi disputuose, kurie jau niekur nenuves, nes nebėra tikėjimo. ~ Mika Waltari, #NFDB
176:Hizo como yo, pensó la mujer del médico, le ha dejado el sitio más protegido, débiles murallas seríamos, sólo una piedra en medio del camino, sin otra esperanza que la de que en ella tropiece el enemigo, enemigo, qué enemigo, aquí no va a venir nadie a atacarnos, podríamos haber robado y asesinado ahí fuera y no vendrían a detenernos, nunca ese que robó el coche estuvo tan seguro de su libertad, tan lejos estamos del mundo que pronto empezaremos a no saber quiénes somos, ni siquiera se nos ha ocurrido preguntarnos nuestros nombres, y para qué, ningún perro reconoce a otro perro por el nombre que le pusieron, identifica por el olor y por él se da a identificar, nosotros aquí somos como otra raza de perros, nos conocemos por la manera de ladrar, por la manera de hablar, lo demás, rasgos de la cara, color de los ojos, de la piel, del pelo, no cuenta, es como si nada de eso existiera, yo veo, todavía veo, pero hasta cuándo. ~ Jos Saramago, #NFDB
177:Attends. Laisse-moi dire adieu à cette légèreté sans tache qui fut la mienne. Laisse-moi dire adieu à ma jeunesse. Il y a des soirs, des soirs de Corinthe ou d'Athènes, pleins de chants et d'odeurs qui ne m'appartiendront plus jamais. Des matins, pleins d'espoir aussi... Allons adieu! adieu! (Il vient vers Electre.) Viens, Electre, regarde notre ville. Elle est là, rouge sous le soleil, bourdonnante d'hommes et de mouches, dans l'engourdissement têtu d'un après-midi d'été; elle me repousse de tous ses murs, de tous ses toits, de toutes ses portes closes. Et pourtant elle est à prendre, je le sens depuis ce matin. Et toi aussi, Electre, tu es à prendre. Je vous prendrai. Je deviendrai hache et je fendrai en deux ces murailles obstinées, j'ouvrirai le ventre de ces maisons bigotes, elles exhaleront par leurs plaies béantes une odeur de mangeaille et d'encens; je deviendrai cognée et je m enfoncerai dans le cœur de cette ville comme la cognée dans le cœur d'un chêne. ~ Jean Paul Sartre, #NFDB
178:On ne se doute pas de tous les embêtements dont sont poursuivis les domestiques, ni de l’exploitation acharnée, éternelle qui pèse sur eux. Tantôt les maîtres, tantôt les placiers, tantôt les institutions charitables, sans compter les camarades, car il y en a de rudement salauds. Et personne ne s’intéresse à personne. Chacun vit, s’engraisse, s' amuse de la misère d' un plus pauvre que soi. Les scènes changent ; les décors se transforment ; vous traversez des milieux sociaux différents et ennemis ; et les passions restent les mêmes, les mêmes appétits demeurent. Dans l’appartement étriqué du bourgeois, ainsi que dans le fastueux hôtel du banquier, vous retrouvez des saletés pareilles, et vous vous heurtez à de l’inexorable. Enfin de compte, pour une fille comme je suis, le résultat est qu’elle soit vaincue d' avance, où qu' elle aille et quoi qu' elle fasse. Les pauvres sont l’engrais humain où poussent les moissons de vie, les moissons de joie que récoltent les riches, et dont ils mésusent si cruellement, contre nous... ~ Octave Mirbeau, #NFDB
179:En effet, les peuples européens, sans doute parce qu’ils sont formés d’éléments hétérogènes et ne constituent pas une race à proprement parler, sont ceux dont les caractères ethniques sont les moins stables et disparaissent le plus rapidement en se mêlant à d’autres races ; partout où il se produit de tels mélanges, c’est toujours l’Occidental qui est absorbé, bien loin de pouvoir absorber les autres. Quant au point de vue intellectuel, les considérations que nous avons exposées jusqu’ici nous dispensent d’y insister ; une civilisation qui est sans cesse en mouvement, qui n’a ni tradition ni principe profond, ne peut évidemment exercer une influence réelle sur celles qui possèdent précisément tout ce qui lui manque à elle-même ; et, si l’influence inverse ne s’exerce pas davantage en fait, c’est seulement parce que les Occidentaux sont incapables de comprendre ce qui leur est étranger : leur impénétrabilité, à cet égard, n’a d’autre cause qu’une infériorité mentale, tandis que celle des Orientaux est faite d’intellectualité pure. ~ Ren Gu non, #NFDB
180:Antes de abandonarse por completo, Mark se dio cuenta de que estaba pensando, y no por primera vez, lo extraño que eran los adultos. Tomaban laxantes, alcohol o píldoras para dormir, para ahuyentar sus terrores y conseguir conciliar el sueño, y sus temores eran tan mansos, tan domésticos: el trabajo, el dinero, lo que pensará la maestra si Jennie no va a la escuela mejor vestida, si me amará mi mujer, quiénes serán mis amigos. Pálidos miedos comparados con los que experimentan todos los niños en la oscuridad de sus lechos, sin poder confesárselos a nadie en la esperanza de ser comprendido, a no ser a otro niño. No hay terapia de grupo ni psiquiatría ni servicios sociales de la comunidad para el niño que debe hacer frente a eso que todas las noches está en el sótano o debajo de la cama, a eso que acecha, se mueve y amenaza detrás del punto donde la visión se acaba. Y noche tras noche hay que librar la misma batalla solitaria, y la única cura es que al final las facultades imaginativas terminan por anquilosarse, y a eso se le llama ser adulto. ~ Stephen King, #NFDB
181:Mes žinom, kad mirsim - tiesą sakant, vien tą ir težinom apie savo ateitį. Visa kita yra tik spėliojimai, kurie dažniausiai nepasitvirtina. Kaip vaikai neįžengiamoj girioj kiūtinam apgraibom per gyvenimą, laimingi, kad nežinom, kas mums nutiks rytoj, su kokiais susidursime negandais, kokie šiurpūs išmėginimai mūsų laukia prieš patį šiurpiausią išmėginimą - Mirtį. Kartkarčiais apstulbę ryžtamės baikščiai prašnekinti savo likimą, bet atsakymo į klausimą negauname, nes žvaigždės per toli. Juo greičiau suprasime, kad mūsų likimas pareina nuo mūsų pačių, o ne nuo žvaigždžių, juo mums bus geriau. Laimę galime rasti tik patys savyje, nesitikėkite jos sulaukti iš kitų - laimės taip mažai, jog retas gali ja dalytis. Skausmą turime pakelti vieni - nesąžininga užkrauti jį kitam, vis tiek, ar tai būtų vyras, ar moteris. Kiekvienas iš mūsų turi pats savo jėgomis kvėpuoti ir kirsti iš paskutiniųjų, kaip pridera kovotojams, nes mes tokie ir esame gimę. Visi mes vieną dieną sulauksime taikos, - taikos, kuri bus garbinga net nugalėtajam, jeigu jis ištvėrė iki galo. ~ Axel Munthe, #NFDB
182:Mnais
'Bergers, vous dont ici la chèvre vagabonde,
La brebis se traînant sous sa laine féconde,
Au dos de la colline accompagnent les pas,
A la jeune Mnaïs rendez, rendez, hélas!
Par Cérès, par sa fille et la Terre sacrée,
Une grâce légère, autant que désirée.
Ah! près de vous, jadis, elle avait son berceau,
Et sa vingtième année a trouvé le tombeau.
Que vos agneaux du moins viennent près de ma cendre
Me bêler les accents de leur voix douce et tendre,
Et paître au pied d'un roc où d'un son enchanteur
La flûte parlera sous les doigts du pasteur.
Qu'au retour du printemps, dépouillant la prairie,
Des dons du villageois ma tombe soit fleurie;
Puis d'une brebis mère et docile à sa main
En un vase d'argile il pressera le sein;
Et sera chaque jour d'un lait pur arrosée
La pierre en ce tombeau sur mes mânes posée.
Morts et vivants, il est encor pour nous unir
Un commerce d'amour et de doux souvenir.'
_C'est en songe que la jeune Mnaïs est venue leur dire cela._
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
183:Chez l’homme marqué par le scientisme, l’intuition des intentions sous-jacentes a disparu, et non seulement cela ; le scientisme, axiomatiquement fermé aux dimensions suprasensibles du Réel, a doté l’homme d’une crasse ignorance et a faussé l’imagination en conséquence. La mentalité moderniste entend réduire les anges, les démons, les miracles, bref, tous les phénomènes non matériels et inexplicables en termes matériels, à du « subjectif » et du « psychologique », alors qu’il n’y a là pas le moindre rapport, si ce n’est que le psychisme est lui aussi – mais objectivement - fait de substance extra-matérielle … Quoiqu’il en soit, la déficience de la science moderne porte essentiellement sur la causalité universelle ; on nous objectera sans doute que la science ne s’occupe pas de causalité philosophique, ce qui est faux, car tout l’évolutionnisme n’est pas autre chose qu’une hypertrophie imaginée en fonction de la négation de causes réelles, et cette négation matérialiste aussi bien que sa compensation évolutionniste, relève de la philosophie et non de la science. ~ Frithjof Schuon, #NFDB
184:Viví en aquel bloque de pisos entre los seis y los veintiún años. En total había veinte apartamentos, cuatro por planta, y lo único que recuerdo es un edificio lleno de mujeres. Apenas recuerdo a ningún hombre. Estaban por todas partes, claro está –maridos, padres, hermanos–, pero sólo recuerdo a las mujeres. Y las recuerdo a todas tan toscas como la señora Drucker o tan feroces como mi madre. Nunca hablaban como si supiesen quiénes eran, como si comprendieran el trato que habían hecho con la vida, pero a menudo actuaban como si lo supiesen. Astutas, irascibles, iletradas, parecían sacadas de una novela de Dreiser. Había años de aparente calma y, de repente, cundían el pánico y la locura: dos o tres vidas marcadas (quizá arruinadas) y el tumulto se apagaba. De nuevo calma silenciosa, letargo erótico, la normalidad de la abnegación cotidiana. Y yo –la niña que crecía entre todas ellas, formándose a su imagen y semejanza– me empapaba de ellas como de cloroformo impregnado en un paño apretado contra mi cara. He tardado treinta años en entender cuánto entendí de ellas. ~ Vivian Gornick, #NFDB
185:Se preguntó con desconsuelo en qué mundo estaban viviendo. Un mundo donde la gente joven intentaba quitarse la vida de algún modo. Decidió que en ese momento estaban sumergidos en una época que se podría llamar el tiempo de los fracasos. Las ilusiones que se habían forjado resultaron ser menos sólidas de lo esperado. Creían edificar una casa y lo que hacían en realidad era erigir un monumento sobre algo ya pasado y casi olvidado. Suecia se derrumbaba alrededor de él, como un sistema político de estantes gigantescos que se viniera abajo. Nadie sabía quiénes serían los carpinteros que estaban en el recibidor esperando entrar para colocar las nuevas estanterías. Tampoco sabía nadie cómo serían éstas. Todo era muy confuso, aparte de que era verano y hacía calor. La gente joven se suicidaba, o al menos intentaba hacerlo. La gente vivía para olvidar, no para recordar. Las viviendas eran escondites más que hogares acogedores. Y los policías estaban callados esperando el momento en el que vigilasen sus celdas de arresto unos hombres con otros uniformes, los hombres de las empresas privadas de seguridad. ~ Henning Mankell, #NFDB
186:Todos los años, los franceses (no voy a liarme ahora con instituciones ni con nombres: los franceses están representados en mi historia por tres o cuatro señoras simpáticas que hicieron todo lo que estaba en su mano porque fuéramos felices) cierran los ojos y hacen girar la bola del mundo, clavan una aguja en un punto elegido al azar con la esperanza de acertar en tierra firme. Escogen así un país cada año e invitan a una docena de individuos, a unos cuantos poetas, a otros tantos novelistas, y los pasean por toda Francia para mostrárselos a un público ávido de sensaciones fuertes. Esa costumbre recibe el nombre de Les Belles Étrangères, Las Bellas Extranjeras. En cuanto me enteré de que yo sería una de esas extranjeras bellas, me interesé por quiénes serían las otras y descubrí que el harén completo incluía a antiguos conocidos míos o, como diría Toiu: «el equipo con el que he recorrido medio mundo». En realidad, todos eran unos amargados que, como decía antes, habían zampado, al igual que yo, salchichón de soja de lo lindo y que vivían aún, a pesar de la libertad posterior a 1989, en el terruño de sus antepasados. ~ Mircea C rt rescu, #NFDB
187:Ik vermoed dat hij wilde dat er op grote schaal werd gestorven door zijn toedoen, niet alleen in zijn concentratiekampen, ook aan de fronten, in de bezette gebieden en in Duitsland zelf, elke dag tienduizenden, bloed, bloed moest er vloeien, - maar in zijn afwezigheid. Hij heeft ook nooit een gebombardeerde duitse stad bezocht, zoals zijn sinistere paladijn Goebbels ten minste nog deed. Als zijn trein door de ruïnes van een stad reed, moesten de gordijnen gesloten worden. Ik denk dat hij het oog van de cycloon wilde zijn. Rondom wordt alles verwoest door orkanen, maar in het oog is het schitterend weer met een blauwe hemel. Zijn villa Berghof in de Alpen was daar het symbool van. Daar broedde hij al die verschrikkingen uit, maar niets er van drong door tot die idylle.'
'Maar waarom wilde hij dat er op grote schaal gestorven werd om hem heen?'
'Misschien dacht hij daarmee zijn eigen dood te bezweren. Zo lang hij kon doden, leefde hij. Misschien was zijn eigen dood het enige, waar hij echt bang voor was. Misschien dacht hij, dat die reusachtige offers hemzelf onsterfelijk zouden maken. En in zekere zin is dat ook gebeurd. ~ Harry Mulisch,#NFDB
188:On pourrait évoquer à ce sujet un autre ensemble de phénomènes modernes typiques qui, partant de la vie la plus banale, investissent aussi le plan de la culture. En effet, la tendance sadique au sens large s'exprime également dans un aspect de l'art et de la littérature, lorsque ceux-ci se complaisent à mettre en évidence des types et des situations se rapportant à une humanité brisée, vaincue ou corrompue. Le prétexte bien connu, c'est que « cela aussi, c'est la vie », ou encore que tout cela doit être montré dans le seul but de provoquer une réaction. En réalité, ce qui agit ici, c'est plutôt ce que les Allemands appellent la Schadenfreude, la joie de salir, plaisir pervers et variété de sadisme, de complaisance sadique. On jouit en voyant non l'homme debout, mais l'homme déchu, raté ou dégénéré. On apprécie en somme, non la limite supérieure, mais la limite inférieure de la condition humaine (on pourrait renvoyer ici, en partie du moins, à ce que nous dirons plus loin au sujet du « rire des dieux »). II fut un temps où c'étaient surtout des écrivains et artistes juifs (ou russes) qui donnaient le ton dans ce domaine ; aujourd'hui, la chose est répandue partout. ~ Julius Evola, #NFDB
189:Je découvris qu'en bluffant les psychiatres on pouvait tirer des trésors inépuisables de divertissement gratifiants: vous les menez habilement en bateau, leur cachez soigneusement que vous connaissez toutes les ficelles du métier; vous inventez à leur intention des rêves élaborés, de purs classiques du genre qui provoquent chez eux, ces extorqueurs de rêves, de tels cauchemars qu'ils se réveillent en hurlant; vous les affriolez avec des "scènes primitives" apocryphes; le tout sans jamais leur permettre d'entrevoir si peu que ce soit le véritable état de votre sexualité. En soudoyant une infirmière, j'eus accès à quelques dossiers et découvris, avec jubilation, des fiches me qualifiant d' "homosexuel en puissance" et d' "impuissant invétéré". Ce sport était si merveilleux, et ses résultats - dans mon cas - si mirifiques, que je restai un bon mois supplémentaire après ma guérison complète (dormant admirablement et mangeant comme une écolière). Puis j'ajoutai encore une semaine rien que pour le plaisir de me mesurer à un nouveau venu redoutable, une célébrité déplacée (et manifestement égarée) comme pour son habileté à persuader ses patients qu'ils avaient été témoins de leur propre conception. ~ Vladimir Nabokov, #NFDB
190:Une flamme brûle en moi. Comme une veilleuse sacrée devant l'image de Dieu. Et d'étranges ailes immenses, s'étalent devant moi, comme les ailes d'un oiseau sauvage.
Une griffe lacère mon coeur. Et de grosses gouttes silencieuses comme des larmes et comme du sang tombent l'une après l'autre et trouent mon coeur.
Ne pleure pas et n'aie pas peur, ô Très Aimée.
C'est le grand aigle de la Souffrance et c'est la flamme sacrée de l'Amour. Ne pleure pas. Moi je souris à ma Peine et à ses coups. Mon coeur est felé et le sang coule en moi. La nuit vient et Tu passes très légèrement Ta main sur mon front et les ailes s'en vont et le sang s'arrête. Toutes les blessures se guérissent et se ferment la nuit.
Dieu là-haut est jaloux et se venge. Non, ne pleurons pas, n'acceptons pas. Je sens en moi quelque chose d'immortel qui brûle et sourit. J'ai en moi la même flamme que Lui et la même essence que les étoiles. L'immortalité se déchaîne en moi et le plaisir de la Toute puissance et le grand Baiser que les Créateurs de l'univers portent dans leurs flancs. Des chaînes infrangibles m'attachent à la terre mais je sens en moi Quelqu'un qui n'accepte pas de s'incliner devant Dieu.
~ Nikos Kazantzakis P 50 ~ Nikos Kazantzakis,#NFDB
191:A l'époque de la révolution réligieuse qui changea la face de l'Angleterre, sous Henri VIII, presque toutes les communautés charitables du royaume furent supprimées, et comme les biens de es communautés passèrent aux nobles et ne furent point partagés entre les mains du peuple, il s'ensuivit que le nombre de pauvres alors existants resta le même, tandis que les moyens de pourvoir à leurs besoins étaient en partie détruits. Le nombre des pauvres s'accrut donc outre mesure, et Elisabeth, la fille de Henri VIII, frappée de l'aspect repoussant des misères du peuple, songea à substituer aux aumônes que la suppression des couvents avait fort réduites, une subvention annuelle, fournie par les communes.
Une loi promulguée dans la quarante-troisième année de la règne de cette princesse dispose que dans chaque paroisse des inspecteurs des pauvres seront nommés; que ces inspecteurs auront le droit de taxer les habitants à l'effet de nourrir les indigents infirmes, et de fournir du travail aux autres. A mesure que le temps avançait dans sa marche, l'Angleterre était de plus en plus entraînée à adopter le principe de la charité légale. Le paupérisme croissait plus rapidement dans la Grande-Bretagne que partout ailleurs. ~ Alexis de Tocqueville,#NFDB
192:La science moderne se présente dans le monde comme le principal ou le seul facteur de vérité ; selon ce style de certitude, connaître Charlemagne, c’est savoir combien a pesé son crâne et quelle a été sa taille. Au point de vue de la vérité totale — redisons-le une fois de plus — il vaut mille fois mieux croire que Dieu a créé le monde en six jours et que l’au-delà se situe sous le disque terrestre ou dans le ciel tournant, que de connaître la distance d’une nébuleuse à une autre tout en ignorant que les phénomènes ne font que manifester une Réalité transcendante qui nous détermine de toutes parts et qui donne à notre condition humaine tout son sens et tout son contenu ; aussi les grandes traditions, conscientes de ce qu’un savoir prométhéen mènerait à la perte de la vérité essentielle et salvatrice, n’ont-elles jamais prescrit ni encouragé cette accumulation de connaissances tout extérieures et, en fait, mortelles pour l’homme. On affirme couramment que telle ou telle prouesse scientifique « fait honneur au genre humain », et autres niaiseries de ce genre, comme si l’homme faisait honneur à sa nature autrement qu’en se dépassant, et comme s’il se dépassait ailleurs que dans la conscience d’absolu et dans la sainteté. ~ Frithjof Schuon, #NFDB
193:Por desgracia, muchos «expertos» en educación infantil (pocas materias cuentan con un plantel tan amplio de expertos, desde los que escriben libros hasta los que nos encontramos en el ascensor) insisten en que ante los hijos es imprescindible mantener la autoridad, que si cedes una vez estás perdido, que las normas deben ser pocas pero inviolables (otra versión prefiere muchas normas, pero igualmente inviolables), que darle a un niño lo que pide con gritos y llantos es «recompensarle» y por tanto hacer que llore y grite más... ¿Por qué sólo los padres están dotados de este poder absolu to? Esperamos que los empresarios escuchen las protestas de los obreros. Esperamos que las leyes no provengan de la voluntad de un tirano, sino de un consenso democrático. Incluso ante las decisiones de los jueces es posible presentar recursos y alegacio nes. ¿Temen los jueces acaso perder autoridad si el recurrente «se sale con la suya»? Debemos preguntarnos qué clase de hijos queremos criar: ¿personas responsables, comprensivas, capaces de dialogar, seguros de sí mismos y firmes en sus convicciones, o adultos obedientes y serviles? Según cuál sea nuestra respuesta, deberíamos, más bien, plantearnos si podemos permitirnos el lujo de no dejar que nuestros ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
194:Mes norime, kad visa tai, kas mums patinka, niekada nesibaigtų ir mums brangūs žmonės niekada nemirtų. Bet nesuprantame, kad iš tikrųjų išsaugome tai, ką mylime, tik tuomet, kai iš mūsų tai atimama, ir atimama netikėtai, negailestingai ir negrįžtamai. Tada tas, kuris atimtas, daugiau nebesikeičia ir visada mums lieka toks, kokį mylėjome. Tai, ką turime, ilgainiui praranda šviežumą ir aromatą, įkyri, varo nuobodulį, vargina ir netgi erzina. O kiek tokių, be kurių neįsivaizduojame savo gyvenimo, dingo iš horizonto, kiek nutraukė su mumis santykius, su kiek žmonių mes patys liovėmės bendrauti, kartais net be jokios akivaizdžios priežasties? Vieninteliai, kurie visada pasilieka su mumis, kurie niekada nepaveda ir neišduoda – tai tie, kuriuos iš mūsų kas nors atėmė. Vieninteliai, su kuriais niekada neišsiskiriame – tai tie, kurie mus paliko prieš mūsų valią. Jie mus paliko kai to visai nesitikėjome, todėl nesuspėjo mūsų nuvilti arba nustoti patikti, jų netekę mes puolame į neviltį, nes esame įsitikinę: su jais būtume galėję būti kartu dar labai ilgai, galbūt net visada. Tai – nesusipratimas, nors jį galima paaiškinti. Jeigu jie būtų su mumis pasilikę ilgiau, viskas būtų galėję pasikeisti. Tai, kas mums atrodė laimė, rytoj galėtų virsti kančia. „ ~ Javier Mar as, #NFDB
195:S’il est quelquefois logique de s’en rapporter à l’apparence des phénomènes, ce premier chant finit ici. Ne soyez pas sévère pour celui qui ne fait encore qu’essayer sa lyre : elle rend un son si étrange ! Cependant, si vous voulez être impartial, vous reconnaîtrez déjà une empreinte forte, au milieu des imperfections. Quant à moi, je vais me remettre au
travail, pour faire paraître un deuxième chant, dans un laps de temps qui ne soit pas trop retardé. La fin du dix-neuvième siècle verra son poète (cependant, au début, il ne doit pas commencer par un chef d’œuvre, mais suivre la loi de la nature) ; il est né sur les rives américaines, à l’embouchure de la Plata, là où deux peuples, jadis rivaux, s’efforcent actuellement de se surpasser par le progrès matériel et moral. Buenos-Ayres, la reine du Sud, et Montevideo, la coquette, se tendent une main amie, à travers les eaux argentines du grand estuaire. Mais, la guerre éternelle a placé son empire destructeur sur les campagnes, et moissonne avec joie des victimes nombreuses. Adieu, vieillard, et pense à moi, si tu m’as lu. Toi, jeune homme, ne désespère point ; car, tu as un ami dans le vampire, malgré ton opinion contraire. En comptant l’acarus sarcopte qui produit la gale, tu auras deux amis ! ~ Comte de Lautr amont,#NFDB
196:Un désir visqueux se traîne en moi et cherche à
savoir tous les mots obscènes que Tu connais. Je veux voir les pudiques lèvres se profaner sans du tout que lu rougis sans que Tu hésites avec une bouche savante, un regard effronté et un
maintien obscène. Que toutes Tes pensées impures et Tes courbes lascives et luxurieuses montent en une litanie impudente devant la statue d'Astaroth. Nous célébrerons les Priapées de notre amour, ô Malheureuse. Je serai immobile devant Toi et je Te regarderai dans les yeux. Ne me cache rien. Ne me cache rien, crache-moi tous les mots obscènes que tu connais. Peut-être même pourras-Tu me faire sentir quelque plaisir nouveau et inconnu. Le plaisir du mépris et du dégoût et de la profanation d'un amour. Je Te serrerais alors avec l'étreinte des bêtes dans la nuit de leurs ruts. Et je sentirai frétiller entre mes mains quelque chose de moi, une création de ma souffrance, un corps que j'ai façonné, moi, et que j'ai corrompu, moi, instrument charnel infonde de mon chagrin et de la corruption profonde et inguerissable de mon esprit. Je Te serrerai enfin toute entière parce que tu es toute à moi et j'éprouvrtai enfin sur Toi ce grand sentiment de triomphe qu'éprouvent les grands Conquérants et les grands Destructeurs et les Créateurs ! ~ Nikos Kazantzakis,#NFDB
197:Todo aquello que afecta la calidad de vida de uno o más vecinos, se- gún la cultura dominante, está directamente ligado al rol que ha teni- do el Estado municipal en los últimos cien años. Si bien podríamos remontarnos aún más atrás del período propues- to, resulta evidente que, desde 1880 cuando se define la capitalización de la ciudad de Buenos Aires, y de ahí en más la designación de su gobernante a manos del presidente de la Nación, el Estado municipal tomó distancia de sus gobernados. Esto lo concretó regulando todo lo referido a la vida de los mismos en esquemas normativos incompren- sibles y sin que hubiera, propio de un régimen democrático, una flui- dez participativa que diera mayor vida a las consideraciones de los vecinos acerca de su ciudad. Ni siquiera el voto popular ha sido la herramienta de juicio sobre estilos de gobierno. El hecho de concentrar todo el poder en el Estado y de distanciar a sus gobernantes de sus gobernados atentó contra la posibilidad de con- formar una comunidad definitivamente activa en lo que refiere a la calidad de vida citadina. Estas no son ni han sido las únicas razones. Desde las interrupcio- nes de la vigencia del orden constitucional hasta la influencia del siste- ma hispánico colonial explican también la conformación de la cultu- ra actual. ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
198:O Delices D’amour!
O délices d'amour! et toi, molle paresse,
Vous aurez donc usé mon oisive jeunesse!
Les belles sont partout. Pour chercher les beaux-arts,
Des Alpes vainement j'ai franchi les remparts;
Rome d'amours en foule assiège mon asile,
Sage vieillesse, accours! Ô déesse tranquille,
De ma jeune saison éteins ces feux brûlants,
Sage vieillesse! Heureux qui, dès ses premiers ans,
A senti de son sang, dans ses veines stagnantes,
Couler d'un pas égal les ondes languissantes;
Dont les désirs jamais n'ont troublé la raison;
Pour qui les yeux n'ont point de suave poison;
Au sein de qui jamais une absente perdue
N'a laissé l'aiguillon d'une trop belle vue;
Qui, s'il regarde et loue un front si gracieux,
Ne le voit plus, sitôt qu'il n'est plus sous ses yeux!
Doux et cruels tyrans, brillantes héroïnes,
Femmes, de ma mémoire habitantes divines,
Fantômes enchanteurs, cessez de m'égarer.
O mon coeur! ô mes sens! laissez-moi respirer.
Laissez-moi dans la paix de l'ombre solitaire
Travailler à loisir quelque oeuvre noble et fière
Qui, sur l'amas des temps propre à se maintenir,
Me recommande aux yeux des âges à venir.
Mais, non! j'implore en vain un repos favorable;
Je t'appartiens, Amour, Amour inexorable!
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
199:¿Quiénes son o eran el señor Montané y sus hijos? ¿A qué se dedicaban? El local está alquilado a una agencia, pero hasta donde sé el propietario no se apellida Montané. A veces, por decir algo, le digo a Álex que en aquel local debió funcionar un negocio de pompas fúnebres o de antigüedades, o una tienda dedicada a la caza deportiva, ocupaciones, todas, que disgustan profundamente a mi ayudante. Son poco sociales, dice. Traen mala suerte. Tal vez tenga razón. Si Montané e Hijos fue una tienda de cazadores, es posible que haya atraído sobre mí un poco de la mala suerte de la que antes me vi libre… La sangre… El asesinato… El miedo de la víctima… Recuerdo un poema, hace tiempo… El asesino duerme mientras la víctima lo fotografía… ¿Lo leí en algún libro o lo escribí yo mismo…? Francamente, lo he olvidado, aunque creo que lo escribí yo, en México D. F., cuando mis amigos eran los poetas de hierro y Gasparín aparecía en los bares de la Colonia Guerrero o de la calle Bucareli después de caminar de una punta de la ciudad a la otra, ¿buscando qué?, ¿buscando a quién…? Los ojos negros de Gasparín en medio de la niebla mexicana, ¿por qué será que al pensar en él el paisaje adquiere contornos antediluvianos? Enorme y lento; dentro y fuera de las miasmas… Pero tal vez no lo escribí yo… El asesino duerme mientras la víctima le toma fotografías, ¿qué les parece? En el lugar más idóneo para el crimen, el Palacio Benvingut, claro… ~ Roberto Bola o, #NFDB
200:...vom Fenster her zeichnet sich auf der Decke der Reflex der Laterne, die vor dem Gefängnis die ganze Nacht brennt. Von Zeit zu Zeit hört man nur ganz dumpf das ferne Rattern eines vorbeigehenden Eisenbahnzuges oder ganz in der nähe unter den Fenstern das Räuspern der Schildwache, die in ihren schweren Stiefeln ein paar Schritte langsam macht, um die steifen Beine zu bewegen. Der Sand knirscht so hoffnungslos unter diesen Schritten, daß die ganze Öde und Ausweglosigkeit des Daseins daraus klingt in die feuchte dunkle Nacht. Da liege ich still allein, gewickelt in diese vielfachen schwarzen Tücher der Finsternis, Langeweile, Unfreiheit, des Winters - und dabei klopft mein Herz von einer unbegreiflichen, unbekannten inneren Freude, wie wenn ich im strahlenden Sonnenschein über eine blühende Wiese gehen würde. Und ich lächle im Dunkeln dem Leben, wie wenn ich irgendein zauberhaftes Geheimnis wüßte, das alles Böse und Traurige Lügen straft und in lauter Helligkeit und Glück wandelt. Und dabei suche ich selbst nach einem Grund zu dieser Freude, finde nichts und muß wieder lächeln über mich selbst. Ich glaube, das Geheimnis ist nichts anderes, als das Leben selbst; die tiefe nächtliche Finsternis ist so schön und weich wie Sammet, wenn man nur richtig schaut. Und in dem Knirschen des feuchten Sandes unter den langsamen schweren Schritten der Schildwache singt auch ein kleines schönes Lied vom Leben - wenn man nur richtig zu hören weiß. ~ Rosa Luxembourg, #NFDB
201:Le monde, quels que puissent être ses contenus permanents ou transitoires, ne se détache jamais de Dieu ; il est toujours cette substance céleste tombée dans un néant et durcie dans le froid de l’éloignement ; les limites des choses et les calamités qui en résultent en témoignent. Le sage voit dans les choses et à travers elles l’origine divine devenue lointaine, et aussi — en considérant les limitations et les misères — le point de chute qui est inéluctable, et où s’écrasera finalement le monde ; il discerne dans les phénomènes le flux et le reflux, l’expansion et le retour, le miracle existentiel et la limite ontologique.
Mais, surtout, le soufi perçoit par l’« œil du cœur » que « toute chose est Lui » ; le monde, tout en n’étant point Dieu sous le rapport de son existence particulière, n’en est pas moins « l’Extérieur » sous le rapport de sa possibilité profonde ou du miracle permanent auquel il est accroché à tout moment et sans lequel il s’effondrerait dans le néant ; en un sens, il n’est pas Dieu, mais en un autre sens, il « n’est autre que Lui » en vertu de sa causalité divine. Il se peut que les mots ne sauront jamais rendre compte d’une manière satisfaisante de ce mystère ; mais, en un certain point, le monde « est Dieu », ou il n’est pas. Dieu n’est pas le monde, et c’est pour cela, précisément, qu’il est impossible de parler de « l’Extérieur » sans parler aussi de « l’Intérieur » ; le premier n’est vrai que par le second. ~ Frithjof Schuon,#NFDB
202:La condition du moine constitue une victoire sur l'espace et le temps, ou sur le monde et la vie, en ce sens que le moine se situe par son attitude au centre et dans le présent : au centre par rapport au monde plein de phénomènes, et dans le présent par rapport à la vie pleine d’évènements. Concentration de prière et rythme de prière: ce sont en un certain sens les deux dimensions de l'existence spirituelle en général et monastique en particulier. Le religieux s'abstrait du monde, il se fixe en un lieu défini et le lieu est centre parce qu'il est consacré à Dieu , il ferme moralement les yeux, et reste sur place en attendant la mort, comme une statue placée dans une niche, pour parler saint François de Sales ; par cette "concentration", le moine se situe sous l'axe divin, il participe déjà au Ciel en se rattachant concrètement à Dieu. Ce faisant, le contemplatif s'abstrait également de la durée, car par l'oraison - cette actualisation permanente de la conscience de Dieu - , il se situe dans un instant intemporel : l'oraison (ou le souvenir de Dieu) est maintenant et toujours, elle est "toujours maintenant" et appartient déjà l 'Éternité. La vie du moine, par l'élimination des mouvements désordonnés, est un rythme ; orl e rythme est la fixation d'un instant - ou du présent - dans la durée, comme l'immobilité est la fixation d'un point -ou du centre - dans l'étendue ; ce symbolisme fondé sur la loi de l'analogie devient concret en vertu de la consécration à Dieu. ~ Frithjof Schuon, #NFDB
203:An Anna Blume
Oh Du, Geliebte meiner 27 Sinne, ich liebe Dir!
Du, Deiner; Dich Dir, ich Dir, Du mir, - - - - wir?
Das gehört beiläufig nicht hierher!
Wer bist Du , ungezähltes Frauenzimmer, Du bist, bist Du?
Die Leute sagen, Du wärest.
Laß sie sagen, sie wissen nicht, wie der Kirchturm steht.
Du trägst den Hut auf Deinen Füßen und wanderst auf die Hände,
auf den Händen wanderst Du.
Halloh, Deine roten Kleider, in weiße Falten zersägt,
Rot liebe ich, Anna Blume, rot liebe ich Dir.
Du, Deiner, Dich Dir, ich Dir, Du mir, - - - - - wir?
Das gehört beiläufig in die kalte Glut!
Anna Blume, rote Anna Blume, wie sagen die Leute?
Preisfrage:
1.) Anna Blume hat ein Vogel,
2.) Anna Blume ist rot.
3.) Welche Farbe hat der Vogel.
Blau ist die Farbe Deines gelben Haares,
Rot ist die Farbe Deines grünen Vogels.
Du schlichtes Mädchen im Alltagskleid,
Du liebes grünes Tier, ich liebe Dir!
Du Deiner Dich Dir, ich Dir, Du mir, - - - - wir!
Das gehört beiläufig in die - - - Glutenkiste.
Anna Blume, Anna, A - - - - N - - - -N- - - - -A!
Ich träufle Deinen Namen.
Dein Name tropft wie weiches Rindertalg.
Weißt Du es Anna, weißt Du es schon,
Man kann Dich auch von hinten lesen.
Und Du, Du Herrlichste von allen,
Du bist von hinten und von vorne:
A - - - - - - N - - - - - N - - - - - -A.
Rindertalg träufelt STREICHELN über meinen Rücken.
Anna Blume,
Du tropfes Tier,
Ich - - - - - - - liebe - - - - - - - Dir! ~ Kurt Schwitters,#NFDB
204:Los pensadores de la Ilustración, que habían comenzado a estudiar hasta el último rincón de la naturaleza a través de las nuevas ciencias —la botánica, la zoología, la química, la física—, propusieron en algún momento una idea osada: si las ciencias podían dar todas las respuestas sobre la naturaleza, pensaron, de seguro podría crearse una ciencia de lo humano capaz de darlas todas sobre nuestra naturaleza. ¿ No era el hombre una entidad tan susceptible de ser estudiada a través de las ciencias como las estrellas o las plantas? ¿ No se podían conocer científicamente al hombre, no se podían establecer de manera científica sus necesidades y sus deseos para resolverlos científicamente? Este impulso racional, que produjo progresos notables en el mundo político y económico, dejó en evidencia un vacío. Al tratar de cubrir en las ciencias de la razones estudio de lo humano, de repente se notó mas que antes la existencia de un espacio al cual esas ciencias no alcanzaban a llegar: un espacio irracional, contradictorio y oscuro, que no se puede explorar con esas herramientas. Es el lugar de nuestros demonios, de nuestros secretos inconfesables, de nuestra emociones discordantes, ese lugar donde ocurren cosas que trastocan vidas aunque sean invisibles, ese lugar de nuestra irracionalidad y nuestras pasiones y los errores que cometemos por esas pasiones y esa irracionalidad, ese lugar que no podríamos explorar ni comprender si no contáramos con esta invención que lo ilumina y, al hacerlo, nos revela quiénes somos: esta invención que nos inventa ~ Juan Gabriel V squez, #NFDB
205:Comment des sociétés contemporaines, restées ignorantes de l'électricité et de la machine à vapeur, n'évoqueraient-elles pas la phase correspondante du développement de la civilisation occidentale ? Comment ne pas comparer les tribus indigènes, sans écriture et sans métallurgie, mais traçant des figures sur les parois rocheuses et fabriquant des outils de pierre, avec les formes archaïques de cette même civilisation, dont les vestiges trouvés dans les grottes de France et d'Espagne attestent la similarité ? C'est là surtout que le faux évolutionnisme s'est donné libre cours. Et pourtant ce jeu séduisant, auquel nous nous abandonnons presque irrésistiblement chaque fois que nous en avons l'occasion (le voyageur occidental ne se complaît-il pas à retrouver le "moyen âge" en Orient, le "siècle de Louis XIV" dans le Pékin d'avant la Première Guerre mondiale, l'"âge de la pierre" parmi les indigènes d'Australie ou de la Nouvelle-Guinée ?), est extraordinairement pernicieux. Des civilisations disparues, nous ne connaissons que certains aspects, et ceux-ci sont d'autant moins nombreux que la civilisation considérée est plus ancienne, puisque les aspects connus sont ceux-là seuls qui ont pu survivre aux destructions du temps. Le procédé consiste donc à prendre la partie pour le tout, à conclure, du fait que certains aspects de deux civilisations (l'une actuelle, l'autre disparue) offrent des ressemblances, à l'analogie de tous les aspects. Or non seulement cette façon de raisonner est logiquement insoutenable, mais dans bon nombre de cas elle est démentie par les faits. ~ Claude L vi Strauss, #NFDB
206:Dans ce monde d’absurde relativisme où nous vivons, qui dit « notre temps » croit avoir tout dit ; identifier des phénomènes quelconques avec un « autre temps », ou qui plus est, un « temps révolu », c’est les liquider ; et notons le sadisme hypocrite que recouvrent des mots comme « révolu », « suranné » ou « irréversible », lesquels remplacent la pensée par une sorte de suggestion imaginative, une « musique de préjugé » pourrions-nous dire. On constate par exemple que telle pratique liturgique ou cérémonielle offense les goûts scientistes ou démagogiques de notre époque, et on est tout heureux de se rappeler que l’usage en question date du Moyen Âge, voire de « Byzance », ce qui permet de conclure sans autre forme de procès qu’il n’a plus droit à l’existence ; on oublie totalement la seule question qui ait à se poser, à savoir pourquoi les Byzantins ont pratiqué telle chose ; il se trouve que ce pourquoi se situe le plus souvent en dehors du temps, qu’il a une raison d’être qui relève de facteurs intemporels. S’identifier soi-même avec un « temps » et enlever par là aux choses toute valeur intrinsèque ou presque, est une attitude toute nouvelle, que l’on projette arbitrairement dans ce que nous appelons rétrospectivement le « passé » ; en réalité, nos ancêtres ne vivaient pas dans un temps, subjectivement et intellectuellement parlant, mais dans un « espace », c’est-à- dire dans un monde de valeurs stables où le flux de la durée n’était pour ainsi dire qu’accidentel ; ils avaient un merveilleux sens de l’absolu dans les choses, et de l’enracinement des choses dans l’absolu. ~ Frithjof Schuon, #NFDB
207:Kas nori prarasti pinigus - tepasilaiko juos sau, kas nori išsaugoti juos amžiams - teatiduoda kitam. be to, jūs neturite teisės pasilikti sau tų pinigų - juk jie nepriklauso jums, pinigai išvis nepriklauso žmonėms. Visi pinigai velnio nuosavybė, ir jis dieną naktį sėdi savo kontoroj ant aukso maišų ir perka už juos žmonių sielas. Pasistenkit greičiau atsikratyti nešvaraus pinigo, kurį jis bruka jums į delną, nelaikykite jo, nes šis prakeiktas metalas nudegins jums pirštus, įsisiurbs į kraują, apakins, užnuodys mintis ir sukietins širdį. Paaukokite jį "vargdienių seselėms", meskit tuos nelemtus pinigus į griovį - ten jų tikroji vieta! Kuriam galui krauti pinigus, jei vis tiek reikės jų netekti? Mirtis turi antrą raktą nuo jūsų pinigų skrynios.
Dievai visas gėrybes parduoda tikrąja kaina, yra pasakęs vienas senovės poetas. Jis būtų galėjęs pridurti, kad pačias verčiausias jie parduoda pigiausiai. Viskas, kas mums tikrai naudinga - nebrangu; tik už tai, be ko galima apsieiti, mokam didelius pinigus. Kas tikrai gražu - išvis neparduodama; visa tai nemirtingieji dievai mums duoda veltui. Nemokamai galima gėrėtis saulėtekiai ir saulėlydžiais, danguje plaukiančiais debesėliais, giriomis ir laukais, nuostabai jūra. Dykai mums čiulba paukščiai, veltui galim prisiskinti pakelėj lauko gėlių ir įeiti į žvaigždėtą Nakties menę. Vargšas miega geriau nei turtuolis. Paprastas maistas ilgainiui pasidaro skanesnis negu įmantrūs patiekalai Rico restorane. Pasitenkinimas ir sielos ramybė geriau mėgsta kaimo pirkelę negu ištaigingus meisto rūmus. Keletas bičiulių, nedaug, labai nedaug knygų ir šuo - štai ir viskas, ko reikia žmogui, kol jis turi pats save. ~ Axel Munthe,#NFDB
208:Sin embargo, no me planteé obtener su favor mostrándole mis serviles respetos, sino que, al cabo de un tiempo empleé este otro método. Me enteré de que en su biblioteca tenía un libro muy raro y muy curioso y le mandé una nota en la que expresaba mi deseo de examinarlo, y pidiéndole el favor de tomarlo prestado unos cuantos días. Me lo mandó de inmediato, y se lo devolví al cabo de una semana agradeciéndole con vehemencia aquel gran favor. La siguiente ocasión en que nos encontramos en la Asamblea, se dirigió a mí (algo que antes nunca había hecho) y con gran cortesía; y a partir de entonces me manifestó su disposición a servirme en cualquier ocasión, de modo que nos hicimos grandes amigos y nuestra amistad perduró hasta su muerte.[30] Según Franklin, esto ilustra una vieja máxima: «Aquel que ya te ha hecho un favor estará más dispuesto a hacerte otro que aquel al que tú mismo has complacido». Hay dos motivos que lo explican: el primero, cuando una persona te ha ayudado ya una vez, es más probable que esté dispuesto a hacerlo una segunda porque no hacerlo significaría que la primera vez se equivocó. En el supuesto de que la primera experiencia haya sido positiva, no seguir ayudándote sería admitir un error de criterio. El segundo es que el contacto anterior puede haber provocado una mejora de la relación. Así, hacer algo por ti otra vez se ha convertido en algo natural. Por supuesto, tú deberías corresponder, de modo que pueda generarse un vínculo creciente y mutuamente beneficioso. Por lo tanto, la idea de que a la gente no le gusta que le pidan favores puede ser errónea. En cualquier caso, ¿quiénes somos nosotros para llevarle la contraria a Benjamin Franklin? ~ Guy Kawasaki, #NFDB
209:Ó, kiáltotta, mi mindent nevezünk mi szerelemnek, ami nem az. A szerelem igen ritka virág, erről már többször beszéltem. És a nőuralom idején mindig ritkább lesz. A legtöbb esetben magnetikus és elektromos erők vagy kémiai és biológiai, legfeljebb szociológiai tényezők kiegyenlítődése. Ostobaság azt hinni, hogy mi vagyunk, akik ezeket az erőket irányítjuk. Azok uralkodnak rajtunk. Olvasta Weiningert? Egyetlen komoly modern könyvet sem olvasott. Jegyezze fel sürgősen, Otto Weininger Nem és jellem. Amit mi szerelemnek nevezünk, a legtöbb esetben pszichológiai zűrzavarok levezetése. Vagy szociológiai bankrott. A közösségben nem tud elhelyezkedni, és bosszúból valakibe beleszeret. Sok esetben nem egyéb, mint kísérlet a valódi szerelem elkerülésére. Elkent és bukott és csődbe került egzisztenciák végső menedéke. És, ami a legkülönösebb, a nők idegenkedése. Nekik ez tál veszélyes. A leggyakoribb eset, inkább testüket dobják oda, nehogy szerelmeseknek kelljen lenniök. És hogy kibújjanak. A dolog egyszerűen testi kielégülésre megy. Még az erotika is lassan kivész. Angela őnagysága se kivétel. Neki a szerelem sok. Ő, kérem, ebbe a kockázatba nem hajlandó belemenni. A szexus vegetatív langymelegére van szüksége. A nők általában a kotlóshőfokon szeretnek élni. A szerelem pedig a létezés forrpontja, mint a hit vagy a műalkotás, szóval mint a szenvedély. Ezt legközelebb meg fogom írni. Már előre örülök, hogy mennyi színes és illatos levélkét fogok kapni. Mert a hölgyek az én értekezéseimből egy hangot sem szoktak érteni, csak azt, hogy az ő paplanalattijukról van szó, és ez rendkívül izgalmas. Kötelező félreértés. Minden siker fundamentuma. Különösen ma, mint mondom, amikor a logika egyetlen ponton maradt érvényben, s ez a következetes önámítás – ~ B la Hamvas, #NFDB
210:Klara palaukė, kol jis išsirėks ir išsitrankys. Tuomet, kaip visuomet išsiblaškiusi, paklausė, ar jis moka krutiniti ausis.
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"Lygiai kaip gimdami, mirdami irgi bijome nežinios. Tačiau baimė - vidaus dalykas, nieturintis nieko bendra su realybe. Mirti - tai tas pat, kaip gimti - tiesiog pasikeitimas", - sakė Klara.
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Klaros mirtis visiškai pakeitė gyvenimą didžiajame name ant kampo. Su ja iškeliavo dvasios, svečiai ir ta ššviesi linksmybė, kuri visuomet mus supdavo jos dėka, nes ji netikėjo, kad pasaulis yra ašarų klonis, atvirkščiai - tai Dievo pokštas, todėl būtų kvaila rimtai į j žiūrėti, jei net Dievas to nedarė.
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Įtariu, kad visa, kas vyksta, nėra atsitiktinumas, lemtis, numatyta prieš mums gimstant, o Estebanas Garsija yra jos dalis. Tai grubus, iškreiptas paveikslas, tačiau nė vienas teptuko brūkštelėjimas nėra betikslis.
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"Šunidėje" tarsi dėliojau galvosūkį, kuriame kiekviena detalė turi tikslią vietą. Kol visų nesudeliojau, galvosūkis atrodė nesuprantamas, bet buvau įsitikinusi, kad jei įstengsiu jį užbaigti, kiekviena detalė įgaus prasmę ir rezultatas bus harmoningas. Kiekviena detalė turi savi priežastį, net ir pulkininkas Garsija. Kartais man atrodo, kad visa tai jau išgyvenau ir jau rašau tuos pačius žodžius, tačiau suvokiu, jog tai buvau ne aš: kita moteris rašė sąsiuvinius, kad aš galėčiau jais pasinaudoti. Aš rašau, ji rašė, nes atmintis nepatikima, o gyvenimas labai trumpas, prabėga taip greitai, jog nespėjame išvysti įvykių sąsajos; negalime suprasti savo veiksmų pasekmių, tikime praeities, dabarties, ateities fikcija, - bet juk gali būti, kad viskas vyksta vienu metu, kaip sakydavo trys seserys Moros, sugebėjusios erdvėje matyti visų laikų dvasias. Todėl senelė Klara ir rašė sąsiuvinius - norėjo matyti tikrąjį įvykių mastą ir pasišaipyti iš savo prastos atminties ~ Isabel Allende,#NFDB
211:Cette séparation alchimique, si dangereuse que les philophes hermétiques n’en parlaient qu’à mots couverts, si ardue que de longues vies s’étaient usées en vain à l’obtenir, il l’avait confondue jadis avec une rébellion facile. Puis, rejetant ce fatras de rêvasseries aussi antiques que l’illusion humaine, ne retenant de ses maîtres alchimistes que quelques recettes pragmatiques, il avait choisi de dissoudre et de coaguler la matière dans le sens d’une expérimentation faite avec le corps des choses. Maintenant, les deux branches de la parabole se rejoignaient ; la mors philosophica, s’était accomplie : l’opérateur brûlé par les acides de la recherche était à la fois sujet et objet, alambic fragile et, au fond du réceptacle, précipité noir. L’expérience qu’on avait cru pouvoir confiner à l’officine s’était étendue à tout. S’en suivait-il que les phases subséquentes de l’aventure alchimique fussent autre chose que des songes, et qu’un jour il connaîtrait aussi la pureté ascétique de l’ Œuvre au Blanc, puis le triomphe de l’esprit et des sens qui caractérise l’ Œuvre au Rouge ? Du fond de la lézarde naissait une Chimère. Il disait Oui par audace, comme autrefois par audace il avait dit Non. Il s’arrêtait soudain, tirant violemment sur ses propres rênes. La première phase de l’Œuvre avait demandé toute sa vie. Le temps et les forces manquaient pour aller plus loin, à supposer qu’il y eût une route, et que par cette route un homme pût passer. Ou ce pourrissement des idées, cette mort des instincts, ce broiement des formes preque insupportables à la nature humaine seraient rapidement suivis par la mort véritable, et il serait curieux de voir par quelle voie, ou l’esprit revenu des domaines du vertige reprendrait ses routines habituelles, muni seulement de facultés plus libres et comme nettoyées. Il serait beau d’en voir les effets. ~ Marguerite Yourcenar, #NFDB
212:A nyári hónapokban künn tanyáztak a patríciuscsaládok a „Bankó”-n vagy a „Csermely” nyári lakjaiban. A fával fűtött kávédaráló június elsejétől kidöcögött mindennap a Csermely-patak partján a „Bárányká”-hoz címzett kocsmáig; ott kezdődött a meredek szerpentinút, mely gombaszagú, alig irtott erdőségen vezetett fel a hegy tetejére, a Bankó kezdetleges fürdőtelepére. Őserdő volt ez, városi birtok, dús, félelmes, szűz terület. Az „Ottiliáról”, az erdő egyik halványzöld tisztásáról napos időben el lehetett látni az országhatár havas hegycsúcsáig. Az erdő tele volt málnával, hideg vizű forrásokkal, nemes gombafajtákkal, borókával, áfonyával. Olyan „igazi” erdő volt ez, amelynek később nem találtam mását sehol; fanyalogva szemléltem francia és angol erdőket, de mind szegényesnek látszottak, nyomába sem léphettek az őserdőnek, ahol gyermekkorom nyarait töltöttem. Ez az erdő végtelenül terjengett, sokszázezer holdon át terült el, s a Hradova tisztásairól látni lehetett a völgyet, sárosi, szepesi falvakat – tiszta, színes, nyugodt tájkép volt ez, más volt az éghajlata, íze, illata, mint mindennek, amit az országban később megismertem. A környék kis városainak életén, a házak homlokzatán s a boltíves, apró szobák berendezésén évszázados, igazi városiasság nyomait lehetett felismerni. Igazi „haza” volt ez a néhány megye, melyet be lehetett látni az Ottiliáról s a Hradováról – talán igazibb, bensőségesebb, mint a másik, az ismeretlen, az akkor még óriás és hatalmas, melynek része volt. Fönn a hegycsúcson kezdődött a fenyves, végtelenül. Ezt a fenyvest, melynek zúgását és csendjét úgy idegzette be fülem, mint ahogy tengerparton született ember örökre hallja, nagy városban is, a hullámcsapás zörejét, a háború első napján földig tarolta a szélvihar; a gyermekkor nagy erdejét úgy fújta el ez az őrült lehelet, mint minden egyebet, ami hozzátartozott, s becses volt. ~ S ndor M rai, #NFDB
213:sistemáticamente, en el que las mascotas se abandonan sistemáticamente, en el que las personas se pasan por alto sistemáticamente, en el que las familias se van diezmando sistemáticamente y a un ritmo cada vez más elevado. Y no hay indicios de que la tendencia vaya a cambiar en ninguno de estos aspectos. Vivo en un país en el que cada año fallecen en accidentes de tráfico al menos 42.000 personas. En el que, según he oído, el 75% de las familias son disfuncionales. En el que el ocio es cada vez más infantil, más violento y más insustancial. Pasee por las calles de cualquier gran ciudad. Suba al metro de Nueva York. Sí, está mejor que estaba, pero sigue sin estar bien. ¿Y a esto es a lo que aspira el resto del mundo? ¿A parecerse más a nosotros? ¿A cambiar su sueño por el nuestro? Pues vaya con la Nueva Era. Pues vaya con lo de ser más humanos. Somos una vergüenza andante. Pero tranquilícese. Al menos podemos decir que no es culpa nuestra. ¡Estamos profundamente dormidos! ¡Por Dios! ¿Ha observado alguna vez el Congreso en medio de un debate sobre una cuestión importante? ¿Ha observado cómo funciona el sueño? ¿Ha observado cómo se mueven los labios de nuestros insignes representantes, con los ojos inertes, los brazos desmadejados, las mangas vacías, los zapatos llenos de paja y las bocas vacías emitiendo palabras huecas? ¿Entiende lo que pasa? ¿Por casualidad se ha visto a usted mismo mirando, moviendo la boca, con los ojos inertes, los brazos desmadejados, las mangas vacías, los zapatos llenos de paja, la boca vacía emitiendo palabras huecas? ¿Se ha sorprendido de lo que ha visto? Todas las soluciones posibles, absolutamente todas, por valiosas que puedan parecer, no significan absolutamente nada si nosotros, la gente de este mundo, seguimos igual. Si continuamos convencidos de que estamos despiertos… sin estarlo. Si continuamos actuando como si tomáramos decisiones conscientes, como si hubiéramos decidido quiénes somos. Pero ~ Michael E Gerber, #NFDB
214:Souffre Un Moment Encor
Souffre un moment encor; tout n'est que changement;
L'axe tourne, mon coeur; souffre encore un moment.
La vie est-elle toute aux ennuis condamnée?
L'hiver ne glace point tous les mois de l'année,
L'Eurus retient souvent ses bonds impétueux;
Le fleuve, emprisonné dans des rocs tortueux,
Lutte, s'échappe, et va, par des pentes fleuries,
S'étendre mollement sur l'herbe des prairies.
C'est ainsi que, d'écueils et de vagues pressé,
Pour mieux goûter le calme, il faut avoir passé,
Des pénibles détroits d'une vie orageuse,
Dans une vie enfin plus douce et plus heureuse.
La Fortune, arrivant à pas inattendus,
Frappe, et jette en vos mains mille dons imprévus:
On le dit. Sur mon seuil jamais cette volage
N'a mis le pied. Mais quoi! son opulent passage,
Moi qui l'attends plongé dans un profond sommeil,
Viendra, sans que j'y pense, enrichir mon réveil.
Toi, qu'aidé de l'aimant plus sûr que les étoiles,
Le nocher sur la mer poursuit à pleines voiles;
Qui sais de ton palais, d'esclaves abondant,
De diamants, d'azur, d'émeraudes ardent,
Aux gouffres du Potose, aux antres de Golconde,
Tenir les rênes d'or qui gouvernent le monde,
Brillante déité! tes riches favoris
Te fatiguent sans cesse et de voeux et de cris:
Peu satisfait le pauvre. O belle souveraine!
Peu; seulement assez pour que, libre de chaîne,
Sur les bords où, malgré ses rides, ses revers,
Belle encor l'Italie attire l'univers,
Je puisse au sein des arts vivre et mourir tranquille!
C'est là que mes désirs m'ont promis un asile;
C'est là qu'un plus beau ciel peut-être dans mes flancs
Éteindra les douleurs et les sables brûlants.
Là j'irai t'oublier, rire de ton absence;
Là, dans un air plus pur respirer, en silence
Et nonchalant du terme où finiront mes jours,
La santé, le repos, les arts et les amours.
150
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
215:Une nouvelle génération, donc, subit simplement l'état de choses ; elle ne se pose aucun vrai problème, et de la « libération » dont elle jouit, elle fait un usage à tous points de vue stupide. Quand cette jeunesse prétend qu'elle n'est pas comprise, la seule réponse à lui donner c'est qu'il n'y a justement rien à comprendre en elle, et que, s'il existait un ordre normal, il s'agirait uniquement de la remettre à sa place sans tarder, comme on fait avec les enfants, lorsque sa stupidité devient fatigante, envahissante et impertinente. Le soi-disant anticonformisme de certaines attitudes, abstraction faite de leur banalité, suit du reste une espèce de mode, de nouvelle convention, de sorte qu'il s'agit précisément du contraire d'une manifestation de liberté. Pour différents phénomènes envisagés par nous dans les pages précédentes, tels que par exemple le goût de la vulgarité et certaines formes nouvelles des mœurs, on peut se référer, dans l'ensemble, à cette jeunesse-là ; en font partie les fanatiques des deux sexes pour les braillards, les « chanteurs » épileptiques, au moment où nous écrivons pour les séances collectives de marionnettes représentées par les ye-ye sessions, pour tel ou tel « disque à succès » et ainsi de suite, avec les comportements correspondants. L'absence, chez ceux-là, du sens du ridicule rend impossible d'exercer sur eux une influence quelconque, si bien qu'il faut les laisser à eux-mêmes et à leur stupidité et estimer que si par hasard apparaissent, chez ce type de jeunes, quelques aspects polémiques en ce qui concerne, par exemple, l'émancipation sexuelle des mineurs et le sens de la famille, cela n'a aucun relief. Les années passant, la nécessité, pour la plupart d'entre eux, de faire face aux problèmes matériels et économiques de la vie fera sans doute que cette jeunesse-là, devenue adulte, s'adaptera aux routines professionnelles, productives et sociales d'un monde comme le monde actuel ; ce qui, d'ailleurs, la fera passer simplement d'une forme de nullité à une autre forme de nullité. Aucun problème digne de ce nom ne vient se poser. ~ Julius Evola, #NFDB
216:Blow, Northern Wind
Blow, northerne wynd,
Send thou me my suetyng!
Blow, northerne wynd,
Blou, blou, blou!
Ichot a burde in bour{.e} bryht,
That fully semly is on syht,
Menskful maiden of myht,
Feir ant fre to fond{.e};
In al this wurhlich{.e} won,
A burde of blod and of bon
Never yete y nust{.e} non
Lussomore in lond{.e}.
With lokk{.e}s lefliche and long{.e},
With frount and fac{.e} feir to fong{.e},
With murth{.e}s moni{.e} mote heo mong{.e},
That brid so breme in bour{.e};
With lossom ey{.e}, grete ant god{.e},
With browen blysfol under hod{.e};
He that reste him on the rod{.e}
That leflich lyf honour{.e}!
Hire lur{.e} lum{.e}s liht
Ase a launterne a nyht,
Hire bleo blykyeth so bryht:
So feyr heo is ant fyn!
A suetly suyre heo hath to hold{.e},
With arm{.e}s, shuldr{.e}, ase mon wold{.e},
Ant fyngres feyr{.e} fort{.e} fold{.e},
God wolde hue wer{.e} myn!
Middel heo hath menskful smal;
Hire loveliche cher{.e} as cristal;
They{.e}s, legg{.e}s, fet, ant al,
Ywraht is of the best{.e}.
A lussum ledy last{.e}les
That sweting is, and ever wes;
A betere burd{.e} never nes
45
Yhery{.e}d with the hest{.e}.
Heo is der{.e}worthe in day,
Gracious{.e}, stout, and gay,
Gentil, jolyf so the jay,
Worhlich{.e} when heo waketh.
Maiden murgest of mouth;
Bi est, bi west, by north and south,
Thér nis fithel{.e} ne crouth
That such murth{.e}s maketh.
Heo is coral of godness{.e},
Heo is rubie of ryhtfulness{.e},
Heo is cristal of clanness{.e},
Ant baner of bealté;
Heo is lilie of largess{.e},
Heo is paruenke of prouess{.e},
Heo is solsecle of suetness{.e},
Ant ledy of lealté.
...
For hir{.e} love y carke ant car{.e},
For hir{.e} love y droupne ant dar{.e},
For hir{.e} love my blisse is bar{.e},
Ant al ich wax{.e} won;
For hir{.e} love in slep y slak{.e},
For hir{.e} love al nyht ich wak{.e},
For hir{.e} love mournynge y mak{.e}
Mor{.e} then eny mon.
~ Anonymous Americas,#NFDB
217:Ich sehe die Szene schon vor mir, wie ich oben ankomme, mit dem Typ, der meinen Namen auf der Liste sucht und nicht findet.
"Wie heißen Sie nochmal?"
"Novecento."
"Nosjinskij, Notarbartolo, Novalis, Nozza..."
"Es ist nämlich so, daß ich auf einem Schiff geboren bin."
"Wie bitte?"
"Ich bin aif einem Schiff geboren und da auch gestorben, ich weiß nicht, ob das da aus der Liste hervorgeht..."
"Schiffbruch?"
"Nein. Explodiert. Dreizehn Zentner Dynamit. Bum."
"Aha. Ist soweit alles in Ordnung?"
"Ja, ja, bestens... das heißt... da ist noch die Sache mit dem Arm... ein Arm ist weg... aber man hat mir versichert..."
"Ein Arm fehlt ihnen?"
"Ja. Wissen Sie, bei de Explosion..."
"Da müßte noch ein Paar liegen... welcher fehlt Ihnen denn?"
"Der linke."
"Ach herrje."
"Was soll das heißen?"
"Ich fürchte, es sind zwei rechte, wissen Sie."
"Zwei rechte Arme?"
"Tja. Unter Umständen können Sie Schwierigkeiten haben,..."
"Ja?"
"Ich meine, wenn Sie einen rechten Arm nehmen würden..."
"Einen rechten Arm anstelle des linken?"
"Ja."
"Aber... nein, oder doch,... lieber einen rechten als gar keinen..."
"Das meine ich auch. Warten Sie einen Moment, ich hole ihn."
"Ich komme am besten in ein paar Tagen wieder vorbei, dann haben Sie vielleicht einen linken da..."
"Also, ich habe hier einen weißen und einen schwarzen..."
"Nein, nein, einfarbig... nichts gegen Schwarze, hm, es ist nur eine Frage der..."
Pech gehabt. Eine ganze Ewigkeit im Paradies mit zwei rechten Armen. (Näselnd gesprochen.) Und jetzt schlagen wir ein schönes Kreuz! (Er setzt zu dieser Geste an, hält aber inne. Er betrachtet seine Hände.) Nie weiß man, welche man nehmen soll. (Er zögert einen Augenblick, dann bekreuzigt er sich schnell mit beiden Händen.) Sich eine ganze ewigkeit, Millionen Jahre, zum Affen machen. (Wieder schlägt er mit beiden Händen ein Kreuz.) Die Hölle. Da gibt's nichts zu lachen.
(Er dreht sich um, geht auf die Kulissen zu, bliebt einen Schritt vor dem Abgang stehen, dreht sich erneut zum Publikum, und seine Augen leuchten.)
Andererseits... du weißt ja, daß Musik... mit diesen Händen, mit zwei rechten... wenn da nur ein Klavier ist... ~ Alessandro Baricco,#NFDB
218:Az ebédlő ablakából látni lehetett a nagy, kockakövekkel kirakott teret, ahol a fuvarosok és vásárosok gyűltek össze minden reggel. Színes, rikító kép volt ez, mint valamilyen ázsiai vásár. Ennek a térnek sarkán zendült fel minden délben, ablakaink alatt, a temetési menetek „circumdederunt me”-je vagy a katonatemetések gyászindulója, melyet rezesbanda fújt. A városi halottakat idáig kísérte csak gyalog a papság, itt beszentelték a koporsót, a pap, a fáklyavivők és a gyásznép kocsira ültek, s a gyászdíszbe öltözött, fekete strucctollas paripák innen már gyors ütemben robogtak tovább a halottaskocsival a köztemető felé. Pontosan déli két órakor, gyermekkorom hosszú évtizedén át majd minden délben, mikor a szobalány behozta a tésztát, felharsant az ablak alatt a gyászinduló, hallottam a pap panaszos énekét, a latin szavakat, a katonazenekar öblös, recsegő gyászhangjait – s csaknem minden délben kétségbeesés és szomorúság facsarta meg szívemet. Ezt a kétségbeesést nem éppen a halál érthetetlen és kegyetlen titka váltotta ki belőlem, hanem anyám merev pedagógiai elvei, aki egyszer s mindenkorra kereken megtiltotta, hogy mindenféle szedett-vedett, idegen halottak kedvéért felugráljunk az asztaltól. Ha katonát temettek, másfél óra múlva megint csak elmasírozott ablakaink alatt a rezesbanda, de most már víg, ropogós dallamokat játszott, így hirdetve „az élet diadalát a halál fölött”. (Egyik nevelőm értelmezte így a temetőből visszatérő honvédzenekar jókedvét.) A katonatemetések díszes parádéja egy időben sok bakát csábított az öngyilkosságra; érzelmes parasztlegények megvallották búcsúleveleikben, hogy megirigyelték a díszesen eltemetett falubeli bajtárs tisztességét, ők sem maradhatnak el a virtusban, követik a jó pajtást a halálba, s kérik a családot, jó ismerősöket és a komaságot, ne sajnálják a fáradságot és kísérjék ki őket is a rezesbandával a temetőbe. Valóságos járvány tört ki egy időben a bakák között, akik vetélkedve lőtték agyon magukat szolgálati fegyverükkel, hogy a falubeli Borcsa láthassa a zenekaros parádét, amellyel jegyesét a temetőbe kísérik. A katonai hatóságok később megtiltották, hogy öngyilkos bakákat is zenekari és díszkísérettel temessenek. A járvány enyhült, a bakák meggondolták, érdemes-e zene nélkül temetkezni. ~ S ndor M rai, #NFDB
219:-Pero, por el contrario, pienso que, cuando un artesano u otro que su índole destine a negocios privados, engreído por su riqueza o por el número de los que le siguen o por su fuerza o por otra cualquier cosa semejante, pretenda entrar en la clase de los guerreros, o uno de los guerreros en la de los consejeros o guardianes, sin tener mérito para ello, y así cambien entre sí sus instrumentos y honores, o cuando uno solo trate de hacer a un tiempo los oficios de todos, entonces creo, como digo, que tú también opinarás que semejante trueque y entrometimiento ha de ser ruinoso para la ciudad. -En un todo. -Por tanto, el entrometimiento y trueque mutuo de estas tres clases es el mayor daño de la ciudad y más que ningún otro podría ser con plena razón calificado de crimen. -Plenamente. -¿Y al mayor crimen contra la propia ciudad no habrás de calificarlo de injusticia? -¿Qué duda cabe? XI. -Eso es, pues, injusticia. Y a la inversa, diremos: la actuación en lo que les es propio de los linajes de los traficantes, auxiliares y guardianes, cuando cada uno haga lo suyo en la ciudad, ¿no será justicia, al contrario de aquello otro, y no hará justa a la ciudad misma? -Así me parece y no de otra manera -dijo él. -No lo digamos todavía con voz muy recia -observé-; antes bien, si, trasladando la idea formada a cada uno de los hombres, reconocemos que allí es también justicia, concedámoslo sin más, porque ¿qué otra cosa cabe oponer? Pero, si no es así, volvamos a otro lado nuestra atención. Y ahora terminemos nuestro examen en el pensamiento de que, si tomando algo de mayor extensión entre los seres que poseen la justicia, nos esforzáramos por intuirla allí, sería luego más fácil observarla en un hombre solo. Y de cierto nos pareció que ese algo más extenso es la ciudad y así la fundamos con la mayor excelencia posible, bien persuadidos de que en la ciudad buena era donde precisamente podría hallarse la justicia. Traslademos, pues, al individuo lo que allí se nos mostró y, si hay conformidad, será ello bien; y, si en el individuo aparece como algo distinto, volveremos a la ciudad a hacer la prueba, y así, mirando al uno junto a la otra y poniéndolos en contacto y roce, quizá conseguiremos que brille la justicia como fuego de enjutos y, al hacerse visible, podremos afirmarla en nosotros mismos. ~ Plato, #NFDB
220:Il ne s'agit pas ici de faire le procès, encore moins l'éloge de la colonisation européenne de l'Afrique, mais simplement de marquer que cette colonisation comporte, comme presque tous les phénomènes qui résultent des chocs de civilisation, un actif et un passif culturels. Ce n'est pas prendre la défense de la colonisation, de ses laideurs, voire de ses atrocités ou de ses indéniables bouffonneries (achat de vastes territoires contre quelques rouleaux d'étoffe ou un peu d'alcool), que d'admettre que le choc en a été souvent décisif et même finalement bénéfique pour les structures sociales, économiques et culturelles des peuples noirs colonisés. En fait, ç'a été, au lendemain de l'acte final du Congrès de Berlin (1885), la dernière très grande aventure de l'expansion européenne. Et si cette mise sous tutelle tardive a été de brève durée (moins d'un siècle), la rencontre s'est faite à vive allure, alors que l'Europe et l'économie mondiale se trouvaient en plein essor. C'est une société industrielle adulte, exigeante, disposant de moyens modernes d'action et de communication, qui a heurté et investi le monde noir. Et celui-ci est réceptif, plus mobile que les ethnographes ne le supposaient hier encore, capable de saisir des objets et des formes que l'Occident lui propose et, surtout, de les réinterpréter, de les charger de sens nouveau, de les lier, chaque fois que la chose est possible, aux impératifs de sa culture traditionnelle. [...] En parlant d'un certain actif de la colonisation, nous ne pensons pas à ces biens purement matériels, routes, voies ferrées, ports, barrages, à ces mises en marche d'exploitations du sol et du sous-sol que les colonisateurs ont installés dans des buts hautement intéressés. Ce legs, aussi important qu'il paraisse parfois, serait de peu d'utilité et éminemment périssable si les héritiers n'avaient aussi acquis, au cours de la pénible épreuve de la colonisation, de quoi leur en permettre aujourd'hui l’utilisation rationnelle. L'enseignement, un certain niveau de la technique, de l'hygiène, de la médecine, de l'administration publique, sont les meilleurs biens légués par les colonisateurs, la contrepartie positive aux destructions opérées par le contact européen dans les vielles habitudes tribales, familiales, sociales, sur lesquelles reposaient toute l'organisation et toute la culture. ~ Fernand Braudel, #NFDB
221:Consideremos nuevamente este punto. Eso es aquí, Es nuestro hogar. Eso somos nosotros. En él están todos los que amamos, todo los que conoces, todos de quiénes haz oído hablar, y todos los seres humanos, quiens fueran que han vivido sus vidas. La suma de nuestra alegría y sufrimiento, miles de confiadas religiones, ideologías y doctrinas económicas, cada cazador y recolector, cada héroe y cobarde, cada creador y destructor de la civilizaciones, cada rey y cada campesino, cada joven pareja de enamorados, cada madre y padre, cada esperanzado niño, inventor y explorador, cada maestro de moral, cada político corrupto, cada “superestrella”, cada “líder supremo”, cada santo y pecador en la historia de nuestra especie vivió ahí: en una mota de polvo suspendida en un rayo de Sol.
La Tierra es un muy pequeño escalón en una vasta arena cósmica. Piensa en los ríos de sangre derramados por todos esos generales y emperadores, para que, en gloria y triunfo, pudieran convertirse en amos momentáneos de una fracción de un punto. Piensa en las interminables crueles visitas que los habitantes de una esquina de ese pixel hicieron contra los apenas distinguibles habitantes de alguna otra esquina; la frecuencia de sus malentendidos, la impaciencia por matarse unos a otros, la generación de fervientes odios. Nuestras posturas, nuestra imaginada auto-importancia, la falsa ilusión de tener una posición privilegiada en el Universo, son desafiadas por este pálido punto de luz.
Nuestro planeta es una mota solitaria en la inmensa oscuridad cósmica. En nuestra oscuridad, en toda esta vastedad, no hay ni un indicio de que la ayuda llegará desde algún otro lugar para salvarnos de nosotros mismos. La Tierra es el único mundo conocido hasta ahora que alberga vida. No hay ningún otro lugar, al menos en el futuro cercano, al cual nuestra especie pudiera migrar. ¿Visitar?, Sí. Establecerse, ¿aún no?. Nos guste o no, por el momento la Tierra es donde tenemos que quedarnos.
Se ha dicho que la astronomía es una experiencia de humildad y construcción de carácter. Quizá no hay mejor demostración de la tontería de la soberbia humana que ésta imagen distante de nuestro minúsculo mundo. Para mí, subraya nuestra responsabilidad de tratarnos los unos a los otros más amablemente, y de preservar y cuidar el pálido punto azul, el único hogar que jamás hemos conocido ~ Carl Sagan,#NFDB
222:La plupart des Européens n’ont pas exactement évalué l’importance de l’apport qu’ils ont reçu de la civilisation islamique, ni compris la nature de leurs emprunts à cette civilisation dans le passé et certains vont jusqu’à totalement méconnaître tout ce qui s’y rapporte. Cela vient de ce que l’histoire telle qu’elle leur est enseignée travestit les faits et paraît avoir été altérée volontairement sur beaucoup de points. C’est avec outrance que cet enseignement affiche le peu de considération que lui inspire la civilisation islamique, et il a l’habitude d’en rabaisser le mérite chaque fois que l’occasion s’en présente. Il importe de remarquer que l’enseignement historique des Universités d’Europe ne montre pas l’influence dont il s’agit. Au contraire, les vérités qui devraient être dites à ce sujet, qu’il s’agisse de professer ou d’écrire, sont systématiquement écartées, surtout pour les événements les plus importants.
Par exemple, s’il est généralement connu que l’Espagne est restée sous la loi islamique pendant plusieurs siècles, on ne dit jamais qu’il en fut de même d’autres pays, tels que la Sicile ou la partie méridionale de la France actuelle. Certains veulent attribuer ce silence des historiens à quelques préjugés religieux. Mais que dire des historiens actuels dont la plupart sont sans religion, sinon adversaires de toute religion, quand ils viennent confirmer ce que leurs devanciers ont dit de contraire à la vérité ?
Il faut donc voir là une conséquence de l’orgueil et de la présomption des Occidentaux, travers qui les empêchent de reconnaître la vérité et l’importance de leurs dettes envers l’Orient.
Le plus étrange en cette occurrence c’est de voir les Européens se considérer comme les héritiers directs de la civilisation hellénique, alors que la vérité des faits infirme cette prétention. La réalité tirée de l’histoire même établit péremptoirement que la science et la philosophie grecques ont été transmises aux Européens par des intermédiaires musulmans. En d’autres termes, le patrimoine intellectuel des Hellènes n’est parvenu à l’Occident qu’après avoir été sérieusement étudié par le Proche-Orient et n’étaient les savants de l’Islam et ses philosophes, les Européens seraient restés dans l’ignorance totale de ces connaissances pendant fort longtemps, si tant est qu’ils soient jamais parvenus à les connaître. ~ Ren Gu non,#NFDB
223:Chap. II – Les origines du spiritisme :
« On sait que c’est en Amérique que le spiritisme, comme beaucoup d’autres mouvements analogues, eut son point de départ : les premiers phénomènes se produisirent en décembre 1847 à Hydesville, dans l’État de New-York, dans une maison où venait de s’installer la famille Fox, qui était d’origine allemande, et dont le nom était primitivement Voss. Si nous mentionnons cette origine allemande, c’est que, si l’on veut un jour établir complètement les causes réelles du mouvement spirite, on ne devra pas négliger de diriger certaines recherches du côté de l’Allemagne ; nous dirons pourquoi tout à l’heure. Il semble bien, d’ailleurs, que la famille Fox n’ait joué là-dedans, au début du moins, qu’un rôle tout involontaire, et que, même par la suite, ses membres n’aient été que des instruments passifs d’une force quelconque, comme le sont tous les médiums. Quoi qu’il en soit, les phénomènes en question, qui consistaient en bruits divers et en déplacements d’objets, n’avaient en somme rien de nouveau ni d’inusité ; ils étaient semblables à ceux que l’on a observés de tout temps dans ce qu’on appelle les « maisons hantées » ; ce qu’il y eut de nouveau, c’est le parti qu’on en tira ultérieurement. Au bout de quelques mois, on eut l’idée de poser au frappeur mystérieux quelques questions auxquelles il répondit correctement ; pour commencer, on ne lui demandait que des nombres, qu’il indiquait par des séries de coups réguliers ; ce fut un Quaker nommé Isaac Post qui s’avisa de nommer les lettres de l’alphabet en invitant l’« esprit » à désigner par un coup celles qui composaient les mots qu’il voulait faire entendre, et qui inventa ainsi le moyen de communication qu’on appela spiritual telegraph. L’« esprit » déclara qu’il était un certain Charles B. Rosna, colporteur de son vivant, qui avait été assassiné dans cette maison et enterré dans le cellier, où l’on trouva effectivement quelques débris d’ossements. D’autre part, on remarqua que les phénomènes se produisaient surtout en présence des demoiselles Fox, et c’est de là que résulta la découverte de la médiumnité ; parmi les visiteurs qui accouraient de plus en plus nombreux, il y en eut qui crurent, à tort ou à raison, constater qu’ils étaient doués du même pouvoir. Dès lors, le modern spiritualism, comme on l’appela tout d’abord, était fondé ; sa première dénomination était en somme la plus exacte, mais, sans doute pour abréger, on en est arrivé, dans les pays anglo-saxons, à employer le plus souvent le mot spiritualism sans épithète ; quant au nom de « spiritisme », c’est en France qu’il fut inventé un peu plus tard. ~ Ren Gu non,#NFDB
224:On nous dira sans doute que la réalité d'un Dieu créateur n'a pas été démontrée ; mais, outre qu'il n'est pas difficile de démontrer cette réalité avec des arguments proportionnés à sa nature, – mais inaccessible pour cette raison même à certains esprits, – le moins qu'on puisse dire est que l'évolution n'a jamais été démontrée par qui que ce soit, et pour cause ; on admet l'évolution transformante à titre de postulat utile et provisoire, comme on admettra n'importe quoi, pourvu qu'on ne se sente pas obligé d'admettre la primauté de l'Immatériel, puisque celui-ci échappe au contrôle de nos sens. Quand on part de la constatation de ce mystère immédiatement tangible qu'est la subjectivité ou l'intelligence, il est pourtant facile de concevoir que l'origine de l'Univers est, non la matière inerte et inconsciente mais une Substance spirituelle qui, de coagulation en coagulation et de segmentation en segmentation, – et autres projection à la fois manifestantes et limitatives, – produit en fin de compte la matière en la faisant émerger d'une substance plus subtile, mais déjà éloignée de la Substance principielle. On nous objectera qu'il n'y a là aucune preuve, à quoi nous répondons – outre que le phénomène de la subjectivité comporte précisément cette preuve, abstraction faite d'autres preuves intellectuelles possibles, mais dont l'Intellection n'a nul besoin, – à quoi nous répondons donc qu'il y a infiniment moins de preuve à cette absurdité inconcevable qu'est l'évolutionnisme, lequel fait sortir le miracle de la conscience d'un tas de terre ou de cailloux, métaphoriquement parlant.
[...] L'intelligence séparée de sa source supra-individuelle s'accompagne ipso facto de ce manque de sens des proportions qu'on appelle l'orgueil ; inversement, l'orgueil empêche l'intelligence devenue rationalisme de remonter à sa source ; il ne peut que nier l'Esprit et le remplacer par la matière ; c'est de celle-ci qu'il fait jaillir la conscience, dans la mesure où il ne peut la nier en la réduisant -- et les essais ne manquent pas -- à une sorte de matière particulièrement raffinée ou "évoluée"(1).(...)
(1) Que l'on parle d' "énergie" plutôt que de "matière" -- et autres subtilités de ce genre -- ne change rien au fond du problème et ne fait que reculer les limites de la difficulté. Notons qu'un soi-disant "sociobiologiste"-- ce mot est tout un programme -- a poussé l'ingéniosité jusqu'à remplacer la matière par des "gênes" dont l'égoïsme aveugle, combiné avec un instinct de fournis ou d'abeilles, aurait fini par constituer non seulement les corps mais aussi la conscience et en fin de compte l'intelligence humaine, miraculeusement capable de disserter sur les gênes qui se sont amusés à la produire. » ~ Frithjof Schuon,#NFDB
225:Aux Freres De Pange
Aujourd'hui qu'au tombeau je suis prêt à descendre,
Mes amis, dans vos mains je dépose ma cendre.
Je ne veux point, couvert d'un funèbre linceul,
Que les pontifes saints autour de mon cercueil,
Appelés aux accents de l'airain lent et sombre,
De leur chant lamentable accompagnent mon ombre,
Et sous des murs sacrés aillent ensevelir
Ma vie et ma dépouille, et tout mon souvenir.
Eh! qui peut sans horreur, à ses heures dernières,
Se voir au loin périr dans des mémoires chères?
L'espoir que des amis pleureront notre sort
Charme l'instant suprême et console la mort.
Vous-même choisirez à mes jeunes reliques
Quelque bord fréquenté des pénates rustiques,
Des regards d'un beau ciel doucement animé,
Des fleurs et de l'ombrage, et tout ce que j'aimai.
C'est là près d'une eau pure, au coin d'un bois tranquille,
Qu'à mes mânes éteints je demande un asile,
Afin que votre ami soit présent à vos yeux,
Afin qu'au voyageur amené dans ces lieux
La pierre, par vos mains de ma fortune instruite,
Raconte en ce tombeau quel malheureux habite;
Quels maux ont abrégé ses rapides instants;
Qu'il fut bon, qu'il aima, qu'il dut vivre longtemps.
Ah! le meurtre jamais n'a souillé mon courage.
Ma bouche du mensonge ignora le langage,
Et jamais, prodiguant un serment faux et vain,
Ne trahit le secret recélé dans mon sein.
Nul forfait odieux, nul remords implacable
Ne déchire mon âme inquiète et coupable.
Vos regrets la verront pure et digne de pleurs,
Oui, vous plaindrez sans doute, en mes longues douleurs,
Et ce brillant midi qu'annonçait mon aurore,
Et ces fruits dans leur germe éteints avant d'éclore,
Que mes naissantes fleurs auront en vain promis.
Oui, je vais vivre encore au sein de mes amis.
Souvent à vos festins qu'égaya ma jeunesse,
Au milieu des éclats d'une vive allégresse,
Frappés d'un souvenir, hélas! amer et doux,
34
Sans doute vous direz: 'Que n'est-il avec nous!'
Je meurs. Avant le soir j'ai fini ma journée.
A peine ouverte au jour, ma rose s'est fanée.
La vie eut bien pour moi de volages douceurs;
Je les goûtais à peine, et voilà que je meurs.
Mais, oh! que mollement reposera ma cendre,
Si parfois, un penchant impérieux et tendre
Vous guidant vers la tombe où je suis endormi,
Vos yeux en approchant pensent voir leur ami!
Si vos chants de mes feux vont redisant l'histoire;
Si vos discours flatteurs, tout pleins de ma mémoire,
Inspirent à vos fils, qui ne m'ont point connu,
L'ennui de naître à peine et de m'avoir perdu!
Qu'à votre belle vie ainsi ma mort obtienne
Tout l'âge, tous les biens dérobés à la mienne;
Que jamais les douleurs, par de cruels combats,
N'allument dans vos flancs un pénible trépas;
Que la joie en vos coeurs ignore les alarmes;
Que les peines d'autrui causent seules vos larmes;
Que vos heureux destins, les délices du ciel,
Coulent toujours trempés d'ambroisie et de miel,
Et non sans quelque amour paisible et mutuelle;
Et quand la mort viendra, qu'une amante fidèle,
Près de vous désolée, en accusant les dieux,
Pleure, et veuille vous suivre, et vous ferme les yeux.
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
226:J’ai d’ailleurs un ami qui, ces jours-ci, m’a affirmé que nous ne savons même pas être paresseux. Il prétend que nous paressons lourdement, sans plaisir, ni béatitude, que notre repos est fiévreux, inquiet, mécontent ; qu’en même temps que la paresse, nous gardons notre faculté d’analyse, notre opinion sceptique, une arrière-pensée, et toujours sur les bras une affaire courante, éternelle, sans fin. Il dit encore que nous nous préparons à être paresseux et à nous reposer comme à une affaire dure et sérieuse et que, par exemple, si nous voulons jouir de la nature, nous avons l’air d’avoir marqué sur notre calendrier, encore la semaine dernière, que tel et tel jour, à telle et telle heure, nous jouirons de la nature. Cela me rappelle beaucoup cet Allemand ponctuel qui, en quittant Berlin, nota tranquillement sur son carnet. « En passant à Nuremberg ne pas oublier de me marier. » Il est certain que l’Allemand avait, avant tout, dans sa tête, un système, et il ne sentait pas l’horreur du fait, par reconnaissance pour ce système. Mais il faut bien avouer que dans nos actes à nous, il n’y a même aucun système. Tout se fait ainsi comme par une fatalité orientale. Mon ami a raison en partie. Nous semblons traîner notre fardeau de la vie par force, par devoir, mais nous avons honte d’avouer qu’il est au-dessus de nos forces, et que nous sommes fatigués. Nous avons l’air, en effet, d’aller à la campagne pour nous reposer et jouir de la nature. Regardez avant tout les bagages rien laissé de ce qui est usé, de ce qui a servi l’hiver, au contraire, nous y avons ajouté des choses nouvelles. Nous vivons de souvenirs et l’ancien potin et la vieille affaire passent pour neufs. Autrement c’est ennuyeux ; autrement il faudra jouer au whist avec l’accompagnement du rossignol et à ciel ouvert. D’ailleurs, c’est ce qui se fait. En outre, nous ne sommes pas bâtis pour jouir de la nature ; et, en plus, notre nature, comme si elle connaissait notre caractère, a oublié de se parer au mieux. Pourquoi, par exemple, est-elle si développée chez nous l’habitude très désagréable de toujours contrôler, éplucher nos impressions – souvent sans aucun besoin – et, parfois même, d’évaluer le plaisir futur, qui n’est pas encore réalisé, de le soupeser, d’en être satisfait d’avance en rêve, de se contenter de la fantaisie et, naturellement, après, de n’être bon à rien pour une affaire réelle ? Toujours nous froisserons et déchirerons la fleur pour sentir mieux son parfum, et ensuite nous nous révolterons quand, au lieu de parfum, il ne restera plus qu’une fumée. Et cependant, il est difficile de dire ce que nous deviendrions si nous n’avions pas au moins ces quelques jours dans toute l’année et si nous ne pouvions satisfaire par la diversité des phénomènes de la nature notre soif éternelle, inextinguible de la vie naturelle, solitaire. Et enfin, comment ne pas tomber dans l’impuissance en cherchant éternellement des impressions, comme la rime pour un mauvais vers, en se tourmentant de la soif d’activité extérieure, en s’effrayant enfin, jusqu’à en être malade, de ses propres illusions, de ses propres chimères, de sa propre rêverie et de tous ces moyens auxiliaires par lesquels, en notre temps, on tâche, n’importe comment, de remplir le vide de la vie courante incolore.
Et la soif d’activité arrive chez nous jusqu’à l’impatience fébrile. Tous désirent des occupations sérieuses, beaucoup avec un ardent désir de faire du bien, d’être utiles, et, peu à peu, ils commencent déjà à comprendre que le bonheur n’est pas dans la possibilité sociale de ne rien faire, mais dans l’activité infatigable, dans le développement et l’exercice de toutes nos facultés. ~ Fyodor Dostoyevsky,#NFDB
227:Un pequeño de cinco años, Florencio “Floro” Madero, fue testigo del cómico primer ensayo fotográfico en el Río de la Plata. El hecho tuvo lugar en Montevideo, en junio de 1845, en la casa de su padre, Juan Nepomuceno Madero. En realidad, el experimento se llevó a cabo en el jardín; adonde, por la necesidad de luz, llevaron el sofá y los dos sillones de caoba, tapizados en forro negro de crin de la sala. A cargo del aparato para tomar fotos —el daguerrotipo— estaba Florencio Varela, tío del niño. Entre los modelos que posaron también había otros dos tíos de Floro: Toribio y Jacobo Varela. Completaban el cuadro un hijo y un yerno de Mariquita, Juan Thompson y Juan Antonio Tresserra. Toribio Varela y Juan Madero se ubicaron en los sillones de los costados. Jacobo Varela (en el centro), Juan Thompson (a la derecha) y Juan Tresserra (a la izquierda) ocuparon las tres plazas del sofá. Las mujeres no fueron invitadas a la actividad (tampoco Floro por ser pequeño), pero cuando los señores se mantenían quietos, muy quietos, petrificados, para que no se tomara una imagen movida y se arruinara la placa fotográfica —era necesario permanecer inmóvil durante varios minutos— llegaron las hermanas Artigas. Al cruzar por el patio rumbo al interior de la casa, disimularon la sorpresa que les causaba ver los muebles en el jardín y los hombres inmóviles. Pero, como correspondía, saludaron: —Muy buenas tardes, señores. Las estatuas vivientes, temerosas de arruinar la foto, no respondieron. —Buenas tardes, señores —repitieron las chicas. Tampoco hubo respuesta. Indignada, Rosalía Artigas le clavó la vista al correctísimo hijo de Mariquita y, casi en tono de reprimenda, le lanzó: —¡Buenas tardes, señor Thompson! Y Juan Thompson, atrapado entre el dilema de ser un descortés, por un lado, y de arruinar la foto, por el otro, buscó una solución salomónica: intentó responder como un ventrílocuo. Tan mal le salió, que provocó la carcajada de sus compañeros. La foto se arruinó. Floro recordaría en su adultez de qué manera los caballeros se lanzaron sobre las mujeres para ofrecerles sus sentidas disculpas. Un par de décadas más tarde, Floro —hermano de Eduardo, quien ideó Puerto Madero— se convertiría en uno de los favoritos de las reuniones sociales con las ocurrencias y el ingenio para atrapar a todos. Era muy amigo de Emilio Castro, quien poseía terrenos en Almagro, una zona que comenzaba a poblarse por la llegada del ferrocarril. Antes era descampado, pero la irrupción del medio de transporte permitió que mucha gente se mudara del centro. Ya no hacía falta vivir a pocas cuadras del lugar de trabajo. Era el tiempo ideal para lotear la tierra y venderla. Castro le pidió a Madero que se encargara del remate. Floro inventó un sistema de promoción nunca antes visto. Pactó con panaderías para que, en la semana del remate, quienes desayunaran con pan encontraran adentro del mismo una tarjeta. Sí, una tarjeta adentro del pan que anunciaba: “Gratis, Tranway del señor Lacroze para el gran remate de 200 lotes en el nuevo pueblo de Almagro, el domingo próximo, por Florencio Madero”. La convocatoria fue un éxito, pero el gobernador porteño le dijo que lo multaría “por haber atentado contra la salud del vecindario”. El gobernador era el mismísimo Emilio Castro. En 1867, Daniel María Cazón reunió a los amigos en su quinta del Partido de Tigre (ubicada en la avenida Liniers al 2100) y les ofreció un picnic. ¿Qué se entendía por picnic en aquellos años? Se trataba de una comida ligera, informal y al aire libre. Además, los comensales no eran atendidos por el personal de la casa, sino que cada uno se las arreglaba por su cuenta. ¿Qué celebraba Cazón? Su reciente nombramiento como Venerable Maestro de la Logia Confraternidad Argentina. ¿Quiénes eran los invitados? Floro Madero, por empezar. Vicente Fidel López, bromista como Madero. Bernardo de Irigoyen, playboy y ~ Anonymous, #NFDB
228:A Marie-Anne-Charlotte Corday
Quoi! tandis que partout, ou sincères ou feintes,
Des lâches, des pervers, les larmes et les plaintes
Consacrent leur Marat parmi les immortels,
Et que, prêtre orgueilleux de cette idole vile,
Des fanges du Parnasse un impudent reptile
Vomit un hymne infâme au pied de ses autels.
La vérité se tait! dans sa bouche glacée,
Des liens de la peur sa langue embarrassée
Dérobe un juste hommage aux exploits glorieux!
Vivre est-il donc si doux? De quel prix est la vie,
Quand, sous un joug honteux, la pensée asservie,
Tremblante, au fond du coeur, se cache à tous les yeux?
Non, non, je ne veux point t'honorer en silence,
Toi qui crus par ta mort ressusciter la France
Et dévouas tes jours à punir des forfaits.
Le glaive arma ton bras, fille grande et sublime,
Pour faire honte aux dieux, pour réparer leur crime,
Quand d'un homme à ce monstre ils donnèrent les traits.
Le noir serpent, sorti de sa caverne impure,
A donc vu rompre enfin sous ta main ferme et sûre
Le venimeux tissu de ses jours abhorrés!
Aux entrailles du tigre, à ses dents homicides,
Tu vins redemander et les membres livides
Et le sang des humains qu'il avait dévorés!
Son oeil mourant t'a vue, en ta superbe joie,
Féliciter ton bras et contempler ta proie.
Ton regard lui disait: 'Va, tyran furieux,
Va, cours frayer la route aux tyrans tes complices.
Te baigner dans le sang fut tes seules délices,
Baigne-toi dans le tien et reconnais des dieux.'
La Grèce, ô fille illustre! admirant ton courage,
Épuiserait Paros pour placer ton image
Auprès d'Harmodius, auprès de son ami;
Et des choeurs sur ta tombe, en une sainte ivresse,
13
Chanteraient Némésis, la tardive déesse,
Qui frappe le méchant sur son trône endormi.
Mais la France à la hache abandonne ta tête.
C'est au monstre égorgé qu'on prépare une fête
Parmi ses compagnons, tous dignes de son sort.
Oh! quel noble dédain fit sourire ta bouche,
Quand un brigand, vengeur de ce brigand farouche,
Crut te faire pâlir aux menaces de mort!
C'est lui qui dut pâlir, et tes juges sinistres,
Et notre affreux sénat et ses affreux ministres,
Quand, à leur tribunal, sans crainte et sans appui,
Ta douceur, ton langage et simple et magnanime
Leur apprit qu'en effet, tout puissant qu'est le crime,
Qui renonce à la vie est plus puissant que lui.
Longtemps, sous les dehors d'une allégresse aimable,
Dans ses détours profonds ton âme impénétrable
Avait tenu cachés les destins du pervers.
Ainsi, dans le secret amassant la tempête,
Rit un beau ciel d'azur, qui cependant s'apprête
A foudroyer les monts et soulever les mers.
Belle, jeune, brillante, aux bourreaux amenée,
Tu semblais t'avancer sur le char d'hyménée;
Ton front resta paisible et ton regard serein.
Calme sur l'échafaud, tu méprisas la rage
D'un peuple abject, servile, et fécond en outrage,
Et qui se croit alors et libre et souverain.
La vertu seule est libre. Honneur de notre histoire,
Notre immortel opprobre y vit avec ta gloire;
Seule, tu fus un homme, et vengeas les humains!
Et nous, eunuques vils, troupeau lâche et sans âme,
Nous savons répéter quelques plaintes de femme;
Mais le fer pèserait à nos débiles mains.
Non, tu ne pensais pas qu'aux mânes de la France
Un seul traître immolé suffît à sa vengeance,
Ou tirât du chaos ses débris dispersés.
Tu voulais, enflammant les courages timides,
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Réveiller les poignards sur tous ces parricides,
De rapine, de sang, d'infamie engraissés.
Un scélérat de moins rampe dans cette fange.
La Vertu t'applaudit; de sa mâle louange
Entends, belle héroïne, entends l'auguste voix.
O Vertu, le poignard, seul espoir de la terre,
Est ton arme sacrée, alors que le tonnerre
Laisse régner le crime et te vend à ses lois.
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
229:Dance Of The Hanged Men
On the black gallows, one-armed friend,
The paladins are dancing, dancing
The lean, the devil's paladins
The skeletons of Saladins.
Sir Beelzebub pulls by the scruff
His little black puppets who grin at the sky,
And with a backhander in the head like a kick,
Makes them dance, dance, to an old Carol-tune!
And the puppets, shaken about, entwine their thin arms:
Their breasts pierced with light, like black organ-pipes
Which once gentle ladies pressed to their own,
Jostle together protractedly in hideous love-making.
Hurray! the gay dancers, you whose bellies are gone!
You can cut capers on such a long stage!
Hop! never mind whether it's fighting or dancing!
- Beelzebub, maddened, saws on his fiddles!
Oh the hard heels, no one's pumps are wearing out!
And nearly all have taken of their shirts of skin;
The rest is not embarrassing and can be seen without shame.
On each skull the snow places a white hat:
The crow acts as a plume for these cracked brains,
A scrap of flesh clings to each lean chin:
You would say, to see them turning in their dark combats,
They were stiff knights clashing pasteboard armours.
Hurrah! the wind whistles at the skeletons' grand ball!
The black gallows moans like an organ of iron !
The wolves howl back from the violet forests:
And on the horizon the sky is hell-red...
Ho there, shake up those funereal braggarts,
Craftily telling with their great broken fingers
The beads of their loves on their pale vertebrae:
Hey the departed, this is no monastery here!
33
Oh! but see how from the middle of this Dance of Death
Springs into the red sky a great skeleton, mad,
Carried away by his own impetus, like a rearing horse:
And, feeling the rope tight again round his neck,
Clenches his knuckles on his thighbone with a crack
Uttering cries like mocking laughter,
And then like a mountebank into his booth,
Skips back into the dance to the music of the bones!
On the black gallows, one-armed friend,
The paladins are dancing, dancing
The lean, the devil's paladins
The skeletons of Saladins.
Original French
Bal des pendus
Au gibet noir, manchot aimable,
Dansent, dansent les paladins,
Les maigres paladins du diable,
Les squelettes de Saladins.
Messire Belzébuth tire par la cravate
Ses petits pantins noirs grimaçant sur le ciel,
Et, leur claquant au front un revers de savate,
Les fait danser, danser aux sons d'un vieux Noël !
Et les pantins choqués enlacent leurs bras grêles :
Comme des orgues noirs, les poitrines à jour
Que serraient autrefois les gentes damoiselles,
Se heurtent longuement dans un hideux amour.
Hurrah ! les gais danseurs qui n'avez plus de panse !
On peut cabrioler, les tréteaux sont si longs !
34
Hop ! qu'on ne cache plus si c'est bataille ou danse !
Belzébuth enragé racle ses violons !
O durs talons, jamais on n'use sa sandale !
Presque tous ont quitté la chemise de peau ;
Le reste est peu gênant et se voit sans scandale.
Sur les crânes, la neige applique un blanc chapeau :
Le corbeau fait panache à ces têtes fêlées,
Un morceau de chair tremble à leur maigre menton :
On dirait, tournoyant dans les sombres mêlées,
Des preux, raides, heurtant armures de carton.
Hurrah ! la bise siffle au grand bal des squelettes !
Le gibet noir mugit comme un orgue de fer !
Les loups vont répondant des forêts violettes :
À l'horizon, le ciel est d'un rouge d'enfer...
Holà, secouez-moi ces capitans funèbres
Qui défilent, sournois, de leurs gros doigts cassés
Un chapelet d'amour sur leurs pâles vertèbres :
Ce n'est pas un moustier ici, les trépassés !
Oh ! voilà qu'au milieu de la danse macabre
Bondit dans le ciel rouge un grand squelette fou
Emporté par l'élan, comme un cheval se cabre :
Et, se sentant encor la corde raide au cou,
Crispe ses petits doigts sur son fémur qui craque
Avec des cris pareils à des ricanements,
Et, comme un baladin rentre dans la baraque,
Rebondit dans le bal au chant des ossements.
Au gibet noir, manchot aimable,
Dansent, dansent les paladins,
35
Les maigres paladins du diable,
Les squelettes de Saladins.
~ Arthur Rimbaud,#NFDB
230:O Muses, Accourez
O muses, accourez; solitaires divines,
Amantes des ruisseaux, des grottes, des collines!
Soit qu'en ses beaux vallons Nîme égare vos pas;
Soit que de doux pensers, en de riants climats,
Vous retiennent aux bords de Loire ou de Garonne;
Soit que parmi les choeurs de ces nymphes da Rhône,
La lune sur les prés, où son flambeau vous luit,
Dansantes vous admire au retour de la nuit;
Venez. J'ai fui la ville aux muses si contraire,
Et l'écho fatigué des clameurs du vulgaire.
Sur les pavés poudreux d'un bruyant carrefour
Les poétiques fleurs n'ont jamais vu le jour.
Le tumulte et les cris font fuir avec la lyre
L'oisive rêverie au suave délire;
Et les rapides chars et leurs cercles d'airain
Effarouchent les vers qui se taisent soudain.
Venez. Que vos bontés ne me soient point avares.
Mais, oh! faisant de vous mes pénates, mes lares,
Quand pourrai-je habiter un champ qui soit à moi,
Et, villageois tranquille, ayant pour tout emploi
Dormir et ne rien faire, inutile poète,
Goûter le doux oubli d'une vie inquiète?
Vous savez si toujours, dès mes plus jeunes ans,
Mes rustiques souhaits m'ont porté vers les champs;
Si mon coeur dévorait vos champêtres histoires,
Cet âge d'or si cher à vos doctes mémoires,
Ces fleuves, ces vergers, Éden aimé des cieux
Et du premier humain berceau délicieux;
L'épouse de Booz, chaste et belle indigente,
Qui suit d'un pas tremblant la moisson opulente;
Joseph, qui dans Sichem cherche et retrouve, hélas!
Ses dix frères pasteurs qui ne l'attendaient pas;
Rachel, objet sans prix qu'un amoureux courage
N'a pas trop acheté de quinze ans d'esclavage.
Oh! oui, je veux un jour en des bords retirés,
Sur un riche coteau ceint de bois et de prés,
Avoir un humble toit, une source d'eau vive
Qui parle, et dans sa fuite et féconde et plaintive
138
Nourrisse mon verger, abreuve mes troupeaux.
Là, je veux, ignorant le monde et ses travaux,
Loin du superbe ennui que l'éclat environne,
Vivre comme jadis, aux champs de Babylone,
Ont vécu, nous dit-on, ces pères des humains
Dont le nom aux autels remplit nos fastes saints;
Avoir amis, enfants, épouse belle et sage;
Errer, un livre en main, de bocage en bocage;
Savourer sans remords, sans crainte, sans désirs,
Une paix dont nul bien n'égale les plaisirs.
Douce mélancolie! aimable mensongère,
Des antres, des forêts déesse tutélaire,
Qui vient d'une insensible et charmante langueur
Saisir l'ami des champs et pénétrer son coeur,
Quand, sorti vers le soir des grottes reculées,
Il s'égare à pas lents au penchant des vallées,
Et voit des derniers feux le ciel se colorer,
Et sur les monts lointains un beau jour expirer,
Dans sa volupté sage, et pensive et muette,
Il s'assied, sur son sein laisse tomber sa tête.
Il regarde à ses pieds, dans le liquide azur
Du fleuve, qui s'étend comme lui calme et pur,
Se peindre les coteaux, les toits et les feuillages,
Et la pourpre en festons couronnant les nuages.
Il revoit près de lui, tout à coup animés,
Ces fantômes si beaux à nos pleurs tant aimés,
Dont la troupe immortelle habite sa mémoire:
Julie, amante faible et tombée avec gloire;
Clarisse, beauté sainte où respire le ciel,
Dont la douleur ignore et la haine et le fiel,
Qui souffre sans gémir, qui périt sans murmure;
Clémentine adorée, âme céleste et pure,
Qui, parmi les rigueurs d'une injuste maison,
Ne perd point l'innocence en perdant la raison;
Mânes aux yeux charmants, vos images chéries
Accourent occuper ses belles rêveries;
Ses yeux laissent tomber une larme. Avec vous
Il est dans vos foyers, il voit vos traits si doux.
A vos persécuteurs il reproche leur crime.
Il aime qui vous aime, il hait qui vous opprime.
Mais tout à coup il pense, ô mortels déplaisirs!
Que ces touchants objets de pleurs et de soupirs
139
Ne sont peut-être, hélas! que d'aimables chimères.
De l'âme et du génie enfants imaginaires.
Il se lève, il s'agite à pas tumultueux;
En projets enchanteurs il égare ses voeux.
Il ira, le coeur plein d'une image divine,
Chercher si quelques lieux ont une Clémentine,
Et dans quelque désert, loin des regards jaloux,
La servir, l'adorer et vivre à ses genoux.
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
231:Northern Farmer: Old Style
Wheer 'asta beän saw long and meä liggin' 'ere aloän?
Noorse? thoort nowt o' a noorse: whoy, Doctor's abeän an' agoän;
Says that I moänt 'a naw moor aäle; but I beänt a fool;
Git ma my aäle, fur I beänt a-gawin' to breäk my rule.
Doctors, they knaws nowt, fur a says what 's nawways true;
Naw soort o' koind o' use to saäy the things that a do.
I 've 'ed my point o' aäle ivry noight sin' I beän 'ere.
An' I 've 'ed my quart ivry market-noight for foorty year.
Parson 's a beän loikewoise, an' a sittin' ere o' my bed.
"The amoighty 's a taäkin o' you to 'isén, my friend," a said,
An' a towd ma my sins, an' s toithe were due, an' I gied it in hond;
I done moy duty boy 'um, as I 'a done boy the lond.
Larn'd a ma' beä. I reckons I 'annot sa mooch to larn.
But a cast oop, thot a did, 'bout Bessy Marris's barne.
Thaw a knaws I hallus voäted wi' Squoire an' choorch an' staäte,
An' i' the woost o' toimes I wur niver agin the raäte.
An' I hallus coom'd to 's choorch afoor moy Sally wur deäd,
An' 'eard 'um a bummin' awaäy loike a buzzard-clock ower me 'eäd,
An' I niver knaw'd whot a meän'd but a thowt ä 'ad summut to
saäy.
An' I thowt a said what a owt to 'a said, an' I coom'd awaäy.
Bessy Marris's barne! tha knaws she laäid it to meä.
Mowt a beän, mayhap, for she wur a bad un, sheä.
'Siver, I kep 'um, I kep 'um, my lass, tha mun understond;
I done moy duty boy 'um, as I 'a done boy the lond.
But Parson a cooms an' a goäs, an' a says it easy an' freeä:
"The amoighty 's taäkin o' you to 'issén, my friend," says
'eä.
I weänt saäy men be loiars, thaw summun said it in 'aäste;
But 'e reäds wonn sarmin a weeäk, an' I 'a stubb'd Thurnaby
waäste.
D' ya moind the waäste, my lass? naw, naw, tha was not born then;
Theer wur a boggle in it, I often 'eärd 'um mysén;
Moäst loike a butter-bump, fur I 'eärd 'um about an' about,
403
But I stubb'd 'um oop wi' the lot, an' raäved an' rembled 'um out.
Keäper's it wur; fo' they fun 'um theer a-laäid of is' faäce
Down i' the woild 'enemies afoor I coom'd to the plaäce.
Noäks or Thimbleby--toäner 'ed shot 'um as dead as a naäil.
Noäks wur 'ang'd for it opp at 'soize--but git ma my aäle.
Dubbut looök at the waäaste; theer warn't not feeäd for a
cow;
Nowt at all but bracken an' fuzz, an' looök at it now-Warn't worth nowt a haäcre, an' now theer 's lots o' feeäd,
Fourscoor yows upon it, an' some on it down i' seeäd.
Nobbut a bit on it 's left, an' I meän'd to 'a stubb'd it at fall,
Done it ta-year I meän'd, an' runn'd plow thruff it an' all,
If godamoighty an' parson 'ud nobbut let ma aloän,-Meä, wi haäte hoonderd haäcre o' Squoire's, an' lond o' my
oän.
Do godamoighty knaw what a's doing a-taäkin' o' meä?
I beänt wonn as saws 'ere a beän an yonder a peä;
An' Squoire 'ull be sa mad an' all--a' dear, a' dear!
And I 'a managed for Squoire coom Michaelmas thutty year.
A mowt 'a taäen owd Joänes, as 'ant not a 'aäpoth o' sense,
Or a mowt a' taäen young Robins--a niver mended a fence:
But godamoighty a moost taäke meä an' taäke ma now,
Wi' aäf the cows to cauve an' Thurnaby hoälms to plow!
Looök 'ow quoloty smoiles when they seeäs ma a passin' boy,
Says to thessén, naw doubt, "What a man a beä sewer-loy!"
Fur they knaws what I beän to Squoire sin' fust a coom'd to the 'All;
I done moy duty by Squoire an' I done moy duty boy hall.
Squoire 's i' Lunnon, an' summun I reckons 'ull 'a to wroite,
For whoa 's to howd the lond ater meä that muddles ma quoit;
Sartin-sewer I beä, thot a weänt niver give it to Joänes,
Naw, nor a moänt to Robins--a niver rembles the stoäns.
But summun 'ull come ater meä mayhap wi' 'is kittle o' steäm
Huzzin' an' maazin' the blessed feälds wi' the Divil's oän
teäm.
404
Sin' I mun doy I mun doy, thaw loife they says is sweet,
But sin' I mun doy I mun doy, for I couldn abeär to see it.
What atta stannin' theer fur, an' doesn bring me the aäle?
Doctor 's a 'toättler, lass, an a's hallus i' the owd taäle;
I weänt breäk rules fur Doctor, a knaws naw moor nor a floy;
Git ma my aäle, I tell tha, an' if I mun doy I mun doy.
~ Alfred Lord Tennyson,#NFDB
232:Hymne A La Justice
A LA FRANCE
France! ô belle contrée, ô terre généreuse,
Que les dieux complaisants formaient pour être heureuse,
Tu ne sens point du nord les glaçantes horreurs,
Le midi de ses feux t'épargne les fureurs.
Tes arbres innocents n'ont point d'ombres mortelles;
Ni des poisons épars dans tes herbes nouvelles
Ne trompent une main crédule; ni tes bois
Des tigres frémissants ne redoutent la voix;
Ni les vastes serpents ne traînent sur tes plantes
En longs cercles hideux leurs écailles sonnantes.
Les chênes, les sapins et les ormes épais
En utiles rameaux ombragent tes sommets,
Et de Beaune et d'Aï les rives fortunées,
Et la riche Aquitaine, et les hauts Pyrénées,
Sous leurs bruyants pressoirs font couler en ruisseaux
Des vins délicieux mûris sur leurs coteaux.
La Provence odorante et de Zéphire aimée
Respire sur les mers une haleine embaumée,
Au bord des flots couvrant, délicieux trésor,
L'orange et le citron de leur tunique d'or,
Et plus loin, au penchant des collines pierreuses,
Forme la grasse olive aux liqueurs savoureuses,
Et ces réseaux légers, diaphanes habits,
Où la fraîche grenade enferme ses rubis.
Sur tes rochers touffus la chèvre se hérisse,
Tes prés enflent de lait la féconde génisse,
Et tu vois tes brebis, sur le jeune gazon,
Épaissir le tissu de leur blanche toison.
Dans les fertiles champs voisins de la Touraine,
Dans ceux où l'Océan boit l'urne de la Seine,
S'élèvent pour le frein des coursiers belliqueux.
Ajoutez cet amas de fleuves tortueux:
L'indomptable Garonne aux vagues insensées,
Le Rhône impétueux, fils des Alpes glacées,
La Seine au flot royal, la Loire dans son sein
Incertaine, et la Saône, et mille autres enfin
Qui, nourrissant partout, sur tes nobles rivages,
60
Fleurs, moissons et vergers, et bois et pâturages,
Rampent au pied des murs d'opulentes cités
Sous les arches de pierre à grand bruit emportés.
Dirai-je ces travaux, source de l'abondance,
Ces ports où des deux mers l'active bienfaisance
Amène les tributs du rivage lointain
Que visite Phoebus le soir ou le matin?
Dirai-je ces canaux, ces montagnes percées,
De bassins en bassins ces ondes amassées
Pour joindre au pied des monts l'une et l'autre Téthys,
Et ces vastes chemins en tous lieux départis,
Où l'étranger, à l'aise achevant son voyage,
Pense au nom des Trudaine et bénit leur ouvrage?
Ton peuple industrieux est né pour les combats.
Le glaive, le mousquet n'accablent point ses bras.
Il s'élance aux assauts, et son fer intrépide
Chassa l'impie Anglais, usurpateur avide.
Le ciel les fit humains, hospitaliers et bons,
Amis des doux plaisirs, des festins, des chansons;
Mais, faibles, opprimés, la tristesse inquiète
Glace ces chants joyeux sur leur bouche muette,
Pour les jeux, pour la danse appesantit leurs pas,
Renverse devant eux les tables des repas,
Flétrit de longs soucis, empreinte douloureuse,
Et leur front et leur âme. O France! trop heureuse
Si tu voyais tes biens, si tu profitais mieux
Des dons que tu reçus de la bonté des cieux!
Vois le superbe Anglais, l'Anglais dont le courage
Ne s'est sentais qu'aux lois d'un sénat libre et sage,
Qui t'épie, et, dans l'Inde éclipsant ta splendeur,
Sur tes fautes sans nombre élève sa grandeur.
Il triomphe, il t'insulte. Oh! combien tes collines
Tressailliraient de voir réparer tes ruines,
Et pour la liberté donneraient sans regrets
Et leur vin, et leur huile, et leurs belles forêts!
J'ai vu dans tes hameaux la plaintive misère,
La mendicité blême et la douleur amère.
Je t'ai vu dans tes biens, indigent laboureur,
D'un fisc avare et dur maudissant la rigueur,
Versant aux pieds des grands des larmes inutiles,
61
Tout trempé de sueurs pour toi-même infertiles,
Découragé de vivre, et plein d'un juste effroi
De mettre au jour des fils malheureux comme toi.
Tu vois sous les soldats les villes gémissantes;
Corvée, impôts rongeurs, tributs, taxes pesantes,
Le sel, fils de la terre, ou même l'eau des mers,
Sources d'oppression et de fléaux divers;
Mille brigands, couverts du nom sacré du prince,
S'unir à déchirer une triste province,
Et courir à l'envi, de son sang altérés,
Se partager entre eux ses membres déchirés!
O sainte Égalité! dissipe nos ténèbres,
Renverse les verrous, les bastilles funèbres.
Le riche indifférent, dans un char promené,
De ces gouffres secrets partout environné,
Rit avec les bourreaux, s'il n'est bourreau lui-même,
Près de ces noirs réduits de la misère extrême,
D'une maîtresse impure achète les transports,
Chante sur des tombeaux, et boit parmi des morts.
Malesherbes, Turgot, ô vous en qui la France
Vit luire, hélas! en vain, sa dernière espérance;
Ministres dont le coeur a connu la pitié,
Ministres dont le nom ne s'est point oublié,
Ah! si de telles mains, justement souveraines,
Toujours de cet empire avaient tenu les rênes!
L'équité clairvoyante aurait régné sur nous;
Le faible aurait osé respirer près de vous;
L'oppresseur, évitant d'armer d'injustes plaintes,
Sinon quelque pudeur, aurait ou quelques craintes;
Le délateur impie, opprimé par la faim,
Serait mort dans l'opprobre, et tant d'hommes enfin,
A l'insu de nos lois, à l'insu, du vulgaire,
Foudroyés sons les coups d'un pouvoir arbitraire,
De cris non entendus, de funèbres sanglots,
Ne feraient point gémir les voûtes des cachots.
Non, je ne veux plus vivre en ce séjour servile!
J'irai, j'irai bien loin me chercher un asile,
Un asile à ma vie en son paisible cours,
Une tombe à ma cendre à la fin de mes jours,
Où d'un grand au coeur dur l'opulence homicide
Du sang d'un peuple entier ne sera point avide,
62
Et ne me dira point, avec un rire affreux,
Qu'ils se plaignent sans cesse et qu'ils sont trop heureux;
Où, loin des ravisseurs, la main cultivatrice
Recueille les dons d'une terre propice;
Où mon coeur, respirant sous un ciel étranger,
Ne verra plus des maux qu'il ne peut soulager;
Où mes yeux, éloignés des publiques misères,
Ne verront plus partout les larmes de mes frères,
Et la pâle indigence à la mourante voix,
Et les crimes puissants qui font trembler les lois.
Toi donc, Équité sainte, ô toi, vierge adorée,
De nos tristes climats pour longtemps ignorée,
Daigne du haut des cieux goûter le libre encens
D'une lyre au coeur chaste, aux transports innocents,
Qui ne saura jamais, par des voeux mercenaires,
Flatter, à prix d'argent, des faveurs arbitraires,
Mais qui rendra toujours, par amour et par choix,
Un noble et pur hommage aux appuis de tes lois.
De voeux pour les humains tous ses chants retentissent:
La vérité l'enflamme, et ses cordes frémissent
Quand l'air qui l'environne auprès d'elle a porté
Le doux nom des vertus et de la liberté.
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
233:Hermes
FRAGMENT I.--PROLOGUE.
Dans nos vastes cités, par le sort partagés,
Sous deux injustes lois les hommes sont rangés:
Les uns, princes et grands, d'une avide opulence
Étalent sans pudeur la barbare insolence;
Les autres, sans pudeur, vils clients de ces grands,
Vont ramper sous les murs qui cachent leurs tyrans.
Admirer ces palais aux colonnes hautaines
Dont eux-mêmes ont payé les splendeurs inhumaines,
Qu'eux-mêmes ont arrachés aux entrailles des monts,
Et tout trempés encor des sueurs de leurs fronts.
Moi, je me plus toujours, client de la nature,
A voir son opulence et bienfaisante et pure,
Cherchant loin de nos murs les temples, les palais
Où la Divinité me révèle ses traits,
Ces monts, vainqueurs sacrés des fureurs du tonnerre,
Ces chênes, ces sapins, premiers-nés de la terre.
Les pleurs des malheureux n'ont point teint ces lambris.
D'un feu religieux le saint poète épris
Cherche leur pur éther et plane sur leur cime.
Mer bruyante, la voix du poète sublime
Lutte contre les vents; et tes flots agités
Sont moins forts, moins puissants que ses vers indomptés.
A l'aspect du volcan, aux astres élancée,
Luit, vole avec l'Etna, la bouillante pensée.
Heureux qui sait aimer ce trouble auguste et grand!
Seul, il rêve en silence à la voix du torrent
Qui le long des rochers se précipite et tonne;
Son esprit en torrent et s'élance et bouillonne.
Là, je vais dans mon sein méditant à loisir
Des chants à faire entendre aux siècles à venir;
Là, dans la nuit des coeurs qu'osa sonder Homère,
Cet aveugle divin et me guide et m'éclaire.
Souvent mon vol, armé des ailes de Buffon,
Franchit avec Lucrèce, au flambeau de Newton,
La ceinture d'azur sur le globe étendue.
Je vois l'être et la vie et leur source inconnue,
50
Dans les fleuves d'éther tous les mondes roulants.
Je poursuis la comète aux crins étincelants,
Les astres et leurs poids, leurs formes, leurs distances;
Je voyage avec eux dans leurs cercles immenses.
Comme eux, astre, soudain je m'entoure de feux;
Dans l'éternel concert je me place avec eux:
En moi leurs doubles lois agissent et respirent:
Je sens tendre vers eux mon globe qu'ils attirent;
Sur moi qui les attire ils pèsent à leur tour.
Les éléments divers, leur haine, leur amour,
Les causes, l'infini s'ouvre à mon oeil avide.
Bientôt redescendu sur notre fange humide,
J'y rapporte des vers de nature enflammés,
Aux purs rayons des dieux dans ma course allumés.
Écoutez donc ces chants d'Hermès dépositaires,
Où l'homme antique, errant dans ses routes premières,
Fait revivre à vos yeux l'empreinte de ses pas.
Mais dans peu, m'élançant aux armes, aux combats,
Je dirai l'Amérique à l'Europe montrée;
J'irai dans cette riche et sauvage contrée
Soumettre au Mançanar le vaste Maragnon.
Plus loin dans l'avenir je porterai mon nom,
Celui de cette Europe en grands exploits féconde,
Que nos jours ne sont loin des premiers jours du monde.
FRAGMENT II
Chassez de vos autels, juges vains et frivoles,
Ces héros conquérants, meurtrières idoles;
Tous ces grands noms, enfants des crimes, des malheurs,
De massacres fumants, teints de sang et de pleurs.
Venez tomber aux pieds de plus nobles images:
Voyez ces hommes saints, ces sublimes courages,
Héros dont les vertus, les travaux bienfaisants,
Ont éclairé la terre et mérité l'encens;
Qui, dépouillés d'eux-mêmes et vivant pour leurs frères,
Les ont soumis au frein des règles salutaires,
Au joug de leur bonheur; les ont faits citoyens;
En leur donnant des lois leur ont donné des biens,
Des forces, des parents, la liberté, la vie;
Enfin qui d'un pays ont fait une patrie.
Et que de fois pourtant leurs frères envieux
51
Ont d'affronts insensés, de mépris odieux,
Accueilli les bienfaits de ces illustres guides,
Comme dans leurs maisons ces animaux stupides
Dont la dent méfiante ose outrager la main
Qui se tendait vers eux pour apaiser leur faim!
Mais n'importe; un grand homme au milieu des supplices
Goûte de la vertu les augustes délices.
Il le sait: les humains sont injustes, ingrats.
Que leurs yeux un moment ne le connaissent pas;
Qu'un jour entre eux et lui s'élève avec murmure
D'insectes ennemis une nuée obscure;
N'importe, il les instruit, il les aime pour eux.
Même ingrats, il est doux d'avoir fait des heureux.
Il sait que leur vertu, leur bonté, leur prudence,
Doit être son ouvrage et non sa récompense,
Et que leur repentir, pleurant sur son tombeau,
De ses soins, de sa vie, est un prix assez beau,
An loin dans l'avenir sa grande âme contemple
Les sages opprimés que soutient son exemple;
Des méchants dans soi-même il brave la noirceur:
C'est là qu'il sait les fuir; son asile est son coeur.
De ce faîte serein, son Olympe sublime,
Il voit, juge, connaît. Un démon magnanime
Agite ses pensers, vit dans son coeur brûlant,
Travaille son sommeil actif et vigilant,
Arrache au long repos sa nuit laborieuse,
Allume avant le jour sa lampe studieuse,
Lui montre un peuple entier, par ses nobles bienfaits,
Indompté dans la guerre, opulent dans la paix,
Son beau nom remplissant leur coeur et leur histoire,
Les siècles prosternés au pied de sa mémoire.
Par ses sueurs bientôt l'édifice s'accroît.
En vain l'esprit du peuple est rampant, est étroit,
En vain le seul présent les frappe et les entraîne,
En vain leur raison faible et leur vue incertaine
Ne peut de ses regards suivre les profondeurs,
De sa raison céleste atteindre les hauteurs;
Il appelle les dieux à son conseil suprême.
Ses décrets, confiés à la voix des dieux même,
Entraînent sans convaincre, et le monde ébloui
Pense adorer les dieux en n'adorant que lui.
52
Il fait honneur aux dieux de son divin ouvrage.
C'est alors qu'il a vu tantôt à son passage
Un buisson enflammé recéler l'Éternel;
C'est alors qu'il rapporte, en un jour solennel,
De la montagne ardente et du sein du tonnerre,
La voix de Dieu lui-même écrite sur la pierre;
Ou c'est alors qu'au fond de ses augustes bois
Une nymphe l'appelle et lui trace des lois,
Et qu'un oiseau divin, messager de miracles,
A son oreille vient lui dicter des oracles.
Tout agit pour lui seul, et la tempête et l'air,
Et le cri des forêts, et la foudre et l'éclair;
Tout. Il prend à témoin le monde et la nature.
Mensonge grand et saint! glorieuse imposture,
Quand au peuple trompé ce piège généreux
Lui rend sacré le joug qui doit le rendre heureux!
FRAGMENT III
Du temps et du besoin l'inévitable empire
Dut avoir aux humains enseigné l'art d'écrire.
D'autres arts l'ont poli; mais aux arts, le premier,
Lui seul des vrais succès put ouvrir le sentier,
Sur la feuille d'Égypte ou sur la peau ductile,
Même un jour sur le dos d'un albâtre docile,
Au fond des eaux formé des dépouilles du lin,
Une main éloquente, avec cet art divin,
Tient, fait voir l'invisible et rapide pensée,
L'abstraite intelligence et palpable et tracée;
Peint des sons à nos yeux, et transmet à la fois
Une voix aux couleurs, des couleurs à la voix.
Quand des premiers traités la fraternelle chaîne
Commença d'approcher, d'unir la race humaine,
La terre et de hauts monts, des fleuves, des forêts,
Des contrats attestés garants sûrs et muets,
Furent le livre auguste et les lettres sacrées
Qui faisaient lire aux yeux les promesses jurées.
Dans la suite peut-être ils voulurent sur soi
L'un de l'autre emporter la parole et la foi;
Ils surent donc, broyant de liquides matières,
53
L'un sur l'autre imprimer leurs images grossières,
Ou celle du témoin, homme, plante ou rocher,
Qui vit jurer leur bouche et leurs mains se toucher.
De là dans l'Orient ces colonnes savantes,
Rois, prêtres, animaux peints en scènes vivantes,
De la religion ténébreux monuments,
Pour les sages futurs laborieux tourments,
Archives de l'État, où les mains politiques
Traçaient en longs tableaux les annales publiques.
De là, dans un amas d'emblèmes captieux,
Pour le peuple ignorant monstre religieux,
Des membres ennemis vont composer ensemble
Un seul tout, étonné du noeud qui les rassemble:
Un corps de femme au front d'un aigle enfant des airs
Joint l'écaille et les flancs d'un habitant des mers.
Cet art simple et grossier nous a suffi peut-être
Tant que tous nos discours n'ont su voir ni connaître
Que les objets présents dans la nature épars,
Et que tout notre esprit était dans nos regards.
Mais on vit, quand vers l'homme on apprit à descendre,
Quand il fallut fixer, nommer, écrire, entendre,
Du coeur, des passions les plus secrets détours,
Les espaces du temps ou plus longs ou plus courts,
Quel cercle étroit bornait cette antique écriture.
Plus on y mit de soins, plus incertaine, obscure,
Du sens confus et vague elle épaissit la nuit.
Quelque peuple à la fin, par le travail instruit,
Compte combien de mots l'héréditaire usage
A transmis jusqu'à lui pour former un langage.
Pour chacun de ces mots un signe est inventé,
Et la main qui l'entend des lèvres répété
Se souvient d'en tracer cette image fidèle;
Et sitôt qu'une idée inconnue et nouvelle
Grossit d'un mot nouveau ces mots déjà nombreux,
Un nouveau signe accourt s'enrôler avec eux.
C'est alors, sur des pas si faciles à suivre,
Que l'esprit des humains est assuré de vivre.
C'est alors que le fer à la pierre, aux métaux,
Livre, en dépôt sacré pour les âges nouveaux,
Nos âmes et nos moeurs fidèlement gardées;
Et l'oeil sait reconnaître une forme aux idées.
54
Dès lors des grands aïeux les travaux, les vertus
Ne sont point pour leurs fils des exemples perdus.
Le passé du présent est l'arbitre et le père,
Le conduit par la main, l'encourage, l'éclaire.
Les aïeux, les enfants, les arrière-neveux,
Tous sont du même temps, ils ont les mêmes voeux,
La patrie, au milieu des embûches, des traîtres,
Remonte en sa mémoire, a recours aux ancêtres,
Cherche ce qu'ils feraient en un danger pareil,
Et des siècles vieillis assemble le conseil.
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
234:To The Poet On The Subject Of Flowers
Thus continually towards the dark azure,
Where the sea of topazes shimmers,
Will function in your evening
The Lilies, those pessaries of ectasy!
In our own age sago,
When Plants work for their living,
The Lily will dring blue loathings
From you religious Proses!
- Monsieur de Kerdrel's fleur-de-lys,
The Sonnet of eighteen-thirty,
The Lily they bestow on the Bard
Together with the pink and the amaranth!
Lilies! lilies! None to be seen!
Yet in your Verse, like the sleeves
Of the soft-footed Women of Sin,
Always these white flowers shiver!
Always, Dear Man, when you bathe,
Your shirt with yellow oxters
Swells in the morning breezes
Above the muddy forget-menots!
Love get through your customs
Only Lilacs, - o eye-wash!
And the Wild Violets,
Sugary spittle of the dark Nymphs!...
II
O Poets, if you had
Roses, blown Roses,
Red upon laurel stems,
And swollen with a thousand octaves!
If Banville would make them snow down,
Blood-tinged, whirling,
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Blacking the wild eye of the stranger
With his ill-disposed interpretations!
In your forests and in your meadows,
O very peaceful photographers!
The Flora is more or less diverse
Like the stoppers on decanters!
Always those French vegetables,
Cross-gained, phthisical, absurd,
Navigated by the peaceful bellies
Of basset-hounds in twilight;
Always, after frightful drawings
Of blue Lotuses or Sunflowers,
Pink prints, holy pictures
For young girls making their communion!
The Asoka Ode agrees with the
Loretto window stanza form;
And heavy vivid butterflies
Are dunging on the Daisy.
Old greenery, and old galloons!
O vegetable fancy biscuits!
fancy-flowers of old Drawing-rooms!
- For cockchafers, not rattlesnakes,
The pulling vegetable baby dolls
Which Grandville would have put round the margins,
And which sucked in their colours
From ill-natured stars with eyeshades!
Yes, the drooling from your shepherd's pipes
Make some priceless glucoses!
- Pile of fried eggs in hold hats,
Lilies, Asokas, Lilacs and Roses!...
III
O white Hunter, running sockingless
Across the panic Pastures,
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Can you not, ought you not
To know your botany a little?
I'm afraid you'd make succeed,
To russet Crickets, Cantharides,
And Rio golds to blues of Rhine, In short, to Norways, Floridas:
But, My dear Chap, Art does not consist now,
- it's the truth, - in allowing
To the astonishing Eucalyptus
boa-constrictors a hexameter long;
There now!... As if Mahogany
Served only, even in our Guianas,
As helter-skelters for monkeys,
Among the heavy vertigo of the lianas!
- In short, is a Flower, Rosemary
Or Lily, dead or alive, worth
The excrement of one sea-bird?
Is it worth a solitary candle-drip?
- And I mean what I say!
You, even sitting over there, in a
Bamboo hut, - with the shutters
Closed, and brown Persian rugs for hangings, You would scrawl blossoms
Worthy of extravagant Oise!...
- Poet ! these are reasonnings
No less absurd than arrogant!...
IV
Speak, not of pampas in the spring
Black with terrible revolts,
But of tobacco and cotton trees!
Speak of exotic harvests!
Say, white face which Phoebus has tanned,
How many dollars
217
Pedro Velasquez of Habana ;
Cover with excrement the sea of Sorrento
Where the Swans go in thousands;
Let your lines campaign
For the clearing of the mangrove swamps
Riddled with pools and water-snakes!
Your quatrain plunges into the bloody thickets
And come back to offer to Humanity
Various subjects: white sugar,
Bronchial lozenges, and rubbers!
Let us know though You wheter the yellownesses
Of snow Peaks, near the Tropics,
Are insects which lay many eggs
Or microscopic lichens!
Find, o Hunter, we desire it,
One or two scented madder plants
Which Nature in trousers
May cause to bloom! - fr our Armies!
Find, on the outskirts of the Sleeping Wood,
Flowers, whick look like snouts,
Out of which drip golden pomades
On to the dark hair of buffaloes!
Find, in wild meadows, where on the Blue Grass
Shivers the silver of downy gowths,
Calyxex full of fiery Eggs
Cooking among the essential oils!
Find downy Thistles
Whose wool ten asses with glaring eyes
Labour to spin!
Find Flowers which are chairs!
Yes, find in the heart of coal-black seams
Flowers that are almost stones, - marvellous ones! Which, close to their hard pale ovaries
Bear gemlike tonsils!
218
Srve us, o Stuffer, this you can do,
On a splendid vermilion plate
Stews of syrupy Lilies
To corrode our German-silver spoons!
Someone will speak about great Love,
The thief of black Indulgences:
But neither Renan, nor Murr the cat
Have seen the immense Blue Thyrsuses!
You, quicken in our sluggishness,
By means of scents, hysteria;
Exalt us towards purities
Whiter than the Marys...
tradesman! colonial! Medium!
Your Rhyme will well up, pink or white,
Like a blaze of sodium,
Like a bleeding rubber-tree!
But from your dark Poems, - Juggler!
dioptric white and green and red,
Let strange flowers burst out
And electric butterflies!
See! it's the Century of hell!
And the telegraph poles
Are going to adorn, - the iron-voiced lyre,
Your magnificent shoulder blades!
Above all, give us a rhymed account
Of the potato blight!
- And, in order to compose
Poems full of mystery
Intended to be read from Tréguier
To Paramaribo, go and buy
A few volumes by Monsieur Figuier,
- Illustrated! - at Hachette's !
219
Alcide Bava
Original French
Ce qu'on dit au Poète
à propos de fleurs.
Ainsi, toujours, vers l'azur noir
Où tremble la mer des topazes,
Fonctionneront dans ton soir
Les Lys, ces clystères d'extases !
À notre époque de sagous,
Quand les Plantes sont travailleuses,
Le Lys boira les bleus dégoûts
Dans tes Proses religieuses !
- Le lys de monsieur de Kerdrel,
Le Sonnet de mil huit cent trente,
Le Lys qu'on donne au Ménestrel
Avec l'oeillet et l'amarante !
Des lys ! Des lys ! On n'en voit pas !
Et dans ton Vers, tel que les manches
Des Pécheresses aux doux pas,
Toujours frissonnent ces fleurs blanches !
Toujours, Cher, quand tu prends un bain,
Ta chemise aux aisselles blondes
Se gonfle aux brises du matin
Sur les myosotis immondes !
L'amour ne passe à tes octrois
Que les Lilas, - ô balançoires !
Et les Violettes du Bois,
Crachats sucrés des Nymphes noires !...
220
II
O Poètes, quand vous auriez
Les Roses, les Roses soufflées,
Rouges sur tiges de lauriers,
Et de mille octaves enflées !
Quand Banville en ferait neiger,
Sanguinolentes, tournoyantes,
Pochant l'oeil fou de l'étranger
Aux lectures mal bienveillantes !
De vos forêts et de vos prés,
O très paisibles photographes !
La Flore est diverse à peu près
Comme des bouchons de carafes !
Toujours les végétaux Français,
Hargneux, phtisiques, ridicules,
Où le ventre des chiens bassets
Navigue en paix, aux crépuscules ;
Toujours, après d'affreux dessins
De Lotos bleus ou d'Hélianthes,
Estampes roses, sujets saints
Pour de jeunes communiantes !
L'Ode Açoka cadre avec la
Strophe en fenêtre de lorette ;
Et de lourds papillons d'éclat
Fientent sur la Pâquerette.
Vieilles verdures, vieux galons !
O croquignoles végétales !
Fleurs fantasques des vieux Salons !
- Aux hannetons, pas aux crotales,
Ces poupards végétaux en pleurs
Que Grandville eût mis aux lisières,
Et qu'allaitèrent de couleurs
De méchants astres à visières !
221
Oui, vos bavures de pipeaux
Font de précieuses glucoses !
- Tas d'oeufs frits dans de vieux chapeaux,
Lys, Açokas, Lilas et Roses !...
III
O blanc Chasseur, qui cours sans bas
À travers le Pâtis panique,
Ne peux-tu pas, ne dois-tu pas
Connaître un peu ta botanique ?
Tu ferais succéder, je crains,
Aux Grillons roux les Cantharides,
L'or des Rios au bleu des Rhins, Bref, aux Norwèges les Florides :
Mais, Cher, l'Art n'est plus, maintenant,
- C'est la vérité, - de permettre
À l'Eucalyptus étonnant
Des constrictors d'un hexamètre ;
Là !... Comme si les Acajous
Ne servaient, même en nos Guyanes,
Qu'aux cascades des sapajous,
Au lourd délire des lianes !
- En somme, une Fleur, Romarin
Ou Lys, vive ou morte, vaut-elle
Un excrément d'oiseau marin ?
Vaut-elle un seul pleur de chandelle ?
- Et j'ai dit ce que je voulais !
Toi, même assis là-bas, dans une
Cabane de bambous, - volets
Clos, tentures de perse brune, Tu torcherais des floraisons
Dignes d'Oises extravagantes !...
- Poète ! ce sont des raisons
Non moins risibles qu'arrogantes !...
222
IV
Dis, non les pampas printaniers
Noirs d'épouvantables révoltes,
Mais les tabacs, les cotonniers !
Dis les exotiques récoltes !
Dis, front blanc que Phébus tanna,
De combien de dollars se rente
Pedro Velasquez, Habana ;
Incague la mer de Sorrente
Où vont les Cygnes par milliers ;
Que tes strophes soient des réclames
Pour l'abatis des mangliers
Fouillés des Hydres et des lames !
Ton quatrain plonge aux bois sanglants
Et revient proposer aux Hommes
Divers sujets de sucres blancs,
De pectoraires et de gommes !
Sachons par Toi si les blondeurs
Des Pics neigeux, vers les Tropiques,
Sont ou des insectes pondeurs
Ou des lichens microscopiques !
Trouve, ô Chasseur, nous le voulons,
Quelques garances parfumées
Que la Nature en pantalons
Fasse éclore ! - pour nos Armées !
Trouve, aux abords du Bois qui dort,
Les fleurs, pareilles à des mufles,
D'où bavent des pommades d'or
Sur les cheveux sombres des Buffles !
Trouve, aux prés fous, où sur le Bleu
Tremble l'argent des pubescences,
Des calices pleins d'Oeufs de feu
Qui cuisent parmi les essences !
223
Trouve des Chardons cotonneux
Dont dix ânes aux yeux de braises
Travaillent à filer les noeuds !
Trouve des Fleurs qui soient des chaises !
Oui, trouve au coeur des noirs filons
Des fleurs presque pierres, - fameuses ! Qui vers leurs durs ovaires blonds
Aient des amygdales gemmeuses !
Sers-nous, ô Farceur, tu le peux,
Sur un plat de vermeil splendide
Des ragoûts de Lys sirupeux
Mordant nos cuillers Alfénide !
Quelqu'un dira le grand Amour,
Voleur des sombres Indulgences :
Mais ni Renan, ni le chat Murr
N'ont vu les Bleus Thyrses immenses !
Toi, fais jouer dans nos torpeurs,
Par les parfums les hystéries ;
Exalte-nous vers les candeurs
Plus candides que les Maries...
Commerçant ! colon ! médium !
Ta Rime sourdra, rose ou blanche,
Comme un rayon de sodium,
Comme un caoutchouc qui s'épanche !
De tes noirs Poèmes, - Jongleur !
Blancs, verts, et rouges dioptriques,
Que s'évadent d'étranges fleurs
Et des papillons électriques !
Voilà ! c'est le Siècle d'enfer !
Et les poteaux télégraphiques
Vont orner, - lyre aux chants de fer,
Tes omoplates magnifiques !
224
Surtout, rime une version
Sur le mal des pommes de terre !
- Et, pour la composition
De poèmes pleins de mystère
Qu'on doive lire de Tréguier
À Paramaribo, rachète
Des Tomes de Monsieur Figuier,
- Illustrés ! - chez Monsieur Hachette !
Alcide Bava
~ Arthur Rimbaud,#NFDB
235:Le Mendiant
C'était quand le printemps a reverdi les prés.
La fille de Lycus, vierge aux cheveux dorés,
Sous les monts Achéens, non loin de Cérynée,
Errait à l'ombre, aux bords du faible et pur Crathis,
Car les eaux du Crathis, sous des berceaux de frêne,
Entouraient de Lycus le fertile domaine.
Soudain, à l'autre bord,
Du fond d'un bois épais, un noir fantôme sort,
Tout pâle, demi-nu, la barbe hérissée:
Il remuait à peine une lèvre glacée,
Des hommes et des dieux implorait le secours,
Et dans la forêt sombre errait depuis deux jours;
Il se traîne, il n'attend qu'une mort douloureuse;
Il succombe. L'enfant, interdite et peureuse,
A ce hideux aspect sorti du fond des bois,
Veut fuir; mais elle entend sa lamentable voix.
Il tend les bras, il tombe à genoux; il lui crie
Qu'au nom de tous les dieux il la conjure, il prie,
Et qu'il n'est point à craindre, et qu'une ardente faim
L'aiguillonne et le tue, et qu'il expire enfin.
'Si, comme je le crois, belle dès ton enfance,
C'est le dieu de ces eaux qui t'a donné naissance,
Nymphe, souvent les voeux des malheureux humains
Ouvrent des immortels les bienfaisantes mains,
Ou si c'est quelque front porteur d'une couronne
Qui te nomme sa fille et te destine au trône,
Souviens-toi, jeune enfant, que le ciel quelquefois
Venge les opprimés sur la tête des rois.
Belle vierge, sans doute enfant d'une déesse,
Crains de laisser périr l'étranger en détresse:
L'étranger qui supplie est envoyé des dieux.'
Elle reste. A le voir, elle enhardit ses yeux,
. . . . . . . . et d'une voix encore
Tremblante: 'Ami, le ciel écoute qui l'implore.
Mais ce soir, quand la nuit descend sur l'horizon,
Passe le pont mobile, entre dans la maison;
111
J'aurai soin qu'on te laisse entrer sans méfiance.
Pour la douzième fois célébrant ma naissance,
Mon père doit donner une fête aujourd'hui.
Il m'aime, il n'a que moi: viens t'adresser à lui,
C'est le riche Lycus. Viens ce soir; il est tendre,
Il est humain: il pleure aux pleurs qu'il voit répandre.'
Elle achève ces mots, et, le coeur palpitant,
S'enfuit; car l'étranger sur elle, en l'écoutant,
Fixait de ses yeux creux l'attention avide.
Elle rentre, cherchant dans le palais splendide
L'esclave près de qui toujours ses jeunes ans
Trouvent un doux accueil et des soins complaisants.
Cette sage affranchie avait nourri sa mère;
Maintenant sous des lois de vigilance austère,
Elle et son vieil époux, au devoir rigoureux,
Rangent des serviteurs le cortège nombreux.
Elle la voit de loin dans le fond du portique,
Court, et, posant ses mains sur ce visage antique:
'Indulgente nourrice, écoute: il faut de toi
Que j'obtienne un grand bien. Ma mère, écoute-moi;
Un pauvre, un étranger, dans la misère extrême,
Gémit sur l'autre bord, mourant, affamé, blême...
Ne me décèle point. De mon père aujourd'hui
J'ai promis qu'il pourrait solliciter l'appui.
Fais qu'il entre: et surtout, ô mère de ma mère!
Garde que nul mortel a'insulte à sa misère.
--Oui, ma fille; chacun fera ce que tu veux,
Dit l'esclave en baisant son front et ses cheveux;
Oui, qu'à ton protégé ta fête soit ouverte,
Ta mère, mon élève (inestimable perte!),
Aimait à soulager les faibles abattus;
Tu lui ressembleras autant par tes vertus
Que par tes yeux si doux et tes grâces naïves,'
Mais cependant la nuit assemble les convives:
En habits somptueux, d'essences parfumés,
Ils entrent. Aux lambris d'ivoire et d'or formés
Pend le lin d'Ionie en brillantes courtines;
Le toit s'égaye et rit de mille odeurs divines.
La table au loin circule, et d'apprêts savoureux
Se charge. L'encens vole en longs flots vaporeux:
Sur leurs bases d'argent, des formes animées
Élèvent dans leurs mains des torches enflammées;
112
Les figures, l'onyx, le cristal, les métaux
En vases hérissés d'hommes ou d'animaux,
Partout, sur les buffets, sur la table, étincellent;
Plus d'une lyre est prête; et partout s'amoncellent
Et les rameaux de myrte et les bouquets de fleurs.
On s'étend sur les lits teints de mille couleurs;
Près de Lycus, sa fille, idole de la fête,
Est admise. La rose a couronné sa tête.
Mais, pour que la décence impose un juste frein,
Lui-même est par eux tous élu roi du festin.
Et déjà vins, chansons, joie, entretiens sans nombre,
Lorsque, la double porte ouverte, un spectre sombre
Entre, cherchant des yeux l'autel hospitalier.
La jeune enfant rougit. Il court vers le foyer,
Il embrasse l'autel, s'assied parmi la cendre;
Et tous, l'oeil étonné, se taisent pour l'entendre.
'Lycus, fils d'Évémon, que les dieux et le temps
N'osent jamais troubler tes destins éclatants!
Ta pourpre, tes trésors, ton front noble et tranquille,
Semblent d'un roi puissant, l'idole de sa ville.
A ton riche banquet un peuple convié
T'honore comme un dieu de l'Olympe envoyé.
Regarde un étranger qui meurt dans la poussière,
Si tu ne tends vers lui la main hospitalière.
Inconnu, j'ai franchi le seuil de ton palais:
Trop de pudeur peut nuire à qui vit de bienfaits.
Lycus, par Jupiter, par ta fille innocente
Qui m'a seule indiqué ta porte bienfaisante!...
Je fus riche autrefois: mon banquet opulent
N'a jamais repoussé l'étranger suppliant.
Et pourtant aujourd'hui la faim est mon partage,
La faim qui flétrit l'âme autant que le visage,
Par qui l'homme souvent, importun, odieux,
Est contraint de rougir et de baisser les yeux!
--Étranger, tu dis vrai, le hasard téméraire
Des bons ou des méchants fait le destin prospère.
Mais sois mon hôte. Ici l'on hait plus que l'enfer
Le public ennemi, le riche au coeur de fer,
Enfant de Némésis, dont le dédain barbare
Aux besoins des mortels ferme son coeur avare.
113
Je rends grâce à l'enfant qui t'a conduit ici.
Ma fille, c'est bien fait; poursuis toujours ainsi.
Respecter l'indigence est un devoir suprême.
Souvent les immortels (et Jupiter lui-même)
Sous des haillons poudreux, de seuil en seuil traînés,
Viennent tenter le coeur des humains fortunés.'
D'accueil et de faveur un murmure s'élève.
Lycus descend, accourt, tend la main, le relève:
'Salut, père étranger; et que puissent tes voeux
Trouver le ciel propice à tout ce que tu veux!
Mon hôte, lève-toi. Tu parais noble et sage;
Mais cesse avec ta main de cacher ton visage.
Souvent marchent ensemble indigence et vertu,
Souvent d'un vil manteau le sage revêtu,
Seul, vit avec les dieux et brave un sort inique.
Couvert de chauds tissus, à l'ombre du portique,
Sur de molles toisons, en un calme sommeil,
Tu peux ici, dans l'ombre, attendre le soleil.
Je te ferai revoir tes foyers, ta patrie,
Tes parents, si les dieux ont épargné leur vie.
Car tout mortel errant nourrit un long amour
D'aller revoir le sol qui lui donna le jour.
Mon hôte, tu franchis le seuil de ma famille
A l'heure qui jadis a vu naître ma fille.
Salut! Vois, l'on t'apporte et la table et le pain:
Sieds-toi. Tu vas d'abord rassasier ta faim.
Puis, si nulle raison ne te force au mystère,
Tu nous diras ton nom, ta patrie et ton père!'
Il retourne à sa place après que l'indigent
S'est assis. Sur ses mains, d'une aiguière d'argent,
Par une jeune esclave une eau pure est versée.
Une table de cèdre, où l'éponge est passée,
S'approche, et vient offrir à son avide main
Et les fumantes chairs sur le disque d'airain,
Et l'amphore vineuse, et la coupe aux deux anses.
'Mange et bois, dit Lycus; oublions les souffrances,
Ami! leur lendemain est, dit-on, un beau jour.'
Bientôt Lycus se lève et fait emplir sa coupe,
Et veut que l'échanson verse à toute la troupe:
114
'Pour boire à Jupiter, qui nous daigne envoyer
L'étranger devenu l'hôte de mon foyer.'
Le vin de main en main va coulant à la ronde;
Lycus lui-même emplit une coupe profonde,
L'envoie à l'étranger: 'Salut, mon hôte, bois.
De ta ville bientôt tu reverras les toits,
Fussent-ils par-delà les glaces du Caucase.'
Des mains de l'échanson l'étranger prend le vase,
Se lève et sur eux tous il invoque les dieux.
On boit; il se rassied. Et jusque sur ses yeux
Ses noirs cheveux toujours ombrageant son visage,
De sourire et de plainte il mêle son langage:
'Mon hôte, maintenant que sous tes nobles toits
De l'importun besoin j'ai calmé les abois,
Oserai-je à ma langue abandonner les rênes?
Je n'ai plus ni pays, ni parents, ni domaines.
Mais écoute: le vin, par toi-même versé,
M'ouvre la bouche. Ainsi, puisque j'ai commencé,
Entends ce que peut-être il eût mieux valu taire.
Excuse enfin ma langue, excuse ma prière;
Car du vin, tu le sais, la téméraire ardeur
Souvent à l'excès même enhardit la pudeur.
Meurtri de durs cailloux ou de sables arides,
Déchiré de buissons ou d'insectes avides,
D'un long jeûne flétri, d'un long chemin lassé
Et de plus d'un grand fleuve en nageant traversé,
Je parais énervé, sans vigueur, sans courage;
Mais je suis né robuste et n'ai point passé l'âge.
La force et le travail, que je n'ai point perdus,
Par un peu de repos me vont être rendus.
Emploie alors mes bras à quelques soins rustiques.
Je puis dresser au char tes coursiers olympiques,
Ou, sous les feux du jour, courbé vers le sillon,
Presser deux forts taureaux du piquant aiguillon.
Je puis même, tournant la meule nourricière,
Broyer le pur froment en farine légère.
Je puis, la serpe en main, planter et diriger
Et le cep et la treille, espoir de ton verger.
Je tiendrai la faucille ou la faux recourbée,
Et devant mes pas l'herbe ou la moisson tombée
Viendra remplir ta grange en la belle saison;
115
Afin que nul mortel ne dise en ta maison,
Me regardant d'un oeil insultant et colère:
O vorace étranger, qu'on nourrit à rien faire!
--Vénérable indigent, va, nul mortel chez moi
N'oserait élever sa langue contre toi.
Tu peux ici rester, même oisif et tranquille,
Sans craindre qu'un affront ne trouble ton asile.
--L'indigent se méfie.--Il n'est plus de danger.
--L'homme est né pour souffrir.--Il est né pour changer.
--Il change d'infortune!--Ami, reprends courage:
Toujours un vent glacé ne souffle point l'orage.
Le ciel d'un jour à l'autre est humide ou serein,
Et tel pleure aujourd'hui qui sourira demain.
--Mon hôte, en tes discours préside la sagesse.
Mais quoi! la confiante et paisible richesse
Parle ainsi!... L'indigent espère en vain du sort;
En espérant toujours il arrive à la mort.
Dévoré de besoins, de projets, d'insomnie,
Il vieillit dans l'opprobre et dans l'ignominie.
Rebuté des humains durs, envieux, ingrats,
Il a recours aux dieux qui ne l'entendent pas.
Toutefois ta richesse accueille mes misères;
Et puisque ton coeur s'ouvre à la voix des prières.
Puisqu'il sait, ménageant le faible humilié,
D'indulgence et d'égards tempérer la pitié,
S'il est des dieux du pauvre, ô Lycus! que ta vie
Soit un objet pour tous et d'amour et d'envie!
--Je te le dis encore: espérons, étranger.
Que mon exemple au moins serve à t'encourager
Des changements du sort j'ai fait l'expérience.
Toujours un même éclat n'a point à l'indigence
Fait du riche Lycus envier le destin.
J'ai moi-même été pauvre et j'ai tendu la main.
Cléotas de Larisse, en ses jardins immenses,
Offrit à mon travail de justes récompenses.
'Jeune ami, j'ai trouvé quelques vertus en toi;
Va, sois heureux, dit-il, et te souviens de moi.'
Oui, oui, je m'en souviens: Cléotas fut mon père;
Tu vois le fruit des dons de sa bonté prospère.
116
A tous les malheureux je rendrai désormais
Ce que dans mon malheur je dus à ses bienfaits.
Dieux, l'homme bienfaisant est votre cher ouvrage;
Vous n'avez point ici d'autre visible image;
Il porte votre empreinte, il sortit de vos mains
Pour vous représenter aux regards des humains.
Veillez sur Cléotas! Qu'une fleur éternelle,
Fille d'une âme pure, en ses traits étincelle;
Que nombre de bienfaits, ce sont là ses amours,
Fassent une couronne à chacun de ses jours;
Et quand une mort douce et d'amis entourée
Recevra sans douleur sa vieillesse sacrée,
Qu'il laisse avec ses biens ses vertus pour appui
A des fils, s'il se peut, encor meilleurs que lui.
--Hôte des malheureux, le sort inexorable
Ne prend point les avis de l'homme secourable.
Tous, par sa main de fer en aveugles poussés,
Nous vivons; et tes voeux ne sont point exaucés.
Cléotas est perdu; son injuste patrie
L'a privé de ses biens; elle a proscrit sa vie.
De ses concitoyens dès longtemps envié,
De ses nombreux amis en un jour oublié,
Au lieu de ces tapis qu'avait tissus l'Euphrate,
Au lieu de ces festins brillants d'or et d'agate
Où ses hôtes, parmi les chants harmonieux,
Savouraient jusqu'au jour les vins délicieux,
Seul maintenant, sa faim, visitant les feuillages,
Dépouille les buissons de quelques fruits sauvages;
Ou, chez le riche altier apportant ses douleurs,
Il mange un pain amer tout trempé de ses pleurs.
Errant et fugitif, de ses beaux jours de gloire
Gardant, pour son malheur, la pénible mémoire,
Sous les feux du midi, sous le froid des hivers,
Seul, d'exil en exil, de déserts en déserts,
Pauvre et semblable à moi, languissant et débile,
Sans appui qu'un bâton, sans foyer, sans asile,
Revêtu de ramée ou de quelques lambeaux,
Et sans que nul mortel attendri sur ses maux
D'un souhait de bonheur le flatte et l'encourage;
Les torrents et la mer, l'aquilon et l'orage,
Les corbeaux, et des loups les tristes hurlements
117
Répondant seuls la nuit à ses gémissements;
N'ayant d'autres amis que les bois solitaires,
D'autres consolateurs que ses larmes amères,
Il se traîne; et souvent sur la pierre il s'endort
A la porte d'un temple, en invoquant la mort.
--Que m'as-tu dit? La foudre a tombé sur ma tête.
Dieux! ah! grands dieux! partons. Plus de jeux, plus de fête!
Partons. Il faut vers lui trouver des chemins sûrs;
Partons. Jamais sans lui je ne revois ces murs.
Ah! dieux! quand dans le vin, les festins, l'abondance,
Enivré des vapeurs d'une folle opulence,
Celui qui lui doit tout chante, et s'oublie, et rit,
Lui peut-être il expire, affamé, nu, proscrit,
Maudissant, comme ingrat, son vieil ami qui l'aime.
Parle: était-ce bien lui? le connais-tu toi-même?
En quels lieux était-il? où portait-il ses pas?
Il sait où vit Lycus, pourquoi ne vient-il pas?
Parle: était-ce bien lui? parle, parle, te dis-je;
Où l'as-tu vu?--Mon hôte, à regret je t'afflige.
C'était lui, je l'ai vu ........................
.........................Les douleurs de son âme
Avaient changé ses traits. Ses deux fils et sa femme
A Delphes, confiés au ministre du dieu,
Vivaient de quelques dons offerts dans le saint lieu.
Par des sentiers secrets fuyant l'aspect des villes,
On les avait suivis jusques aux Thermopyles.
Il en gardait encore un douloureux effroi.
Je le connais; je fus son ami comme toi.
D'un même sort jaloux une même injustice
Nous a tous deux plongés au même précipice.
Il me donna jadis (ce bien seul m'est resté)
Sa marque d'alliance et d'hospitalité.
Vois si tu la connais.' De surprise immobile,
Lycus a reconnu son propre sceau d'argile;
Ce sceau, don mutuel d'immortelle amitié,
Jadis à Cléotas par lui-même envoyé.
Il ouvre un oeil avide, et longtemps envisage
L'étranger. Puis enfin sa voix trouve un passage.
'Est-ce toi, Cléotas? toi qu'ainsi je revoi?
Tout ici t'appartient. O mon père! est-ce toi?
118
Je rougis que mes yeux aient pu te méconnaître.
Cléotas! ô mon père! ô toi qui fus mon maître,
Viens; je n'ai fait ici que garder ton trésor,
Et ton ancien Lycus veut te servir encor;
J'ai honte à ma fortune en regardant la tienne.'
Et, dépouillant soudain la pourpre tyrienne
Que tient sur son épaule une agrafe d'argent,
Il l'attache lui-même à l'auguste indigent.
Les convives levés l'entourent; l'allégresse
Rayonne en tous les yeux. La famille s'empresse;
On cherche des habits, on réchauffe le bain.
La jeune enfant approche; il rit, lui tend la main:
'Car c'est toi, lui dit-il, c'est toi qui, la première,
Ma fille, m'as ouvert la porte hospitalière.'
~ Andre Marie de Chenier,#NFDB
236:Bénédiction (Benediction)
Lorsque, par un décret des puissances suprêmes,
Le Poète apparaît en ce monde ennuyé,
Sa mère épouvantée et pleine de blasphèmes
Crispe ses poings vers Dieu, qui la prend en pitié:
— «Ah! que n'ai-je mis bas tout un noeud de vipères,
Plutôt que de nourrir cette dérision!
Maudite soit la nuit aux plaisirs éphémères
Où mon ventre a conçu mon expiation!
Puisque tu m'as choisie entre toutes les femmes
Pour être le dégoût de mon triste mari,
Et que je ne puis pas rejeter dans les flammes,
Comme un billet d'amour, ce monstre rabougri,
Je ferai rejaillir ta haine qui m'accable
Sur l'instrument maudit de tes méchancetés,
Et je tordrai si bien cet arbre misérable,
Qu'il ne pourra pousser ses boutons empestés!»
Elle ravale ainsi l'écume de sa haine,
Et, ne comprenant pas les desseins éternels,
Elle-même prépare au fond de la Géhenne
Les bûchers consacrés aux crimes maternels.
Pourtant, sous la tutelle invisible d'un Ange,
L'Enfant déshérité s'enivre de soleil
Et dans tout ce qu'il boit et dans tout ce qu'il mange
Retrouve l'ambroisie et le nectar vermeil.
II joue avec le vent, cause avec le nuage,
Et s'enivre en chantant du chemin de la croix;
Et l'Esprit qui le suit dans son pèlerinage
Pleure de le voir gai comme un oiseau des bois.
Tous ceux qu'il veut aimer l'observent avec crainte,
Ou bien, s'enhardissant de sa tranquillité,
Cherchent à qui saura lui tirer une plainte,
Et font sur lui l'essai de leur férocité.
35
Dans le pain et le vin destinés à sa bouche
Ils mêlent de la cendre avec d'impurs crachats;
Avec hypocrisie ils jettent ce qu'il touche,
Et s'accusent d'avoir mis leurs pieds dans ses pas.
Sa femme va criant sur les places publiques:
«Puisqu'il me trouve assez belle pour m'adorer,
Je ferai le métier des idoles antiques,
Et comme elles je veux me faire redorer;
Et je me soûlerai de nard, d'encens, de myrrhe,
De génuflexions, de viandes et de vins,
Pour savoir si je puis dans un coeur qui m'admire
Usurper en riant les hommages divins!
Et, quand je m'ennuierai de ces farces impies,
Je poserai sur lui ma frêle et forte main;
Et mes ongles, pareils aux ongles des harpies,
Sauront jusqu'à son coeur se frayer un chemin.
Comme un tout jeune oiseau qui tremble et qui palpite,
J'arracherai ce coeur tout rouge de son sein,
Et, pour rassasier ma bête favorite
Je le lui jetterai par terre avec dédain!»
Vers le Ciel, où son oeil voit un trône splendide,
Le Poète serein lève ses bras pieux
Et les vastes éclairs de son esprit lucide
Lui dérobent l'aspect des peuples furieux:
— «Soyez béni, mon Dieu, qui donnez la souffrance
Comme un divin remède à nos impuretés
Et comme la meilleure et la plus pure essence
Qui prépare les forts aux saintes voluptés!
Je sais que vous gardez une place au Poète
Dans les rangs bienheureux des saintes Légions,
Et que vous l'invitez à l'éternelle fête
Des Trônes, des Vertus, des Dominations.
Je sais que la douleur est la noblesse unique
36
Où ne mordront jamais la terre et les enfers,
Et qu'il faut pour tresser ma couronne mystique
Imposer tous les temps et tous les univers.
Mais les bijoux perdus de l'antique Palmyre,
Les métaux inconnus, les perles de la mer,
Par votre main montés, ne pourraient pas suffire
A ce beau diadème éblouissant et clair;
Car il ne sera fait que de pure lumière,
Puisée au foyer saint des rayons primitifs,
Et dont les yeux mortels, dans leur splendeur entière,
Ne sont que des miroirs obscurcis et plaintifs!»
Benediction
When, after a decree of the supreme powers,
The Poet is brought forth in this wearisome world,
His mother terrified and full of blasphemies
Raises her clenched fist to God, who pities her:
— 'Ah! would that I had spawned a whole knot of vipers
Rather than to have fed this derisive object!
Accursed be the night of ephemeral joy
When my belly conceived this, my expiation!
Since of all women You have chosen me
To be repugnant to my sorry spouse,
And since I cannot cast this misshapen monster
Into the flames, like an old love letter,
I shall spew the hatred with which you crush me down
On the cursed instrument of your malevolence,
And twist so hard this wretched tree
That it cannot put forth its pestilential buds!'
Thus she gulps down the froth of her hatred,
And not understanding the eternal designs,
Herself prepares deep down in Gehenna
The pyre reserved for a mother's crimes.
37
However, protected by an unseen Angel,
The outcast child is enrapt by the sun,
And in all that he eats, in everything he drinks,
He finds sweet ambrosia and rubiate nectar.
He cavorts with the wind, converses with the clouds,
And singing, transported, goes the way of the cross;
And the Angel who follows him on pilgrimage
Weeps to see him as carefree as a bird.
All those whom he would love watch him with fear,
Or, emboldened by his tranquility,
Emulously attempt to wring a groan from him
And test on him their inhumanity.
With the bread and the wine intended for his mouth
They mix ashes and foul spittle,
And, hypocrites, cast away what he touches
And feel guilty if they have trod in his footprints.
His wife goes about the market-places
Crying: 'Since he finds me fair enough to adore,
I shall imitate the idols of old,
And like them I want to be regilded;
I shall get drunk with spikenard, incense, myrrh,
And with genuflections, viands and wine,
To see if laughingly I can usurp
In an admiring heart the homage due to God!
And when I tire of these impious jokes,
I shall lay upon him my strong, my dainty hand;
And my nails, like harpies' talons,
Will cut a path straight to his heart.
That heart which flutters like a fledgling bird
I'll tear, all bloody, from his breast,
And scornfully I'll throw it in the dust
To sate the hunger of my favorite hound!'
To Heav'n, where his eye sees a radiant throne,
Piously, the Poet, serene, raises his arms,
38
And the dazzling brightness of his illumined mind
Hides from his sight the raging mob:
— 'Praise be to You, O God, who send us suffering
As a divine remedy for our impurities
And as the best and the purest essence
To prepare the strong for holy ecstasies!
I know that you reserve a place for the Poet
Within the blessed ranks of the holy Legions,
And that you invite him to the eternal feast
Of the Thrones, the Virtues, and the Dominations.
I know that suffering is the sole nobility
Which earth and hell shall never mar,
And that to weave my mystic crown,
You must tax every age and every universe.
But the lost jewels of ancient Palmyra,
The unfound metals, the pearls of the sea,
Set by Your own hand, would not be adequate
For that diadem of dazzling splendor,
For that crown will be made of nothing but pure light
Drawn from the holy source of primal rays,
Whereof our mortal eyes, in their fullest brightness,
Are no more than tarnished, mournful mirrors!'
— Translated by William Aggeler
Benediction
When by an edict of the powers supreme
A poet's born into this world's drab space,
His mother starts, in horror, to blaspheme
Clenching her fists at God, who grants her grace.
'Would that a nest of vipers I'd aborted
Rather than this absurd abomination.
Cursed be the night of pleasures vainly sported
On which my womb conceived my expiation.
39
Since of all women I am picked by You
To be my Mate's aversion and his shame:
And since I cannot, like a billet-doux,
Consign this stunted monster to the flame,
I'll turn the hatred, which You load on me,
On the curst tool through which You work your spite,
And twist and stunt this miserable tree
Until it cannot burgeon for the blight.'
She swallows down the white froth of her ire
And, knowing naught of schemes that are sublime,
Deep in Gehenna, starts to lay the pyre
That's consecrated to maternal crime.
Yet with an unseen Angel for protector
The outcast waif grows drunken with the sun,
And finds ambrosia, too, and rosy nectar
In all he eats or drinks, suspecting none.
He sings upon his Via Crucis, plays
With winds, and with the clouds exchanges words:
The Spirit following his pilgrim-ways
Weeps to behold him gayer than the birds.
Those he would love avoid him as in fear,
Or, growing bold to see one so resigned,
Compete to draw from him a cry or tear,
And test on him the fierceness of their kind.
In food or drink that's destined for his taste
They mix saliva foul with cinders black,
Drop what he's touched with hypocrite distaste,
And blame themselves for walking in his track.
His wife goes crying in the public way
— 'Since fair enough he finds me to adore,
The part of ancient idols I will play
And gild myself with coats of molten ore.
I will get drunk on incense, myrrh, and nard,
40
On genuflexions, meat, and beady wine,
Out of his crazed and wondering regard,
I'll laugh to steal prerogatives divine.
When by such impious farces bored at length,
I'll place my frail strong hand on him, and start,
With nails like those of harpies in their strength,
To plough myself a pathway to his heart.
Like a young bird that trembles palpitating,
I'll wrench his heart, all crimson, from his chest,
And to my favourite beast, his hunger sating,
Will fling it in the gutter with a jest.'
Skyward, to where he sees a Throne blaze splendid,
The pious Poet lifts his arms on high,
And the vast lightnings of his soul extended
Blot out the crowds and tumults from his eye.
'Blessèd be You, O God, who give us pain,
As cure for our impurity and wrong —
Essence that primes the stalwart to sustain
Seraphic raptures that were else too strong.
I know that for the Poet You've a post,
Where the blest Legions take their ranks and stations,
Invited to the revels with the host
Of Virtues, Powers, and Thrones, and Dominations
That grief's the sole nobility, I know it,
Where neither Earth nor Hell can make attacks,
And that, to deck my mystic crown of poet,
All times and universes paid their tax.
But all the gems from old Palmyra lost,
The ores unmixed, the pearls of the abyss,
Set by Your hand, could not suffice the cost
Of such a blazing diadem as this.
Because it will be only made of light,
Drawn from the hearth of the essential rays,
To which our mortal eyes, when burning bright,
41
Are but the tarnished mirrors that they glaze.'
— Translated by Roy Campbell
Benediction
When by decree of the almighty powers,
The Poet walks the world's wearisome sod,
His mother, blasphemous and fearful, cowers,
Clenching her fist against a pitying God:
— 'Ah, would whole knots of vipers were my spawn
Rather than this woeful abomination!
Cursed be the sweet swift night and evil dawn
Wherein my womb conceived my expiation!
Since of all women Thou hast chosen me
To be my sorry husband's shame of shames,
Since I may not toss this monstrosity
Like an old billet-doux into the flames,
Thy heavy hatred I shall vomit back
On the damned tool of your malevolence,
Twisting this wretched tree until it crack,
Never to sprout in buds of pestilence!'
Thus she gulps down the froth of her despair,
Nor knowing the eternal paradigms,
Sinks deep into Gehenna to prepare,
Herself, the pyre set for a mother's crimes.
Yet guarded by an unseen Angel's favors,
The outcast child is fired by radiant suns,
In all he eats and all he drinks he savors
Ambrosial gifts and nectared benisons,
He sports with winds, he talks with clouds, he keeps
Singing along the road to Calvary,
While the bright Angel in his traces weeps,
Beholding him as free as birds are free.
42
All those whom he would love watch him with fear,
Or else, made bold by his serenity,
Wring groans from him that float sweet on the ear
Making him touchstone of their cruelty.
With his due bread and wine, hypocrites, they,
Mix ashes and fat gobs of spittle; grim,
What he has touched, these humbugs cast away,
Deeming it guilty but to follow him.
His wife cries in the market place: 'Behold
Since he adores me, I am fair, and fain,
As idols did, and images of old,
To be regilded and adored again.
I shall be drunk with spikenard, incense, myrrh,
With genuflections, viands and wine to see
If, as a glad usurper, I may stir
His heart to pay God's homages to me!
Tired of these impious japes and of their butt,
My strong lithe hand's caress with subtle art
And my sharp nails like harpy claws shall cut
A mortal path straight to his quivering heart.
That heart which flutters like a fledgling bird,
I shall tear, bleeding, from his breast, to pitch
It blandly in the dust without a word
To slake the hunger of my favorite bitch.'
To Heaven where he spies a splendent throne,
Serene, the Poet lifts rapt arms; and bright
Luminous thoughts that shine through him alone
Conceal the furious rabble from his sight:
— 'Blessèd, O God, who send woe for a cure,
A balm divine for our impurities,
Of essences the noblest and most pure
To school the strong for holy ecstasies!
I know the Poet has his place above
43
Amid God's saintly hosts and congregations,
Guest at the everlasting banquet of
The Thrones, the Virtues and the Dominations.
Sorrow alone is noble and august,
A force nor earth nor hell shall ever mar,
To weave my mystic crown I know you must
Tax every age and universe that are.
Old Tadmor's vanished gems beyond all price,
Metals unknown, pearls from the richest sea,
Set by Thy holy hand, cannot suffice
To match this dazzling chapter's splendency;
This diadem shall be of sheerest light,
Drawn from the sacred source of primal rays,
Whereof our mortal eyes, however bright,
Serve but as piteous mirrors dull with glaze.'
— Translated by Jacques LeClercq
Benediction
When, on a certain day, into this harassed world
The Poet, by decree of the high powers, was born,
His mother, overwhelmed by shame and fury, hurled
These blasphemies at God, clenching her fists in scorn:
'Would I had whelped a knot of vipers — at the worst
'Twere better than this runt that whines and snivels there!
Oh, cursèd be that night of pleasure, thrice accurst
My womb, that has conceived and nourished my despair!
'Since, of all mortal women, it would seem my fate
To be my saddened husband's horror and disgust;
And since I may not toss this monster in the grate —
Like any crumpled letter, reeking of stale lust —
'Upon his helpless form, whereby Thou humblest me,
I shall divert Thy hatred in one raging flood;
44
And I shall twist so well this miserable tree
That it shall not put forth one pestilential bud!'
Thus did she foam with anger, railing, swallowing froth;
And, unaware of what the mighty powers had willed,
She set about to draw Gehenna on them both,
Eyeing the fire, considering how he might be killed.
Meantime, above the child an unseen angel beats
His wings, and the poor waif runs laughing in the sun;
And everything he drinks and everything he eats
Are nectar and ambrosia to this hapless one.
Companioned by the wind, conversing with the cloud,
Along the highway to the Cross his song is heard;
And the bright Spirit, following him, weeps aloud
To see him hop so gaily, like a little bird.
Those whom he longs to love observe him with constraint
And fear, as he grows up; or, seeing how calm he is,
Grow bold, and seek to draw from him some sharp complaint,
Wreaking on him all day their dull ferocities.
Cinders are in his bread, are gritty in his teeth;
Spittle is in his wine. Where his footprints are seen
They hesitate to set their shoes, mincing beneath
Hypocrisy; all things he touched, they call unclean.
His wife in public places cries, 'Since after all
He loves me so, that he's the laughingstock of men,
I'll make a business of it, be an idol, call
For gold, to have myself regilded now and then!
'And some day, when I'm drunk with frankincense, rich food,
Flattery, genuflexions, spikenard, beady wine,
I'll get from him (while laughing in his face, I could!)
That homage he has kept, so far, for things divine.
'And, when my pleasure in these impious farces fails,
My dainty, terrible hands shall tear his breast apart,
And these long nails of mine, so like to harpies' nails,
Shall dig till they have dug a tunnel to his heart.
45
'Then, like a young bird, caught and fluttering to be freed,
('Twill make a tasty morsel for my favorite hound)
I'll wrench his heart out, warm and bleeding — let it bleed! —
And drop it, with contempt and loathing, to the ground.'
Meanwhile toward Heaven, the goal of his mature desire,
The Poet, oblivious, lifts up his arms in prayer;
His lucid essence flames with lightnings — veiled by fire
Is all the furious world, all the lewd conflict there.
'Be praised, Almighty God, that givest to faulty me
This suffering, to purge my spirit of its sin,
To fortify my puny strength, to bid me see
Pure Faith, and what voluptuous blisses dwell therein.
'I know that in those ranks on ranks of happy blest
The Poet shall have some place among Thy Seraphim;
And that Thou wilt at length to the eternal feast
Of Virtues, Thrones and Dominations, summon him.
'I know, Pain is the one nobility we have
Which not the hungry ground nor hell shall ever gnaw;
I know that space and time, beyond the temporal grave,
Weave me a mystic crown, free from all earthly flaw.
'Not emeralds, not all the pearls of the deep sea,
All the rare metals, every lost and buried gem
Antique Palmyra hides, could ever seem to me
So beautiful as that clear glittering diadem.
'Of Light, of Light alone, it will be fashioned, Light
Drawn from the holy fount, rays primitive and pure,
Whereof the eyes of mortal men, so starry bright,
Are but the mirrors, mirrors cloudy and obscure.'
— Translated by Edna St. Vincent Millay
~ Charles Baudelaire,#NFDB
237:Sir Degare
Lysteneth, lordinges, gente and fre,
Ich wille you telle of Sire Degarre:
Knightes that were sometyme in londe
Ferli fele wolde fonde
And sechen aventures bi night and dai,
Hou thai mighte here strengthe asai;
So dede a knyght, Sire Degarree:
Ich wille you telle wat man was he.
In Litel Bretaygne was a kyng
Of gret poer in all thing,
Stif in armes under sscheld,
And mochel idouted in the feld.
Ther nas no man, verraiment,
That mighte in werre ne in tornament,
Ne in justes for no thing,
Him out of his sadel bring,
Ne out of his stirop bringe his fot,
So strong he was of bon and blod.
This Kyng he hadde none hair
But a maidenchild, fre and fair;
Here gentiresse and here beauté
Was moche renound in ich countré.
This maiden he loved als his lif,
Of hire was ded the Quene his wif:
In travailing here lif she les.
And tho the maiden of age wes
Kynges sones to him speke,
Emperours and Dukes eke,
To haven his doughter in mariage,
For love of here heritage;
Ac the Kyng answered ever
That no man sschal here halden ever
But yif he mai in turneying
Him out of his sadel bring,
And maken him lesen hise stiropes bayne.
Many assayed and myght not gayne.
That ryche Kynge every yere wolde
A solempne feste make and holde
On hys wyvys mynnyng day,
192
That was beryed in an abbay
In a foreste there besyde.
With grete meyné he wolde ryde,
Hire dirige do, and masse bothe,
Poure men fede, and naked clothe,
Offring brenge, gret plenté,
And fede the covent with gret daynté.
Toward the abbai als he com ride,
And mani knyghtes bi his side,
His doughter also bi him rod.
Amidde the forest hii abod.
Here chaumberleyn she clepede hire to
And other dammaiseles two
And seide that hii moste alighte
To don here nedes and hire righte; 1
Thai alight adoun alle thre,
Tweie damaiseles and ssche,
And longe while ther abiden,
Til al the folk was forht iriden.
Thai wolden up and after wolde,
And couthen nowt here way holde.
The wode was rough and thikke, iwis,
And thai token the wai amys.
Thai moste souht and riden west 2
Into the thikke of the forest.
Into a launde hii ben icome,
And habbeth wel undernome
That thai were amis igon.
Thai light adoun everichon
And cleped and criede al ifere,
Ac no man aright hem ihere.
Thai nist what hem was best to don; 3
The weder was hot bifor the non;
Hii leien hem doun upon a grene,
Under a chastein tre, ich wene,
And fillen aslepe everichone
Bote the damaisele alone.
She wente aboute and gaderede floures,
And herknede song of wilde foules.
So fer in the launde she goht, iwis,
That she ne wot nevere whare se is.
To hire maidenes she wolde anon.
193
Ac hi ne wiste never wat wei to gon.
Whenne hi wende best to hem terne,
Aweiward than hi goth wel yerne.
'Allas!' hi seide, 'that I was boren!
Nou ich wot ich am forloren!
Wilde bestes me willeth togrinde
Or ani man me sschulle finde!'
Than segh hi swich a sight:
Toward hire comen a knight,
Gentil, yong, and jolif man;
A robe of scarlet he hadde upon;
His visage was feir, his bodi ech weies;
Of countenaunce right curteis;
Wel farende legges, fot, and honde:
Ther nas non in al the Kynges londe
More apert man than was he.
'Damaisele, welcome mote thou be!
Be thou afered of none wihghte:
Iich am comen here a fairi knyghte;
Mi kynde is armes for to were,
On horse to ride with scheld and spere;
Forthi afered be thou nowt:
I ne have nowt but mi swerd ibrout.
Iich have iloved the mani a yer,
And now we beth us selve her,
Thou best mi lemman ar thou go,
Wether the liketh wel or wo.'
Tho nothing ne coude do she
But wep and criede and wolde fle;
And he anon gan hire at holde,
And dide his wille, what he wolde.
He binam hire here maidenhod,
And seththen up toforen hire stod.
'Lemman,' he seide, 'gent and fre,
Mid schilde I wot that thou schalt be;
Siker ich wot hit worht a knave; 4
Forthi mi swerd thou sschalt have,
And whenne that he is of elde
That he mai himself biwelde,
Tak him the swerd, and bidde him fonde
To sechen his fader in eche londe.
The swerd his god and avenaunt:
194
Lo, as I faugt with a geaunt,
I brak the point in his hed;
And siththen, when that he was ded,
I tok hit out and have hit er,
Redi in min aumener.
Yit paraventure time bith
That mi sone mete me with:
Be mi swerd I mai him kenne.
Have god dai! I mot gon henne.'
Thi knight passede as he cam.
Al wepende the swerd she nam,
And com hom sore sikend,
And fond here maidenes al slepend.
The swerd she hidde als she mighte,
And awaked hem in highte,
And doht hem to horse anon,
And gonne to ride everichon.
Thanne seghen hi ate last
Tweie squiers come prikend fast.
Fram the Kyng thai weren isent,
To white whider his doughter went.
Thai browt hire into the righte wai
And comen faire to the abbay,
And doth the servise in alle thingges,
Mani masse and riche offringes;
And whanne the servise was al idone
And ipassed over the none,
The Kyng to his castel gan ride;
His doughter rod bi his side.
And he yemeth his kyngdom overal
Stoutliche, as a god king sschal.
Ac whan ech man was glad an blithe,
His doughter siked an sorewed swithe;
Here wombe greted more and more;
Therwhile she mighte, se hidde here sore.
On a dai, as hi wepende set,
On of hire maidenes hit underyet.
'Madame,' she seide, 'par charité,
Whi wepe ye now, telleth hit me.'
'A! gentil maiden, kinde icoren,
Help me, other ich am forloren!
Ich have ever yete ben meke and milde:
195
Lo, now ich am with quike schilde!
Yif ani man hit underyete,
Men wolde sai bi sti and strete
That mi fader the King hit wan
And I ne was never aqueint with man!
And yif he hit himselve wite,
Swich sorewe schal to him smite
That never blithe schal he be,
For al his joie is in me,'
And tolde here al togeder ther
Hou hit was bigete and wher.
'Madame,' quad the maide, 'ne care thou nowt:
Stille awai hit sschal be browt.
No man schal wite in Godes riche
Whar hit bicometh, but thou and iche.'
Her time come, she was unbounde,
And delivred al mid sounde;
A knaveschild ther was ibore:
Glad was the moder tharfore.
The maiden servede here at wille,
Wond that child in clothes stille,
And laid hit in a cradel anon,
And was al prest tharwith to gon.
Yhit is moder was him hold:
Four pound she tok of gold,
And ten of selver also;
Under his fote she laid hit tho, For swich thing hit mighte hove;
And seththen she tok a paire glove
That here lemman here sente of fairi londe,
That nolde on no manne honde,
Ne on child ne on womman yhe nolde,
But on hire selve wel yhe wolde.
Tho gloven she put under his hade,
And siththen a letter she wrot and made,
And knit hit with a selkene thred
Aboute his nekke wel god sped
That who hit founde sscholde iwite.
Than was in the lettre thous iwrite:
'Par charité, yif ani god man
This helples child finde can,
Lat cristen hit with prestes honde, 5
196
And bringgen hit to live in londe,
For hit is comen of gentil blod.
Helpeth hit with his owen god,
With tresor that under his fet lis;
And ten yer eld whan that he his,
Taketh him this ilke gloven two,
And biddeth him, wharevere he go,
That he ne lovie no womman in londe
But this gloves willen on hire honde;
For siker on honde nelle thai nere
But on his moder that him bere.'
The maiden tok the child here mide,
Stille awai in aven tide,
Alle the winteres longe night.
The weder was cler, the mone light;
Than warhth she war anon
Of an hermitage in a ston:
An holi man had ther his woniyng.
Thider she wente on heying,
An sette the cradel at his dore,
And durste abide no lengore,
And passede forth anon right.
Hom she com in that other night,
And fond the levedi al drupni,
Sore wepinde, and was sori,
And tolde hire al togeder ther
Hou she had iben and wher.
The hermite aros erliche tho,
And his knave was uppe also,
An seide ifere here matines,
And servede God and Hise seins.
The litel child thai herde crie,
And clepede after help on hie;
The holi man his dore undede,
And fond the cradel in the stede;
He tok up the clothes anon
And biheld the litel grom;
He tok the letter and radde wel sone
That tolde him that he scholde done.
The heremite held up bothe his honde
An thonked God of al His sonde,
And bar that child in to his chapel,
197
And for joie he rong his bel.
He dede up the gloven and the tresour
And cristned the child with gret honour:
In the name of the Trinité,
He hit nemnede Degarre,
Degarre nowt elles ne is
But thing that not never what hit is,
Other thing that is neggh forlorn also; 6
Forthi the schild he nemnede thous tho.
The heremite that was holi of lif
Hadde a soster that was a wif;
A riche marchaunt of that countré
Hadde hire ispoused into that cité.
To hire that schild he sente tho
Bi his knave, and the silver also,
And bad here take gode hede
Hit to foster and to fede,
And yif God Almighti wolde
Ten yer his lif holde,
Ayen to him hi scholde hit wise:
He hit wolde tech of clergise.
The litel child Degarre
Was ibrout into that cité.
The wif and hire loverd ifere
Kept his ase hit here owen were.
Bi that hit was ten yer old,
Hit was a fair child and a bold,
Wel inorissched, god and hende;
Was non betere in al that ende.
He wende wel that the gode man
Had ben his fader that him wan,
And the wif his moder also,
And the hermite his unkel bo;
And whan the ten yer was ispent,
To the hermitage he was sent,
And he was glad him to se,
He was so feir and so fre.
He taughte him of clerkes lore
Other ten wynter other more;
And when he was of twenti yer,
Staleworth he was, of swich pouer
That ther ne wan man in that lond
198
That o breid him might astond.
Tho the hermite seth, withouten les,
Man for himself that he wes,
Staleworht to don ech werk,
And of his elde so god a clerk,
He tok him his florines and his gloves
That he had kept to hise bihoves.
Ac the ten pound of starlings
Were ispended in his fostrings.
He tok him the letter to rede,
And biheld al the dede.
'O leve hem, par charité,
Was this letter mad for me?'
'Ye, bi oure Lord, us helpe sschal!
Thus hit was,' and told him al.
He knelede adoun al so swithe,
And thonked the ermite of his live,
And swor he nolde stinte no stounde
Til he his kinrede hadde ifounde.
For in the lettre was thous iwrite,
That bi the gloven he sscholde iwite
Wich were his moder and who,
Yhif that sche livede tho,
For on hire honden hii wolde,
And on non other hii nolde.
Half the florines he gaf the hermite,
And halvendel he tok him mide,
And nam his leve an wolde go.
'Nai,' seide the hermite, 'schaltu no!
To seche thi ken mightou nowt dure
Withouten hors and god armure.'
'Nai,' quad he, 'bi Hevene Kyng,
Ich wil have first another thing!'
He hew adoun, bothe gret and grim,
To beren in his hond with him,
A god sapling of an ok;
Whan he tharwith gaf a strok,
Ne wer he never so strong a man
Ne so gode armes hadde upon,
That he ne scholde falle to grounde;
Swich a bourdon to him he founde.
Tho thenne God he him bitawt,
199
And aither fram other wepyng rawt.
Child Degarre wente his wai
Thourgh the forest al that dai.
No man he ne herd, ne non he segh,
Til hit was non ipassed hegh;
Thanne he herde a noise kete
In o valai, an dintes grete.
Blive thider he gan to te:
What hit ware he wolde ise.
An Herl of the countré, stout and fers,
With a knight and four squiers,
Hadde ihonted a der other two,
And al here houndes weren ago.
Than was thar a dragon grim,
Ful of filth and of venim,
With wide throte and teth grete,
And wynges bitere with to bete.
As a lyoun he hadde fet,
And his tail was long and gret.
The smoke com of his nose awai
Ase fer out of a chimenai.
The knyght and squiers he had torent,
Man and hors to dethe chent.
The dragon the Erl assaile gan,
And he defended him as a man,
And stoutliche leid on with his swerd,
And stronge strokes on him gerd;
Ac alle his dentes ne greved him nowt:
His hide was hard so iren wrout.
Therl flei fram tre to tre Fein he wolde fram him be And the dragon him gan asail;
The doughti Erl in that batail
Ofsegh this child Degarre;
'Ha! help!' he seide, 'par charité!'
The dragoun seth the child com;
He laft the Erl and to him nom
Blowinde and yeniend also
Als he him wolde swolewe tho.
Ac Degarre was ful strong;
He tok his bat, gret and long,
And in the forehefd he him batereth
200
That al the forehefd he tospatereth.
He fil adoun anon right,
And frapte his tail with gret might
Upon Degarres side,
That up-so-doun he gan to glide;
Ac he stert up ase a man
And with his bat leide upan,
And al tofrusst him ech a bon,
That he lai ded, stille as a ston.
Therl knelede adoun bilive
And thonked the child of his live,
And maked him with him gon
To his castel right anon,
And wel at hese he him made,
And proferd him al that he hade,
Rentes, tresor, an eke lond,
For to holden in his hond.
Thanne answerede Degarre,
'Lat come ferst bifor me
Thi levedi and other wimmen bold,
Maidenes and widues, yonge and olde,
And other damoiseles swete.
Yif mine gloven beth to hem mete
For to done upon here honde,
Thanne ich wil take thi londe;
And yif thai ben nowt so,
Iich wille take me leve and go.'
Alle wimman were forht ibrowt
In wide cuntries and forth isowt:
Ech the gloven assaie bigan,
Ac non ne mighte don hem on.
He tok his gloven and up hem dede,
And nam his leve in that stede.
The Erl was gentil man of blod,
And gaf him a stede ful god
And noble armure, riche and fin,
When he wolde armen him therin,
And a palefrai to riden an,
And a knave to ben his man,
And yaf him a swerd bright,
And dubbed him ther to knyght,
And swor bi God Almighti
201
That he was better worthi
To usen hors and armes also
Than with his bat aboute to go.
Sire Degarre was wel blithe,
And thanked the Erl mani a sithe,
And lep upon hiis palefrai,
And doht him forth in his wai;
Upon his stede righte his man,
And ledde his armes als he wel can;
Mani a jorné thai ride and sette.
So on a dai gret folk thei mette,
Erles and barouns of renoun,
That come fram a cité toun.
He asked a seriaunt what tiding,
And whennes hii come and what is this thing?
'Sire,' he seide, 'verraiment,
We come framward a parlement.
The King a gret counseil made
For nedes that he to don hade.
Whan the parlement was plener,
He lette crie fer and ner,
Yif ani man were of armes so bold
That with the King justi wold,
He sscholde have in mariage
His dowter and his heritage,
That is kingdom god and fair,
For he had non other hair.
Ac no man ne dar graunte therto,
For mani hit assaieth and mai nowt do:
Mani erl and mani baroun,
Knightes and squiers of renoun;
Ac ech man, that him justeth with, tit
Hath of him a foul despit:
Some he breketh the nekke anon,
And of some the rig-bon;
Some thourgh the bodi he girt,
Ech is maimed other ihirt;
Ac no man mai don him no thing
Swich wonder chaunce hath the King.
Sire Degarre thous thenche gan:
'Ich am a staleworht man,
And of min owen ich have a stede,
202
Swerd and spere and riche wede;
And yif ich felle the Kyng adoun,
Evere ich have wonnen renoun;
And thei that he me herte sore,
No man wot wer ich was bore.
Whether deth other lif me bitide,
Agen the King ich wille ride!'
In the cité his in he taketh,
And resteth him and meri maketh.
On a dai with the King he mette,
And knelede adoun and him grette:
'Sire King,' he saide, 'of muchel might,
Mi loverd me sende hider anon right
For to warne you that he
Bi thi leve wolde juste with the,
And winne thi dowter, yif he mai;
As the cri was this ender dai,
Justes he had to the inome.'
'De par Deus!' quath the King, 'he is welcome.
Be he baroun, be he erl,
Be he burgeis, be he cherl,
No man wil I forsake.
He that winneth al sschal take.'
Amorewe the justes was iset;
The King him purveid wel the bet,
And Degarre ne knew no man,
Ac al his trust is God upon.
Erliche to churche than wente he;
The masse he herde of the Trinité.
To the Fader he offreth hon florine,
And to the Sone another al so fine,
And to the Holi Gost the thridde;
The prest for him ful yerne gan bidde.
And tho the servise was idon,
To his in he wente wel son
And let him armi wel afin,
In god armes to justi in.
His gode stede he gan bistride;
His squier bar his sschaft biside;
In the feld the King he abide gan,
As he com ridend with mani a man,
Stoutliche out of the cité toun,
203
With mani a lord of gret renoun;
Ac al that in the felde beth
That the justes iseth
Seide that hi never yit iseghe
So pert a man with here egye
As was this gentil Degarre,
Ac no man wiste whennes was he.
Bothe thai gonne to justi than,
Ac Degarre can nowt theron.
The King hath the gretter schaft
And kan inowgh of the craft.
To breke his nekke he had iment:
In the helm he set his dent,
That the schaft al tosprong;
Ac Degarre was so strong
That in the sadel stille he set,
And in the stiropes held his fet;
For sothe I seie, withoute lesing,
He ne couthe nammore of justing.
'Allas!' quath the King, 'allas!
Me ne fil nevere swich a cas,
That man that ich mighte hitte
After mi strok mighte sitte!'
He taketh a wel gretter tre
And swor so he moste ithe,
'Yif his nekke nel nowt atwo,
His rigg schal, ar ich hennes go!'
He rod eft with gret raundoun
And thought to beren him adoun,
And girt Degarre anon
Right agein the brest-bon
The schaft was stef and wonder god,
And Degarre stede astod,
And al biforen he ros on heghth,
And tho was he ifallen neghth;
But as God Almighti wold,
The schaft brak and might nowt hold,
And Degarre his cours out ritte,
And was agramed out of his witte.
'Allas!' quath he, 'for vilaynie!
The King me hath ismiten twie,
And I ne touchede him nowt yete.
204
Nou I schal avise me bette!'
He turned his stede with herte grim,
And rod to the King, and he to him,
And togider thai gert ful right,
And in the scheldes here strokes pight
That the speres al toriveth
And up right to here honde sliveth,
That alle the lordings that ther ben
That the justing mighte sen
Seiden hi ne seghe never with egye
Man that mighte so longe dreghye,
In wraththe for nothing,
Sitten a strok of here King;
'Ac he his doughti for the nones,
A strong man of bodi and bones.'
The King with egre mod gan speke:
'Do bring me a schaft that wil nowt breke!
A, be mi trewthe, he sschal adoun!
Thai he be strengere than Sampson;
And thei he be the bare qued,
He sschal adoun, maugré his heved!'
He tok a schaft was gret and long,
The schild another al so strong;
And to the King wel evene he rit;
The King faileth, and he him smit;
His schaft was strong and god withal,
And wel scharped the coronal.
He smot the Kyng in the lainer:
He might flit nother fer ne ner.
The King was strong and harde sat;
The stede ros up biforn with that,
And Sire Degarre so thriste him than
That, maugré whoso grochche bigan,
Out of the sadel he him cast,
Tail over top, right ate last.
Than was ther long houting and cri;
The King was sor asschamed forthi;
The lordinges comen with might and mein
And broughte the King on horse agein,
An seide with o criing, iwis,
'Child Degarre hath wonne the pris!'
Than was the damaisele sori,
205
For hi wist wel forwhi:
That hi scholde ispoused ben
To a knight that sche never had sen,
And lede here lif with swich a man
That sche ne wot who him wan,
No in what londe he was ibore;
Carful was the levedi therefore.
Than seide the King to Degarre,
'Min hende sone, com hider to me:
And thou were al so gentil a man
As thou semest with sight upan,
And ase wel couthest wisdomes do
As thou art staleworht man therto,
Me thouwte mi kingdoms wel biset:
Ac be thou werse, be thou bet,
Covenaunt ich wille the holde.
Lo, her biforn mi barons bolde,
Mi douwter I take the bi the hond,
And seise the her in al mi lond.
King thou scalt ben after me:
God graunte the god man for to be!'
Than was the child glad and blithe,
And thonked the Kyng mani a sithe.
Gret perveaunce than was ther iwrout:
To churche thai were togidere ibrout,
And spoused that levedi verraiment,
Under Holi Sacrement.
Lo, what chaunse and wonder strong
Bitideth mani a man with wrong,
That cometh into an uncouthe thede
And spouseth wif for ani mede
And knowes nothing of hire kin,
Ne sche of his, neither more ne min,
And beth iwedded togider to libbe
Par aventoure, and beth neghth sibbe!
So dede Sire Degarre the bold
Spoused ther is moder
And that hende levedi also
Here owene sone was spoused to,
That sche upon here bodi bar.
Lo, what aventoure fil hem thar!
But God, that alle thingge mai stere,
206
Wolde nowt that thai sinned ifere:
To chirche thai wente with barouns bolde;
A riche feste thai gonne to holde;
And wan was wel ipassed non
And the dai was al idon,
To bedde thai sscholde wende, that fre,
The dammaisele and Sire Degarre.
He stod stille and bithouwte him than
Hou the hermite, the holi man,
Bad he scholde no womman take
For faired ne for riches sake
But she mighte this gloves two
Lightliche on hire hondes do.
'Allas, allas!' than saide he,
'What meschaunce is comen to me?
A wai! witles wrechche ich am!
Iich hadde levere than this kingdam
That is iseised into min hond
That ich ware faire out of this lond!'
He wrang his hondes and was sori,
Ac no man wiste therefore wi.
The King parceyved and saide tho,
'Sire Degarre, wi farest thou so?
Is ther ani thing don ille,
Spoken or seid agen thi wille?'
'Ya, sire,' he saide, 'bi Hevene King!'
'I chal never, for no spousing,
Therwhiles I live, with wimman dele,
Widue ne wif ne dammeisele,
But she this gloves mai take and fonde
And lightlich drawen upon hire honde.'
His yonge bride that gan here,
And al for thout chaunged hire chere
And ate laste gan to turne here mod:
Here visage wex ase red ase blod:
She knew tho gloves that were hire.
'Schewe hem hider, leve sire.'
Sche tok the gloves in that stede
And lightliche on hire hondes dede,
And fil adoun, with revli crie,
And seide, 'God, mercy, mercie!
Thou art mi sone hast spoused me her,
207
And ich am, sone, thi moder der.
Ich hadde the loren, ich have the founde;
Blessed be Jhesu Crist that stounde!'
Sire Degarre tok his moder tho
And helde here in his armes two.
Keste and clepte here mani a sithe;
That hit was sche, he was ful blithe.
Than the Kyng gret wonder hadde
Why that noise that thai made,
And mervailed of hire crying,
And seide, 'Doughter, what is this thing?'
'Fader,' she seide, 'thou schalt ihere:
Thou wenest that ich a maiden were,
Ac certes, nay, sire, ich am non:
Twenti winter nou hit is gon
That mi maidenhed I les
In a forest as I wes,
And this is mi sone, God hit wot:
Bi this gloves wel ich wot.'
She told him al that sothe ther,
Hou the child was geten and wher;
And hou that he was boren also,
To the hermitage yhe sente him tho,
And seththen herd of him nothing;
'But thanked be Jhesu, Hevene King,
Iich have ifounde him alive!
Ich am his moder and ek his wive!'
'Leve moder,' seide Sire Degarre,
'Telle me the sothe, par charité:
Into what londe I mai terne
To seke mi fader, swithe and yerne?'
'Sone,' she saide, 'bi Hevene Kyng,
I can the of him telle nothing
But tho that he fram me raught,
His owen swerd he me bitaught,
And bad ich sholde take hit the forthan
Yif thou livedest and were a man.'
The swerd sche fet forht anon right,
And Degarre hit out plight.
Brod and long and hevi hit wes:
In that kyngdom no swich nes.
Than seide Degarre forthan,
208
'Whoso hit aught, he was a man!
Nou ich have that ikepe,
Night ne dai nel ich slepe
Til that I mi fader see,
Yif God wile that hit so be.'
In the cité he reste al night.
Amorewe, whan hit was dai-lit,
He aros and herde his masse;
He dighte him and forth gan passe.
Of al that cité than moste non
Neither with him riden ne gon
But his knave, to take hede
To his armour and his stede.
Forth he rod in his wai
Mani a pas and mani jurnai;
So longe he passede into west
That he com into theld forest
Ther he was bigeten som while.
Therinne he rideth mani a mile;
Mani a dai he ride gan;
No quik best he fond of man,
Ac mani wilde bestes he seghth
And foules singen on heghth.
So longe hit drouwth to the night,
The sonne was adoune right.
Toward toun he wolde ride,
But he nist never bi wiche side.
Thenne he segh a water cler,
And amidde a river,
A fair castel of lim and ston:
Other wonying was ther non.
To his knave he seide, 'Tide wat tide,
O fote forther nel I ride,
Ac here abide wille we,
And aske herberewe par charité,
Yif ani quik man be here on live.'
To the water thai come als swithe;
The bregge was adoune tho,
And the gate open also,
And into the castel he gan spede.
First he stabled up his stede;
He taiede up his palefrai.
209
Inough he fond of hote and hai;
He bad his grom on heying
Kepen wel al here thing.
He passed up into the halle,
Biheld aboute, and gan to calle;
Ac neither on lond ne on hegh
No quik man he ne segh.
Amidde the halle flore
A fir was bet, stark an store, 7
'Par fai,' he saide, 'ich am al sure
He that bette that fure
Wil comen hom yit tonight;
Abiden ich wille a litel wight.'
He sat adoun upon the dais,
And warmed him wel eche wais,
And he biheld and undernam
Hou in at the dore cam
Four dammaiseles, gent and fre;
Ech was itakked to the kne.
The two bowen an arewen bere,
The other two icharged were
With venesoun, riche and god.
And Sire Degarre upstod
And gret hem wel fair aplight,
Ac thai answerede no wight,
But yede into chaumbre anon
And barred the dore after son.
Sone therafter withalle
Ther com a dwerw into the halle.
Four fet of lengthe was in him;
His visage was stout and grim;
Bothe his berd and his fax
Was crisp an yhalew as wax;
Grete sscholdres and quarré;
Right stoutliche loked he;
Mochele were hise fet and honde
Ase the meste man of the londe;
He was iclothed wel aright,
His sschon icouped as a knight;
He hadde on a sorcot overt,
Iforred with blaundeuer apert.
Sire Degarre him biheld and lowggh,
210
And gret him fair inowggh,
Ac he ne answerede nevere a word,
But sette trestles and laid the bord,
And torches in the halle he lighte,
And redi to the soper dighte.
Than ther com out of the bour
A dammeisele of gret honour;
In the lond non fairer nas;
In a diapre clothed she was
With hire come maidenes tene,
Some in scarlet, some in grene,
Gent of bodi, of semblaunt swete,
And Degarre hem gan grete;
Ac hi ne answerede no wight,
But yede to the soper anon right.
'Certes,' quath Sire Degarre,
'Ich have hem gret, and hi nowt me;
But thai be domb, bi and bi
Thai schul speke first ar I.'
The levedi that was of rode so bright,
Amidde she sat anon right,
And on aither half maidenes five.
The dwerw hem servede al so blive
With riche metes and wel idight;
The coppe he filleth with alle his might.
Sire Degarre couthe of curteisie:
He set a chaier bifore the levedie,
And therin himselve set,
And tok a knif and carf his met;
At the soper litel at he,
But biheld the levedi fre,
And segh ase feir a wimman
Als he hevere loked an,
That al his herte and his thout
Hire to love was ibrowt.
And tho thai hadde souped anowgh,
The drew com, and the cloth he drough;
The levedis wessche everichon
And yede to chaumbre quik anon.
Into the chaumbre he com ful sone.
The levedi on here bed set,
And a maide at here fet,
211
And harpede notes gode and fine;
Another broughte spices and wine.
Upon the bedde he set adoun
To here of the harpe soun.
For murthe of notes so sschille,
He fel adoun on slepe stille;
So he slep al that night.
The levedi wreith him warm aplight,
And a pilewe under his heved dede,
And yede to bedde in that stede.
Amorewe whan hit was dai-light,
Sche was uppe and redi dight.
Faire sche waked him tho:
'Aris!' she seide, 'graith the, an go!'
And saide thus in here game:
'Thou art worth to suffri schame,
That al night as a best sleptest,
And non of mine maidenes ne keptest.'
'O gentil levedi,' seide Degarre,
'For Godes love, forgif hit me!
Certes the murie harpe hit made,
Elles misdo nowt I ne hade;
Ac tel me, levedi so hende,
Ar ich out of thi chaumber wende,
Who is louerd of this lond?
And who this castel hath in hond?
Wether thou be widue or wif,
Or maiden yit of clene lif?
And whi her be so fele wimman
Allone, withouten ani man?'
The dameisele sore sighte,
And bigan to wepen anon righte,
'Sire, wel fain ich telle the wolde,
Yif evere the better be me sscholde.
Mi fader was a riche baroun,
And hadde mani a tour and toun.
He ne hadde no child but me;
Ich was his air of his cuntré.
In mené ich hadde mani a knight
And squiers that were gode and light,
An staleworht men of mester,
To serve in court fer and ner;
212
Ac thanne is thar here biside
A sterne knight, iknawe ful wide.
Ich wene in Bretaine ther be non
So strong a man so he is on.
He had ilove me ful yore;
Ac in herte nevere more
Ne mighte ich lovie him agein;
But whenne he seghye ther was no gein,
He was aboute with maistri
For to ravisse me awai.
Mine knightes wolde defende me,
And ofte fowghten hi an he;
The beste he slowgh the firste dai,
And sethen an other, par ma fai,
And sethen the thridde and the ferthe, The beste that mighte gon on erthe!
Mine squiers that weren so stoute,
Bi foure, bi five, thai riden oute,
On hors armed wel anowgh:
His houen bodi he hem slough.
Mine men of mester he slough alle,
And other pages of mine halle.
Therfore ich am sore agast
Lest he wynne me ate last.'
With this word sche fil to grounde,
And lai aswone a wel gret stounde.
Hire maidenes to hire come
And in hire armes up hire nome.
He beheld the levedi with gret pité.
'Loveli madame,' quath he,
'On of thine ich am here:
Ich wille the help, be mi pouere.'
'Yhe, sire,' she saide, 'than al mi lond
Ich wil the give into thin hond,
And at thi wille bodi mine,
Yif thou might wreke me of hine.'
Tho was he glad al for to fighte,
And wel gladere that he mighte
Have the levedi so bright
Yif he slough that other knight.
And als thai stod and spak ifere,
A maiden cried, with reuful chere,
213
'Her cometh oure enemi, faste us ate!
Drauwe the bregge and sschet the gate,
Or he wil slen ous everichone!'
Sire Degarre stirt up anon
And at a window him segh,
Wel i-armed on hors hegh;
A fairer bodi than he was on
In armes ne segh he never non.
Sire Degarre armed him blive
And on a stede gan out drive.
With a spere gret of gayn,
To the knight he rit agein.
The knighte spere al tosprong,
Ac Degarre was so strong
And so harde to him thrast,
But the knight sat so fast,
That the stede rigge tobrek
And fel to grounde, and he ek;
But anon stirt up the knight
And drough out his swerd bright.
'Alight,' he saide, 'adoun anon;
To fight thou sschalt afote gon.
For thou hast slawe mi stede,
Deth-dint schal be thi mede;
Ac thine stede sle I nille,
Ac on fote fighte ich wille.'
Than on fote thai toke the fight,
And hewe togidere with brondes bright.
The knight gaf Sire Degarre
Sterne strokes gret plenté,
And he him agen also,
That helm and scheld cleve atwo.
The knight was agreved sore
That his armour toburste thore:
A strok he gaf Sire Degarre,
That to grounde fallen is he;
But he stirt up anon right,
And swich a strok he gaf the knight
Upon his heved so harde iset
Thurh helm and heved and bacinet
That ate brest stod the dent;
Ded he fil doun, verraiment.
214
The levedi lai in o kernel,
And biheld the batail everi del.
She ne was never er so blithe:
Sche thankede God fele sithe.
Sire Degarre com into castel;
Agein him com the dammaisel,
And thonked him swithe of that dede.
Into chaumber sche gan him lede,
And unarmed him anon,
And set him hire bed upon,
And saide, 'Sire, par charité,
I the prai dwel with me,
And al mi lond ich wil the give,
And miselve, whil that I live.'
'Grant merci, dame,' saide Degarre,
'Of the gode thou bedest me:
Wende ich wille into other londe,
More of haventours for to fonde;
And be this twelve moneth be go,
Agein ich wil come the to.'
The levedi made moche mourning
For the knightes departing,
And gaf him a stede, god and sur,
Gold and silver an god armur,
And bitaught him Jhesu, Hevene King.
And sore thei wepen at here parting.
Forht wente Sire Degarre
Thurh mani a divers cuntré;
Ever mor he rod west.
So in a dale of o forest
He mette with a doughti knight
Upon a stede, god and light,
In armes that were riche and sur,
With the sscheld of asur
And thre bor-hevedes therin
Wel ipainted with gold fin.
Sire Degarre anon right
Hendeliche grette the knight,
And saide, 'Sire, God with the be;'
And thous agein answered he:
'Velaun, wat dost thou here,
In mi forest to chase mi dere?'
215
Degarre answerede with wordes meke:
'Sire, thine der nougt I ne seke:
Iich am an aunterous knight,
For to seche werre and fight.'
The knight saide, withouten fail,
'Yif thou comest to seke batail,
Here thou hast thi per ifounde:
Arme the swithe in this stounde!'
Sire Degarre and his squier
Armed him in riche atir,
With an helm riche for the nones,
Was ful of precious stones
That the maide him gaf, saun fail,
For whom he did rather batail.
A sscheld he kest aboute his swere
That was of armes riche and dere,
With thre maidenes hevedes of silver bright,
With crounes of gold precious of sight.
A sschaft he tok that was nowt smal,
With a kene coronal.
His squier tok another spere;
Bi his louerd he gan hit bere.
Lo, swich aventoure ther gan bitide The sone agein the fader gan ride,
And noither ne knew other no wight! 8
Nou biginneth the firste fight.
Sire Degarre tok his cours thare;
Agen his fader a sschaft he bare;
To bere him doun he hadde imint.
Right in the sscheld he set his dint;
The sschaft brak to peces al,
And in the sscheld lat the coronal.
Another cours thai gonne take;
The fader tok, for the sones sake,
A sschaft that was gret and long,
And he another also strong.
Togider thai riden with gret raundoun,
And aither bar other adoun.
With dintes that thai smiten there,
Here stede rigges toborsten were.
Afote thai gonne fight ifere
And laiden on with swerdes clere.
216
The fader amerveiled wes
Whi his swerd was pointles,
And seide to his sone aplight,
'Herkne to me a litel wight:
Wher were thou boren, in what lond?'
'In Litel Bretaigne, ich understond:
Kingges doughter sone, witouten les,
Ac I not wo mi fader wes.'
'What is thi name?' than saide he.
'Certes, men clepeth me Degarre.'
'O Degarre, sone mine!
Certes ich am fader thine!
And bi thi swerd I knowe hit here:
The point is in min aumenere.'
He tok the point and set therto;
Degarre fel iswone tho,
And his fader, sikerli,
Also he gan swony;
And whan he of swone arisen were,
The sone cride merci there
His owen fader of his misdede,
And he him to his castel gan lede,
And bad him dwelle with him ai.
'Certes, sire,' he saide, 'nai;
Ac yif hit youre wille were,
To mi moder we wende ifere,
For she is in gret mourning.'
'Blethelich,' quath he, 'bi Hevene Kyng.'
Syr Degaré and hys father dere,
Into Ynglond they went in fere.
They were armyd and well dyghtt.
As sone as the lady saw that knyght,
Wonther wel sche knew the knyght;
Anon sche chaungyd hur colowr aryght,
And seyd, 'My dere sun, Degaré,
Now thou hast broughtt thy father wyth the!'
'Ye, madame, sekyr thow be!
Now well y wot that yt ys he.'
'I thank, by God,' seyd the kyng,
'Now y wot, wythowtt lesyng,
Who Syr Degaré his father was!'
The lady swounyd in that plass.
217
Then afterward, now sykyrly,
The knyghtt weddyd the lady.
Sche and hur sun were partyd atwynn,
For they were to nyghe off kyn.
Now went forth Syr Degaré;
Wyth the kyng and his meyné,
His father and his mother dere.
Unto that castel thei went infere
Wher that wonnyd that lady bryght
That he hadd wonne in gret fyght,
And weddyd hur wyth gret solempnité
Byfor all the lordis in that cuntré.
Thus cam the knyght outt of his care;
God yff us grace well to fare.
Amen
~ Anonymous,#NFDB
238:The Libelle Of Englyshe Polycye
Here beginneth the Prologe of the processe of the Libelle of Englyshe polycye,
exhortynge alle Englande to kepe the see enviroun and namelye the narowe see,
shewynge whate profete commeth thereof and also whate worshype and
salvacione to Englande and to alle Englyshe menne.
The trewe processe of Englysh polycye
Of utterwarde to kepe thys regne in rest
Of oure England, that no man may denye
Ner say of soth but it is one the best,
Is thys, as who seith, south, north, est and west
Cheryshe marchandyse, kepe thamyralte,
That we bee maysteres of the narowe see.
For Sigesmonde the grete Emperoure,
Whyche yet regneth, whan he was in this londe
Wyth kynge Herry the vte, prince of honoure,
Here moche glorye, as hym thought, he founde,
A myghty londe, whyche hadde take on honde
To werre in Fraunce and make mortalite,
And ever well kept rounde aboute the see.
And to the kynge thus he seyde, 'My brothere',
Whan he perceyved too townes, Calys and Dovere,
'Of alle youre townes to chese of one and other
To kepe the see and sone for to come overe,
To werre oughtwardes and youre regne to recovere,
Kepe these too townes sure to youre mageste
As youre tweyne eyne to kepe the narowe see'.
For if this see be kepte in tyme of werre,
Who cane here passe withought daunger and woo?
Who may eschape, who may myschef dyfferre?
What marchaundy may forby be agoo?
For nedes hem muste take truse every foo,
Flaundres and Spayne and othere, trust to me,
Or ellis hyndered alle for thys narowe see.
949
Therfore I caste me by a lytell wrytinge
To shewe att eye thys conclusione,
For concyens and for myne acquytynge
Ayenst God, and ageyne abusyon
And cowardyse and to oure enmyes confusione;
For iiij. thynges oure noble sheueth to me,
Kyng, shype and swerde and pouer of the see.
Where bene oure shippes, where bene oure swerdes become?
Owre enmyes bid for the shippe sette a shepe.
Allas, oure reule halteth, hit is benome.
Who dare weel say that lordeshype shulde take kepe,
(I wolle asaye, thoughe myne herte gynne to wepe,
To do thys werke) yf we wole ever the,
For verry shame to kepe aboute the see?
Shall any prynce, what so be hys name,
Wheche hathe nobles moche lyche to oures,
Be lorde of see and Flemmynges to oure blame
Stoppe us, take us and so make fade the floures
Of Englysshe state and disteyne oure honnoures?
For cowardyse, allas, hit shulde so be;
Therfore I gynne to wryte now of the see.
Of the commodytees of Spayne and of Flaundres. The fyrste chapitle.
Knowe welle all men that profites in certayne
Commodytes called commynge oute of Spayne
And marchandy, who so wyll wete what that is,
Bene fygues, raysyns, wyne, bastarde and dates,
And lycorys, Syvyle oyle and also grayne,
Whyte Castell sope and wax is not in vayne,
Iren, wolle, wadmole, gotefel, kydefel also,
(For poyntmakers full nedefull be the ij.)
Saffron, quiksilver; wheche Spaynes marchandy
Is into Flaundres shypped full craftylye
Unto Bruges as to here staple fayre.
The havene of Sluse they have for here repayre,
950
Wheche is cleped the Swyne, thro shyppes gydynge,
Where many wessell and fayre arne abydynge.
But these merchandes wyth there shyppes greet,
And suche chaffare as they bye and gette
By the weyes, most nede take one honde
By the costes to passe of oure Englonde
Betwyxt Dover and Calys, thys is no doute.
Who can weell ellis suche matere bringe aboute?
And whenne these seyde marchauntz discharged be
Of marchaundy in Flaundres neere the see,
Than they be charged agayn wyth marchaundy
That to Flaundres longeth full rychelye,
Fyne clothe of Ipre, that named is better than oures,
Cloothe of Curtryke, fyne cloothe of all colours,
Moche fustyane and also lynen cloothe.
But ye Flemmyngis, yf ye be not wrothe,
The grete substaunce of youre cloothe at the fulle
Ye wot ye make hit of oure Englissh wolle.
Thanne may hit not synke in mannes brayne
But that hit most, this marchaundy of Spayne,
Bothe oute and inne by oure coostes passe?
He that seyth nay in wytte is lyche an asse.
Thus if thys see werre kepte, I dare well sayne,
Wee shulde have pease with tho growndes tweyne;
For Spayne and Flaundres is as yche othere brothere,
And nethere may well lyve wythowghten othere.
They may not lyven to mayntene there degrees
Wythoughten oure Englysshe commodytees,
Wolle and tynne, for the wolle of Englonde
Susteyneth the comons Flemmynges I understonde.
Thane, yf Englonde wolde hys wolle restreyne
Frome Flaundres, thys foloweth in certayne,
Flaundres of nede muste wyth us have pease
Or ellis he is distroyde wythowghten lees.
Also, yef Flaundres thus distroyed bee,
Some marchaundy of Spayne wolle nevere ithe.
For distroyed hit is, and as in cheffe
The wolle of Spayne hit cometh not to preffe
But if it be tosed and menged well
Amonges Englysshe wolle the gretter delle;
For Spayneshe wolle in Flaundres draped is
And evere hath be that mene have mynde of this.
951
And yet woll is one the cheffe marchaundy
That longeth to Spayne, who so woll aspye;
Hit is of lytell valeue, trust unto me,
Wyth Englysshe woll but if it menged be.
Thus, if the see be kepte, then herkene hedere,
Yf these ij. londes comene not togedere,
So that the flete of Flaundres passe nought,
That in the narowe see it be not brought
Into the Rochell to feche the fumose wyne,
Nere into Britounse bay for salt so fyne,
What is than Spayne, what is Flaundres also?
As who seyth, nought; there thryfte is alle ago.
For the lytell londe of Flaundres is
But a staple to other londes iwys,
And all that groweth in Flaundres, greyn and sede,
May not a moneth fynde hem mete of brede.
What hath thenne Flaundres, be Flemmynges leffe or lothe,
But a lytell madere and Flemmyshe cloothe?
By draperinge of oure wolle in substaunce
Lyvene here comons, this is here governaunce,
Wythoughten whyche they may not leve at ease;
Thus moste hem sterve or wyth us most have peasse.
Of the commoditees of Portingalle. The ij. capitle.
The marchaundy also of Portyngale
To dyverse londes torneth into sale.
Portyngalers wyth us have trought on hande,
Whose marchaundy cometh muche into Englande.
They bene oure frendes wyth there commoditez,
And wee Englysshe passen into there countrees.
Here londe hathe oyle, wyne, osey, wex and greyne,
Fygues, reysyns, hony and cordeweyne,
Dates and salt hydes and suche marchaundy.
And if they wolde to Flaundres passe forth bye,
They schulde not be suffrede ones ner twyes
For supportynge of oure cruell enmyes,
That is to saye Flemmynges wyth here gyle,
For chaungeable they are in lytel whyle.
Than I conclude by resons many moo,
Yf wee sufferede nethere frende nere foo,
What for enmyes and so supportynge,
952
To passe forby us in tyme of werrynge,
(Sethe oure frendys woll not bene in causse
Of oure hyndrenge, yf reason lede thys clausse)
Than nede frome Flaundres pease of us be sought,
And othere londes shulde seche pease, doute nought;
For Flaundres is staple, as men tell me,
To alle nacyons of Crystiante.
The commodytes of Pety Brytayne, wyth here revers on the see. The iij. capitle.
Forthermore to wryten I hame fayne
Somwhate spekynge of the Lytell Bretayne.
Commodite therof there is and was
Salt and wynes, crestclothe and canvasse;
And the londe of Flaunderes sekerly
Is the staple of there marchaundy,
Wheche marchaundy may not passe awey
But by the coste of Englonde, this is no nay.
And of thys Bretayn, who so trewth levys,
Are the gretteste rovers and the gretteste thevys
That have bene in the see many a yere;
And that oure marchauntes have bowght alle to dere.
For they have take notable gode of oures
On thys seyde see, these false coloured pelours,
Called of Seynt Malouse and elles where,
Wheche to there duke none obeysaunce woll bere.
Wyth suche colours we have bene hindred sore,
And fayned pease is called no werre herefore.
Thus they have bene in dyverse costes manye
Of oure England, mo than reherse can I,
In Northfolke coostes and othere places aboute,
And robbed and brente and slayne by many a routte;
And they have also raunsouned toune by toune,
That into the regnes of bost have ronne here soune,
Whyche hathe bene ruthe unto thys realme and shame.
They that the see shulde kepe are moche to blame;
For Brytayne is of easy reputasyone,
And Seynt Malouse turneth hem to reprobacione.
A storie of kynge Edwarde the iiide hys ordynaunce for Bretayne.
Here brynge I in a storye to me lente,
953
That a goode squyere in tyme of parlemente
Toke unto me well wrytene in a scrowe,
That I have comonde bothe wyth hygh and lowe;
Of whyche all mene accordene into one
That hit was done not monye yeris agone,
But whene that noble kyng Edwarde the thride
Regned in grace ryght thus hit betyde.
For he hadde a manere gelozye
To hys marchauntes and lowede hem hartelye.
He felt the weyes to reule well the see,
Whereby marchauntes myght have prosperite.
Therfore Harflewe and Houndflewe dyd he makene,
And grete werres that tyme were undertakene
Betwyx the kynge and the duke of Bretayne.
At laste to falle to pease bothe were they feyne,
Upon the whyche, made by convencione,
Oure marchaundys they made hem redy boune
Towarde Brytayne to lede here marchaundye,
Wenynge hem frendes, and wente forthe boldelye.
But sone anone oure marchaundes were itake,
And wee spede nevere the better for treuse sake;
They loste here goode, here navy and spendynge.
But when there compleynte come unto the kynge,
Then wex he wrothe and to the duke he sente
And compleyned that such harme was hente
By convencione and pease made so refused.
Whiche duke sent ageyne and hym excused,
Rehersynge that the Mount of Seynte Michell
And Seynt Malouse wolde nevere a dele
Be subject unto his governaunce
Ner be undere hys obë¹³aunce,
And so they did withowten hym that dede.
But whan the kynge anone had takene hede,
He in his herte set a jugemente,
Wythoute callynge of ony parlemente
Or grete tary to take longe avyse;
To fortefye anone he dyd devyse
Of Englysshe townes iij., that is to seye
Derthmouth, Plymmouth, the thyrde it is Foweye,
And gaffe hem helpe and notable puissaunce,
Wyth insistence set them in governaunce
Upon the Pety Bretayn for to werre.
954
Than gode seemenne wolde no more deferre,
But bete theme home and made they myght not route,
Tooke prysoners and lernyd hem for to loutte.
And efte the duke in semblable wyse
Wrote to the kynge as he fyrste dyd devyse,
Hym excusynge; bot oure meny wode
Wyth grete poure passed overe the floode
And werred forth into the dukes londe
And had neygh destrued free and bonde.
But whan the duke knewe that tho townes thre
Shulde have loste all hys natale cuntree,
He undertoke by sewrte trewe not false
For Mount Seynt Mychelle and Seinte Malouse als
And othere partees of the Lytell Bretaynne,
Whych to obeye, as seyde was, were nott fayne.
The duke hymselfe for all dyd undertake,
Wyth all hys herte a full pease dyd he make,
So that in all the lyffe tyme of the kynge
Marchaundes hadde pease wythowtene werrynge.
He made a statute for Lumbardes in thys londe,
That they shulde in no wysse take on honde
Here to enhabite, to charge and to dyscharge,
But xl. dayes, no more tyme had they large.
Thys goode kynge be wytt of suche appreffe
Kepte hys marchauntes and the see fro myscheffe.
Of the commodites of Scotelonde and drapynge of here woll in Flaundres. The iiij.
chapitle.
Moreover of Scotlonde the commoditees
Ar felles, hydes and of wolle the fleesse;
And alle these muste passe bye us aweye
Into Flaundres by Englonde, sothe to saye.
And all here woll was draped for to sell
In the townes of Poperynge and of Bell,
Whyche my lorde of Glowcestre wyth ire
For here falshede dyd sett upon a fyre.
And yett they of Bell and Poperynge
Cowde never draper her woll for any thynge
But if they hadde Englysshe woll wythall,
955
Oure godely woll that is so generall,
Nedeful to hem in Spayne and Scotlande als
And othere costis; this sentence is not fals.
Ye worthi marchauntes, I do it upon yow;
I have this lerned, ye wott well where and howe.
Ye wotte the staple of that marchaundye
Of this Scotlonde is Flaundres sekerlye.
And the Scottes bene chargede, knowene at the eye,
Out of Flaundres wyth lytyll mercerye
And grete plentee of haburdasshers ware;
And halfe here shippes wyth carte whelys bare
And wyth barowes ar laden as in substaunce.
Thus moste rude ware be in here chevesaunce;
So they may not forbere thys Flemyssh londe.
Therefor if we wolde manly take on honde
To kepe thys see fro Flaundres and fro Spayne
And fro Scotelonde lych as fro Pety Bretayne,
Wee schulde ryght sone have pease for all here bostes,
For they muste nede passe by oure Englysshe costes.
Of the commoditees of Pruse and Hyghe Duchemenne and Esterlynges. The v.
chapitle.
Now goo wee forthe to the commoditees
That cometh fro Pruse in too manere degrees;
For too manere peple have suche use,
This is to sayen Highe Duchmene of Pruse
And Esterlynges, whiche myghte not be forborne
Oute of Flaundres but it were verrely lorne.
For they bringe in the substaunce of the beere
That they drynken fele to goode chepe not dere.
Ye have herde that twoo Flemmynges togedere
Wol undertake, or they goo ony whethere
Or they rise onys, to drinke a barell fulle
Of gode berkyne; so sore they hale and pulle,
Undre the borde they pissen as they sitte.
This cometh of covenaunt of a worthy witte.
Wythoute Calise in ther buttere they cakked,
Whan they flede home and when they leysere lakked
To holde here sege; they wente lyke as a doo,
Wel was that Flemmynge that myght trusse and goo.
For fere they turned bake and hyede faste,
956
Milorde of Gloucestre made hem so agaste
Wyth his commynge and sought hem in here londe
And brente and slowe as he hadde take on honde,
So that oure enmyse durste not byde nor stere;
They flede to mewe, they durste no more appere.
[Thene his meyné ³eidene that he was dede.
Tille we were goo, ther was no bettir reede;
For cowardy knyghthode was aslepe,
As dede there duke in mewe they dide hym kepe,]
Rebukede sore for evere so shamefully
Unto here uttere everelastinge vylany.
After bere and bacone odre gode commodites ensuene.
Now bere and bacone bene fro Pruse ibroughte
Into Flaundres, as loved and fere isoughte,
Osmonde, coppre, bowstaffes, stile and wex,
Peltreware and grey, pych, terre, borde and flex,
And Coleyne threde, fustiane and canvase,
Carde, bokeram; of olde tyme thus it wase.
But the Flemmynges amonge these thinges dere
In comen lowen beste bacon and bere.
[Thus are they hoggishe and drynkyn wele ataunte.
Farewel, Flemmynges, hay haro, hay avaunt.]
Also Pruse mene maken here aventure
Of plate of sylvere, of wegges gode and sure
In grete plente, whiche they bringe and bye
Oute of the londes of B顬me and Hungrye;
Whiche is encrese ful grete unto thys londe.
And thei bene laden agayn, I understonde,
Wyth wollen clothe all manere of coloures
By dyers crafted ful dyverse that bene ours.
And they aventure ful gretly unto the baye
For salte, that is nedefull wythoute naye.
Thus, if they wolde not oure frendys bee,
Wee myght lyghtlye stope hem in the see.
They shulde not passe oure stremes wythoutene leve;
It wolde not be but if we shulde hem greve.
Of the commoditees of the Januays and here grette karekkys. The vi. chapitle.
The Janueys comyne in sondre wyses
957
Into this londe wyth dyverse marchaundyses
In grete karrekkis arrayde wythouten lake
Wyth clothes of golde; silke and pepir blake
They bringe wyth hem and of woad grete plente,
Woll-oyle, wood-aschen by vessell in the see,
Coton, roche-alum and gode golde of Jene.
And they be charged wyth woll ageyne, I wene,
And wollene clothe of owres of colours all.
And they aventure, as ofte it dothe byfall,
Into Flaundres wyth suche thynge as they bye;
That is here cheffe staple sykerlye.
And if they wold be oure full ennemyse,
They shulde not passe oure stremez with marchaundyse.
The commodites and nycetees of Venicyans and Florentynes with there galees.
The vij. capitle.
The grete galees of Venees and Florence
Be wel ladene wyth thynges of complacence,
All spicerye and other grocers ware,
Wyth swete wynes, all manere of chaffare,
Apes and japes and marmusettes taylede,
Nifles, trifles, that litell have availed,
And thynges wyth whiche they fetely blere oure eye,
Wyth thynges not endurynge that we bye.
For moche of thys chaffare that is wastable
Mighte be forborne for dere and dyssevable;
And that I wene as for infirmitees
In oure Englonde are suche comoditees
Wythowten helpe of any other londe,
Whych ben by wytte and prattike bothe ifounde,
That all ill humors myght be voyded sure,
Whych that we gadre wyth oure Englysh cure,
That wee shulde have no nede to skamonye,
Turbit, euforbe, correcte, diagredie,
Rubarbe, sené¬ and yet they bene to nedefulle.
But I knowe wele thynges also spedefull
That growene here as these thynges forseyde.
Lett of this matere no mane be dysmayde,
But that a man may voyde infirmytee
Wythoute drugges fet fro beyonde the see.
And yf there shulde excepte be ony thynge,
958
It were but sugre, truste to my seyinge;
And he that trustith not to my sentence
Lett hym better serche experience.
In this mater I woll not ferthere prese;
Who so not beleveth let hym leve and cease.
Thus these galeise for this lykynge ware
And etynge ware bere hens oure beste chaffare,
Clothe, woll and tynne, whiche, as I seyde beforne,
Oute of this londe werste myght be forborne;
For eche other londe of necessite
Have grete nede to by some of the thre.
And wee resseyve of hem into this coste
Ware and chaffare that lyghtlye wol be loste.
And wolde Ihesu that oure lordis wolde
Considre this wel, both the yonge and olde,
Namelye the olde that have experience,
That myghte the yonge exorten to prudence.
What harme, what hurte and what hinderaunce
Is done to us unto oure grete grevaunce
Of suche londes and of suche nacions,
As experte men knowe by probacions!
By wretynge ar discured oure counsayles
And false coloured alwey the countertayles
Of oure enmyes, that dothe us hinderinge
Unto oure goodes, oure realme and to the kynge,
As wysse men have shewed well at eye,
And alle this is colowred by marchaundye.
Ane emsampelle of deseytte.
Also they bere the golde oute of thys londe
And souke the thryfte awey oute of oure honde;
As the waffore soukethe honye fro the bee,
So myn? oure commodite.
Now woll ye here how they in Cotteswolde
Were wonte to borowe, or they schulde be solde,
Here wolles gode (as als fro yere to yere
Of clothe and tynne they did in lych manere),
And in her galeys schyppe this marchaundye;
Then sone at Venice of them men wol it bye.
959
They utterne ther the chaffare be the payse,
And lyghtlye also ther they make her reys.
And whan tho gode bene at Venice solde,
Than to carrye her chaunge they ben full bolde
Into Flaundres; whan they this money have,
They wyll it profre, ther sotelte to save,
To Englysshe marchaundis to yeve it oute by eschaunge.
To be paide agayne they make it nothing straunge
Here in Englonde, semynge for the better,
At the receyvyng and sighte of a letter,
By iiij. penyes losse in the noble rounde,
That is xij. penyes in the golden pounde.
And yf we woll have of paymente
A full monythe, than moste hym nedes assente
To viij. penyes losse, that is shellynges tweyne
In the Englysshe pounde; as efte sones agayne
For ij. monythes xij. penyes muste he paye.
In the Englysshe pounde what is that to seye
But iij. shyllinges? So that in pounde felle
For hurte and harme harde is wyth hem to delle.
And whene Englysshe marchaundys have contente
This eschaunge in Englonde of assente,
Than these seyde Venecians have in wone
And Florentynes to bere here golde sone
Overe the see into Flaundres ageyne;
And thus they lyve in Flaundres, sothe to sayne,
And in London wyth suche chevesaunce
That men call usure to oure losse and hinderaunce.
Anothere exemple of disceytte.
Now lestene welle how they made us a baleys,
Whan they borowed at the toune of Caleys,
As they were wonte, ther woll that was hem lente;
For yere and yere they schulde make paymente,
And sometyme als for too yere and too yere.
This was fayre lone; but yett woll ye here
How they to Bruges wolde her wolles carye
And for hem take paymente wythowten tarye
And sell it faste for redy money in honde
(For fifty pounde of losse thei wolde not wonde
In a thowsande pounde) and lyve therebye
960
Tyll the day of paymente easylye,
Some gayne ageyne in exchaunge makynge,
Full lyke usurie as men make undertakynge.
Than whan thys payment of a thowsande pounde
Was well contente, they shulde have chaffare sounde
Yff they wolde fro the staple at the full
Reseyve ageyne ther thousande pounde in woll.
[And thus they wolde, if ye will so beleve,
Wypen our nose with our owne sleve.
Thow this proverbe be homly and undew,
Yet be liklynesse it is for soth full trew.]
In Cotteswolde also they ryde aboute
And al Englonde and bien wythouten doute
What them liste wythe fredome and fraunchise,
More then we Englisshe may getyn in any wyse.
But wolde God that wythoute lenger delayse
These galeise were unfraught in xl. daies
And in tho xl. dayes were charged ageyne,
And that they myght be put to certeyne
To go to oste, as wee there wyth hem doo.
It were expediente that they did right soo,
As wee do there; for, if the kynge wolde itt,
A! what worschip wold fall to Englysshe witte!
What profite also to oure marchaundye,
Whiche wolde of nede be cherisshed hartelye!
For I wolde wete why nowe owre navey fayleth,
Whan many a foo us at oure dorre assayleth,
Now in these dayes that, if there come a nede,
What navey shulde wee have it is to drede.
In Denmarke were full noble conquerours
In tyme passed, full worthy werriours,
Whiche when they had here marchaundes destroyde,
To poverte they fell, thus were they noyede,
And so they stonde at myscheffe at this daye.
This lerned I late well wryten, this is no naye.
Therefore beware, I can no better wylle,
Yf grace it woll, of other mennys perylle.
For yef marchaundes were cherysshede to here spede,
We were not lykelye to fayle in ony nede;
Yff they bee riche, thane in prosperite
Schalbe oure londe, lordes and comonte.
And in worship nowe think I on the sonne
961
Of marchaundy Richarde of Whitingdone,
That loodes sterre and chefe chosen floure.
Whate hathe by hym oure England of honoure,
And whate profite hathe bene of his richesse,
And yet lasteth dayly in worthinesse,
That penne and papere may not me suffice
Him to describe, so high he was of prise,
Above marchaundis to sett him one the beste!
I can no more, but God have hym in reste.
Nowe the principalle matere.
What reason is it that wee schulde go to oste
In there cuntrees and in this Englisshe coste
They schulde not so, but have more liberte
Than wee oure selfe? Now, all so mot I the,
I wolde men shulde to geftes take no hede,
That lettith oure thinge publique for to spede.
For this wee see well every day at eye,
Geftes and festes stopene oure pollicye.
Now se that fooles bene eyther they or wee;
But evere wee have the warse in this contre.
Therefore lett hem unto ooste go wyth us here,
Or be wee free wyth hem in like manere
In there cuntres; and if it woll not bee,
Compelle them unto ooste and ye shall see
Moche avauntage and muche profite arise,
Moche more than I write can in any wyse.
Of oure charge and discharge at here martes.
Conseyve well here that Englyssh men at martes
Be discharged, for all her craftes and artes,
In the Braban of all here marchaundy
In xiiij. dayes and ageyne hastely
In the same dayes xiiij. are charged efte.
And yf they byde lengere, alle is berefte;
Anone they schulde forfet here godes all
Or marchaundy, it schulde no bettere fall.
And wee to martis of Braban charged bene
Wyth Englyssh clothe, full gode and feyre to seyne.
Wee bene ageyne charged wyth mercerye,
962
Haburdasshere ware and wyth grocerye.
To whyche martis, that Englissh men call feyres,
Iche nacion ofte maketh here repayeres.
Englysshe and Frensh, Lumbardes, Januayes,
Cathᬯnes, theder they take here wayes;
Scottes, Spaynardes, Iresshmen there abydes,
Whiche grete plente bringen of salte hydes.
And I here saye that wee in Braban bye
Flaundres and Seland more of marchaundy
In comon use then done all other nacions;
This have I herde of marchaundes relacions.
And yff the Englysshe be not in the martis,
They bene febell and as noughte bene here partes;
For they bye more and more fro purse put oute
For marchaundy than all the othere route.
Kepte than the see, shyppes schulde not bringe ne feche,
And than the carreys wolde not theder streche;
And so tho martes wolde full evel thee,
Yf wee manly kepte aboute the see.
Of the commoditees of Brabane and Selande and Henaulde and marchaundyses
caryed by londe to the martes. The viij. chapitle.
The marchaundy of Brabane and Selande
Be madre and woade, that dyers take one hande
To dyen wythe, garleke and onyons,
And saltfysche als for husbond and comons.
But they of Holonde at Caleyse byene oure felles
And oure wolles that Englysshe men hem selles,
And the chefare that Englysshe men do byene
In the martis, that no man may denyene,
It is not made in Brabane that cuntre.
It commeth frome oute of Henaulde, not be the see
But all by londe by carris and frome Fraunce,
Burgoyne, Coleyn, Camerete in substaunce.
Therfore at martis yf there be a restereynte,
Men seyne pleynly, that liste no fables peynte,
Yf Englysshe men be wythdrawene awey,
Is grete rebuke and losse to here affraye,
As thoughe wee sent into the londe of Fraunce
Tenne thousande peple, men of gode puissaunce,
To werre unto her hynderynge multiphary;
963
So bene oure Englysshe marchauntes necessary.
Yf it be thus assay and ye schall weten
Of men experte by whome I have this wryten.
For seyde is that this carted marchaundye
Drawethe in valew as moche verralye
As all the gode that commethe in shippes thedyre,
Whyche Englisshe men bye moste and bryng it hedire;
For here martis bene feble, shame to saye,
But if Englisshe men thedir dresse here waye.
Conclusione of this deppendinge of kepinge of the see.
Than I conclude, yff nevere so moche by londe
Werre by carres ibrought unto there honde,
Yff well the see were kepte in governaunce,
They shulde by see have no delyveraunce.
Wee shulde hem stoppe and wee shulde hem destroy,
As prysoners wee shulde hem brynge to noy.
And so wee shulde of oure cruell enmysse
Maken oure frendes for fere of marchaundysse,
Yff they were not suffred for to passe
Into Flaundres; but wee be frayle as glasse
And also bretyll, not tough, nevere abydynge.
But when grace shyneth sone are wee slydynge;
Wee woll it not reseyve in any wysse,
That maken luste, envye and covetysse.
Expoune me this and ye shall sothe it fynde;
Bere it aweye and kepe it in youre mynde.
The nayle of thys conclusione.
Than shulde worshyp unto oure noble be,
In feet and forme to lorde and mageste.
Liche as the seale, the grettest of thys londe,
On the one syde hathe, as I understonde,
A prince rydynge wyth hys swerde idrawe,
In the other syde sittynge, sothe is this sawe,
Betokenynge goode reule and ponesshynge
In verry dede of Englande by the kynge
(And hit is so, God blessyd mote he bee);
So one lychewysse I wolde were on the see.
By the noble that swerde schulde have powere
964
And the shippes one the see aboute us here.
What nedeth a garlande whyche is made of ivye
Shewe a taverne wynelesse? Nowe, also thryve I,
Yf men were wyse, the Frenshemen and Flemmynge
Shulde bere no state in the see by werrynge.
Of Hankyne Lyons.
Thane Hankyn Lyons shulde not be so bolde
To stoppe us and oure shippes for to holde
Unto oure shame; he hadde be betene thens.
Allas, allas, why dede wee this offence
Fully to shende the olde Englisshe fames
And the profittes of Englonde and there names?
Why is this powdre called of covetise
Wyth fals colours caste thus beforne oure eyes?
That, if goode men called werryours
Wolde take in hand for the comon socours
To purge the see unto oure grete avayle
And wynne hem gode, and to have up the sayle
And one oure enmyes there lives to juparte,
So that they myght there pryses well departe,
As reason wolde, justice and equite,
To make this lande have lordeshyp of the sea,
Than shall Lumbardes and other feyned frendes
Make her chalenges by coloure false of fendes
And sey ther chafare in the shippes is
And chalenge all. Loke yf this be amisse.
For thus may all that men have bought to sore
Ben sone excused and saved by false coloure.
Beware ye men that bere the grete on honde,
That they destroy the polycye of this londe
By gifte and goode and the fyne golden clothes
And silke and othere. Sey ye not this sothe is?
Bot if ye hadde verry experience
That they take mede wyth pryve violence,
Carpettis and thynges of price and of pleysaunce,
Whereby stopped shulde be gode governaunce,
And if it were as ye seye unto me,
Than wolde I seye, allas, cupidite,
That they that have here lyves put in drede
Schalbe sone oute of wynnynge al for mede,
965
And lese here costes and brought to poverte,
That they shall nevere have luste to go to see.
Sterynge to an ordinaunce ayens coloure of maynteners and excusers.
For thys colour, that muste be seyde alofte
And be declared of the grete fulle ofte,
That oure seemen woll by many wyse
Spoylle oure frendys in stede of oure enmyseFor thys coloure and Lumbardes mayntenaunce
The kynge it nedeth to make an ordinaunce
Wyth hys counsell, that may not fayle, I trowe,
That frendes shuld frome enmyes well be knowe,
Oure enmyes taken and oure frendes spared;
The remedy of hem muste be declared.
Thus may the see be kept now in no sele,
For, if ought be taken, wotte ye weel,
Wee have the strokes and enmyes have the wynnynge;
But maynteners ar parteners of the synnynge.
Wee lyve in luste and byde in covetyse;
This is oure reule to mayntene marchaundyse,
And polycye that we have on the see,
And, but God helpe, it woll none other bee.
Of the commoditees of Irelonde and policye and kepynge therof and conquerynge
of wylde Iryshe, wyth an incident of Walys. The ix. chapitle.
I caste to speke of Irelonde but a lytelle.
Commoditees of it I woll entitell
Hydes and fish, samon, hake and herynge;
Irish wollen and lynyn cloth, faldynge,
And marterns gode bene in here marchaundye;
Hertys hydes and other hydes of venerye,
Skynnes of oter, squerel and Irysh hare,
Of shepe, lambe and fox is here chaffare,
Felles of kydde and conyes grete plente.
So that yf Irelond halpe us to kepe the see,
Because the kynge clepid is rex Anglie
And is dominus also Hibernie,
Of old possessyd by progenitours,
The Yrichemen have cause lyke to oures
Oure londe and herres togedre to defende,
966
So that none enmye shulde hurte ne offende
Yrelonde ne us, but as one comonte
Shulde helpe to kepe well aboute the see.
For they have havenes grete and godely bayes,
Sure, wyde and depe and of ryght gode assayes
Att Waterforde and coostes monye one;
And, as men seyn, in England be there none
Better havenes for shyppes in to ryde,
Ne none more sure for enmyes to abyde.
Why speke I thus so muche of Yrelonde?
For also muche as I can understonde,
It is fertyle for thynge that there do growe
And multiplyen, loke who so lust to knowe,
So large, so gode and so comodyouse
That to declare is straunge and merveylouse.
For of sylvere and golde there is the oore
Amonge the wylde Yrishe, though they be pore,
For they ar rude and can thereone no skylle;
So that, if we had there pese and gode wylle
To myne and fyne and metall for to pure,
In wylde Yrishe myght we fynde the cure.
As in Londone seyth a juellere,
Whych brought from thens gold oore to us here,
Wherof was fyned metalle gode and clene,
That at the touche no bettere coude be sene.
Nowe here beware and hertly take entente,
As ye woll answere at the laste jugemente,
That, but for sloughe and for recheleshede,
Ye remembere and wyth all youre myghte take hede
To kepen Yrelond that it be not loste,
For it is a boterasse and a poste
Undre England, and Wales is another.
God forbede but eche were othere brothere,
Of one ligeaunce dewe unto the kynge.
But I have pite in gode feythe of thys thynge,
That I shall saye wythe gode avysemente
I ham aferde that Yrelonde wol be shente;
It muste awey, it woll be loste frome us,
But if thow helpe, thow Ihesu graciouse,
And yeve us grase all sloughte to leve bysyde.
967
For myche thynge in my harte is ihyde,
Whyche in another tretyse I caste to wrytte,
Made all onelye for that soyle and site
Of fertile Yerelonde, whiche myghte not be forborne
But if Englond were nyghe as gode as lorne.
God forebede that a wylde Yrishe wyrlynge
Shulde be chosene for to be there kynge
Aftere here conqueste of oure laste puisshaunce
And hyndere us by other londes allyaunce.
Wyse mene seyne, whyche folyne not ne dotyne,
That wylde Yrishe so muche of grounde have gotyne
There upon us, as lykelynesse may be,
Lyke as England to shires two or thre
Of thys oure londe is made comparable;
So wylde Yrishe have wonne on us unable
It to defenden and of none powere,
That oure grounde there is a lytell cornere
To all Yrelonde in treue comparisone.
It nedeth no more this matere to expone.
Which if it be loste, as Criste Ihesu forbede,
Farewell Wales; than Englond cometh to drede
For alliaunce of Scotlonde and of Spayne
And other moo, as the Pety Bretayne,
And so to have enmyes environ aboute.
I beseche God that some prayers devoute
Mutt lett the seyde apparaunce probable.
Thys is disposed wythought feyned fable,
But alle onely for parelle that I see
Thus ymynent as lykely for to be.
And well I wott that frome hens to Rome,
And, as men sey, in alle Cristendome,
There ys no grounde ne land to Yreland lyche,
So large, so gode, so plenteouse, so riche,
That to this worde Dominus dothe longe.
Than me semyth that ryght were and not wronge
To gete that lond, and it were piteouse
To us to lese thys hygh name Dominus;
And all this worde Dominus of name
Shulde have the grounde obeisaunte, wylde and tame,
That name and peple togedere myght accorde,
And all the grounde be subjecte to the lorde.
And that it is possible to be subjecte
968
Unto the kynge well shall it be detecte
In the lytell boke that I of spake;
I trowe reson all this woll undertake.
And I knowe well with Irland howe it stant.
Allas, fortune begynneth so to scant,
Or ellis grace, that dede is governaunce;
For so mynusshyth partyes of oure puissaunce
In that land that we lesen every yere
More grounde and more, as well as ye may here.
I herde a man speke unto me full late,
Whyche was a lorde and of ful grete astate,
That exspenses of one yere don in Fraunce,
Werred on men well wylled of puissaunce
Thys seyde grounde of Yrelonde to conquere,
(And yit because Englonde myght not forbere
These seyde exspenses gedred in one yere,
But in iij. yere or iiij. gadred up here)
Myght wynne Yrelonde to a fynall conquest
In one soole yere, to sett us all in reste.
And how sone wolde thys be payde ageyne,
What were it worthe yerely, yf wee not feyne,
I wylle declaren, who so luste to looke,
I trowe ful pleynly in my lytell boke.
But covetyse and singularite
Of owne profite, envye, carnalite
Hathe done us harme and doo us every daye,
And mustres made that shame it is to saye,
Oure money spente all to lytell avayle;
And oure enmyes so gretely done prevayle,
That what harme may falle and overthwerte
I may unneth wrytte more for sore of herte.
An exhortacione to the kepynge of Walys.
Beware of Walys, Criste Ihesu mutt us kepe,
That it make not oure childes childe to wepe,
Ne us also, if so it go his waye
By unwarenesse; sethen that many a day
Men have be ferde of here rebellione
By grete tokenes and ostentacione.
Seche the menys wyth a discrete avyse,
And helpe that they rudely not aryse
969
For to rebellen; that Criste it forbede
Loke well aboute, for God wote we have nede,
Unfayllyngly, unfeynynge and unfeynte,
That conscience for slought you not atteynte.
Kepe well that grounde for harme that may ben used,
Or afore God mutt ye bene accused.
Of the comodius stokfysshe of Yselonde and kepynge of the see, namely the
narowe see, wyth an incident of the kepynge of Calyse. The tenne chapitule.
Of Yseland to wryte is lytill nede
Save of stokfische; yit for sothe in dede
Out of Bristow and costis many one
Men have practised by nedle and by stone
Thiderwardes wythine a lytel whylle,
Wythine xij. yeres, and wythoute parille,
Gone and comen, as men were wonte of olde
Of Scarborowgh, unto the costes colde.
And now so fele shippes thys yere there were
That moche losse for unfraught they bare.
Yselond myght not make hem to be fraught
Unto the hawys; this moche harme they caught.
Thene here I ende of the comoditees
For whiche grete nede is well to kepe the sees.
Este and weste and sowthe and northe they be,
And chefely kepe sharply the narowe see
Betwene Dover and Caleise, and as thus
That foes passe not wythought godewyll of us,
And they abyde oure daunger in the lenghte,
What for oure costis and Caleise in oure strenghte.
An exortacion of the sure kepynge of Calise.
And for the love of God and of his blisse
Cherishe ye Caleise better than it is.
See well therto and here the grete compleynte
That trewe men tellen, that woll no lies peynte,
And as ye knowe that writynge commyth from thens.
Do not to England for sloughte so grete offens
But that redressed it be for ony thynge,
970
Leste a songe of sorow that wee synge.
For lytell wenythe the fole, who so myght chese,
What harme it were gode Caleise for to lese,
What woo it were for all this Englysshe grounde.
Whiche well conceyved the emperoure Sigesmounde,
That of all joyes made it one the moste
That Caleise was soget unto Englyssh coste.
Hym thought it was a jewel moste of alle,
And so the same in latyn did it calle.
And if ye woll more of Caleise here and knowe,
I caste to writte wythine a litell scrowe,
Lyke as I have done byforene by and bye
In othir parties of oure pollicie.
Loke well how harde it was at the firste to gete,
And by my counsell lyghtly be it not lete.
For, if wee leese it wyth shame of face,
Wylfully it is, it is for lake of grace.
Howe was Hareflewe cryed upon at Rone
That it were likely for slought to be gone!
How was it warened and cryed on in Englonde!
I make recorde wyth this penne in myne honde,
It was warened pleynly in Normandye
And in England, and I thereone dyd crye.
The worlde was deef, and it betid ryght soo.
Farewell Hareflewe, leudely it was agoo.
Now ware Caleise, for I can sey no bettere;
My soule discharge I by this presente lettere.
Aftere the chapitles of commoditees of dyuerse landes shewyth the conclusione
of kepynge of the see environ by a storye of kynge Edgare and ij. incidentes of
kynge Edwarde the iijde and kynge Herry the vth. The xi. chapitle.
Now see well thane that in this rounde see
To oure noble be paryformytee.
Within the shypp is shewyd there the sayle
And oure kynge of royall apparaylle,
Wyth swerde drawen, bryght, sharp and extente,
For to chastisen enmyes vyolente;
So shulde he be lorde of the see aboute,
To kepe enmyes fro wythine and wythoute,
And to be holde thorowgh Cristianyte
Master and lorde environ of the see,
971
For all lyvinge men suche a prince to drede,
Of suche a regne to be aferde indede.
Thus prove I well that it was thus of olde,
Whiche by a cronicle anone shalbe tolde,
Ryght curiouse (but I woll interprete
Hit into Englishe as I did it gete)
Of kynge Edgare, oo the moste merveyllouse
Prince lyvynge, wytty and moste chevalrouse,
So gode that none of his predecessours
Was to hym lyche in prudens and honours.
He was fort?and more gracious
Then other before and more glorious;
He was benethe no man in holinesse;
He passed alle in vertuuse swetenesse.
Of Englysshe kynges was none so commend᢬e
To Englysshe men, ne lasse memori᢬e
Than Cirus was to Perse by puissaunce;
And as grete Charlis was to them of Fraunce,
And as to Romains was grete Romulus,
So was to England this worthy Edgarus.
I may not write more of his worthynesse
For lake of tyme ne of his holynesse,
But to my mater I hym examplifie
Of condicions tweyne of his policie.
Wythine his land was one, this is no doute,
And anothere in the see wythoute,
That in the tyme of wynter and of vere,
Whan boistous wyndes put seemen into fere,
Wythine his lande aboute by all provinces
He passyd thorowghe, perceyvynge his princes,
Lordes and othir of the commontee,
Who was oppressoure, and who to poverte
Was drawe and broughte, and who was clene in lyffe,
And who was falle by myscheffe and by stryffe
Wyth overeledynge and extorcione;
And gode and bad of eche condicione
He aspied and his mynisters als,
Who did trought and whiche of hem was fals,
And how the ryght and lawes of his londe
Were execute, and who durste take on honde
To disobeye his statutes and decrees,
And yf they were well kepte in all cuntrees.
972
Of these he made subtile investigacione
By hys owyne espye and other mens relacione.
Amonge othyr was his grete besines
Well to bene ware that grete men of rycchesse
And men of myght in citee ner in toune
Shuld to the pore doo none oppressione.
Thus was he wonte as in this wynter tyde
One suche enserchise busily to abyde.
This was his laboure for the publique thinge;
This occupied a passynge holy kynge.
Now to the purpose, in the somer fayre
Of lusty season, whan clered was the eyre,
He had redy shippes made by him before,
Grete and huge, not fewe but manye a score,
Full thre thousande and sex hundred also,
Statelye inowgh on any see to goo.
The cronicle seyth these shippes were full boisteous;
Suche thinges longen to kynges victorious.
In somere tide wolde he have in wone
And in custome to be full redy sone
Wyth multitude of men of gode array
And instrumentis of werre of beste assay.
Who coude hem well in ony wyse descrive?
Hit were not lyght for ony man on lyve.
Thus he and his wolde entre shippes grete,
Habilementis havynge and the fete
Of see werres, that joyfull was to see
Suche a naveie and lord of mageste
There present in persone hem amonge,
To saile and rowe environ all alonge
So regaliche aboute the Englisshe yle,
To all straungeours a terroure and perille.
Whose soune wente oute in all the world aboute
Unto grete ferre of all that be wythoute,
And exercise to knyghtes and his meyné¼¢r> To hym longynge of his natall
contr鬼br> (For corage muste of nede have exercise)
Thus occupied for esshewynge of vise.
This knewe the kynge, that policie espied;
Wynter and somer he was thus occupied.
And thus conclude I by auctorite
973
Of cronicle that environ the see
Shulde bene oures subjecte unto the kynge,
And he be lorde therof for ony thynge,
For grete worship and for profite also,
And to defende his londe fro every foo.
That worthy kynge I leve, Edgar by name,
And all the cronique of his worthy fame;
Save onely this, I may not passe awey
A word of myghty strenght til that I seye,
That grauntyd hym God suche worship here
For his meritis he was wythouten pere,
That sumtyme at his grete festivite
Kynges and yerles of many a contre
And of provinces fele were there presente,
And mony lordes come thidere by assente
To his worship. But in a certayne daye
He bade shippes be redy of arraye,
For to visite seynte Jonys chyrche he lyste,
Rowynge unto the gode holy Baptiste.
He assyned to yerles, lordes, knyghtes
Many shippes ryght godely to syghtes;
And for hymselfe and for viij. kynges mo
Subdite to hym he made kepe one of tho,
A gode shipp, and entred into it
Wyth tho viij. kynges, and doune did they sit.
And eche of them an ore toke in honde
At the ore holes, as I understonde,
And he hymselfe satte in the shipp behynde
As sterisman; it hym becam of kynde.
Suche another rowynge, I dare well saye,
Was not sene of princes many a day.
Lo than how he on waters had the price,
In land, in see, that I may not suffice
To tell aright the magnanimite
That this kynge Edgar had upon the see.
An incident of the lorde of the see kynge Edwarde the thredde.
Of kynge Edwarde I passe and his prowesse;
On londe, on see ye knowe his worthynesse.
974
The siege of Caleise ye wote well all the mater,
Rounde aboute by londe and by the water
How it lasted not yeres many agoo,
After the bataille of Crecy was idoo
How it was closed environ aboute.
Olde men sawe it whiche lyven, this is no doute.
Olde knyghtis sey that the duke of Burgoyne,
Late rebuked for all his golden coyne,
Of shipp and see made no besegynge there.
For wante of shippes, that durste not come for fere,
It was no thynge beseged by the see;
Thus calle they it no seage for honeste.
Gonnes assayled, but assaute was there none,
No sege but fuge; well was he that myght gone.
This manere carpynge have knyghtes ferre in age,
Experte of olde in this manere langage.
But kynge Edwarde made a sege royall
And wanne the toune, and in especiall
The see was kepte and thereof he was lorde;
Thus made he nobles coigned of recorde.
In whose tyme was no navey in the see
That myght wythstonde the power of hys mageste.
The bataylle of Sluce ye may rede every day;
How it was done I leve and go my way.
Hit was so late done that ye it knowe,
In comparison wythine a lytel throwe.
For whiche to God yeve we honoure and glorye,
For lorde of see the kynge was wyth victó²¹¥.
Anothere incident of kepynge of the see in the tyme of the merveillouse werroure
and victorius prince kynge Herry the vth and of his grete shippes.
And yf I shulde conclude al by the kynge
Henry the fifte, what was hys purposynge
Whan at Hampton he made the grete dromons,
Which passed other grete shippes of all the comons,
The Trinite, the Grace Dieu, the Holy Goste
And other moo, whiche as now be loste?
What hope ye was the kynges grette entente
Of tho shippes and what in mynde he mente?
It was not ellis but that he caste to be
Lorde rounde aboute environ of the see.
975
And whan Harflew had his sege aboute,
There came carikkys orrible, grete and stoute,
In the narowe see wyllynge to abyde,
To stoppe us there wyth multitude of pride.
My lorde of Bedeforde came one and had the cure;
Destroyde they were by that discomfiture,
(This was after the kynge Hareflew had wonne,
Whane oure enmyes to besege had begonne)
That all was slayne or take by treue relacione
To his worship and of his Englisshe nacione.
Ther was presente the kynges chamburleyne
At bothe batayles, whiche knowethe this in certayne;
He can it tell other wyse than I.
Aske hym and witt; I passe forthe hastelye.
What had this kynge of high magnificens,
Of grete corage, of wysdome and prudence,
Provision, forewitte, audacite,
Of fortitude, justice, agilite,
Discrecion, subtile avisifenesse,
Atemperaunce, noblesse and worthynesse,
Science, proesce, devocion, equyte,
Of moste estately magnanimite,
Liche to Edgare and the seyd Edwarde,
A braunche of bothe, lyche hem as in regarde!
Where was on lyve man more victoriouse,
And in so shorte tyme prince so mervelouse?
By lande and see so well he hym acquite,
To speke of hym I stony in my witte.
Thus here I leve the kynge wyth his noblesse,
Henry the fifte, wyth whome all my processe
Of this trewe boke of the pure pollicie
Of see kepinge entendynge victorie
I leve endely, for aboute in the see
No better was prince of strenuite.
And if he had to this tyme lyved here,
He had bene prince named wythouten pere;
His grete shippes shulde have bene put in preffe
Unto the ende that he mente of in cheffe.
For doute it nat but that he wolde have be
Lorde and master aboute the rounde see,
976
And kepte it sure, to stoppe oure enmyes hens,
And wonne us gode and wysely brought it thens,
That no passage shulde be wythought daungere
And his licence on see to meve and stere.
Of unité ³hewynge of oure kepynge of the see, wyth ane endely processe of
pease by auctorite. The xij. chapitule.
Now than, for love of Cryste and of his joye,
Brynge yit Englande out of troble and noye;
Take herte and witte and set a governaunce,
Set many wittes wythouten variaunce
To one acorde and unanimite
Put to gode wylle for to kepe the see,
Furste for worshyp and for profite also,
And to rebuke of eche evyl-wylled foo.
Thus shall richesse and worship to us longe,
Than to the noble shall wee do no wronge,
To bere that coigne in figure and in dede,
To oure corage and to oure enmyes drede;
For whiche they muste dresse hem to pease in haste,
Or ellis there thrifte to standen and to waste,
As this processe hathe proved by and bye,
All by reason and experte policie,
And by stories whiche preved well this parte,
And elles I woll my lyffe put in jeparte.
But many landes wolde seche her peace for nede;
The see well kepte, it must be do for drede.
Thus muste Flaundres for nede have unite
And pease wyth us, it woll none other bee,
Wythine shorte while, and ambassiatours
Wolde bene here sone to trete for ther socours.
This unité ©s to Goddes plesaunce,
And pease after the werres variaunce;
The ende of bataile is pease sikerlye,
And power causeth pease finall verily.
Kepe than the see abought in speciall,
Whiche of England is the rounde wall,
As thoughe England were lykened to a cite
And the wall environ were the see.
977
Kepe than the see, that is the wall of Englond,
And than is Englond kepte by Goddes sonde;
That, as for ony thinge that is wythoute,
Englande were than at ease wythouten doute,
And thus shuld everi lande, one with another,
Entrecomon as brother wyth his brother,
And live togedre werreles in unite
Wythoute rancoure in verry charite,
In reste and pese to Cristis grete plesaunce,
Wythouten striffe, debate and variaunce.
Whiche pease men shulde enserche with besinesse
And knytt it sadely, holdyng in holynesse.
The apostil seyth, if that ye liste to see,
'Be ye busy for to kepe unite
Of the spirite in the bonde of pease,'
Whiche is nedefull to all wythouten lees.
The profete bideth us pease for to enquere;
To purseue it, this is holy desire.
Oure lord Ihesu seith 'Blessid mot they be
That maken pease', that is tranquillite;
For 'peasemakers', as Mathew writeth aryght,
'Shall be called the sonnes of God Allmight'.
God yeve us grace the weyes for to kepe
Of his preceptis and slugly not to slepe
In shame of synne, that oure verry foo
Mow be to us convers and torned too.
For in Proverbis a texte is to purpose
And pleyne inowgh wythouten ony glose,
'Whan mennes weyes please unto oure Lorde,
It shall converte and brynge to accorde
Mannes enmyes unto the pease verray',
In unité ´o live to Goddis pay.
Whiche unité¬ pease, reste and charite
He that was here cladde in humanite,
That came from hevyne and stiede with our nature
(Or he ascendid he yafe to oure cure
And lefte us pease ageyne striffe and debate),
Mote gefe us-pease so well iradicate
Here in this worlde that after att his feste
Wee mowe have pease in the londe of beheste,
Jerusalem, which of pease is the sight,
Wyth the bryghtnes of his eternall lighte,
978
There glorified in reste wyth his tuicione,
The Deite to see wyth full fruicione.
He secunde persone in divinenesse is;
He us assume and brynge us to his blisse.
Amen.
Here endithe the trewe processe of the libelle of Englysshe policie, exhortynge all
Englande to kepe the see environ and namely the narowe see, shewynge whate
worshipe, profite and salvacione commeth thereof to the reigne of Englonde, etc.
Go furthe, libelle, and mekely shewe thy face,
Apperynge ever wyth humble contynaunce,
And pray my lordes thee to take in grace
In opposaile and, cherishynge thee, avaunce
To hardynesse, if that not variaunce
Thow haste fro troughte by full experience,
Auctours and reasone; yif ought faile in substaunce,
Remitte to heme that yafe thee this science.
Sythen that it is sothe in verray feythe
That the wyse lorde baron of Hungerforde
Hathe thee oversene, and verrily he seithe
That thow arte trewe, and thus he dothe recorde,
Nexte the Gospell: God wotte it was his worde,
Whanne he thee redde all over in a nyghte.
Go forthe, trewe booke, and Criste defende thi ryghte.
Explicit libellus de policia conservativa maris.
~ Anonymous Olde English,#NFDB
173 Poetry
58 Integral Yoga
37 Fiction
34 Occultism
22 Philosophy
21 Mysticism
12 Psychology
11 Christianity
7 Mythology
6 Yoga
6 Philsophy
4 Buddhism
2 Baha i Faith
1 Zen
1 Thelema
1 Sufism
1 Science
1 Kabbalah
1 Cybernetics
1 Alchemy
88 Sri Aurobindo
35 William Wordsworth
26 The Mother
23 Percy Bysshe Shelley
23 John Keats
18 Satprem
18 Aleister Crowley
16 Walt Whitman
14 H P Lovecraft
13 Rabindranath Tagore
13 Nolini Kanta Gupta
11 James George Frazer
9 William Butler Yeats
9 Robert Browning
8 Friedrich Nietzsche
7 Carl Jung
6 Sri Ramakrishna
6 Ralph Waldo Emerson
6 Ovid
5 Jordan Peterson
5 Anonymous
4 Saint Augustine of Hippo
4 Li Bai
4 Edgar Allan Poe
3 Sri Ramana Maharshi
3 Jorge Luis Borges
3 Henry David Thoreau
3 Bokar Rinpoche
2 Plato
2 Baha u llah
35 Wordsworth - Poems
23 Shelley - Poems
23 Savitri
23 Keats - Poems
20 The Life Divine
16 Whitman - Poems
14 Lovecraft - Poems
13 Magick Without Tears
12 The Synthesis Of Yoga
12 Tagore - Poems
11 The Golden Bough
9 Yeats - Poems
9 Browning - Poems
7 Thus Spoke Zarathustra
6 Prayers And Meditations
6 Metamorphoses
6 Emerson - Poems
6 Collected Poems
5 The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna
5 The Divine Comedy
5 The Bible
5 Maps of Meaning
5 Agenda Vol 13
5 A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah
4 Words Of Long Ago
4 The Secret Doctrine
4 Talks
4 Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness
4 Poe - Poems
4 Li Bai - Poems
4 Essays In Philosophy And Yoga
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04
4 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02
3 Walden
3 Vedic and Philological Studies
3 The Confessions of Saint Augustine
3 The Archetypes and the Collective Unconscious
3 Tara - The Feminine Divine
3 Record of Yoga
3 Liber ABA
3 Essays Divine And Human
3 Anonymous - Poems
2 The Blue Cliff Records
2 Some Answers From The Mother
2 Mysterium Coniunctionis
2 Labyrinths
2 Hymns to the Mystic Fire
2 Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03
2 Agenda Vol 04
2 Agenda Vol 03
2 Agenda Vol 01
2 5.1.01 - Ilion
0.00 - The Book of Lies Text, #The Book of Lies, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
in birds' NESts...oh!
Also there is a souffle most exquisite of Chow-Chow.
0.05 - Letters to a Child, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
yourself and always NEStle in my arms so as to receive my love
and force.
--
Always NEStle in my heart which is always ready to welcome
you, in my arms which are always ready to enfold you, and fear
0.06 - Letters to a Young Sadhak, #Some Answers From The Mother, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
the other is to fling o NESelf in His arms, to NEStle there as a child
NEStles in its mother's arms, with a complete surrender; and of
01.02 - Natures Own Yoga, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The apparent or actual result of the movement of NEScienceof Involutionhas been an increasing negation of the Spirit, but its hidden purpose is ultimately to embody the Spirit in Matter, to express here below in cosmic Time-Space the splendours of the timeless Reality. The material body came into existence bringing with it inevitably, as it seemed, mortality; it appeared even to be fashioned out of mortality, in order that in this very frame and field of mortality, Immortality, the eternal Spirit Conscious NESs which is the secret truth and reality in Time itself as well as behind it, might be established and that the Divine might be possessed, or rather, possess itself not in one unvarying mode of the static conscious NESs, as it does even now behind the cosmic play, but in the play itself and in the multiple mode of the terrestrial existence.
II
01.03 - Mystic Poetry, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
A march of Knowledge moved in NEScience
And guarded in the form a separate soul. ||42.17||
01.03 - The Yoga of the King - The Yoga of the Souls Release, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Annulled the soul's treaty with Nature's NEScience.
All the grey inhibitions were torn off
--
And NEScient Matter and the huge error of life.
As a sculptor chisels a deity out of stone
--
It rent the gauze opaque of NEScience:
Her lifted finger's keen unthinkable tip
01.04 - The Secret Knowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In the coiled black NESs of her NEScient course
The Earth-Goddess toils across the sands of Time.
--
His knowledge overrules our NEScience;
Whatever the appearance we must bear,
--
And her sport of death and pain and NEScience,
His changed and struggling immortality.
--
Till the NEScient dusk is lifted from man's soul
And the morns of God have overtaken his night.
0 1954-08-25 - what is this personality? and when will she come?, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
Before, when there were we started with 35 or 36 people but even when it got up to 150, even with 150it was as if they were all NEStled in a cocoon in my conscious NESs: they were so near to me that I could constantly guide ALL their inner or outer movements. Day and night, at each moment, everything was totally under my control. And naturally, I think they made a great deal of progress at that time: it is a fact that I was CONSTANTLY doing the sadhana2 for them. But then, with this baby boom The sadhana cant be done for little sprouts who are 3 or 4 or 5 years old! Its out of the question. The only thing I can do is wrap them in the Conscious NESs and try to see that they grow up in the best of all possible conditions. However, the one advantage to all this is that instead of there being such a COMPLETE and PASSIVE dependence on the disciples part, each one has to make his own little effort. Truly, thats excellent.
I dont know to whom I was mentioning this today (I think it was for a Birthday3 No, I dont know now. It was to someone who told me he was 18 years old. I said that between the ages of 18 and 20, I had attained a constant and conscious union with the Divine Presence and that I had done this ALL ALONE, without ANYO NES help, not even books. When a little later I chanced upon Vivekanandas Raja Yoga, it really seemed so wonderful to me that someone could explain something to me! And it helped me realize in only a few months what would have otherwise taken years.
0 1955-10-19, #Agenda Vol 01, #unset, #Integral Yoga
3) To NEStle in His arms, to melt in Him in a tender and absolute CONFIDENCE.
These movements may be accompanied by three formulas, or any one of them, depending upon the case:
0 1961-02-04, #Agenda Vol 02, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And interestingly enough, its smell is fantastically attractive to snakes; it makes them come from far away to NESt in the shrubs. And as you know, the serpent is the power of evolution, it is Shivas own creature; he always puts them on his head and around his neck because they symbolize the power of evolution and transformation. And snakes like this flower; it often grows near rivers, and wherever there is a cluster of the plants you are sure to discover snake NESts.
I find this very interesting, for WE didnt decide it should be like this: these are conscious vibrations in Nature. The fragrance, the color, the shape, are simply the spontaneous expressions of a true movement.
0 1962-03-06, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
For instance, I am completely snowed under with material work, letters, people, matters to arrange and decide, big things to organize, all of it falling on me from every side and trying to take up all my time and energy. At times it really gets too much. So when its too much, I say, All right, Lord, now I will NEStle in Your arms. And there I am, no longer thinking, no longer bothering about anything, and I go into Bliss. Usually after ten minutes everything is fine!
The trouble is, the mental mechanism isnt there any more. Before, with the mind working, I would take up this thing or do that thing, but now I dont let it function, so theres nothing to make me move!
0 1962-07-14, #Agenda Vol 03, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
But there is a place where something is awakening, a small something like what little children and animals have, going like this (Mother imitates a baby bird poking its beak out of the NESt and peering around), peep-peep-peep, oh, alert and eager to know: America. They have a carapace as hard as an automobilesit has to be hammered open, but underneath theres something that wants to know and knows nothing, nothing, is totally ignorant but oh, it wants to know! And this can be touched. They may be the first to awaken.
A few in India, but a more widespread movement in America.
0 1963-03-16, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
With a sort of incomprehensible comprehension, we are reminded of the words of the Vedic Rishis: "He uncovered the two worlds, eternal and in ONE NESt."
Rig-Veda, I.62.7
0 1963-09-25, #Agenda Vol 04, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
At first I put, LAmour na rien voir avec [Love has nothing to do with ], and so on, but thats not true. So well put, LAmour NESt pas [Love is not].
LAmour NESt pas les relations sexuelles.
LAmour NESt pas les attractions et les echanges vitaux.
LAmour NESt pas le besoin daffection du cur
Its from Savitri, in The Debate of Love and Death, when Death tells Savitri, What you call love is the hunger of your heart.
Could we translate: LAmour NESt pas le cur et son besoin daffection [Love is not the heart and its hunger for affection]?
But the heart can manifest Love! No: LAmour NESt pas le besoin daffection du cur [Love is not the hearts hunger for affection]. And then, the positive side:
LAmour est une vibration toute-puissante
0 1967-05-06, #Agenda Vol 08, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
La Divinit dont parle Sri Aurobindo NESt pas une personne, mais un tat auquel participeront tous ceux qui se sont prpars le recevoir.
Did something happen on the 4th?
0 1969-04-12, #Agenda Vol 10, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Till the NEScient dusk is lifted from mans soul
And the morns of God have overtaken his night.
0 1972-02-26, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Absolutely, but absolutely the sensation of being a baby NEStling (gesture) in the Divi NES arms. Extraordinary!
(silence)
--
Yes, exactly. Thats exactly what my body feels all the time. You see, it is like like a baby NEStling. Exactly that sensation.
I think I think my body has become excessively sensitive and needs to be protected from all those things coming in.2 As if it had to work inside, you know as in an egg. Yes, thats it. Exactly.
0 1972-04-19, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
The conscious NESs own attitude towards the Divine is to be as if NEStling in the Divine I could even say engulfed in the Divine: what You will, what You will, what You will, what You will. As a basic attitude its very good, I could say. But when suddenly, something in the body goes wrong, and you dont know why (oh, most of the time its due to an outside cause, like a disorder coming from outside), so then you dont know what to dothere is no longer a mind to decide what to do; while the conscious NESs remains like this (hands open upwards). But then you dont know what to do, so you do nothing.
There is certainly something to be learned.
0 1972-05-13, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Yes, theres a strong impression that that whole abscess should burst open that NESt of wicked NESs should burst.
(after a silence)
0 1972-05-27, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
"He discovered the two worlds, eternal and in one NESt."
(Rig Veda, I.62.7)
0 1972-07-22, #Agenda Vol 13, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
(Thus, I sent to SABDA and All India Press the note signed by Mother. As was to be expected, the reaction was swift: I was accused of being after money. Mother well knew the hornets NESt I was about to stir up, and the day before she had written me a letterwhich I did not understandto try and tell me to move to a higher plateau, to another conscious NESs, instead of struggling against crooks. The following conversation is the saddest memory of my seventeen years of meetings with Mother. It was so painful to see her weari NESs yet have to fight to unmask that falsehoodas if she didnt know it! But we are writing History here and we are trying to give as factual an account as possible and to describe the characters just as they were.)
What did I write you?
02.01 - The World-Stair, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And groped for knowledge in the NEScient Night:
Caught in a blind stone-grip Force worked its plan
02.02 - Rishi Dirghatama, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
I shall speak only of what seems to me probable and believable and likely and it must be this that he passed a long time in dark NESs, engulfed in obscurity. The legend says that he was in his mother's womb long past the due time and it seems it was of his own will. His mother's name was Mamata and his father was Uchathya. When he came out of the dark NESs and saw the light, it was a light strangely glimmering with all the vibrations of the long obscurity to which he had been accustomed. It was indeed the Light beyond the confi NES of all dark NESs, NEScience, and yet carrying a mystic imprint of the mysteries of dark NESs. So he started his quest with this questioning:
I am an innocent babe, my ignorant mind knows nothing, who will tell me of the secret seats of the Godheads?2
02.02 - The Kingdom of Subtle Matter, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A world-wide NEScience strove towards life and thought,
A Conscious NESs plucked out from mindless sleep.
02.03 - The Glory and the Fall of Life, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
That NEScience may become omniscient,
Transmuted instincts shape to divine thoughts,
02.04 - The Kingdoms of the Little Life, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And effort and growth and striving NEScience.
37.20
--
In NEScience began her mighty task,
In Ignorance she pursues the unfinished work,
--
Only were achieved a NEScient grasp and drive
And feelings and instincts knowing not their source,
--
A half-awakened NEScience struggled there
To know by sight and touch the outside of things.
--
A march of knowledge moved in NEScience
And guarded in the form a separate soul.
--
Around all floated still the NEScient haze.
END OF CANTO FOUR
02.06 - The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Life, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Even NEScient, null, her sleep creates a world.
When most unseen, most mightily she works;
--
A leaden NEScience weighs the wings of Thought,
Her power oppresses the being with its garbs,
02.07 - The Descent into Night, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A tenebrous awakened NEScience,
Her wide blank eyes wondering at Time and Form,
02.08 - The World of Falsehood, the Mother of Evil and the Sons of Darkness, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The boundless NEScience of the unconscious depths
Covered eternity with nothing NESs.
02.10 - The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Little Mind, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And found a means for NEScience to know.
66.30
--
Her thought starts from an original NEScient Void
And what she teaches she herself must learn
--
Mind sought amid deep mists of NEScience;
It looked within itself but saw not God.
--
On the huge bare walls of human NEScience
Written round Nature’s deep dumb hieroglyphs
--
Moving twixt NEScience and NEScience.
68.
--
Thought dances hand in hand with NEScience
On the grey road that winds towards the Sun.
02.11 - The Kingdoms and Godheads of the Greater Mind, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Captured and driven in Life's NEScient grasp,
Hampered by obscure cell and treacherous nerve,
02.13 - In the Self of Mind, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In a universe of NEScience they have grown,
Aspiring towards a superconscient Sun,
--
Collapsed into the NEScience whence it rose.
Only a gleam was there of symbol facts
03.01 - The Pursuit of the Unknowable, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The structures NEScience builds collapsing failed,
And even the spirit that holds the universe
03.02 - The Adoration of the Divine Mother, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
The covering NEScience was unmasked and slain;
Its mind of error was stripped off from things
03.12 - TagorePoet and Seer, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 01, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Tagore is modern, because his modernism is based upon a truth not local and temporal, but eternal and universal, something that is the very bed-rock of human culture and civilisation. Indeed, Tagore is also ancient, as ancient as the Upanishads. The great truths, the basic realities experienced and formulated by the ancients ring clear and distinct in the core of all his artistic creation. Tagore's intellectual make-up may be as rationalistic and scientific as that of any typical modern man. Nor does he discard the good things (preya)that earth and life offer to man for his banquet; and he does not say like the bare ascetic: any vco vimucatha, "abandon everything else". But even like one of the Upanishadic Rishis, the great Yajnavalkya, he would possess and enjoy his share of terrestrial as well as of spiritual wealthubhayameva. In a world of modernism, although he acknowledges and appreciates mental and vital and physical values, he does not give them the place demanded for them. He has never forgotten the one thing needful. He has not lost the moorings of the soul. He has continued to NEStle close to the eternal verities that sustain earth and creation and give a high value and purpose to man's life and creative activity.
In these iconoclastic times, we are liable, both in art and in life, to despise and even to deny certain basic factors which were held to be almost indispensable in the old world. The great triads the True, the Beautiful and the Good, or God, Soul and Immortalityare of no consequence to a modernist mind: these mighty words evoke no echo in the heart of a contemporary human being. Art and Life meant in the old world something decent, if not great. They were perhaps, as I have already said, framed within narrow limits, certain rigid principles that cribbed and cabined the human spirit in many ways; but they were not anarchic, they obeyed a law, a dharma, which they considered as an ideal, a standard to look up to and even live up to. The modernist is an anarchic being in all ways. He does not care for old-world verities which seem to him mere convention or superstition. Truth and Beauty and Harmony are non-existent for him: if at all they exist they bear a totally different connotation, the very opposite of that which is normally accepted.
04.22 - To the Heights-XXII, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
An unspeakable tranquillity holds my mind and heart, An utter purity NEStles me!
My ears have drunk thy voice-
05.05 - Of Some Supreme Mysteries, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 02, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Utter NEScience is the focussing of utter Intelligence the farthest away from itself and upon infinite points.
The Soul is a portion of the Divine, enshrined in the heart of the human being; it is the child of the Mahakti , it is the immortal in mortality, the secret godhead that urges the earthly creature ever forward and upward in the march of-evolution, ever expressing and embodying more and more of its inner truth in the actualities of life.
05.10 - Children and Child Mentality, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 03, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Children are often found to be very cruel to animals. Why is it so? Their treatment of birds especially is notorious. To seek out NESts and pull them down, to capture NEStlings and put them to all kinds of torture, to pick up eggs and dash them to pieces are for children most interesting games. They seem to take particular delight in varying and enhancing as much as possible the torture they can inflict. One reason that can be adduced for the callous NESs of a child's sensibility is his self-centred NESs: he is wholly himself, isolated from others, has not yet learnt the social needs and virtues. All he does and feels is for himself, for his own pleasure and free self-assertion. His growing individuality, in order to grow, cuts itself aloof from others and loses the sense of others having the same value as itself. Being self-regarding, to that extent he ceases to be other-regarding. Fellow-feeling is a sentiment that grows later on, as the result of shocks in mutual interchange. Real sympathy is a movement of mature conscious NESs.
The inquisitive NESs that so strongly possesses a child is also the drive of an awakening and growing conscious NESs. He indulges in breaking, tearing, ripping because of this curiosity, this keen edge of a developing and experimenting conscious NESs. It seems to be hard and unfeeling, even an aberration, precisely because of the egocentric nature of the child conscious NESs yet unfamiliar with values normal to age and experience.
06.01 - The Word of Fate, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Made into a murmuring NESt by southern winds,
These are his images and parallels,
06.02 - The Way of Fate and the Problem of Pain, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
In ignorance and NEScience are our roots.
A growing register of calamities
--
Its dark and potent NEScience was earth's start;
It is the waste stuff from which all was made;
07.01 - The Joy of Union; the Ordeal of the Foreknowledge, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A NEStling dark NESs or a moonlit deep;
Day was a purple pageant and a hymn,
--
Apart in a bright NESt of thoughts and dreams
Made room for tragic hours of solitude
09.01 - Towards the Black Void, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Out of his luminous NESt within the worlds:
Like a vast fire it climbed the skies of night.
--
Then flaming from her body's NESt alarmed
Her violent spirit soared at Satyavan.
10.02 - The Gospel of Death and Vanity of the Ideal, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
For something on its NEScient breast was born
Condemned to see and know, to feel and love,
--
A brilliant procuress of NEScience,
And human love a posturer on earth-stage
10.03 - The Debate of Love and Death, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
All-Knowledge seemed a huge dark NEScience;
Infinity wore a boundless zero's form.
--
She lulled the Omniscient into NEScient sleep,
Omnipotence on Inertia's back she drove,
--
Above the pla NES that climb from NEScient earth,
A hand is lifted towards the Invisible's realm,
10.04 - The Dream Twilight of the Earthly Real, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Of Being a substance NEScient, dense and dumb,
Of Bliss the beauty of an insentient world.
10.12 - Awake Mother, #Writings In Bengali and Sanskrit, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And rest self-absorbed in their NESts;
Animals wander not, nor are footsteps heard.
1.01 - Economy, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
Food, and Clothing, and Shelter, but with our beds, which are our night-clothes, robbing the NESts and breasts of birds to prepare this shelter within a shelter, as the mole has its bed of grass and leaves at the end of its burrow! The poor man is wont to complain that this is a cold world; and to cold, no less physical than social, we refer directly a great part of our ails. The summer, in some climates, makes possible to man a sort of Elysian life. Fuel, except to cook his Food, is then unnecessary; the sun is his fire, and many of the fruits are sufficiently cooked by its rays; while Food generally is more various, and more easily obtained, and Clothing and Shelter are wholly or half unnecessary. At the present day, and in this country, as I find by my own experience, a few implements, a knife, an axe, a spade, a wheelbarrow, &c., and for the studious, lamplight, stationery, and access to a few books, rank next to necessaries, and can all be obtained at a trifling cost. Yet some, not wise, go to the other side of the globe, to barbarous and unhealthy regions, and devote themselves to trade for ten or twenty years, in order that they may live,that is, keep comfortably warm, and die in New England at last. The luxuriously rich are not simply kept comfortably warm, but unnaturally hot; as I implied before, they are cooked, of course _ la mode_.
Most of the luxuries, and many of the so called comforts of life, are not only not indispensable, but positive hindrances to the elevation of mankind. With respect to luxuries and comforts, the wisest have ever lived a more simple and meagre life than the poor. The ancient philosophers, Chi NESe, Hindoo, Persian, and Greek, were a class than which none has been poorer in outward riches, none so rich in inward.
--
In the savage state every family owns a shelter as good as the best, and sufficient for its coarser and simpler wants; but I think that I speak within bounds when I say that, though the birds of the air have their NESts, and the foxes their holes, and the savages their wigwams, in modern civilized society not more than one half the families own a shelter. In the large towns and cities, where civilization especially prevails, the number of those who own a shelter is a very small fraction of the whole. The rest pay an annual tax for this outside garment of all, become indispensable summer and winter, which would buy a village of Indian wigwams, but now helps to keep them poor as long as they live. I do not mean to insist here on the disadvantage of hiring compared with owning, but it is evident that the savage owns his shelter because it costs so little, while the civilized man hires his commonly because he cannot afford to own it; nor can he, in the long run, any better afford to hire. But, answers one, by merely paying this tax the poor civilized man secures an abode which is a palace compared with the savages. An annual rent of from twenty-five to a hundred dollars, these are the country rates, entitles him to the benefit of the improvements of centuries, spacious apartments, clean paint and paper, Rumford fireplace, back plastering, Venetian blinds, copper pump, spring lock, a commodious cellar, and many other things. But how happens it that he who is said to enjoy these things is so commonly a
_poor_ civilized man, while the savage, who has them not, is rich as a savage? If it is asserted that civilization is a real advance in the condition of man, and I think that it is, though only the wise improve their advantages,it must be shown that it has produced better dwellings without making them more costly; and the cost of a thing is the amount of what I will call life which is required to be exchanged for it, immediately or in the long run. An average house in this neighborhood costs perhaps eight hundred dollars, and to lay up this sum will take from ten to fifteen years of the laborers life, even if he is not encumbered with a family;estimating the pecuniary value of every mans labor at one dollar a day, for if some receive more, others receive less;so that he must have spent more than half his life commonly before _his_ wigwam will be earned. If we suppose him to pay a rent instead, this is but a doubtful choice of evils. Would the savage have been wise to exchange his wigwam for a palace on these terms?
--
It would be worth the while to build still more deliberately than I did, considering, for instance, what foundation a door, a window, a cellar, a garret, have in the nature of man, and perchance never raising any superstructure until we found a better reason for it than our temporal necessities even. There is some of the same fit NESs in a mans building his own house that there is in a birds building its own NESt. Who knows but if men constructed their dwellings with their own hands, and provided food for themselves and families simply and ho NEStly enough, the poetic faculty would be universally developed, as birds universally sing when they are so engaged? But alas! we do like cowbirds and cuckoos, which lay their eggs in NESts which other birds have built, and cheer no traveller with their chattering and unmusical notes. Shall we forever resign the pleasure of construction to the carpenter? What does architecture amount to in the experience of the mass of men? I never in all my walks came across a man engaged in so simple and natural an occupation as building his house. We belong to the community. It is not the tailor alone who is the ninth part of a man; it is as much the preacher, and the merchant, and the farmer.
Where is this division of labor to end? and what object does it finally serve? No doubt another _may_ also think for me; but it is not therefore desirable that he should do so to the exclusion of my thinking for myself.
1.01 - Tara the Divine, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Integral Yoga
happi NESs is differ ent from the relative happi NESs that
we experience in the ordin ary world . It is not a
transitory happi NESs depen ding on objects or
depending on relatio nship s of an "I" and "anot her,"
but a happi NESs inhere nt to the mind itself, beyon d all
duality. This happi NESs canno t be altere d by any fear
or suffering. This genui ne and immu table happi NESs is
itself the deity.
10.23 - Prayers and Meditations of the Mother, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
This sorrowful world kneels before Thee, 0 Lord, in mute supplication; this tortured Matter NEStles at thy feet, its last, its sole refuge; and so imploring Thee, it adores Thee, Thee whom it neither knows nor understands! Its prayer rises like the cry of one in a last agony; that which is disappearing feels confusedly the possibility of living again in Thee; the earth awaits Thy decree in a grandiose prostration.
Mother, sweet Mother, who I am, Thou art at once the destroyer and the builder.
1.02 - MAPS OF MEANING - THREE LEVELS OF ANALYSIS, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
Our stories our frames of reference appear to have a NESted or hierarchical structure. At any
given moment, our attention only occupies one level of that structure. This capacity for restricted
--
context has just manifested itself. You switch set. Now your goal still NESted within the reading a
book story is fix the reading lamp. You adjust your plans, find a new bulb, and place it in the lamp.
--
large spatial-temporal domain) is actually composed of NESted little stories. Subdiagram (2) is still
predicated on the presumption that a number of smaller stories might be used as means for a larger end. If
--
cosmos) in light of this conceptualization. Reality is made up of NESted interpretations, that give
determinate form to objects (as implements) and to the valence of those objects. Every interpretation,
--
describes the Indian version of the doctrine of the eternal return the endlessly NESted, cyclical nature of
the universe (conceived of as the totality of experience, and not as objective reality):
--
foreign devils emissaries of chaos threaten our explored territories (our NESted stories, our cultural
stability). In the latter case, we may well turn to war as an alternative deemed emotionally desirable, in
--
Our stories are NESted (one thing leads to another) and hierarchically arranged [pursuit a is
superordinate to pursuit b (love is more important than money)]. Within this NESted hierarchy, our
conscious NESs our apperception appears to have a natural level of resolution, or categorization. This
--
help us initially formulate our stories. Figure 16: NESted Stories, Processes of Generation, and Multiple
Memory Systems helps explain the idea of this unconscious the broadest span stories, which are
--
Figure 16: NESted Stories, Processes of Generation, and Multiple Memory Systems
79
--
cradle, and the NESt are characterized by protective and therefore maternal function.317 Humanized
representations statuettes of nude goddesses, among the most ancient objects of art known318 appear to
--
behavioral dominance-hierarchy (which corresponds to the NESted narrative model proposed earlier)
therefore constitutes adaptation, just as much as creation of new situation-specific behaviors or modes of
1.02 - Skillful Means, #The Lotus Sutra, #Anonymous, #Various
Speaking in the NESt voice!
The devas, ngas, and others,
1.02 - SOCIAL HEREDITY AND PROGRESS, #The Future of Man, #Pierre Teilhard de Chardin, #Christianity
ways to hunt, to fly or to build a NESt. The monkey does much
more. And how are we to explain the remarkable behavior pat-
1.02 - Taras Tantra, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Integral Yoga
goods and experienced great happi NESs due, notably,
to right thinki ng and a great love for one another.
--
goods, and happi NESs start to decrease.
- endowed with two-quarters: decreasing is accentuated.
1.02 - The 7 Habits An Overview, #The 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, #Stephen Covey, #unset
This fable is the story of a poor farmer who one day discovers in the NESt of his pet goose a glittering golden egg. At first, he thinks it must be some kind of trick. But as he starts to throw the egg aside, he has second thoughts and takes it in to be appraised instead.
The egg is pure gold! The farmer can't believe his good fortune. He becomes even more incredulous the following day when the experience is repeated. Day after day, he awakens to rush to the NESt and find another golden egg. He becomes fabulously wealthy; it all seems too good to be true.
But with his increasing wealth comes greed and impatience. Unable to wait day after day for the golden eggs, the farmer decides he will kill the goose and get them all at once. But when he opens the goose, he finds it empty. There are no golden eggs -- and now there is no way to get any more. The farmer has destroyed the goose that produced them.
1.02 - The Necessity of Magick for All, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Taoist sectaries appear to assume that Perfection consists in the absence of any disturbance of the Stream of NEScience; and this is very much like the Buddhist idea of Nibbana.
We who accept the Law of Thelema, even should we concur in this doctrine theoretically, cannot admit that in practice the plan would work out; our aim is that our Nothing, ideally perfect as it is in itself, should enjoy itself through realizing itself in the fulfillment of all possibilities. All such phenomena or "point-events" are equally "illusion"; Nothing is always Nothing; but the projection of Nothing on this screen of the phenomenal does not only explain, but constitutes, the Universe. It is the only system which reconciles all the contradictions inherent in Thought, and in Experience; for in it "Reality" is "Illusion", "Free-will" is "Destiny", the "Self" is the "Not-Self"; and so for every puzzle of Philosophy.
1.02 - The Pit, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
There is, therefore, no possible escape from this bottomless pit of confusion save by the development of a faculty of mind which shall not be manifestly inadequate in any of these ways. 'We must employ means other than, and superior to, ratiocination. We thus approach the problem of the development of the NESchamali (Intuition), and it is here that the Qabalah differs in method and content from
Secular Science and Academic Philosophy.
--
Athena. This necessity was emphasized in the most surprising way by the result of the Michelson-Morley experiments, when Physics itself calmly and frankly offered a contradiction in terms. It was not the metaphysicians this time who were picking holes in a vacuum. It was the mathematicians and the physicists who found the ground completely cut away from under their feet. It was not enough to replace the geometry of Euclid by those of Riemann and Lobatchevsky and the mechanics of Newton by those of Einstein, so long as any of the axioms of the old thought and the definitions of its terms survived. They deliberately abandoned positivism and materialism for an indeterminate mysticism, creating a new mathematical philosophy and a new logic, wherein infinite-or rather transfinite-ideas might be made commensurable with those of ordinary thought in the forlorn hope that all might live happily ever after. In short, to use a Qabalistic nomenclature, they found it incumbent upon themselves to adopt for inclusion of terms of Ruach (intellect) concepts which are proper only to NESchamah (the organ and faculty of direct spiritual apperception and intuition). This same process took place in Philosophy years earlier. Had the dialectic of Hegel been only. half understood, the major portion of philosophical speculation from the Schoolmen to
Kant's perception of the Antinomies of Reason would have been thrown overboard.
1.02 - The Refusal of the Call, #The Hero with a Thousand Faces, #Joseph Campbell, #Mythology
Now was her strength all gone, and, pale with fear and utterly overcome by the toil of her swift flight, seeing the waters of her fa ther's river near, she cried: 'O father, help! If your waters hold di vinity, change and destroy this beauty by which I pleased o'er well.' Scarce had she thus prayed when a down-dragging numb NESs seized her limbs, and her soft sides were begirt with thin bark. Her hair was changed to leaves, her arms to branches. Her feet, but now so swift, grew fast in sluggish roots, and her head was now but a tree's top. Her gleaming beauty alone remained."
Ovid, Metamorphoses, I, 504-553 (translation by Frank Justus Miller, the
1.03 - APPRENTICESHIP AND ENCULTURATION - ADOPTION OF A SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
physician, for example, are two embodied ideologies, NESted within more complex overarching narrative
schemas, whose domains of activity, knowledge and competence have been delimited, one against the
--
an individual whose identity is NESted within a hierarchy whose outermost territory is occupied by the
exploratory hero, or a group about which the same might be said. So the ideal group or master might be
conceptualized, once again, as Osiris (the traditions of the past) NESted within Horus/Re (the process that
originally created those traditions, and which presently updates them). This means that the meta-problem
1.03 - Master Ma is Unwell, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
healthy flesh-it can become a NESt or a den. The Great Func
tion appears without abiding by fixed principles-the intent is
1.03 - Sympathetic Magic, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
make their NESts in the decayed thatch. The reason assigned for
invoking the rats on these occasions was that rats' teeth were the
1.03 - The Sephiros, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Spirits, etc., for the whole universe in this philosophy is guided and animated by whole series of these hierarchies of sentient beings, each with a particular function and mission, varying in their respective degrees and states of conscious- NESs and intelligence. There is but one indivisible and absolute conscious NESs thrilling throughout every particle and infinitesimal point in the manifested universe in Space.
But its first differentiation, by emanation or reflection, is purely spiritual and gives rise to a number of " beings " which we may call Gods, their conscious NESs being of such a nature, of such a degree of sublimity, as to surpass our comprehension. From one point of consideration, the
1.03 - To Layman Ishii, #Beating the Cloth Drum Letters of Zen Master Hakuin, #unset, #Integral Yoga
"What a shame if at such a critical moment someone who is supposed to be their good friend and teacher succumbs to tender emotions, indulges them in grandmo therly kind NESs, and serves them up various intellectual explanations that knock them back into the old familiar NESt of conceptual understanding, that drag them down into the cavernous old den of dark NESs and delusion. That,
28
1.04 - GOD IN THE WORLD, #The Perennial Philosophy, #Aldous Huxley, #Philosophy
Tous se sont dit: Allons, mais aucun NESt le matre
Dun dragon mugissant quun savant a fait natre.
1.04 - Sounds, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
As the sparrow had its trill, sitting on the hickory before my door, so had I my chuckle or suppressed warble which he might hear out of my NESt. My days were not days of the week, bearing the stamp of any hea then deity, nor were they minced into hours and fretted by the ticking of a clock; for I lived like the Puri Indians, of whom it is said that for yesterday, to-day, and to-morrow they have only one word, and they express the variety of meaning by pointing backward for yesterday, forward for to-morrow, and overhead for the passing day.
This was sheer idle NESs to my fellow-townsmen, no doubt; but if the birds and flowers had tried me by their standard, I should not have been found wanting. A man must find his occasions in himself, it is true. The natural day is very calm, and will hardly reprove his indolence.
--
England north-east snow storm, and I behold the ploughmen covered with snow and rime, their heads peering, above the mould-board which is turning down other than daisies and the NESts of field-mice, like bowlders of the Sierra Nevada, that occupy an outside place in the universe.
Commerce is unexpectedly confident and serene, alert, adventurous, and unwearied. It is very natural in its methods withal, far more so than many fantastic enterprises and sentimental experiments, and hence its singular success. I am refreshed and expanded when the freight train rattles past me, and I smell the stores which go dispensing their odors all the way from Long Wharf to Lake Champlain, reminding me of foreign parts, of coral reefs, and Indian oceans, and tropical climes, and the extent of the globe. I feel more like a citizen of the world at the sight of the palm-leaf which will cover so many flaxen New England heads the next summer, the Manilla hemp and cocoa-nut husks, the old junk, gunny bags, scrap iron, and rusty nails. This car-load of torn sails is more legible and interesting now than if they should be wrought into paper and printed books. Who can write so graphically the history of the storms they have weathered as these rents have done?
1.04 - THE APPEARANCE OF ANOMALY - CHALLENGE TO THE SHARED MAP, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
middle of a series of concentric rings, composed of the integrated personalities of his ancestors, NESted
(at least in the ideal) within the figure of the exploratory hero. The inner walls are dependent for their
--
individual in this case, a middle-class busi NESsman and father. His individual life is NESted within an
increasingly transpersonal, shared personality, with deep, increasingly implicit historical roots. The
smaller stories, NESted within the larger, are dependent for their continued utility on maintenance of the
larger as the middle-class family, for example, is dependent for its economic stability on the capitalist
system, as the capitalist system is NESted in humanistic western thought, as humanism is dependent on the
notion of the inherent value of the individual (on the notion of individual rights) and as the inherent
--
Figure 48: The Known: NESted Groups and Individuals
Groups and individuals may differ in their goals, values and behaviors at one level of analysis, while
sharing features in common at higher, more implicit levels. Figure 48: The Known: NESted Groups and
Individuals portrays three such groups although this number is arbitrary. Catholic, Protestant and Greek
--
breached and destroyed. The stability of a political or social structure once NESted in a damaged religious
preconception might be likened to a building standing after an earthquake: superficially, it looks intact
1.04 - The Gods of the Veda, #Vedic and Philological Studies, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
When we go back to the Veda itself, we find in the hymns which are to us most easily intelligible by the modernity of their language, similar & decisive indications. The moralistic conception of Varuna, for example, is admitted even by the Europeans. We even find the sense of sin, usually supposed to be an advanced religious conception, much more profoundly developed in prehistoric India than it was in any other old Aryan nation even in historic times. Surely, this is in itself a significant indication. Surely, this conception cannot have become so clear & strong without a previous history in the earlier hymns. Nor is it psychologically possible that a cult capable of so advanced an idea, should have been ignorant of all other moral & intellectual conceptions reverencing only natural forces & seeking only material ends. Neither can there have been a sudden leap filled up only by a very doubtful henotheism, a huge hiatus between the naturalism of early Veda and the transcendentalism of the Vedic Brahmavada admittedly present in the later hymns. The European interpretation in the face of such conflicting facts threatens to become a brilliant but shapeless monstrosity. And is there no symbolism in the details of the Vedic sacrifice? It seems to me that the peculiar language of the Veda has never been properly studied or appreciated in this connection. What are we to say of the Vedic anxiety to increase Indra by the Soma wine? Of the description of Soma as the amritam, the wine of immortality, & of its forces as the indavah or moon powers? Of the constant sense of the attacks delivered by the powers of evil on the sacrifice? Of the extraordinary powers already attri buted to the mantra & the sacrifice? Have the NEShtram potram, hotram of the Veda no symbolic significance? Is there no reason for the multiplication of functions at the sacrifice or for the subtle distinctions between Gayatrins, Arkins, Brahmas? These are questions that demand a careful consideration which has never yet been given for the problems they raise.
The present essays are merely intended to raise the subject, not to exhaust it, to offer suggestions, not to establish them. The theory of Vedic religion which I shall suggest in these pages, can only be substantiated if it is supported by a clear, full, simple, natural and harmonious rendering of the Veda standing on a sound philological basis, perfectly consistent in itself and proved in hymn after hymn without any hiatus or fatal objection. Such a substantiation I shall one day place before the public. The problem of Vedic interpretation depends, in my view, on three different tests, philological, historic and psychological. If the results of these three coincide, then only can we be sure that we have understood the Veda. But to erect this Delphic tripod of interpretation is no facile undertaking. It is easy to misuse philology. I hold no philology to be sound & valid which has only discovered one or two byelaws of sound modification and for the rest depends upon imagination & licentious conjecture,identifies for instance ethos with swadha, derives uloka from urvaloka or prachetasa from prachi and on the other [hand] ignores the numerous but definitely ascertainable caprices of Pracritic detrition between the European & Sanscrit tongues or considers a number of word-identities sufficient to justify inclusion in a single group of languages. By a scientific philology I mean a science which can trace the origins, growth & structure of the Sanscrit language, discover its primary, secondary & tertiary forms & the laws by which they develop from each other, trace intelligently the descent of every meaning of a word in Sanscrit from its original root sense, account for all similarities & identities of sense, discover the reason of unexpected divergences, trace the deviations which separated Greek & Latin from the Indian dialect, discover & define the connection of all three with the Dravidian forms of speech. Such a system of comparative philology could alone deserve to stand as a science side by side with the physical sciences and claim to speak with authority on the significance of doubtful words in the Vedic vocabulary. The development of such a science must always be a work of time & gigantic labour.
--
(13) The tantra is composed of NEShtra, savanam, potra & hotra, the intensifying of the vasu or material (internal or external) so as to prepare it for activity, the production of it in a of it to the god or for action.
(14) The Veda proper is karmakanda, not jnanakanda; its aim is not moksha, but divine fulfilment in this life & the next. Therefore the Vedic Rishis accepted plenty & full NESs of physical, vital & mental being, power & joy as the pratistha or foundation of immortality & did not reject it as an obstacle to salvation.1
1.04 - The Praise, #Tara - The Feminine Divine, #unset, #Integral Yoga
expla ined here is the "lack of happi NESs" ; it
encompasses all scarcity such as lack of food, clothing,
1.05 - Adam Kadmon, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Zureh as connected in some way with the NESchamah by spiritual and magnetic ties. Isaac Myers has a few very interesting remarks to make in this respect. He says that by devotion the magical will elevates the NESchamah to its
Zureh, where they unite. " The higher prototypic soul becomes stirred up and, by a mystic influence, they are chained to each other." This idea falls within the Mystic- ism of the Qabalah, where the doctrine of ecstasy plays a prominent part, and belongs therefore to a later chapter.
--
The third aspect of the immortal entity is NESchamah, or Intuition, the faculty for the Understanding of the Will of the Monad. In Theosophy, this is Higher or Buddhi-
Manas, which, together with Atma-Buddhi, is the god of a high and noble rank, who incarnates in the brute forms of the early races of mankind in order to endow them with mind. The Manasaputras have both Solar and Mercurial connections. The Vedantists call this principle the Vijnana- mayakosa, the Sheath of Knowledge ; and its correspond- ing Chakra in the Yogas is the Yisuddhi, said to be located in the subtle body on the spine at a point opposite to the larynx.
--
" Id " of Sigmund Freud), is that element of desire or emo- tion which can either be dominated entirely by Nephesch or controlled by NESchamah.
We have already considered the reasoning faculty of the
--
The Ruach is the false or empirical ego. It is that part of us which names itself " I ", and it is just that principle which is not " I ". Its moods change with the passing of the years. More, its contents are never the same from one minute to another. The destruction of the glamorous bondage which the Ruach exerts over us, thus permitting the light of the NEScharnah and the higher principles to shine through to illumine our minds and our daily lives, is one of the all-important tasks of Mysticism. In fact, the abnegation of this false ego ( bitol hoyesh) is the essential accomplishment of all spiritual development.
Some Qabalists postulate a Sephirah named Daath, or
1.05 - ADVICE FROM A CATERPILLAR, #Alice in Wonderland, #Lewis Carroll, #Fiction
"Well, be off, then!" said the Pigeon in a sulky tone, as it settled down again into its NESt. Alice crouched down among the trees as well as she could, for her neck kept getting entangled among the branches, and every now and then she had to stop and untwist it. After awhile she remembered that she still held the pieces of mushroom in her hands, and she set to work very carefully, nibbling first at one and then at the other, and growing sometimes taller and sometimes shorter, until she had succeeded in bringing herself down to her usual height.
It was so long since she had been anything near the right size that it felt quite strange at first. "The next thing is to get into that beautiful garden--how _is_ that to be done, I wonder?" As she said this, she came suddenly upon an open place, with a little house in it about four feet high. "Whoever lives there," thought Alice, "it'll never do to come upon them _this_ size; why, I should frighten them out of their wits!" She did not venture to go near the house till she had brought herself down to nine inches high.
1.05 - Hymns of Bharadwaja, #Hymns to the Mystic Fire, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
first of them all, in the wool-flecked lair where the NESt is
ready and the light-offering; lead for the doer of the rite, for
1.05 - ON ENJOYING AND SUFFERING THE PASSIONS, #Thus Spoke Zarathustra, #Friedrich Nietzsche, #Philosophy
men. But this bird built its NESt with me: therefore I
love and caress it; now it dwells with me, siting on its
1.05 - On the Love of God., #The Alchemy of Happiness, #Al-Ghazali, #Sufism
as a child to its mother, take refuge in the remembrance of Me as a bird seeks the shelter of its NESt, and are as angry at the sight of sin as an angry lion who fears nothing."
1.05 - THE HOSTILE BROTHERS - ARCHETYPES OF RESPONSE TO THE UNKNOWN, #Maps of Meaning, #Jordan Peterson, #Psychology
It signifies no danger, in the course of interaction; it cannot be eaten; it is useless as NESting material.... The
block therefore becomes its lack of relevant properties, for the no-longer exploratory rat, and will
--
asleep. After I fell asleep, I had the following dream NESted within a dream:
I was trapped in a huge chandelier, which was hanging directly beneath the dome of an immense
1.05 - The Second Circle The Wanton. Minos. The Infernal Hurricane. Francesca da Rimini., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
With open and steady wings to the sweet NESt
Fly through the air by their volition borne,
1.05 - War And Politics, #Twelve Years With Sri Aurobindo, #Nirodbaran, #Integral Yoga
Our Ashram came in for a good deal of suffering and inconvenience in the wake of the War: the wrath and abuse of our countrymen, the resentment of a number of our own inmates for our support of the War and the loss of some other valiant sons in the great holocaust. It had to open its doors to the children of all disciples who were in the danger zone, so we were all of a sudden changed into a large community without sufficient means to maintain ourselves. And due to the general embargoes and restrictions imposed by the Government the most necessary food supply was either cut off or reduced to a minimum. Last of all, and the greatest irony of fate, the Ashram in spite of all our help was suspected of being a NESt of spies or enemy agents. Police search was apprehended and even the question of disbanding the Ashram was in the air. Perhaps the British Government had never entirely believed that Sri Aurobindo, once the most dangerous enemy of the British Empire, could really become their ally. Was he not still engaged in secret revolutionary activities, his war-contribution serving just as a smoke-screen? Unfortunately, in the Ashram itself there were some who wished for Hitler's victory, not for love of Hitler but because of their hatred of British domination. Sri Aurobindo conveyed through us a stern message to them: "If these people want that the Ashram should be dissolved, they can come and tell me and I will dissolve it instead of the police doing it.... Hitlerism is the greatest menace that the world has ever met."
Another inconvenience, but of short duration, that we had to pass through was the threat of bombing by the Japa NESe Air Force. As soon as the alert for a blackout was given, all lights in the Ashram had to go off. Sri Aurobindo sat up in bed, the Mother on a chair in Sri Aurobindo's room; the two of us who were on duty at the time also sat there, Champaklal very near the Mother.... After a short while when the all-clear signal was given, we would revert to our duty. One day, putting a dark shade over Sri Aurobindo's table lamp, the Mother said with a smile, "Your lamp lights up three streets, Lord." "So I should be darkened?" he asked smiling. In truth, I do not think that any Japa NESe aeroplane flew over Pondicherry. I was very much amused at the sight of the Mother and Sri Aurobindo taking this human precaution against any possible threat. But that is their way. Because they are Divine and possess a great occult power, one would suppose that all the human measures were otiose or a mere show as I thought in my callow days. But I saw in this case and in many others that the Mother was in grim ear NESt. Even if Sri Aurobindo and she were sure of an eventual success, they would keep applying the pressure of their Force till the issue was decided beyond any question.
1.060 - Tracing the Ultimate Cause of Any Experience, #The Study and Practice of Yoga, #Swami Krishnananda, #Yoga
Thus, when the effect is brought to the cause, what is expected of us is not merely a psychological effort to trace the cause of the effect, but also to enliven it with a higher reason, by which it would be possible for us to know the defect or the error that is involved in the very manifestation of the desire. Why has the desire arisen? It is due to an error of perception. Nobody would like to continue in a state of error. If we merely exert to press the effect back to the cause by sheer force of will, that would not be successful, because it will be tantamount to putting an end to the possibility of satisfaction a most painful procedure, indeed. But, if the cause is probed into a little further in greater detail, we will realise that raga and dvesha have a deeper cause which is NEScience, or avidya.
The pratiprasava, or the recession of the effect into the cause, means the tracing of the ultimate cause of any experience not merely a single cause, or one or two causes. It will be realised that the ultimate cause is an erroneous movement of the mind which has given rise to a wrong impression that it is taking a proper course. Because of the habit of the mind since years and years, it may look like it is taking a proper course of action; and even a wrong may look right when it has persisted for a long time. If we go on lying about something completely, for years and years, it may take the shape of a truth, though it is not. This is what has actually happened an erroneous course of action that has been initiated has put on the mask of a right course of action, and that is why it is so insistent.
1.06 - BOOK THE SIXTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Pylos, for NEStor's City after fam'd,
And Troezen, not as yet from Pittheus nam'd.
--
Has snatcht, and carry'd to his lofty NESt
A captive hare, with cruel gripes opprest;
1.06 - Psycho therapy and a Philosophy of Life, #The Practice of Psycho therapy, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
this development psycho therapy stirred up a hornets NESt of the first
magnitude. Let us take as an example the supposedly simple case of a
1.06 - The Four Powers of the Mother, #The Mother With Letters On The Mother, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
5:The Mother as the Mahashakti of this triple world of the Ignorance stands in an intermediate plane between the supramental Light, the Truth life, the Truth creation which has to be brought down here and this mounting and descending hierarchy of pla NES of conscious NESs that like a double ladder lapse into the NEScience of Matter and climb back again through the flowering of life and soul and mind into the infinity of the Spirit. Determining all that shall be in this universe and in the terrestrial evolution by what she sees and feels and pours from her, she stands there above the Gods and all her Powers and Personalities are put out in front of her for the action and she sends down emanations of them into these lower worlds to intervene, to govern, to battle and conquer, to lead and turn their cycles, to direct the total and the individual li NES of their forces. These Emanations are the many divine forms and personalities in which men have worshipped her under different names throughout the ages. But also she prepares and shapes through these Powers and their emanations the minds and bodies of her Vibhutis, even as she prepares and shapes minds and bodies for the Vibhutis of the Ishwara, that she may manifest in the physical world and in the disguise of the human conscious NESs some ray of her power and quality and presence. All the sce NES of the earth-play have been like a drama arranged and planned and staged by her with the cosmic Gods for her assistants and herself as a veiled actor.
6:The Mother not only governs all from above but she descends into this lesser triple universe. Impersonally, all things here, even the movements of the Ignorance, are herself in veiled power and her creations in diminished substance, her Naturebody and Nature-force, and they exist because, moved by the mysterious fiat of the Supreme to work out something that was there in the possibilities of the Infinite, she has consented to the great sacrifice and has put on like a mask the soul and forms of the Ignorance. But personally too she has stooped to descend here into the Dark NESs that she may lead it to the Light, into the Falsehood and Error that she may convert it to the Truth, into this Death that she may turn it to godlike Life, into this world-pain and its obstinate sorrow and suffering that she may end it in the transforming ecstasy of her sublime Ananda. In her deep and great love for her children she has consented to put on herself the cloak of this obscurity, condescended to bear the attacks and torturing influences of the powers of the Dark NESs and the Falsehood, borne to pass through the portals of the birth that is a death, taken upon herself the pangs and sorrows and sufferings of the creation, since it seemed that thus alone could it be lifted to the Light and Joy and Truth and eternal Life. This is the great sacrifice called sometimes the sacrifice of the Purusha, but much more deeply the holocaust of Prakriti, the sacrifice of the Divine Mother
1.06 - THE MASTER WITH THE BRAHMO DEVOTEES, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Sing, O bird that NEStles deep within my heart!
Sing, O bird that sits on the Kalpa-Tree of Brahman!
1.06 - Yun Men's Every Day is a Good Day, #The Blue Cliff Records, #Yuanwu Keqin, #Zen
investigate it thoroughly. He's gone into the NESt of en
tangling vi NES.*
--
**He hasn't come out of this NESt yet.
Beneath his feet clouds arise.*
1.07 - The Literal Qabalah (continued), #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
Now this conception of things very closely approximates that adopted by the Qabalists. For the moment I shall deal solely with the element carbon, leaving the reader to work out for himself the correspondences of sodium and mag- NESium mentioned by Eddington. The manifestation of
Life is, the Qabalists assert, definitely connected with, and is part of the connotation of, the number Six. Carbon itself is concerned with combustion, combustion with fire and heat ; the latter, ultimately, with the Sun. We may assume that Carbon is a manifestation, or the underlying basis, of life in the microcosm, and the Sun the source of
1.08a - The Ladder, #A Garden of Pomegranates - An Outline of the Qabalah, #Israel Regardie, #Occultism
The methods of the Qabalah particularly - since it alone of all others appears to possess the one basis pre-eminently suitable for synthesis - enlarge our vision of the universe by means of an experience variously called religious, mystical, or supra-rational. And by this is meant an experience, nay, an immediate intuition, a spontaneous insight into the meaning, the nature, and the value of the Universe, giving a beatific vision of how all things belong together, a clue to the nature of Ultimate Reality. We deal here with an essential fact in mystical knowledge ; the superseding of the ordinary activities of the rational conscious NESs in a direct intuition wherein the NESchamah gazes directly upon ideas. And experience, whether secular or mystical, must always be the ultima thule, beyond which one dare not go, nor which one dare negate. In setting up the Mystical
THE LADDER 137
--
The Buach, the principle whose thought modifications are to be controlled, permitting NESchamah to pierce through the tranquillity thus caused, is not, as we have already pointed out, the highest power in man. It is only one particular function, one instrument of the Yechidah, by which it thinks, works, and experiences. As Blavatsky wrote in The Voice of the Silence : " The Mind is the great
Slayer of the Real. Let the disciple slay the Slayer." The theory here is that the mind is but a mechanism for dealing symbolically with impressions, though its construction tempts one to take these impressions for Reality. Conscious thought, hence, is fundamentally false, preventing one from perceiving reality.
--
soul's heaven which should fill us with inexpressible happi- NESs ? How are we to get back, for return we must, to
Apollo, Demeter and Persephone or their equivalents ? To the worship of Bacchus, Dionysius, the ecstatic forces of eternal nature and life, and the Rites of Eleusis ? This is our problem, and it is a terrific problem which some day must be faced and solved.
--
" There are some, who from lack of experience or obtuse- NESs, will turn away from such phenomena as ' folk- diseases ' with a smile of contempt or pity prompted by the conscious NESs of their own health ; of course, the poor wretches do not divine what a cadaverous-looking and ghastly aspect this very * health ' of theirs presents when the glowing life of the Dionysian revellers rushes past them."
Prof. William James wrote in his Variety of Religious
--
Elere, too, he is expected to make his magical Cup which is to represent NESchamah, his Understanding and In- tuition ; and engage in, and obtain mastery over, the magical rites of Evocation. The results of the Evocation ihould be unmistakably perceptible to the physical eye.
Just as a thick cloud of heavy gas is normally visible, in like manner, at the very least, should the Practicus render visible the Spirit summoned in his magical rite.
1.08 - BOOK THE EIGHTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Leave the high NESt to tempt the liquid air.
Then chears him on, and oft, with fatal art,
--
To brood in hedge-rows o'er its humble NESt;
And, in remembrance of the former ill,
--
With twice old Iolas, and NEStor then but young.
Laertes active, and Ancaeus bold;
1.08 - Information, Language, and Society, #Cybernetics, or Control and Communication in the Animal and the Machine, #Norbert Wiener, #Cybernetics
bees, the NESts of wasps or ants. The degree of integration of the
life of the community may very well approach the level shown
--
can distinguish an ant from its own NESt from an ant from a
foreign NESt, and may cooperate with the one, destroy the other.
Within a few outside reactions of this kind, the ant seems to
1.08 - The Historical Significance of the Fish, #Aion, #Carl Jung, #Psychology
initio ad finem sit NEScio quomodo tractandus), thus giving rise to the view that
"even the devil will some day be saved." [Cf. alternative trans, by J. E. L. Oulton
1.09 - ADVICE TO THE BRAHMOS, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
Sing, O bird that NEStles deep within my heart!
Sing, O bird that sits on the Kalpa-Tree of Brahman!
--
"By being lowly one can rise high. The chatak bird makes its NESt on low ground, but it soars very high in the sky. Cultivation is not possible on high land; in low land water accumulates and makes cultivation possible.
"One must take the trouble to seek the company of holy persons. In his own home a man hears only worldly talk; the disease of worldli NESs has become chronic with him.
1.09 - BOOK THE NINTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
The Death of NESsus the Centaur
This virgin too, thy love, O NESsus, found,
To her alone you owe the fatal wound.
--
The strong-limb'd NESsus thus officious cry'd
(For he the shallows of the stream had try'd),
--
Th' Aonian chief to NESsus trusts his wife,
All pale, and trembling for her heroe's life:
11.01 - The Eternal Day The Souls Choice and the Supreme Consummation, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Tied to her apron strings of NEScience.
The Inconscient could not read without man's mind
--
He is my soul that climbs from NEScient Night
Through life and mind and supernature's Vast
--
It shall make earth's NEScient ground Truth's colony,
Make even the Ignorance a transparent robe
1.1.02 - Sachchidananda, #Letters On Yoga I, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
- although inseparable, one can be made more prominent and base or lead the others. In the lower pla NES below they become separable in appearance, though not in their secret reality, and one can exist phenomenally without the others so that we become aware of what seems to us an inconscient or a painful existence or a conscious NESs without Ananda. Indeed without this separation of them in experience pain and ignorance and falsehood and death and what we call inconscience could not have manifested themselves - there could not have been this evolution of a limited and suffering conscious NESs out of the universal NEScience of Matter.
The Sachchidananda is not in itself an active conscious NESs, it is simply pure existence, conscious NESs and bliss. By a Truth
11.05 - The Ladder of Unconsciousness, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
Likewise unconscious NESs too has its own various degrees. As conscious NESs rises up to higher and higher grades of conscious NESs, so unconscious NESs too descends into lower and lower grades of unconscious NESs. The first degree of unconscious NESs is simple forgetful NESs. It is the absence of conscious NESs, not the loss of conscious NESs. The conscious NESs is there but it is not apparent or expressed, it is held back for the time. One can recall it; it can be remembered and brought forward. The abeyance of conscious NESs, when it persists, when it amounts to a turn of nature, is called ignorance. Yet ignorance is not the negation of conscious NESs, it is clouded or veiled conscious NESs; it is not that the sun is set and gone but simply that it is behind the clouds, it is up in the sky but shrouded. This behind-the-veil conscious NESs is the subliminal conscious NESs or simply sub-conscious NESs. Sub-conscious NESs is a conscious NESs that is not dormant or asleep, stilled into silence, it is at work but behind the normal waking state It is the swapna-state as the Indian sages termed it. Lower down is the state of unconscious NESs proper. It is a still more diminished degree of conscious NESs, apparently a total absence of conscious NESs, not merely an abeyance or subsidence of conscious NESs, it is a lack of conscious NESs. The animal conscious NESs might be taken as an instance or expression of the ignorant conscious NESs, likewise the plant conscious NESs parallels the subliminal conscious NESs the Indian description of it is antapraja. Next to it is the conscious NESs in the mineral, it is unconscious NESs. By unconscious NESs it is meant here naturally the absence of the mental conscious NESs: the presence or absence of conscious NESs means the presence or absence of the mental conscious NESs. There is a generic conscious NESs, conscious NESs in itself, or pure conscious NESs, which is imbedded in all created things, for creation itself is at bottom a vibration or pulsation of conscious NESs (vijana-vijmbhaam). There is a range or rung still further below with a still lesser degree of conscious NESs: it is called the inconscient, which is a totally total, in depth and in extent, absence of conscious NESs. In the other degree that is above it, there is the probability of conscious NESs in the midst of apparent absence, here it is reduced almost to nothing NESs or to just a possibility: for, as I have said, some conscious NESs, the presence of Sachchidananda is always there everywhere in the core of things. Yet there is also an absolute negation and this has been termed NEScience, it is the zero of things, where there is no question of possibility or impossibility: it is the final and definite end, sunyam of the Buddhists, termed asat by the Vedantists.
Now, the curious and most interesting thing is that the end is not the end of things; for beyond the zero there is the minus sign and what does minus mean? I t does not mean mere negation, it means a realitya negative real. It is a moot problem in philosophyphilosophers have questioned, argued, discussed at length about itwhether negation means only denial, just the contrary of affirmation. If affirmation means a real, negation means simply the unreal. It has been declared by competent authorities that negation, like affirmation, is also a reality but of the opposite sign. We know in mathematics the minus sign is as real as the plus.
--
The absolute NEScience is the mere reversal of the Supreme Conscious NESs, the everlasting Nay is the everlasting Yes turned inside out. Death making a right-about turn is Immortality.
Modern science speaks of anti-matter and the possibility of a world of anti-matter. A world of anti-matter seems to be self contradictory if it does not amount to be an absolute impossibility. The only possibility or plausibility is a world in which matter and anti-matter co-exist (as actually in the present world), but the miracle is that they do not cancel or annihilate each other producing an absolute zero; indeed, the two opposing Clements in their interaction through a process of continuous creation and destruction carryon the world ad infinitum.
1.10 - Relics of Tree Worship in Modern Europe, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
hen on the NESt laying white eggs," and begging a gift of eggs,
bacon, and so on. At the village of Ellgoth in Silesia a ceremony
11.15 - Sri Aurobindo, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The new world has to be based on new foundations. The old world was built from outside with superficial cheap elements that lower Nature offers easily and profusely. It is body's needs, vital hungers assembled and arranged according to a plan supplied by mind's ideas and notions under the directive and compulsion of the ego, the sense or conscious NESs of one's separate individual existence as against others. The new world will start from the soul, the luminous divine element in man which is one with all and grow from within outward. It is as if the foundations are laid not below, but above the tree of existence would branch out not from below upwards, but from above downward, in the image given by the ancient Rishis of India. The individual will therefore be not primarily a body housing secondaryor as it is sometimes called epiphenomenalmovements such as those of the mind and the vital limited and largely conditioned by it. The individual will primarily be a conscious NESs, a focus of energy-conscious NESs existing and acting in union and communion with all other similar individual foci, for all form one single undivided entity. The body and life and mind are moulded in the substance and rhythm of that sovereign conscious NESs. The hard egoism or self-centred NESs, the gross animality that seem to be the very constitution of the human individual are dissolved into the soul's radiant urges.
The individual can be and is to be fulfilled in and through his soul the presiding conscious NESs that has at its disposal the mind, the vital and the body as its instruments and means of expression, but which till now, because of an evolutionary necessity of growth and development, acted more as an obstruction or a veil than as an aid or a channel. When in the new conscious NESs the individual attains its soul-status, in other words, its divinity, then a reshaping and recasting of the lower limbs becomes possible and even inevitable. The soul-status means freedom, harmony, purity, knowledge, power, delight and immortality, absolute and inalienable.
1.11 - BOOK THE ELEVENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Sev'n days sits brooding on her floating NESt:
A wintry queen: her sire at length is kind,
1.11 - The Broken Rocks. Pope Anastasius. General Description of the Inferno and its Divisions., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Wherefore within the second circle NEStle
Hypocrisy, flattery, and who deals in magic,
1.12 - BOOK THE TWELFTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
And, in the leafie summit, spy'd a NESt,
Which o'er her callow young, a sparrow press'd.
--
Then NEStor thus: what once this age has known,
In fated Cygnus, and in him alone,
--
Now beat the hoof with NESsus on the plain;
But to his fellow cry'd, Be safely slow,
--
Or dwell on NESsus, now return'd from flight.
How prophet Mopsus not alone divin'd,
--
This tale, by NEStor told, did much displease
Tlepolemus, the seed of Hercules:
--
Thus with a flowing tongue old NEStor spoke:
Then, to full bowls each other they provoke:
1.12 - Brute Neighbors, #Walden, and On The Duty Of Civil Disobedience, #Henry David Thoreau, #Philosophy
The mice which haunted my house were not the common o NES, which are said to have been introduced into the country, but a wild native kind not found in the village. I sent one to a distinguished naturalist, and it interested him much. When I was building, one of these had its NESt underneath the house, and before I had laid the second floor, and swept out the shavings, would come out regularly at lunch time and pick up the crumbs at my feet. It probably had never seen a man before; and it soon became quite familiar, and would run over my shoes and up my clothes. It could readily ascend the sides of the room by short impulses, like a squirrel, which it resembled in its motions. At length, as I leaned with my elbow on the bench one day, it ran up my clothes, and along my sleeve, and round and round the paper which held my dinner, while I kept the latter close, and dodged and played at bopeep with it; and when at last I held still a piece of cheese between my thumb and finger, it came and nibbled it, sitting in my hand, and afterward cleaned its face and paws, like a fly, and walked away.
A phbe soon built in my shed, and a robin for protection in a pine which grew against the house. In June the partridge (_Tetrao umbellus_,) which is so shy a bird, led her brood past my windows, from the woods in the rear to the front of my house, clucking and calling to them like a hen, and in all her behavior proving herself the hen of the woods. The young suddenly disperse on your approach, at a signal from the mother, as if a whirlwind had swept them away, and they so exactly resemble the dried leaves and twigs that many a traveler has placed his foot in the midst of a brood, and heard the whir of the old bird as she flew off, and her anxious calls and mewing, or seen her trail her wings to attract his attention, without suspecting their neighborhood. The parent will sometimes roll and spin round before you in such a dishabille, that you cannot, for a few moments, detect what kind of creature it is. The young squat still and flat, often running their heads under a leaf, and mind only their mothers directions given from a distance, nor will your approach make them run again and betray themselves. You may even tread on them, or have your eyes on them for a minute, without discovering them. I have held them in my open hand at such a time, and still their only care, obedient to their mother and their instinct, was to squat there without fear or trembling. So perfect is this instinct, that once, when I had laid them on the leaves again, and one accidentally fell on its side, it was found with the rest in exactly the same position ten minutes afterward. They are not callow like the young of most birds, but more perfectly developed and precocious even than chickens. The remarkably adult yet innocent expression of their open and serene eyes is very memorable. All intelligence seems reflected in them. They suggest not merely the purity of infancy, but a wisdom clarified by experience. Such an eye was not born when the bird was, but is coeval with the sky it reflects.
1.12 - The Left-Hand Path - The Black Brothers, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Perhaps the best and simplest plan is for me to pick out the most impor- tant of the relevant passages and put them together as an appendix to this letter. Also, by contrast, those allusions to the "Black Brothers" and the "Left-hand Path." This ought to give you a clear idea of what each is, and does; of what distinguishes their respective methods in some ways so confusingly alike. I hope indeed most sincerely that you will whet your Magical Dagger on the Stone of the Wise, and wield most deftly and determinedly both the White-handled and the Black-handled Burin. In trying to express these opinions, I am constantly haunted by the dread that I may be missing some crucial point, or even allowing a mere quibble to pass for argument. It makes it only all the worse when one has become so habituated by NESchamic ideas, to knowing, even before one says it, that what one is going to say is of necessity untrue, as untrue as it is contradictory. So what can it possibly matter what one says?
Such doubts are dampers!
1.12 - The Minotaur. The Seventh Circle The Violent. The River Phlegethon. The Violent against their Neighbours. The Centaurs. Tyrants., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Then touched he me, and said: "This one is NESsus,
Who perished for the lovely Dejanira,
--
And said to NESsus: "Turn and do thou guide them,
And warn aside, if other band may meet you."
1.13 - BOOK THE THIRTEENTH, #Metamorphoses, #Ovid, #Poetry
Ev'n faithful NEStor less in both is found:
But that he might without a rival reign,
He left this faithful NEStor on the plain;
Forsook his friend ev'n at his utmost need,
--
A pair of turtles taken from the NESt.
I walk'd the mountains, and two cubs I found
1.13 - The Supermind and the Yoga of Works, #The Synthesis Of Yoga, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
an intense activity of the intuitivised mind and life-power or an ascent into these ranges can bring a true but still incomplete light easily exposed to mixture, a light which is spiritual in its source though it does not always remain spiritual in its active character when it comes down into the lower nature. But none of these things is the supramental light, the supramental power; that can only be seen and grasped when we have reached the summits of mental being, entered into overmind and stand on the borders of an upper, a greater hemisphere of spiritual existence. There the ignorance, the inconscience, the original blank NEScience slowly awaking towards a half-knowledge, which are the basis of material Nature and which surround, penetrate and powerfully limit all our powers of mind and life, cease altogether; for an unmixed and unmodified Truth-conscious NESs is there the substance of all the being, its pure spiritual texture. To imagine that we have reached such a condition when we are still moving in the dynamics of the Ignorance, though it may be an enlightened or illumined Ignorance, is to lay ourselves open either to a disastrous misleading or to an arrest of the evolution of the being.
For if it is some inferior state that we thus mistake for the supermind, it lays us open to all the dangers we have seen to attend a presumptuous egoistic haste in our demand for achievement. If it is one of the higher states that we presume to be the highest, we may, though we achieve much, yet fall short of the greater, more perfect goal of our being; for we shall remain content with an approximation and the supreme transformation will escape us. Even the achievement of a complete inner liberation and a high spiritual conscious NESs is not that supreme transformation; for we may have that achievement, a status perfect in itself, in essence, and still our dynamic parts may in their instrumentation belong to an enlightened spiritualised mind and may be in consequence, like all mind, defective even in its greater power and knowledge, still subject to a partial or local obscuration or a limitation by the original circumscribing NEScience.
* *
1.13 - The Wood of Thorns. The Harpies. The Violent against themselves. Suicides. Pier della Vigna. Lano and Jacopo da Sant' Andrea., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
Not yet had NESsus reached the other side,
When we had put ourselves within a wood,
--
There do the hideous Harpies make their NESts,
Who chased the Trojans from the Strophades,
1.13 - Under the Auspices of the Gods, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
Until now, it is as if the individual's progress in evolution has been to discover higher pla NES of conscious NESs, and once there, to build his own private NESt apart from the rest of creation, an island of light in the midst of economic philistinism: this one with music, that one with poetry, another with mathematics or religion, and yet another on a sailboat or in a monk's cell, as if the sole purpose of life in a body were to escape from both life and the body. Indeed, we need only look at our own life; we are never in it! We are before or after, engrossed in memories or in hopes; but the here-and-now is so miserable and dull . . . we do not even know if it exists, except in those moments that no longer belong to life as such. We cannot blame the churches,
because we all live in the beyond, all the time; they merely preach a larger beyond. Even Rimbaud said it: "True life is elsewhere."
1.14 - The Secret, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
Shadow and Light, Good and Evil have all prepared a divine birth in Matter: "Day and Night both suckle the divine Child." 253 Nothing is accursed, nothing is in vain. Night and Day are "two sisters, immortal, with a common Lover (the Sun) . . . common they, though different their forms." (I.113.2.3) At the end of the "pilgrimage" of ascent and descent, the seeker is "a son of the two Mothers (III.55.7): the son of Aditi, the white Mother254 of the superconscious infinite, and the son of Diti, the earthly Mother of "the dark infinite." He possesses "the two births," human and divine, "eternal and in one NESt . . . as the Enjoyer of his two wives" (I.62.7): "The contents of the pregnant hill255 (came forth) for the supreme birth . . . a god opened the human doors." (V.45) "Then indeed, they awoke and saw all behind and wide around them, then, indeed, they held the ecstasy that is enjoyed in heaven. In all gated houses256 were all the gods." (Rig Veda IV.1.18)
Man's hope is fulfilled as well as the rishi's prayer: "May Heaven and Earth be equal and one."257 The great Balance is at last restored.
1.15 - The Violent against Nature. Brunetto Latini., #The Divine Comedy, #Dante Alighieri, #Christianity
The NESt of such great malice it became."
"If my entreaty wholly were fulfilled,"
1.16 - Man, A Transitional Being, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
In the heights, She is as if asleep within Him; in the depths, He is as if asleep within Her. Force dissolved in Conscious NESs and Conscious NESs dissolved in Force, the Infinite contained in the Finite as the tree and all its branches are contained in the seed. This is what Sri Aurobindo calls "involution": The NEScience of Matter is a veiled,
an involved or somnambulist conscious NESs which contains all the latent powers of the Spirit. In every particle, atom, molecule, cell of Matter there lives hidden and works unknown all the omniscience of the Eternal and all the omnipotence of the Infinite. 320 The involution above is followed by a new involution below, whereby everything is contained latently within the Night, the way everything was contained latently within the Light above. Agni is there "like a warm gold dust";
1.17 - The Seven-Headed Thought, Swar and the Dashagwas, #The Secret Of The Veda, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
(divine and human?) Ayasya uncovered by his hymns the two, eternal and in one NESt; perfectly achieving he upheld earth and
The Seven-Headed Thought, Swar and the Dashagwas 181 heaven6 in the highest ether (of the revealed superconscient, paramam guhyam) as the Enjoyer his two wives." The soul's enjoyment of its divinised mental and bodily existence upheld in the eternal joy of the spiritual being could not be more clearly and beautifully imaged.
1.17 - The Transformation, #Sri Aurobindo or the Adventure of Consciousness, #Satprem, #Integral Yoga
As silence is the basic condition for mental transformation, and peace the basic condition for vital transformation, so immobility is the basis for physical transformation not an outer immobility but an inner one, in the cellular conscious NESs. By mental silence and vital peace we have been able to sort out the countless vibrations of the world, the secret stimuli that set us in motion and trigger our feelings or thoughts. Similarly, by an immobility of the physical conscious NESs, we begin to expose another NESt of swarming vibrations and to realize what we are really made of. In cellular terms,
we live in a total chaos: a maelstrom of sensations strong, pleasant,
12.01 - The Return to Earth, #Savitri, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
And the birds came back winging to their NESts,
And day and night leaned to each other's arms.
12.03 - The Sorrows of God, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 04, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
The Son of Man the Avatarsuffers with and suffers for the suffering humanity. The Christ with his cross, Ramakrishna with his cancer, Socrates with the hemlock creeping up and benumbing his limbs and Mohammed being hunted from place to place are familiar and poignant pictures. "Verily, verily, the foxes have their holes, the birds their NESts, but the son of man hath nowhere to lay his head."
And this is bound to be so, for it is the inexorable law of nature: one who has identified himself with Nature, ignorant nature, of which the ignorant and suffering humanity is part and parcel, one whose body and soul are in unison and union with the body and soul of all beings and creatures, made of the same stuff and substance cannotand wants not to escape the general fate whatever it is. If misery be the badge of the human tribe, the Divine Man, the representative human being must wear that badge.
--
At the very outset the light descends as a shower of scattered glowing points into the heart of things, secreted and unobserved; that gives only just a basis for the progressive upward movement. It initiates a mere possibility. For a more effective power, for the dynamic upward drive other descents are necessary, descents of individual formations, individualities and personalities embodying the light and force of conscious NESs. This becomes tangible when the light enters into the human creation. All men, all human formations are individualised specks of light cast into a material shape. And this shape bears all the stigma of inconscient nature. But it is the work and mission of the secret immanent light to corrode into the dense dark material and illumine and new create it. The whole suffering humanity presents the picture of a laboratory where a new laser beam is operating for the realisation of a renovated humanity.
Great souls, Avatars, are a necessity, an inevitability in the process of evolution and ascension, for they are individualisations, impersonations so to say, in whom the conscious NESs energy is massively stored and concretised for a greater and radical effective power of realisation. Inevitably this means as I have said the assumption of all the ills of nature; for the very purpose of incarnation is to purify the external nature, so that it becomes one with the inner being. So, all terrestrial human beings share in the impurity of the ignorant ordinary nature and share also, as secretly conscious entities although outwardly almost absolutely unconscious, in the general work of progress and purification. But there are beings who come forward as conscious formations with the mission of uplifting, transmuting, divinising humanity.
1.20 - The End of the Curve of Reason, #The Human Cycle, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
Life differs from the mechanical order of the physical universe with which the reason has been able to deal victoriously just because it is mechanical and runs immutably in the groove of fixed cosmic habits. Life, on the contrary, is a mobile, progressive and evolving force,a force that is the increasing expression of an infinite soul in creatures and, as it progresses, becomes more and more aware of its own subtle variations, needs, diversities. The progress of Life involves the development and interlocking of an immense number of things that are in conflict with each other and seem often to be absolute oppositions and contraries. To find amid these oppositions some principle or standing-ground of unity, some workable lever of reconciliation which will make possible a larger and better development on a basis of harmony and not of conflict and struggle, must be increasingly the common aim of humanity in its active life-evolution, if it at all means to rise out of lifes more confused, painful and obscure movement, out of the compromises made by Nature with the ignorance of the Life-mind and the NEScience of Matter. This can only be truly and satisfactorily done when the soul discovers itself in its highest and completest spiritual reality and effects a progressive upward transformation of its life-values into those of the spirit; for there they will all find their spiritual truth and in that truth their standing-ground of mutual recognition and reconciliation. The spiritual is the one truth of which all others are the veiled aspects, the brilliant disguises or the dark disfigurements, and in which they can find their own right form and true relation to each other. This is a work the reason cannot do. The busi NESs of the reason is intermediate: it is to observe and understand this life by the intelligence and discover for it the direction in which it is going and the laws of its self-development on the way. In order that it may do its office, it is obliged to adopt temporarily fixed view-points none of which is more than partially true and to create systems none of which can really stand as the final expression of the integral truth of things. The integral truth of things is truth not of the reason but of the spirit.
In the realm of thought that does not matter; for as there the reason does not drive at practice, it is able with impunity to allow the most opposite view-points and systems to exist side by side, to compare them, seek for reconciliations, synthetise in the most various ways, change constantly, enlarge, elevate; it is free to act without thinking at every point of immediate practical consequences. But when the reason seeks to govern life, it is obliged to fix its view-point, to crystallise its system; every change becomes or at least seems a thing doubtful, difficult and perilous, all the consequences of which cannot be foreseen, while the conflict of view-points, principles, systems leads to strife and revolution and not to a basis of harmonious development. The reason mechanises in order to arrive at fixity of conduct and practice amid the fluidity of things; but while mechanism is a sufficient principle in dealing with physical forces, because it is in harmony with the law or dharma of physical Nature, it can never truly succeed in dealing with conscious life, because there it is contrary to the law of life, its highest dharma. While, then, the attempt at a rational ordering of society is an advance upon the comparative immobility and slow subconscient or half-conscient evolution of infrarational societies and the confusedly mixed movement of semi-rational societies, it can never arrive at perfection by its own methods, because reason is neither the first principle of life, nor can be its last, supreme and sufficient principle.
1.21 - My Theory of Astrology, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Modern astrologers multiply their charts until their desks remind me of a Bargain Basement in the rush hour! They compare and contrast until they are in bat-eyed bewilderment bemused; and when the answer turns out absolutely false, exclaim, what a shout: "By Ptolemy, I forgot to look at the last Luniation for Buda-Pesth!" But then they can always find something or other which will explain how they came to go wrong: naturally, when you have several hundred factors, helplessly bound and gagged, it would be just too bad if you couldn't pick out one to serve your turn after the event! No, dear girl, it should be obvious to an unweaned brat: (a) they can't see the wood for the trees, (b) they are using Ruach on a proposition which demands NESchamah. Intellect is quite inadequate; the problem requires mother-wit, intuition, understanding.
Here is my system in a Number 000 Ampoule.
1.21 - Tabooed Things, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
shorn hair and make a NESt of it, the person will suffer from
headache or even become idiotic. Similarly in Germany it is a common
notion that if birds find a person's cut hair, and build their NESts
with it, the person will suffer from headache; sometimes it is
--
bury it to prevent the birds from lining their NESts with it, which
would cause the heads from which the hair came to ache.
1.21 - WALPURGIS-NIGHT, #Faust, #Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, #Poetry
I peeped at the owl in her NESt alone:
How she stared and glared!
1.23 - FESTIVAL AT SURENDRAS HOUSE, #The Gospel of Sri Ramakrishna, #Sri Ramakrishna, #Hinduism
MASTER: "My arm was broken in order to destroy my ego to its very root. Now I cannot find my ego within myself any more. When I search for it I see God alone. One can never attain God without completely getting rid of the ego. You must have noticed that the chatak bird has its NESt on the ground but soars up very high.
"Captain says I haven't acquired any occult powers because I eat fish. I tremble with fear lest I should acquire those powers. If I should have them, then this place would be turned into a hospital or a dispensary. People would flock here and ask me to cure their ill NESs. Is it good to have occult powers?"
1.23 - Improvising a Temple, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
And so on for ever I fear it would be nugatory, pleonastic (and oh! several other lovely long adjectives!) to try to guard you from these hydra-headed and protean booby-traps; you must tackle them yourself as they arise, and deal with them as best you can: always remembering that often enough you cannot tell which is you and which is the Monkey Puzzle, or who has won. ("Everybody's won; so everybody must have a prize" applies beautifully). And none of it all matters a row of haricots verts sauts; for the conclusion must always be Doubt (see that beastly The Book of Lies again there's a gorgeous chapter about it[40]) and the practical moral is this: these contradictions don't occur (or don't matter) in NESchamah.
Also, it might help you quite a lot (by encouraging you when depressed, or amusing you when you want to relax) to read Sir Palamede the Saracen; Supplement to The Equinox, Vol. I, No. 4. I expect quite a few of his tragi-comic misadventures will be already familiar to you in one disguise or another.
1.240 - 1.300 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
"Each is great in its own way. What is Kambar's great NESs when compared with a bird which builds its NESt so fine, the worms which
232
--
Similarly the wasps build their NESts of lac (crude), and so on.
So then, each animal has got some remarkable instinct. Kambar's learning is not to be wondered at because it is God's will, as it is in the other cases.
--
M.: Just at nightfall the hen clucks and the chicks go and hide themselves under her wings. The hen then goes to roost in the NESt with the chicks in her protection. At dawn the chicks come out and so does the hen. The mother-hen stands for the ego which collects all the thoughts and goes to sleep. At sunrise the rays emerge forth and are collected again at sunset. Similarly, when the ego displays itself, it does so with all its paraphernalia. When it sinks, everything disappears with it.
D.: What does sushupti look like?
M.: In a cloudy dark night no individual identification of objects is possible and there is only dense dark NESs, although the seer has his eyes wide open; similarly in sushupti the seer is aware of simple NEScience.
Sri Bhagavan is said to have remarked to an inquisitive person: "What is the meaning of this talk of truth and falsehood in the world which is itself false?"
1.240 - Talks 2, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
Each is great in its own way. What is Kambars great NESs when compared with a bird which builds its NESt so fine, the worms which
Talks with Sri Ramana Maharshi give lac, the honey bee which builds the comb, the ants which build cities, and the spider its web?
--
Similarly the wasps build their NESts of lac (crude), and so on.
So then, each animal has got some remarkable instinct. Kambars learning is not to be wondered at because it is Gods will, as it is in the other cases.
--
M.: Just at nightfall the hen clucks and the chicks go and hide themselves under her wings. The hen then goes to roost in the NESt with the chicks in her protection. At dawn the chicks come out and so does the hen. The mother-hen stands for the ego which collects all the thoughts and goes to sleep. At sunrise the rays emerge forth and are collected again at sunset. Similarly, when the ego displays itself, it does so with all its paraphernalia. When it sinks, everything disappears with it.
D.: What does sushupti look like?
M.: In a cloudy dark night no individual identification of objects is possible and there is only dense dark NESs, although the seer has his eyes wide open; similarly in sushupti the seer is aware of simple NEScience.
Sri Bhagavan is said to have remarked to an inquisitive person: What is the meaning of this talk of truth and falsehood in the world which is itself false?
--
D.: Sleep is the state of NEScience and so it is said of samadhi also.
M.: Jnana is beyond knowledge and NEScience. There can be no question about that state. It is the Self.
Talk 433.
1.25 - On the destroyer of the passions, most sublime humility, which is rooted in spiritual feeling., #The Ladder of Divine Ascent, #Saint John of Climacus, #unset
8. The end of the Law and the Prophets is Christ for the righteous NESs of every believer.1 And the end of the impure passions is vainglory and pride for everyone who does not deal with this matter. But their destroyer, this spiritual stag,2 keeps him who lives with it immune from all deadly poison. For where can the poison of hypocrisy appear in humility? Where is the poison of calumny? And where will a snake NEStle and hide? Will it not rather be drawn out of the earth of the heart and be killed and destroyed?
9. In union with humility it is impossible that there should be any appearance of hatred, or any kind of dispute, or even a sniff of disobedience, unless perhaps faith is called in question.
1.26 - Mental Processes - Two Only are Possible, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Try something simple: "The soul is part of God." Now then, when he writes "soul" does he mean Atma, or Buddhi, or the Higher Manas, or Purusha, or Yechidah, or NESchamah, or Nepheshch, or Nous, or Psyche, or Phren, or Ba, or Khu, or Ka, or Animus, or Anima, or Seele, or what?
As everybody, will he nill he, creates "God" in his own image, it is perfectly useless to inquire what he may happen to mean by that.
1.28 - Need to Define God, Self, etc., #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Do see it simply; the word must in any event connote ideas of NESchamah, not of Ruach.
"But you use the word all the time." Yes, I do, and rely on the context to crystallize this most fluid or gaseous of expressions.
--
In the Ruach all the laws of logic apply: they don't in NESchamah.
The real meaning of the passage is simple enough, if you understand that it refers to a specific result of Initiation. You have to be able to reckon up the Universe, as a whole and in every part; and to get rid of all its false or partial realities by discarding everything but the One Reality which is the sole truth in, and of Illusion.
1.28 - The Killing of the Tree-Spirit, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
thrive. Or the straw is put in the hens' NESt, it being supposed
that this prevents the hens from carrying away their eggs, and makes
1.29 - What is Certainty?, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Not unaware am I that these conceptions are at first exceedingly difficult to formulate clearly. I wouldn't go so far as to say that one would have to be a Master of the Temple to understand them; but it is really very necessary to have grasped firmly the doctrine that "a thing is only true insofar as it contains its contradiction in itself." (A good way to realize this is by keeping up a merry dance of paradoxes, such as infest Logic and Mathematics. The repeated butting of the head against a brick wall is bound in the long run to shake up the little grey cells (as Poirot[57] might say), teach you to distrust any train of argument, however apparently impeccable the syllogisms, and to seek ever more eagerly the dawn of that NESchamic conscious NESs where all these things are clearly understood, although impossible to express in rational language.)
The prime function of intellect is differentiation; it deals with marks, with limits, with the relations of what is not identical; in NESchamah all this work has been carried out so perfectly that the "rough working" has passed clean out of mind; just so, you say "I" as if it were an indivisible Unity, unconscious of the inconceivably intricate machinery of anatomical, physiological, psychological construction which issues in this idea of "I."
We may then with some confidence reaffirm that our certainties do assert our limitations; but this kind of limitation is not necessarily harmful, provided that we view the situation in its proper perspective, that we understand that membership of the of-all-Truth class does not (as one is apt to think at first sight) deepen the gulfs which separate mind from mind, but on the contrary put us in a position to ignore them. Our acts of "love under will," which express our devotion to Nuit, which multiply the fulfillments of our possibilities, become continually more efficacious, and more closely bound up with our Formula of Initiation; and we progressively become aware of deeper and vaster Images of the of-all-Truth class, which reconcile, by including within themselves, all apparent antinomies.
1.30 - Adonis in Syria, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
look and see the eagles wheeling about their NESts far below. One
such monument exists at Ghineh. The face of a great rock, above a
1.34 - The Tao 1, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
As I said above, it is a matter of NESchamah; but what follows may help you.
Why is the Tao translated "Reason"? Because by "Reason" is here meant the structure of the mind itself; a Buddhist who had succeeded with Mahasatipatthana might call it the Conscious NESss of the Tendency to Perceive the Sensation of Anything. For in the last resort, and through the pursuit of one line of analysis, this structure is all that we can call our conscious NESs. Everything of which we can in any way be aware may be interpreted as being some function of this structure.
1.3.5.04 - The Evolution of Consciousness, #Essays Divine And Human, #Sri Aurobindo, #Integral Yoga
A Conscious NESs, a Being, a Power, a Joy was here from the beginning darkly imprisoned in this apparent denial of itself, this original night, this obscurity and NEScience of material Nature.
That which is and was for ever, free, perfect, eternal and infinite,
That which all is, That which we call God, Brahman, Spirit, has here shut itself up in its own self-created opposite. The Omniscient has plunged itself into NEScience, the All-Conscious into
Inconscience, the All-Wise into perpetual Ignorance. The Omnipotent has formulated itself in a vast cosmic self-driven Inertia that by disintegration creates; the Infinite is self-expressed here in a boundless fragmentation; the All-Blissful has put on a huge insensibility out of which it struggles by pain and hunger and desire and sorrow. Elsewhere the Divine is; here in physical life, in this obscure material world, it would seem almost as if the Divine
1.38 - Woman - Her Magical Formula, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Leaving out nearly everything, the only way to simplify it is to call Hadit the "Point-of-view," and "Anywhere" to be the radix of all possible "Point-Events," or "experiences," or "phenomena;" Nuit is the complement, the total possibilities of any such radix. You can only get this properly into that part of your mind which is "above the Abyss," i.e. NESchamah: even so, NESchamah must be very thoroughly fertilized by Chiah, and illuminated by Jechidah, to make any sort of a job of it.
But to come down from the contemplation of Abstract Reality (which, being static and "infinite," is ultimately immeasurable) to these Ideas in their interaction (and thus directly observable), it is easy enough to understand the Magical Formula of their interaction. Of course, whatever I say can be no more than a rough approximation, even a suggestion rather than a statement; but I cannot help the nature of the case. Nuit is the centripetal energy, infinitely elastic because it must fit over the hard thrust directed against it; Hadit, the centrifugal, ever seeking to penetrate the unknown. Nuit is not to dissimilar from the Teh described in Lao-Tze.
1.400 - 1.450 Talks, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
D.: Sleep is the state of NEScience and so it is said of samadhi also.
M.: Jnana is beyond knowledge and NEScience. There can be no question about that state. It is the Self.
Talk 433.
1.42 - This Self Introversion, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Next, the Higher Manas, which is our NESchamah, as near as a toucher; and the Lower Manas, which, as every Lovely and Cutie well Knows, is our Ruach. The rest of the Hindu system can easily be fitted in.
Note, however, the Ahamkara, usually translated "Ego-making faculty," which collects what it can from this dump, and labels it "I."
1.439, #Talks, #Sri Ramana Maharshi, #Hinduism
M.: True. See if you are the seeker. The Self is often mistaken for the knower. Is there not the Self in deep sleep, i.e., NEScience? Therefore the Self is beyond knower and knowledge. These doubts are in the realm of mind. To speak from this point of view, the advice is to keep the mind clear, and when rajas and tamas are wiped off, then the satva mind alone exists. So the I vanishes in the satva (oonadhal kan).
Jnana chakshus does not mean that it is an organ of perception like the other sense-organs. Jnanameva chakshuh. Television, etc., are not functions of jnana chakshus. So long as there is a subject and also an object it is only relative knowledge. Jnana lies beyond relative knowledge. It is absolute.
--
which is made up of NEScience, characterised by tamo guna, denoted
by the letter M and presided over by the deity Rudra.
--
of NEScience which remained covering the phenomenal world.
This dark NESs was experienced when it (the Self) emerged in dots of
--
their NESt had been removed. I looked up and found their NESt
missing. Then He called for the attendant, Madhava Swami, and
asked: Madhava, did anyone remove the sparrows NESt?
The attendant, who walked in leisurely, answered with an air of
unconcern: I removed the NESts as often as they were built. I
removed the last one this very afternoon.
--
beaks and struggle to build their NESts!
Attendant: But, why should they build here, over our heads?
1.47 - Reincarnation, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
What is it that reincarnates? We have had this before, in another connection; it is the Supernal Triad of Jechidah, Chiah and NESchamah that clothes the original Hadit or Point-of-View, with as much of the Ruach as the Human Conscious NESs, Tiphareth, has been able during a given life to attach to itself by dint of persistent Aspiration. If there is not enough Ruach to ensure an adequate quota of Memories, one could never become conscious of the continuity between one life and the next.
Briefly, the orthodox theory as put forth by H.P.B. is that one works off one's Karma after death in Devachan, or Kama Loka, or some such place; when the balance is exhausted, one may come back to earth, or in some other way carry on the Great Work. One theory see Opus Lutetianum, the Paris Working says that when one has quite finished with Earth-problems, one is promoted to Venus, where "bodies" are liquid, and thence to Mercury, where they are gaseous, finally to the Sun, where they are composed of pure Fire. Eliphaz Lvi says: "In the Suns we remember; in the planets we forget."
1.49 - Thelemic Morality, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
Two are their sources: the spiritual ( NESchamah) and the physiological (Nephesch). Note that both these are feminine. They pertain to H and H final in Tetragrammaton respectively. That implies that they are, in a sense, imposed on you from the beginning. Of course it is your own higher principles, Yechidah and Chiah, that have saddled you with them; but the "Human Conscious NESs," being in Tiphareth, cannot control NESchamah at all; and it has to be admirably unified, fortified, and perfected if it is to act efficiently upon Nephesch.
(How exquisitely keen is the Qabalah! How apt, how clear, how simple, how pictorially assimilable are its explanations of the facts of Nature! If you will only learn to use it, to refer your problems to it, you will soon need no Holy Guru!)
--
Now do you see the point of the digression? By "wrong" we mean anything that evokes dissent or protest from either NESchamah or Nephesch, or both.
People spoke to me, people whose experience and judgment in all matters of Sacrifice to Dionysus had my very fullest assent and admiration; they told me that of all drinks, the best was Beer. So I have wanted for many years to drink it. I can't. I once tasted a few drops on the end of a teaspoon. They told me that wasn't quite the same thing![95]
--
That's NESchamah.
What one really needs to know is whether the protest of the Instinct should override the decision of the Reason. Obviously, one must assume that both are equally "right;" that one's interpretation of one's Instinct is full and accurate, that one's solution of "how shall I act for the best?" is uniquely correct.
--
It would really be a little difficult; my rough-and-tumble life was the best possible training for such desperate adventures, so that Nephesch could not enter a protest. As to NESchamah, we nearly all of us (Thank God!) have a secret sympathy, with the nobler type of criminal, whence the universal appeal of Arsne Lupin, Black Star, Raffles and Stingaree. When they can make some show of justice-on-their-side, it is easier still: Scarlet Pimpernel and his tribe. We are now almost within the marches of those heroes of romance that enchanted our adolescence: Hereward the Wake, Robin Hood, Bonnie Prince Charlie. And there are, on the other hand, few of us who do not secretly gloat over the discomfiture of "Money- Bags."
My retort, however, is convincing and final. Robbery in any shape is a breach of the Law of Thelema. It is interference with the right of another to dispose of his property as he will; and if I did so myself, no matter with what tactical justification, I could hardly ask others to respect my own similar right.
1.53 - The Propitation of Wild Animals By Hunters, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
Sudan, it is forbidden to touch the NESts or remove the young of a
species of black birds, resembling our blackbirds, because the
1.54 - Types of Animal Sacrament, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
wren or harries its NESt, he will infallibly break a bone or meet
with some dreadful misfortune within the year; sometimes it is
--
the young wrens in the NESt, they will suffer from the fire of St.
Lawrence, that is, from pimples on the face, legs, and so on. In
--
harries its NESt, his house will be struck by lightning, or that the
fingers with which he did the deed will shrivel up and drop off, or
1.55 - The Transference of Evil, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
sun is up and look for a snipe's NESt. When you have found it, take
out one of the young birds and keep it beside you for three days.
16.03 - Mater Gloriosa, #Collected Works of Nolini Kanta Gupta - Vol 05, #Nolini Kanta Gupta, #Integral Yoga
L'Eternel Fminin, c'est la NEScience, Ie bras sinistre du Divin.
Maintenant que je suis devenu homme, et que mon me et mon espirit ont atteint l'ge mur, c'est encore la femme qui me tente irrsistiblement,
1.62 - The Fire-Festivals of Europe, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
in the fowls' NESts, in order that the hens may lay plenty of eggs
throughout the year. When all these ceremonies have been performed,
--
fruit-trees, to the sown fields, and to the NESts of the poultry is
clearly a charm intended to ensure fertility; and the Granno to whom
1.63 - The Interpretation of the Fire-Festivals, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
the fowls' NESts to make the hens lay eggs, and from the German
practice of mixing the ashes of the bonfires with the drink of
1.68 - The Golden Bough, #The Golden Bough, #James George Frazer, #Occultism
hearth of Errol, and a raven should sit in the falcon's NESt.' The
two most unlucky deeds which could be done by one of the name of Hay
--
And the corbie roup in the falcon's NESt.
It is not a new opinion that the Golden Bough was the mistletoe.
--
"thunder-besom" is a popular name in Germany for any bushy NESt-like
excrescence growing on a branch, because such a parasitic growth is
1.72 - Education, #Magick Without Tears, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
I suppose I might have put it more concisely: Classics is itself Initiation, being the key of the Unconscious; Mathematics is the Art of manipulating the Ruach, and of raising it to NESchamah; and Science is co-terminous with Magick.
These are the three branches of study which I regard as fundamental. No others are in the same class. For instance, Geography is almost meaningless until one makes it real by dint of ho NESt travel, which does not mean either "commuting" or "luxury cruises," still less "globe-trotting." Law is a specialized study, with a view to a career; History is too unsystematic and uncertain to be of much use as mental training; Art is to be studied for and by one's solitary self; any teaching soever is rank poison.
1914 02 22p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Many a time in the day and night it seems to me that I am, or rather my conscious NESs is, concentrated entirely in my heart which is no longer an organ, not even a feeling, but the divine Love, impersonal, eternal; and being this Love I feel myself living at the centre of each thing upon the entire earth, and at the same time I seem to stretch out immense, infinite arms and envelop with a boundless tender NESs all beings, clasped, gathered, NEStled on my breast that is vaster than the universe. Words are poor and clumsy, O divine Master, and mental transcriptions are always childish. But my aspiration to Thee is constant, and truly speaking, it is very often Thou and Thou alone who livest in this body, this imperfect means of manifesting Thee.
May all beings be happy in the peace of Thy illumination!
1914 05 17p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
O Thou, Universal Being, Supreme Unity in perceptible form, through an irresistible aspiration I NEStled within Thy heart, then I was Thy heart itself, and I knew then that Thy heart is no other than the Child who plays and creates the worlds. Thou didst tell me, One day thou wilt be my head but for the moment turn thy gaze towards the earth. And on the earth now I am the joyful child who plays.
These were the two sentences I wrote yesterday by a kind of absolute necessity. The first, as though the power of the prayer would not be complete unless it were traced on paper. The second, as though the stability of the experience could not be had unless I unburdened my mind of it by noting it down in writing.
1914 05 18p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thou art the sole Reality, O Lord, Thou art Omnipotence and Eternity. And he who is united with Thee in the depths of his being becomes Thy Reality in its eternal and immutable omnipotence. But for others the comm and is, even while remaining in contact with Thee, to turn their eyes and activity towards the earth; such is the mission Thou hast given them. Here begins the difficulty, for everything depends upon the perfection of the various states of their being and, even after attaining the sublime identification, they must still work at perfecting the instrument which will manifest Thy divine Will. This is where the task becomes arduous. Everything seems to me mediocre, insufficient, neutral, almost inert in the present instrument which Thou makest me call myself; and the more I am united with Thee, the more do I realise the mediocrity of its faculties and its manifestation. Everything in it seems to me an incorrigible approximation. And if that cannot disturb me in any way, it is because the true self is lying at Thy feet or NEStling in Thy heart or conscious with Thy eternal and immutable Conscious NESs, and looks at the whole manifestation with a smile of patient and understanding benevolence.
***
1914 05 28p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Thou settest in motion, Thou stirrest and chur NESt the innumerable elements of this world, so that, from their primal dark NESs, their primeval chaos, they may awaken to conscious NESs and the full light of knowledge. And Thou usest Thy supreme love to churn all these elements in this way. And it is from Thy infinite, unfathomable heart that these inexhaustible torrents of love spring forth. Thy heart is my dwelling-place, Thy heart is the reality of my being. In Thy heart I have NEStled and I have become Thy heart.
Peace, peace upon all beings.
1914 09 01p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
O Mother Divine, with what fervour, what ardent love I came to Thee in Thy deepest conscious NESs, in Thy high status of sublime love and perfect felicity, and I NEStled so close into Thy arms and loved Thee with so intense a love that I became altogether Thyself. Then in the silence of our mute ecstasy a voice from yet profounder depths arose and the voice said, Turn towards those who have need of thy love. All the grades of conscious NESs appeared, all the successive worlds. Some were splendid and luminous, well ordered and clear; there knowledge was resplendent, expression was harmonious and vast, will was potent and invincible. Then the worlds darkened in a multiplicity more and more chaotic, the Energy became violent and the material world obscure and sorrowful. And when in our infinite love we perceived in its entirety the hideous suffering of the world of misery and ignorance, when we saw our children locked in a sombre struggle, flung upon each other by energies that had deviated from their true aim, we willed ardently that the light of Divine Love should be made manifest, a transfiguring force at the centre of these distracted elements. Then, that the will might be yet more powerful and effective, we turned towards Thee, O unthinkable Supreme, and we implored Thy aid. And from the unsounded depths of the Unknown a reply came sublime and formidable and we knew that the earth was saved.
***
1915 03 04p, #Prayers And Meditations, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
In the material actuality, tomorrow lies dark and unreadable; no light, not even the faintest, reveals to my bewildered gaze any indication, any presence of the Divine. But something in the depths of conscious NESs turns to the Invisible and Sovereign Wit NESs and tells him: Thou dost plunge me, O Lord, into the thickest dark NESs; this means that Thou hast established Thy light so firmly in me that Thou knowest it will stand this perilous ordeal. Otherwise wouldst Thou have chosen me for the descent into the vortex of this hell as Thy torch-bearer? Wouldst Thou have judged my heart strong enough not to fail, my hand firm enough not to tremble? And yet my individual being knows how weak and powerless it is; when Thou dost not manifest Thy Presence, it is more denuded than most people who do not know or care for Thee. In Thee alone lies its strength and ability. If Thou art pleased to make use of it, nothing will be too difficult to accomplish, no task too vast and complex. But if Thou shouldst withdraw, just a poor child is left, capable only of NEStling in Thy arms and sleeping there in the sweet dreamless sleep where nothing else exists but Thou.
***
1951-04-17 - Unity, diversity - Protective envelope - desires - consciousness, true defence - Perfection of physical - cinema - Choice, constant and conscious - law of ones being - the One, the Multiplicity - Civilization- preparing an instrument, #Questions And Answers 1950-1951, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
This is indeed something very interesting. I have seen that material things are arranged in such a way at present that one could reach a high degree of perfection of the physical instrument in any field whatever, no matter what may be the degree of inner or psychic development. This was what I thought yesterday evening about the talkies. It is evidently a great progress in the cinematographic art and it cant be called in itself bad or good. It was that I had always seen only talkies of idiotic, vulgar, crude stories, indeed all the stupidities generally shown in cinemas, and this perfection of the instrument had made the crudity yet more crude, the stupidity yet more stupid, and this kind of impression of degradation yet more strong. But yesterday, when we saw that documentary with the beautiful birds singing. Those who made this film have taken great pains, one cant imagine how much of effort and work it entails to film birds in their NESts without disturbing them, then to record the sound accurately enough to be able to amplify it and make it perceptible to all. It is a very big work they have done there. And it is the same perfecting of the same instrument which permitted the production of the lovely thing we saw yesterday evening and that ignoble thing we saw sometime ago. This makes us reflect deeply on material things.
Physical perfection does not at all prove, not the least in the world, that one has taken one step farther towards spirituality. Physical perfection means that the instrument the force will useany force whateverwill be sufficiently perfected to be remarkably expressive. But the important point, the essential point is the force which will use the instrument, and it is there that the choice is necessary. If you perfect your body and make of it a remarkable instrument, you must not at all think that because of that you are nearer to the spiritual life. You prepare a remarkable instrument so that this spiritual life may manifest in it, if it manifests itself. But it is for you always to choose what will be manifested. There are people who perfect their body, who build a strong, solid, energetic, agile, capable body, and all this simply to be able to better affirm their ego and the strength of their ego. Others may prepare the body to be sure that when the spiritual light manifests, it will find an instrument capable of doing all that is asked of it. Whatever the work required, the instrument will be so perfected as to be able to do it without difficulty, spontaneously, immediately. This is to arouse your attention to the most important fact which is the choice of the force you will allow to manifest in your body. Perfect your body, make it a remarkable instrument, but never forget that there is a choice to be made and that this choice ought to be made constantlyone doesnt make it once for all, it must always be renewed. Because, before one reaches the total union, the total expression, there will always be this invasion of external things which will try to enter you and spoil all the work. So, the necessary, indispensable condition is a constant vigilance. Do not sleep with satisfaction under the pretext that you have once made your choice: Oh! Now it is all right, everything is all right. In principle everything is all right; in the sincerity of your choice lies also the guarantee of its duration. But for the sincerity to be perfect and the choice unshakable, one must never sleep I dont mean you must not sleep physically, I mean the conscious NESs must not sleep! And this is an introduction to what I shall read to you next time, a letter Sri Aurobindo wrote quite a long time ago; if I remember rightly, it was in 1928, October 1928. You see, things do not change very quickly.
1953-07-08, #Questions And Answers 1953, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
Both are good exercises. Try to compare them, youll see: you are walking on a street, there is an army of ants going from one NESt to another (you do not look down, you are talking with someone); very negligently you put one foot and then the other, and you crush hundreds of ants without even being aware of it. If you were an ant, you would say: What a wicked and beastly force! You are just walking. You have not paid attention. But suppose there are beings of this kind for whom we are just tiny little ants. They put one foot and then the other and millions of people are killed. They are not even aware of it! They have not done it on purpose. They were just walking along, thats all. The only difference you could make (and yet I am not quite sure), the only difference between the ant and man is that man is able to think of what happens to him, and perhaps the ant is not conscious of it? I dont know at all. I dont guarantee it. Voil.
***
1957-01-09 - God is essentially Delight - God and Nature play at hide-and-seek - Why, and when, are you grave?, #Questions And Answers 1957-1958, #The Mother, #Integral Yoga
And it is because of divisionbecause the Possessor no longer possesses and because the possessed no longer possesses the Possessor, division is created and the essential Delight is changed into ignorance, and this ignorance is the cause of all suffering. Ignorance, not in the sense in which it is usually understood, for that is what Sri Aurobindo calls NEScience: that ignorance is a consequence of the other. True ignorance is ignorance of the one NESs, the union, the identity. And that is the cause of all suffering.
Ever since division began and creation lost its direct contact with the Creator, ignorance has reigned, and all suffering is its result.
1.ac - A Birthday, #Crowley - Poems, #Aleister Crowley, #Philosophy
But this is dawn; my soul shall make its NESt
Where your sighs swing from rapture into rest
--- Overview of noun ne
The noun ne has 3 senses (no senses from tagged texts)
1. neon, Ne, atomic number 10 ::: (a colorless odorless gaseous element that give a red glow in a vacuum tube; one of the six inert gasses; occurs in the air in small amounts)
2. northeast, nor'-east, northeastward, NE ::: (the compass point midway between north and east; at 45 degrees)
3. Nebraska, Cornhusker State, NE ::: (a midwestern state on the Great Plains)
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun ne
3 senses of ne
Sense 1
neon, Ne, atomic number 10
=> chemical element, element
=> substance
=> matter
=> physical entity
=> entity
=> part, portion, component part, component, constituent
=> relation
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
=> noble gas, inert gas, argonon
=> chemical element, element
=> substance
=> matter
=> physical entity
=> entity
=> part, portion, component part, component, constituent
=> relation
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
=> gas
=> fluid
=> matter
=> physical entity
=> entity
Sense 2
northeast, nor'-east, northeastward, NE
=> compass point, point
=> direction
=> position, spatial relation
=> relation
=> abstraction, abstract entity
=> entity
Sense 3
Nebraska, Cornhusker State, NE
INSTANCE OF=> American state
=> state, province
=> administrative district, administrative division, territorial division
=> district, territory, territorial dominion, dominion
=> region
=> location
=> object, physical object
=> physical entity
=> entity
--- Hyponyms of noun ne
--- Synonyms/Hypernyms (Ordered by Estimated Frequency) of noun ne
3 senses of ne
Sense 1
neon, Ne, atomic number 10
=> chemical element, element
=> noble gas, inert gas, argonon
Sense 2
northeast, nor'-east, northeastward, NE
=> compass point, point
Sense 3
Nebraska, Cornhusker State, NE
INSTANCE OF=> American state
--- Coordinate Terms (sisters) of noun ne
3 senses of ne
Sense 1
neon, Ne, atomic number 10
-> chemical element, element
=> allotrope
=> transuranic element
=> noble gas, inert gas, argonon
=> metallic element, metal
=> nonmetal
=> transactinide
=> actinium, Ac, atomic number 89
=> argon, Ar, atomic number 18
=> arsenic, As, atomic number 33
=> astatine, At, atomic number 85
=> bohrium, Bh, element 107, atomic number 107
=> boron, B, atomic number 5
=> bromine, Br, atomic number 35
=> carbon, C, atomic number 6
=> chlorine, Cl, atomic number 17
=> darmstadtium, Ds, element 110, atomic number 110
=> dubnium, Db, hahnium, element 105, atomic number 105
=> fluorine, F, atomic number 9
=> germanium, Ge, atomic number 32
=> hassium, Hs, element 108, atomic number 108
=> helium, He, atomic number 2
=> hydrogen, H, atomic number 1
=> iodine, iodin, I, atomic number 53
=> krypton, Kr, atomic number 36
=> lawrencium, Lr, atomic number 103
=> meitnerium, Mt, element 109, atomic number 109
=> mendelevium, Md, Mv, atomic number 101
=> neon, Ne, atomic number 10
=> nitrogen, N, atomic number 7
=> nobelium, No, atomic number 102
=> oxygen, O, atomic number 8
=> phosphorus, P, atomic number 15
=> plutonium, Pu, atomic number 94
=> radon, Rn, atomic number 86
=> roentgenium, Rg, element 111, atomic number 111
=> rutherfordium, Rf, unnilquadium, Unq, element 104, atomic number 104
=> seaborgium, Sg, element 106, atomic number 106
=> selenium, Se, atomic number 34
=> silicon, Si, atomic number 14
=> sulfur, S, sulphur, atomic number 16
=> tellurium, Te, atomic number 52
=> ununbium, Uub, element 112, atomic number 112
=> ununhexium, Uuh, element 116, atomic number 116
=> ununpentium, Uup, element 115, atomic number 115
=> ununquadium, Uuq, element 114, atomic number 114
=> ununtrium, Uut, element 113, atomic number 113
=> xenon, Xe, atomic number 54
=> trace element
-> noble gas, inert gas, argonon
=> argon, Ar, atomic number 18
=> helium, He, atomic number 2
=> krypton, Kr, atomic number 36
=> neon, Ne, atomic number 10
=> radon, Rn, atomic number 86
=> xenon, Xe, atomic number 54
Sense 2
northeast, nor'-east, northeastward, NE
-> compass point, point
=> cardinal compass point
=> north by east, NbE
=> north northeast, nor'-nor'-east, NNE
=> northeast by north, NEbN
=> northeast, nor'-east, northeastward, NE
=> northeast by east, NEbE
=> east northeast, ENE
=> east by north, EbN
=> east by south, EbS
=> east southeast, ESE
=> southeast by east, SEbE
=> southeast, sou'-east, southeastward, SE
=> southeast by south, SEbS
=> south southeast, sou'-sou'-east, SSE
=> south by east, SbE
=> south by west, SbW
=> south southwest, sou'-sou'-west, SSW
=> southwest by south, SWbS
=> southwest, sou'-west, southwestward, SW
=> southwest by west, SWbW
=> west southwest, WSW
=> west by south, WbS
=> west by north, WbN
=> west northwest, WNW
=> northwest by west, NWbW
=> northwest, nor'-west, northwestward, NW
=> northwest by north, NWbN
=> north northwest, nor'-nor'-west, NNW
=> north by west, NbW
Sense 3
Nebraska, Cornhusker State, NE
-> American state
=> slave state
=> free state
HAS INSTANCE=> Alabama, Heart of Dixie, Camellia State, AL
HAS INSTANCE=> Alaska, Last Frontier, AK
HAS INSTANCE=> Arizona, Grand Canyon State, AZ
HAS INSTANCE=> Arkansas, Land of Opportunity, AR
HAS INSTANCE=> California, Golden State, CA, Calif.
HAS INSTANCE=> Colorado, Centennial State, CO
HAS INSTANCE=> Connecticut, Nutmeg State, Constitution State, CT
HAS INSTANCE=> Delaware, Diamond State, First State, DE
HAS INSTANCE=> Florida, Sunshine State, Everglade State, FL
HAS INSTANCE=> Georgia, Empire State of the South, Peach State, GA
HAS INSTANCE=> Hawaii, Hawai'i, Aloha State, HI
HAS INSTANCE=> Idaho, Gem State, ID
HAS INSTANCE=> Illinois, Prairie State, Land of Lincoln, IL
HAS INSTANCE=> Indiana, Hoosier State, IN
HAS INSTANCE=> Iowa, Hawkeye State, IA
HAS INSTANCE=> Kansas, Sunflower State, KS
HAS INSTANCE=> Kentucky, Bluegrass State, KY
HAS INSTANCE=> Louisiana, Pelican State, LA
HAS INSTANCE=> Maine, Pine Tree State, ME
HAS INSTANCE=> Maryland, Old Line State, Free State, MD
HAS INSTANCE=> Massachusetts, Bay State, Old Colony, MA
HAS INSTANCE=> Michigan, Wolverine State, Great Lakes State, MI
HAS INSTANCE=> Minnesota, Gopher State, North Star State, MN
HAS INSTANCE=> Mississippi, Magnolia State, MS
HAS INSTANCE=> Missouri, Show Me State, MO
HAS INSTANCE=> Montana, Treasure State, MT
HAS INSTANCE=> Nebraska, Cornhusker State, NE
HAS INSTANCE=> Nevada, Silver State, Battle Born State, Sagebrush State, NV
HAS INSTANCE=> New Hampshire, Granite State, NH
HAS INSTANCE=> New Jersey, Jersey, Garden State, NJ
HAS INSTANCE=> New Mexico, Land of Enchantment, NM
HAS INSTANCE=> New York, New York State, Empire State, NY
HAS INSTANCE=> North Carolina, Old North State, Tar Heel State, NC
HAS INSTANCE=> North Dakota, Peace Garden State, ND
HAS INSTANCE=> Ohio, Buckeye State, OH
HAS INSTANCE=> Oklahoma, Sooner State, OK
HAS INSTANCE=> Oregon, Beaver State, OR
HAS INSTANCE=> Pennsylvania, Keystone State, PA
HAS INSTANCE=> Rhode Island, Little Rhody, Ocean State, RI
HAS INSTANCE=> South Carolina, Palmetto State, SC
HAS INSTANCE=> South Dakota, Coyote State, Mount Rushmore State, SD
HAS INSTANCE=> Tennessee, Volunteer State, TN
HAS INSTANCE=> Texas, Lone-Star State, TX
HAS INSTANCE=> Utah, Beehive State, Mormon State, UT
HAS INSTANCE=> Vermont, Green Mountain State, VT
HAS INSTANCE=> Virginia, Old Dominion, Old Dominion State, VA
HAS INSTANCE=> Washington, Evergreen State, WA
HAS INSTANCE=> West Virginia, Mountain State, WV
HAS INSTANCE=> Wisconsin, Badger State, WI
HAS INSTANCE=> Wyoming, Equality State, WY
--- Grep of noun nes
achimenes
aerobacter aerogenes
anaximenes
apennines
ardennes
aristophanes
asplenium trichomanes
bare bones
bobby jones
bones
bouvines
cannes
capital of the philippines
casey jones
charles hard townes
charles townes
class dicotyledones
class monocotyledones
confines
crossbones
daniel jones
davy jones
demosthenes
des moines
dicotyledones
diogenes
division lichenes
dow jones
eratosthenes
eumenes
genus achimenes
genus eumenes
genus leucogenes
genus meriones
genus psenes
genus trichomanes
gi hormones
holofernes
inigo jones
jackstones
john luther jones
john maynard keynes
john paul jones
jones
keynes
knucklebones
l. monocytogenes
lazybones
leroi jones
leucogenes
lichenes
lindesnes
linked genes
listeria monocytogenes
manes
marines
mary harris jones
meriones
monocotyledones
mother jones
napier's bones
nescience
nesokia
ness
nesselrode
nesselrode pudding
nessie
nest
nest egg
nester
nesting place
nestle
nestling
nestor
nestor notabilis
nestor paz zamora commission
nestorian
nestorian church
nestorianism
nestorius
nones
opiliones
order opiliones
order pseudoscorpiones
order testudines
oscines
pennines
philippines
porcupines
psenes
pseudoscorpiones
republic of the philippines
robert tyre jones
saint vincent and the grenadines
sauternes
sawbones
skin and bones
skull and crossbones
st. vincent and the grenadines
suborder oscines
testudines
townes
trichomanes
united states marines
valenciennes
xenophanes
Grep of noun ne
5-hydroxytryptamine
a-line
a. a. milne
abalone
abilene
aborigine
abrading stone
abyssal zone
acarine
acetone
acetylcholine
acetylene
achene
aclinic line
acne
acoustic delay line
acoustic gramophone
acrylonitrile-butadiene-styrene
actor's line
adding machine
addressing machine
adenine
adenosine
adonic line
adrenaline
adrenocorticotrophic hormone
adrenocorticotropic hormone
adrenosterone
aeromedicine
aeroplane
aerospace medicine
affine
agate line
agene
agonic line
air lane
aircraft engine
airline
airplane
aitchbone
al capone
alan alexander milne
alanine
alaskan pipeline
alcyone
aldactone
aldosterone
aleurone
alexandrine
alfred hawthorne
algernon charles swinburne
alizarin carmine
alizarine
alkane
alkene
alkylbenzene
alkyne
allegheny vine
allophone
alluvial cone
almandine
alphonse capone
alpine anemone
alpine celery pine
altar wine
alternative medicine
amboina pine
amboyna pine
american bugbane
american plane
american white pine
amidopyrine
amine
aminoalkane
aminobenzine
aminomethane
aminophylline
aminopyrine
amiodarone
amitriptyline
ammine
amphetamine
amrinone
ancient pine
androgenic hormone
androgyne
androsterone
anemone
angevine
aniline
anklebone
anne
anodyne
anopheline
answering machine
antarctic zone
anthony wayne
anticyclone
antidiuretic hormone
antigone
antihistamine
antivenene
apolune
apomorphine
aposelene
apresoline
aquamarine
aquaplane
aquitaine
arabian jasmine
arachnoid membrane
arc cosine
arc sine
arccosine
archine
arcsine
arctic zone
argemone
argentine
arginine
argonne
ariadne
arm bone
arolla pine
arsine
asparagine
asphodeline
assembly line
astatine
atabrine
athene
atrazine
atropine
attack submarine
aubergine
augustine
auld langsyne
australian aborigine
australian pine
australopithecine
automated teller machine
automatic teller machine
automobile engine
auvergne
auxiliary engine
auxiliary research submarine
aventurine
aviation medicine
axone
azathioprine
bachelor of medicine
backbone
balanchine
balkline
balletomane
balloon vine
bane
bank line
baptistic doctrine
bar line
barbados-gooseberry vine
barbitone
bare bone
baritone
barytone
baseline
basilar membrane
bassine
bathing machine
bathyal zone
battle line
battle of boyne
battle of the aisne
battle of the marne
baulk-line
bayonne
beading plane
beef bourguignonne
beeline
beguine
bellarmine
benedictine
benne
benthonic zone
benzedrine
benzene
benzine
benzocaine
benzodiazepine
benzoquinone
berne
beta-carotene
betaine
bethune
bicorne
bilestone
bine
biomedicine
biplane
bishop's pine
bishop's throne
bishop pine
black-eyed susan vine
black cypress pine
black henbane
black pine
black turnstone
bladder stone
blarney stone
block plane
blood line
bloodline
bloodstone
blue columbine
blue fleabane
blue jasmine
blue jessamine
blue stone
bluestone
blush wine
boeuf bourguignonne
bombazine
bone
boone
bordeaux wine
borderline
botanical medicine
bottom line
boundary line
bourgogne
bourne
bovine
bowline
boyne
branch line
bread line
breadline
breakstone
breastbone
breathing machine
bretagne
brigandine
brigantine
brilliantine
brimstone
brine
brisbane
bristlecone pine
bromine
brown pine
browne
brownstone
brucine
brush-tail porcupine
brush-tailed porcupine
buckminsterfullerene
buffer zone
bugbane
bull pine
bullnosed plane
burgoyne
burgundy wine
bus lane
bus line
business line
buspirone
butacaine
butadiene
butane
butanone
butene
buteonine
butylene
by-line
bygone
byzantine
cadaverine
caffeine
cairene
calabar-bean vine
calamine
calamity jane
calcimine
calculating machine
calf bone
california wine
canada anemone
canada porcupine
canadian fleabane
canadian red pine
canal zone
canary wine
canarybird vine
canavanine
candy cane
cane
canine
cannon bone
cantaloup vine
cantaloupe vine
capacitor microphone
cape jasmine
cape jessamine
capital of maine
capital of sierra leone
capital of the ukraine
capitate bone
capone
capstone
carbine
cardamine
cardinal bellarmine
cardioid microphone
carl von linne
carmine
carolina jasmine
carolina lupine
carotene
carpal bone
carpenter's plane
cartesian plane
cartilage bone
cash machine
catarrhine
catecholamine
catherine
cayenne
cayenne jasmine
cefoperazone
ceftriaxone
celandine
celery-topped pine
celery pine
celery top pine
cell doctrine
cell membrane
cellophane
cellphone
cellular phone
cellular telephone
center line
centerline
cephaloridine
cezanne
chaim soutine
chalice vine
chalk line
chalkstone
chalons-sur-marne
chamaedaphne
chamfer plane
champagne
champagne-ardenne
chaperone
charlemagne
charles farrar browne
chatelaine
checkout line
cheekbone
chelone
cherry stone
cherrystone
chest tone
cheyenne
chian turpentine
chicane
chile pine
chilean jasmine
chili con carne
china fleece vine
china stone
chine
chloramine
chlorhexidine
chlorine
chloroacetophenone
chlorobenzene
chloroprene
chloroquine
chlorpromazine
chlortetracycline
chlorthalidone
choline
chopine
chordophone
chorine
chorioallantoic membrane
chorus line
chow line
church doctrine
cicerone
cimetidine
cinchonine
cinnamene
cinnamon stone
cinnamon vine
circular plane
citrine
citrulline
city line
claymore mine
claystone
clementine
clichy-la-garenne
climatic zone
climbing hemp-vine
cline
clingstone
cloisonne
clomiphene
clomipramine
clone
clonidine
clothesline
cloud nine
clozapine
coal mine
coastline
cobalt ultramarine
cobblestone
cocaine
cockaigne
codeine
coelogyne
coeur d'alene
cohune
coigne
coin machine
colchicine
cold gangrene
cold medicine
collarbone
cologne
color line
colour line
columbine
combat zone
combination plane
combine
comedienne
comfort zone
command line
common dogbane
common grape vine
common jasmine
common matrimony vine
common purslane
common sickle pine
commune
compass plane
complementary medicine
compline
computing machine
concubine
condenser microphone
cone
confederate jasmine
conga line
constantine
contour line
copaline
copestone
coping stone
copper mine
coral vine
cordarone
cordyline
cornerstone
cornpone
corticosterone
cortisone
cosine
coumarone
council of vienne
count palatine
countermine
counterpane
county line
county palatine
crack cocaine
crane
crape jasmine
crazy bone
creatine
credit line
crepe de chine
crepe jasmine
cretonne
crew neckline
crinoline
cromorne
crone
cross of lorraine
cross vine
cryptocoryne
crystal microphone
ctene
cubeb vine
cuboid bone
cucumber vine
cuisine
cumarone
cuneiform bone
cuprimine
curbstone
cy pres doctrine
cyclobenzaprine
cyclone
cyclopropane
cycloserine
cymene
cypress pine
cypress vine
cyproheptadine
cysteine
cystine
cytidine
cytokine
cytomembrane
cytosine
dado plane
daisy fleabane
dalmane
damascene
dammar pine
dane
danger line
danger zone
daniel boone
danish krone
daphne
dapsone
date line
dateline
david livingstone
day jessamine
deadline
decline
delavirdine
delay line
deltasone
demarcation line
demesne
demilitarized zone
demimondaine
democratic front for the liberation of palestine
dental medicine
dentine
deoxyadenosine
deoxycytidine
deoxyephedrine
deoxyguanosine
deoxythymidine
depokene
desipramine
desk phone
dessert wine
dessiatine
dexamethasone
dexedrine
dexone
di-iodotyrosine
diacetylmorphine
dial phone
dial telephone
dialysis machine
diamine
diaphone
diathermy machine
dibucaine
dichlorodiphenyltrichloroethane
dichloromethane
dictaphone
didanosine
dideoxycytosine
dideoxyinosine
dieffenbachia sequine
diesel engine
digital subscriber line
dihydroxyphenylalanine
dimetane
dimethyl ketone
dindymene
diphenhydramine
diphenylbutyl piperidine
diplotene
directional microphone
discipline
dishwashing machine
district line
dividing line
divine
doctor of dental medicine
doctor of medicine
doctrine
dogbane
dominant gene
domine
don luchino visconti conte di modrone
donkey engine
donne
dopamine
dotted line
double-propeller plane
douglas pine
dovetail plane
doxycycline
doyenne
dpt vaccine
dramamine
dripstone
drive line
drone
drop line
drop scone
drop zone
dropline
dropping zone
dry gangrene
dryopithecine
duke wayne
dumb cane
dump routine
dundathu pine
dune
dwarf mountain pine
dyne
earphone
easter lily vine
eastern white pine
eau de cologne
edirne
edmond malone
edmund malone
edward durell stone
eglantine
egyptian henbane
egyptian lupine
elbow bone
eleanor gwynne
eleanor of aquitaine
elecampane
electromagnetic delay line
electrostatic machine
element of a cone
eleusine
elizabeth haldane
elizabeth sanderson haldane
embryonic membrane
emergency medicine
emery stone
emphysematous gangrene
enamine
endocrine
ene
enflurane
engine
enterprise zone
eocene
epergne
ephedrine
epicene
epigone
epinephrine
epipactis helleborine
epitrochoidal engine
equine
equinoctial line
equity credit line
ergonovine
ergotamine
ermine
erne
erogenous zone
essene
estrone
etamine
ethane
ethene
ethmoid bone
ethocaine
ethoxyethane
ethrane
ethylene
ethyne
eugene
euphrosyne
european nut pine
eva le gallienne
exacum affine
executive routine
exocrine
extension phone
external-combustion engine
facet plane
facsimile machine
false bugbane
false lupine
false rue anemone
family line
family medicine
famine
famotidine
fanjet engine
farm machine
fast lane
fast one
father of the submarine
fault line
february daphne
fedelline
feeder line
feldene
feline
feminine
fence line
fertilization membrane
fetal membrane
fetid bugbane
fetter bone
fettuccine
fibrous dysplasia of bone
field line
field lupine
fieldstone
figurine
fine
finish line
finishing line
fir cone
fire and brimstone
fire engine
firestone
firing line
fishbone
fishing line
flagstone
flat bone
flavone
fleabane
fleet ballistic missile submarine
flight line
flintstone
floating mine
floatplane
florentine
flowering stone
floxuridine
fluoresceine
fluorine
fluoxetine
fluphenazine
foetid bugbane
follicle-stimulating hormone
fontanne
fore plane
forensic medicine
fort wayne
fortified wine
fortune
foul line
foundation stone
four-stroke engine
four-stroke internal-combustion engine
francis turbine
francoise d'aubigne
frangipane
frank morrison spillane
frankincense pine
franking machine
franz joseph kline
franz kline
free throw lane
free zone
freestone
french telephone
french ultramarine
frigid zone
front line
frontal bone
frown line
fruit machine
fuel line
fullerene
funny bone
furane
gabardine
gaberdine
gaborone
gag line
galantine
galium aparine
gallamine
gallstone
gamine
gangrene
ganoine
garonne
gas engine
gas gangrene
gas line
gas turbine
gascogne
gasolene
gasoline
gasoline engine
gastrointestinal hormone
gastrophryne
gelatine
gemstone
gene
general medicine
generic wine
gentleman's-cane
genus anemone
genus argemone
genus asphodeline
genus athene
genus cardamine
genus chamaedaphne
genus chelone
genus coelogyne
genus cordyline
genus cryptocoryne
genus daphne
genus eleusine
genus gastrophryne
genus geochelone
genus glycine
genus helxine
genus homogyne
genus hylactophryne
genus iresine
genus iridoprocne
genus morone
genus myrsine
genus myxine
genus nyctimene
genus pleione
genus progne
genus selene
genus silene
genus terrapene
geochelone
geodesic line
geographical zone
george balanchine
georgia pine
giant cane
giant helleborine
giotto di bondone
giovanni di bernardone
gladstone
glucosamine
glutamine
glycerine
glycine
glyoxaline
goa bean vine
goal line
gold mine
goldmine
goldstone
gonadotrophic hormone
gonadotropic hormone
gonne
good fortune
gourd vine
graham greene
gramophone
grape vine
grapevine
gravestone
great dane
greater celandine
green line
greene
gregarine
grenadine
grey-leaf pine
grindstone
gritstone
ground-effect machine
ground-emplaced mine
ground pine
groundnut vine
growth hormone
groyne
guanine
guanosine
guideline
guillotine
guinea gold vine
gum terpentine
gynne
gyroplane
hablot knight browne
hailstone
hairline
haldane
halftone
haloalkane
halothane
hamate bone
hand line
handline
hanoverian line
hard line
harlan f. stone
harlan fisk stone
harlan fiske stone
harlan stone
harold hart crane
harpoon line
hart crane
haute cuisine
hawthorne
head tone
headline
headphone
headstone
heart-lung machine
heart line
hearthstone
heat engine
heckelphone
heelbone
helleborine
hellene
helxine
hemline
henbane
henry graham greene
heptane
herbal medicine
heroine
herringbone
hexachlorophene
hexane
hickory pine
hipbone
hipline
histamine
histidine
histone
holandric gene
holistic medicine
holocene
holystone
homeobox gene
homeotic gene
homogyne
homophone
hone
hoop pine
hormone
horne
hornstone
hot line
hottentot's bread vine
hottentot bread vine
human growth hormone
humanistic discipline
huon pine
hurricane
hyaline
hyaloid membrane
hydralazine
hydrazine
hydrocortisone
hydrocortone
hydroelectric turbine
hydromorphone
hydroplane
hydroxybenzene
hydroxychloroquine
hydroxyproline
hydroxytetracycline
hydroxyzine
hygiene
hylactophryne
hyoid bone
hyoscine
hyoscyamine
hypothalamic releasing hormone
i. f. stone
ice-cream cone
ice machine
ilosone
imipramine
immune
imou pine
impulse turbine
incline
inclined plane
indene
indigene
indiscipline
infernal machine
innominate bone
inosine
input routine
internal-combustion engine
internal medicine
international date line
interne
interphone
interstitial cell-stimulating hormone
intestine
inverse cosine
inverse sine
iodine
iodothyronine
iodotyrosine
ion engine
iresine
iridoprocne
iridosmine
ischial bone
isidor feinstein stone
islamic jihad for the liberation of palestine
isobutylene
isochrone
isoclinic line
isoflurane
isogonal line
isogone
isogonic line
isoleucine
isometric line
israel baline
italian woodbine
j. b. rhine
j. b. s. haldane
jack pine
jack plane
jade vine
jadestone
japanese black pine
japanese red pine
japanese table pine
japanese umbrella pine
jasmine
jawbone
je ne sais quoi
jean baptiste racine
jean de la fontaine
jean racine
jeffrey's pine
jeffrey pine
jersey pine
jessamine
jet-propelled plane
jet engine
jet plane
john burdon sanderson haldane
john burgoyne
john donne
john haldane
john james osborne
john osborne
john scott haldane
john the divine
john wayne
jointer plane
jointing plane
joseph banks rhine
judicial doctrine
jug wine
jugal bone
jules verne
julienne
jumping gene
june
kaoline
karl linne
kauri pine
kerbstone
kerosene
kerosine
ketamine
ketone
ketorolac tromethamine
keystone
kidney stone
kill zone
killing zone
kine
king william pine
kiwi vine
kline
knitting machine
knobcone pine
knotty pine
koine
krone
kudzu vine
la fontaine
lace-flower vine
lacrimal bone
lactogenic hormone
lagerphone
lagune
lamivudine
lancastrian line
land line
land mine
landline
lane
langoustine
langsyne
language zone
large intestine
lasagne
lateral line
latino sine flexione
latrine
laugh line
laurence sterne
lausanne
lawyer cane
lazuline
le gallienne
lead line
leaded gasoline
leading tone
ledger line
leg bone
leger line
lena calhoun horne
lena horne
leone
leonide fedorovitch massine
leopard's-bane
leopardbane
lepidomelane
leptotene
lesser celandine
lethal gene
leucine
levantine
libertine
library fine
library routine
lidocaine
life line
lifeline
ligne
limber pine
limestone
limonene
limousine
lindane
line
linguine
linotype machine
liothyronine
lipid-lowering medicine
lithane
lithograph machine
lithophragma affine
littoral zone
living stone
livingstone
load line
loading zone
loadstone
loblolly pine
locomotive engine
lodestone
lodgepole pine
lodine
log line
lolium perenne
lomustine
london plane
long-tailed porcupine
long bone
long plane
longleaf pine
loop-line
lorraine
love line
love vine
loved one
lower jawbone
loxapine
loxitane
lubber's line
lubber line
lucerne
lucy stone
lunate bone
lupine
luteinizing hormone
lycopene
lymphokine
lynn fontanne
lysine
macedoine
machine
mad anthony wayne
madagascar jasmine
madonna louise ciccone
madrilene
magazine
maginot line
magnetic mine
magnetoelectric machine
main line
maine
malacca cane
malar bone
malone
mandelamine
mandibular bone
mane
marchpane
margarine
marilyn horne
marine
marine mine
marline
marlstone
marrowbone
martin cline
mary jane
mary magdalene
mary mcleod bethune
mascarpone
masculine
mason-dixon line
mason and dixon's line
mason and dixon line
massine
mastoid bone
match plane
matrimony vine
maud gonne
mawlamyine
maxmilien de bethune
may wine
mayenne
mbabane
mearstone
meclizine
medicine
medline
medroxyprogesterone
meerestone
mefloquine
megaphone
melamine
melanocyte-stimulating hormone
melbourne
melodic line
melon vine
melpomene
membrane
membrane bone
membranophone
menadione
mensal line
mental hygiene
mepacrine
meperidine
mephaquine
merbromine
mercaptopurine
merchant marine
merestone
mescaline
metacarpal bone
methacholine
methadone
methamphetamine
methane
methapyrilene
methaqualone
methedrine
methenamine
methionine
methyl ethyl ketone
methylbenzene
methylene
methylenedioxymethamphetamine
methyltestosterone
metycaine
meuse-argonne
mexican nut pine
mexiletine
mezzanine
michel eyquem montaigne
michel montaigne
mickey spillane
microphone
microwave diathermy machine
mid-june
midline
midplane
mifepristone
migraine
milestone
military machine
military plane
milking machine
milline
milling machine
millstone
milne
mimeograph machine
mincing machine
mine
minestrone
minisubmarine
minocycline
miocene
mise en scene
misfortune
mnemosyne
mobile phone
modifier gene
molindone
moline
mono-iodotyrosine
monoamine
monocline
monoplane
monotone
monroe doctrine
montaigne
monterey pine
moonshine
moonstone
mooring line
moraine
moreton bay pine
morone
morphine
mountain anemone
mountain pine
mucous membrane
mugho pine
mugo pine
mulled wine
multiengine airplane
multiengine plane
murine
muscadine
muscle tone
musteline
mutant gene
myeline
myrsine
mysoline
mytilene
myxine
na-dene
nabumetone
nalline
nalorphine
naloxone
naltrexone
nandrolone
naphazoline
naphthalene
naphthoquinone
nasal bone
nathaniel hawthorne
national library of medicine
navane
nazarene
ne
ne'er-do-well
ne plus ultra
neandertal
neandertal man
neanderthal
neanderthal man
neap
neap tide
neapolitan
neapolitan ice cream
near-death experience
near beer
near east
near gale
near miss
near thing
near vision
nearness
nearside
nearsightedness
neat's-foot oil
neatness
neb
nebbech
nebbish
nebcin
nebe
nebiim
nebn
nebo
nebraska
nebraska fern
nebraskan
nebuchadnezzar
nebuchadnezzar ii
nebuchadrezzar
nebuchadrezzar ii
nebula
nebular hypothesis
nebule
nebuliser
nebulizer
nec
necessary
necessitarian
necessity
neck
neck bone
neck brace
neck exercise
neck of the woods
neck opening
neck ruff
neck sweetbread
neckar
neckar river
neckband
neckcloth
necker
neckerchief
necking
necklace
necklace poplar
necklace tree
necklet
neckline
neckpiece
necktie
neckwear
necrobiosis
necrobiosis lipoidica
necrobiosis lipoidica diabeticorum
necrology
necrolysis
necromancer
necromancy
necromania
necrophagia
necrophagy
necrophilia
necrophilism
necropolis
necropsy
necrosis
necrotizing enteritis
necrotizing enterocolitis
nectar
nectarine
nectarine tree
nectary
necturus
necturus maculosus
nederland
need
needer
neediness
needle
needle-bush
needle-wood
needle bearing
needle biopsy
needle blight
needle bush
needle cast
needle furze
needle palm
needle rush
needle spike rush
needle wood
needlebush
needlecraft
needlefish
needlenose pliers
needlepoint
needlepoint embroidery
needlewoman
needlewood
needlework
needleworker
needy
neel
neem
neem cake
neem seed
neem tree
neencephalon
nefariousness
nefazodone
nefertiti
neftali ricardo reyes
nefud
negaprion
negaprion brevirostris
negara brunei darussalam
negation
negative
negative charge
negative chemotaxis
negative correlation
negative feedback
negative feedback circuit
negative identification
negative magnetic pole
negative muon
negative pole
negative reinforcer
negative reinforcing stimulus
negative stimulation
negative stimulus
negativeness
negativism
negativist
negativity
negatron
negev
negev desert
neggram
neglect
neglect of duty
neglecter
neglectfulness
neglige
negligee
negligence
negotiable instrument
negotiant
negotiation
negotiator
negotiatress
negotiatrix
negress
negritude
negro
negro peach
negro pepper
negro race
negro spiritual
negro vine
negroid
negroid race
negus
nehemiah
nehru
nei monggol
neigh
neighbor
neighborhood
neighborliness
neighbour
neighbourhood
neighbourliness
neil armstrong
neil simon
neisseria gonorrhoeae
nejd
nekton
nelfinavir
nell gwynn
nell gwynne
nell gywn
nellie bly
nellie ross
nellie tayloe ross
nelson
nelson algren
nelson mandela
nelson rolihlahla mandela
nelumbo
nelumbo lutea
nelumbo nucifera
nelumbonaceae
nematocera
nematoda
nematode
nematode worm
nembutal
nemea
nemean games
nemean lion
nemertea
nemertean
nemertina
nemertine
nemesis
nemophila
nemophila aurita
nemophila maculata
nemophila menziesii
nenets
nentsi
nentsy
neo-darwinism
neo-lamarckism
neo-latin
neo jazz
neobiotic
neoceratodus
neoceratodus forsteri
neoclassicism
neoclassicist
neocolonialism
neocon
neoconservatism
neoconservative
neocortex
neodymium
neoencephalon
neoexpressionism
neofiber
neofiber alleni
neohygrophorus
neohygrophorus angelesianus
neolentinus
neolentinus ponderosus
neoliberal
neoliberalism
neolith
neolithic
neolithic age
neologism
neologist
neology
neomycin
neomys
neomys anomalus
neomys fodiens
neon
neon induction lamp
neon lamp
neon tube
neonatal death
neonatal hyperbilirubinemia
neonatal intensive care unit
neonatal mortality
neonatal mortality rate
neonatal period
neonate
neonatology
neopallium
neophobia
neophron
neophron percnopterus
neophyte
neoplasia
neoplasm
neoplastic cell
neoplatonism
neoplatonist
neopolitan
neoprene
neoromanticism
neosho
neosho river
neosporin
neostigmine
neoteny
neotoma
neotoma cinerea
neotoma floridana
neotoma fuscipes
neotony
nepa
nepal
nepal trumpet flower
nepalese
nepalese monetary unit
nepalese rupee
nepali
nepenthaceae
nepenthes
nepeta
nepeta cataria
nepeta hederaceae
nepheline
nephelinite
nephelite
nephelium
nephelium lappaceum
nephelium litchi
nephelium longana
nephelium mutabile
nephew
nephology
nephoscope
nephralgia
nephrectomy
nephrite
nephritis
nephroangiosclerosis
nephroblastoma
nephrocalcinosis
nephrogenic diabetes insipidus
nephrolepis
nephrolepis exaltata
nephrolepis exaltata bostoniensis
nephrolepis pectinata
nephrolith
nephrolithiasis
nephrology
nephron
nephropathy
nephrops
nephrops norvegicus
nephropsidae
nephroptosia
nephroptosis
nephrosclerosis
nephrosis
nephrotic syndrome
nephrotomy
nephrotoxin
nephthys
nephthytis
nephthytis afzelii
nepidae
nepotism
nepotist
neptune
neptunium
nerd
nereid
nereus
nergal
nerita
nerita peloronta
neritic zone
neritid
neritid gastropod
neritidae
neritina
nerium
nerium oleander
nernst
nero
nero's crown
nero claudius caesar drusus germanicus
nerodia
nerodia sipedon
neroli oil
nerthus
neruda
nerva
nerve
nerve agent
nerve block anaesthesia
nerve block anesthesia
nerve cell
nerve center
nerve centre
nerve compression
nerve deafness
nerve end
nerve ending
nerve entrapment
nerve fiber
nerve fibre
nerve gas
nerve growth factor
nerve impulse
nerve pathway
nerve plexus
nerve tissue
nerve tract
nervelessness
nerveroot
nerves
nervi
nervii olfactorii
nervous breakdown
nervous disorder
nervous exhaustion
nervous impulse
nervous prostration
nervous strain
nervous system
nervous tissue
nervousness
nervure
nervus
nervus abducens
nervus accessorius
nervus coccygeus
nervus facialis
nervus femoralis
nervus glossopharyngeus
nervus hypoglosus
nervus ischiadicus
nervus oculomotorius
nervus opticus
nervus phrenicus
nervus radialis
nervus saphenus
nervus spinalis
nervus trigeminus
nervus ulnaris
nervus vagus
nervus vestibulocochlearis
nescience
nesokia
ness
nesselrode
nesselrode pudding
nessie
nest
nest egg
nester
nesting place
nestle
nestling
nestor
nestor notabilis
nestor paz zamora commission
nestorian
nestorian church
nestorianism
nestorius
net
net ball
net estate
net income
net melon
net profit
net sales
net ton
netball
nether region
netherlander
netherlands
netherlands antilles
netherlands guiana
netherworld
netkeeper
netminder
netscape
netted melon
netting
nettle
nettle-leaved bellflower
nettle-leaved goosefoot
nettle family
nettle rash
nettle tree
nettleleaf goosefoot
network
network architecture
network army
network programming
network topology
neumann
neural arch
neural impulse
neural net
neural network
neural structure
neural tube
neuralgia
neuralgy
neurasthenia
neurasthenic
neurectomy
neurilemma
neurilemoma
neurinoma
neuritis
neuroanatomy
neurobiologist
neurobiology
neuroblast
neuroblastoma
neurochemical
neurodermatitis
neuroepithelioma
neuroepithelium
neuroethics
neurofibroma
neurofibromatosis
neurogenesis
neurogenic bladder
neuroglia
neurogliacyte
neuroglial cell
neurohormone
neurohypophysis
neurolemma
neuroleptic
neuroleptic agent
neuroleptic drug
neurolinguist
neurolinguistics
neurological disease
neurological disorder
neurologist
neurology
neurolysin
neuroma
neuromuscular blocking agent
neuromuscular junction
neuron
neurontin
neuropathy
neurophysiology
neuropil
neuropile
neuroplasty
neuropsychiatry
neuropsychology
neuroptera
neuropteran
neuropteron
neuropterous insect
neurosarcoma
neuroscience
neuroscientist
neurosis
neurospora
neurosurgeon
neurosurgery
neurosyphilis
neurotic
neurotic depression
neuroticism
neurotoxin
neurotransmitter
neurotrichus
neurotrichus gibbsii
neurotropism
neuter
neutering
neutral
neutral spirits
neutralisation
neutralisation reaction
neutralism
neutralist
neutrality
neutralization
neutralization fire
neutralization reaction
neutrino
neutron
neutron bomb
neutron flux
neutron radiation
neutron star
neutropenia
neutrophil
neutrophile
neva
neva river
nevada
nevadan
nevado de colima
neve
nevelson
never-never
never-never land
nevil shute
nevil shute norway
neville chamberlain
nevirapine
nevis
nevoid elephantiasis
nevus
nevus flammeus
new amsterdam
new ballgame
new britain
new brunswick
new caledonia
new caledonian pine
new caledonian yew
new criticism
new deal
new dealer
new delhi
new edition
new england
new england aster
new england boiled dinner
new england clam chowder
new englander
new english bible
new flower
new forest
new greek
new guinea
new hampshire
new hampshirite
new haven
new hebrides
new ireland
new jazz
new jersey
new jerseyan
new jerseyite
new latin
new line
new london
new look
new mexican
new mexico
new moon
new netherland
new norwegian
new orleans
new penny
new people's army
new phase of the moon
new river
new river gorge bridge
new scotland yard
new siberian islands
new south wales
new stone age
new style calendar
new testament
new town
new wave
new waver
new world
new world anteater
new world beaver
new world blackbird
new world chat
new world coral snake
new world flycatcher
new world goldfinch
new world jay
new world least weasel
new world leishmaniasis
new world monkey
new world mouse
new world opah
new world oriole
new world porcupine
new world sparrow
new world tapir
new world vulture
new world warbler
new year
new year's
new year's day
new year's eve
new york
new york aster
new york bay
new york city
new york fern
new york minute
new york state
new york state barge canal
new york stock exchange
new york strip
new yorker
new zealand
new zealand beech
new zealand cotton
new zealand dacryberry
new zealand daisybush
new zealand dollar
new zealand honeysuckle
new zealand islands
new zealand mountain pine
new zealand spinach
new zealand white pine
new zealand wine berry
new zealand wren
new zealander
newari
newark
newbie
newborn
newborn baby
newborn infant
newburg sauce
newburgh
newcastle
newcastle-upon-tyne
newcastle disease
newcomb
newcomer
newel
newel post
newfoundland
newfoundland and labrador
newfoundland dog
newfoundland dwarf birch
newgate
newlywed
newman
newmarket
newness
newport
newport news
news
news agency
news article
news bulletin
news conference
news event
news item
news leak
news magazine
news media
news organisation
news organization
news photography
news program
news reader
news report
news show
news story
newsagent
newsboy
newsbreak
newscast
newscaster
newsdealer
newsflash
newsletter
newsman
newsmonger
newspaper
newspaper ad
newspaper advertisement
newspaper article
newspaper clipping
newspaper column
newspaper columnist
newspaper critic
newspaper editor
newspaper headline
newspaper publisher
newspapering
newspaperman
newspaperwoman
newspeak
newsperson
newsprint
newsreader
newsreel
newsroom
newssheet
newsstand
newsstand operator
newsvendor
newswoman
newsworthiness
newswriter
newt
newton
newton's first law
newton's first law of motion
newton's law
newton's law of gravitation
newton's law of motion
newton's second law
newton's second law of motion
newton's theory of gravitation
newton's third law
newton's third law of motion
newtonian
newtonian mechanics
newtonian reflector
newtonian telescope
newtown wonder
next friend
next of kin
nexus
ney
nez perce
nicotine
nictitating membrane
nifedipine
night-line
night jasmine
night jessamine
nine
nitramine
nitrobenzene
nitrochloromethane
nitroglycerine
nne
no-parking zone
noble cane
nocturne
none
noradrenaline
norepinephrine
norethandrolone
norethindrone
norfolk island pine
normodyne
north frigid zone
north temperate zone
northern pitch pine
nortriptyline
norwegian krone
nose cone
nota bene
nouvelle cuisine
novocaine
nuclear-powered submarine
nuclear medicine
nuclear submarine
number one
nut pine
nyctimene
occipital bone
octane
oestrone
oil of turpentine
oil pipeline
oilstone
old world porcupine
olefine
oleomargarine
oligocene
oliver stone
olivine
oncogene
one
one-and-one
opening line
openside plane
operator gene
oral poliovirus vaccine
orange fleabane
orasone
orbignya cohune
orbital plane
oregon pine
oriental plane
orinasal phone
ornithine
orphenadrine
orpine
osborne
oscine
outline
output routine
over-the-counter medicine
overtone
oxyacetylene
oxybenzene
oxyphenbutazone
oxyphencyclimine
oxytetracycline
oxytone
ozone
pachytene
pacific sardine
padrone
paine
palatine
palatine bone
paleocene
palestine
pallas athene
pallone
panama canal zone
pane
papaver argemone
papaverine
parathormone
parathyroid hormone
pari-mutuel machine
parietal bone
parisienne
parking zone
paroxytone
partial tone
party line
passerine
passing tone
passionflower vine
patent medicine
patronne
paul cezanne
paul verlaine
pavane
paving machine
paving stone
pay-phone
peacock-throne
peanut vine
pediatric medicine
peneplane
penicillamine
penne
pentatone
pentazocine
pentoxifylline
pepper vine
peptone
perchloromethane
peregrine
perigone
perilune
periselene
perpetual motion machine
perphenazine
persephone
personal credit line
petrol engine
petrol line
pharmacological medicine
phenazopyridine
phencyclidine
phenelzine
pheniramine
pheno-safranine
phenobarbitone
phenothiazine
phentolamine
phenylalanine
phenylamine
phenylbutazone
phenylephrine
phenylethylene
phenylpropanolamine
phenyltoloxamine
pheromone
philadelphia fleabane
philhellene
philippine
philistine
philosopher's stone
philosophers' stone
philosophical doctrine
phone
phone line
phosgene
phosphine
phosphocreatine
photostat machine
phragmacone
phragmocone
phylloquinone
physostigmine
phytohormone
phytonadione
picket line
picture plane
pilocarpine
pilot engine
pin bone
pinball machine
pine
pinecone
pink wine
pinon pine
pipe vine
pipeline
piperazine
piperine
piperocaine
pisiform bone
pitch pine
pitchstone
plane
planing machine
plant hormone
plantagenet line
plasma membrane
plasticine
platycerium alcicorne
platyrrhine
pleione
pleistocene
plimsoll line
pliocene
plot line
plumb line
pneumococcal vaccine
polar zone
poliovirus vaccine
political machine
polybutene
polybutylene
polyethylene
polygene
polyphone
polypropene
polypropylene
polystyrene
polytetrafluoroethylene
polythene
polyurethane
pond pine
ponderosa pine
pone
pontoon plane
popular democratic front for the liberation of palestine
popular front for the liberation of palestine
porcupine
port jackson pine
port wine
potato vine
poverty line
powder magazine
power line
practice of medicine
prairie anemone
prairie gourd vine
praline
precious stone
prednisolone
prednisone
prelone
prescription medicine
preventive medicine
prickly pine
primaquine
primidone
primrose jasmine
prince's pine
princess pine
printing machine
private line
privine
procaine
procarbazine
prochlorperazine
procyclidine
product line
production line
progesterone
progne
program line
prolamine
proline
promethazine
propane
propanone
proparoxytone
propeller plane
propene
property line
propoxyphene
propylene
proserpine
protamine
proteosome vaccine
proto-oncogene
protriptyline
prune
pseudoephedrine
psilomelane
psychological medicine
ptomaine
pubic bone
pudding stone
pulp magazine
pumice stone
pumpkin vine
punch line
pure tone
purine
purse seine
purslane
putrescine
pyramidal bone
pyrene
pyridine
pyridoxamine
pyridoxine
pyrilamine
pyrimidine
pyrometric cone
pyroxene
pyroxyline
pyrrhotine
quarantine
quarter-tone
quarter-vine
quarter tone
quartervine
quiche lorraine
quinacrine
quine
quinidine
quinine
quinone
rabbet plane
racine
radial engine
radio-gramophone
radiochlorine
radiophone
radiotelephone
rail line
railroad line
railroad vine
railway line
ramjet engine
ranitidine
rankine
rapine
ratline
ratsbane
rattan cane
ravine
reaction-propulsion engine
reaction engine
reaction turbine
reboxetine
reception line
recessive gene
reciprocating engine
reconnaissance plane
recording machine
recursive routine
red cypress pine
red helleborine
red line
red pine
red wine
redbone
regalecus glesne
reggane
regression line
regulator gene
regulatory gene
releasing hormone
religious doctrine
repressor gene
republic of sierra leone
reserpine
retinal cone
retinene
reusable routine
revelation of saint john the divine
rhine
rhine wine
rhinestone
rhone
rhone wine
rhumb line
richard burdon haldane
richard haldane
ridgeline
rimactane
riser pipeline
river tyne
rivet line
riveting machine
robert treat paine
roberto francesco romolo bellarmine
rock purslane
rocket engine
rocky mountain bristlecone pine
rocky mountain dogbane
rogaine
romaine
rose wine
rosetta stone
rotary engine
rotenone
rottenstone
round bone
router plane
routine
royal line
ruddy turnstone
rue anemone
rune
running headline
running pine
russian vine
s. s. van dine
sabin vaccine
sabine
sabine pine
sacramental wine
safety zone
saffranine
safranine
sailplane
saint augustine
saline
salk vaccine
salt mine
saltine
sand dune
sandstone
sanguine
saone
sapphirine
sarcodine
sarcosine
sardine
sash line
sauce-alone
sauterne
sawing machine
saxophone
scallopine
scaphoid bone
scene
school of medicine
scientific discipline
scone
scopolamine
scotch pine
scots pine
scratch line
screw pine
scrimmage line
scrub pine
scrub plane
sea anemone
sea lane
seaplane
search engine
seif dune
seine
selene
self-discipline
semilunar bone
semipermeable membrane
semitone
sene
serine
serotine
serous membrane
sertraline
service line
service routine
serzone
sesamoid bone
setline
sewer line
sewing machine
sex hormone
shaggymane
shaping machine
shin bone
shinbone
shine
ship of the line
shoeshine
shore pine
shoreline
short-leaf pine
short bone
short line
shortleaf pine
shortleaf yellow pine
shortwave diathermy machine
shoshone
shoulder bone
shrine
sibine
sickle lucerne
sideline
siegfried line
sierra leone
sierra lodgepole pine
signature tune
silene
silicone
silk vine
siloxane
siltstone
silver lace vine
silver mine
silver pine
silver vine
silvervine
simazine
simple machine
sine
single-leaf pine
single-propeller plane
sir charles wheatstone
sixty-nine
ski-plane
skyline
slick magazine
slot machine
slovene
slow lane
small cane
small fortune
small intestine
smitane
smooth plane
smoothing plane
snap line
snapline
snow line
snowdrop anemone
soapberry vine
soapstone
sofia scicolone
soldier of fortune
soledad pine
somatotrophic hormone
somatotropic hormone
someone
sone
sonic delay line
sorbonne
sounding line
sourdine
sousaphone
soutane
south frigid zone
south temperate zone
southern yellow pine
southwestern white pine
soutine
sowbane
space medicine
sparkling wine
speakerphone
spectrum line
sphenoid bone
spillane
spine
spinning machine
spirit of turpentine
spirits of wine
spironolactone
spline
splint bone
spodumene
spokane
sports medicine
spotted cowbane
spreading dogbane
spreading fleabane
spruce pine
squall line
square one
squash vine
st. augustine
st. mary magdalene
staff line
staff vine
stamping machine
standing stone
stapling machine
star jasmine
starting line
state line
static line
steam engine
steam line
steam turbine
steamship line
stephen crane
stepped line
stepping stone
sterne
steroid hormone
sthene
sticks and stone
stone
stone pine
storm cone
storyline
straight line
strainer vine
straw wine
strike zone
string line
stringybark pine
strip mine
structural gene
strychnine
styrene
submarine
subroutine
subscriber line
succinylcholine
sugar cane
sugarcane
sulfadiazine
sulfamethazine
sulfamezathine
sulfapyridine
sulfur mine
sulphur mine
summer squash vine
sundial lupine
sunshine
sunstone
supervisory routine
supply line
suppresser gene
suppressor gene
sutural bone
swamp pine
sweet melon vine
sweet potato vine
swinburne
swine
swiss mountain pine
swiss pine
swiss stone pine
switch cane
switch engine
sword cane
sylvine
synovial membrane
table-mountain pine
table wine
tag line
tail bone
tailplane
tambourine
tamburlaine
tamerlane
tangent plane
tangerine
tangier peavine
tank engine
tanker plane
tape machine
tapeline
tara vine
tarsal bone
tasman dwarf pine
taurine
telegraph line
telephone
telephone line
teletype machine
telex machine
temperate zone
temporal bone
terbinafine
terpene
terrapene
terrine
terylene
testosterone
tetracaine
tetrachlorethylene
tetrachloroethylene
tetrachloromethane
tetracycline
tetrafluoroethylene
tetraiodothyronine
tetramethyldiarsine
textile machine
textile screw pine
thalidone
thane
the irish famine
the nazarene
theological doctrine
theophylline
thiamine
thiazine
thighbone
thiodiphenylamine
thioguanine
thioridazine
thiothixene
thomas paine
thoracic medicine
thorazine
threonine
threshing machine
throne
thylacine
thymidine
thymine
thyroid-stimulating hormone
thyroid hormone
thyronine
thyrotrophic hormone
thyrotropic hormone
thyrotropin-releasing hormone
thyroxine
ticket line
tidal zone
timber line
timberline
time machine
time zone
timeline
tincture of iodine
tine
tisane
tisiphone
tolazoline
toll line
toluene
tom paine
tombstone
tone
tonguing and grooving plane
tonne
tontine
top of the line
torrey's pine
torrey pine
torrid zone
touchline
touchstone
tourmaline
towing line
towline
tracing routine
traction engine
trade magazine
traffic lane
tragedienne
tramline
tramontane
trampoline
trans-alaska pipeline
transalpine
transforming gene
transgene
transit line
transit zone
transmission line
tranylcypromine
trap line
trapezium bone
trapezoid bone
trawl line
trazodone
tree celandine
tree line
tree lupine
trend line
trephine
tri-iodomethane
tri-iodothyronine
triamcinolone
triazine
tribromomethane
tribune
trichloroethane
trichloroethylene
trichloromethane
tricorne
trifluoromethane
triiodomethane
triiodothyronine
trimipramine
trine
trinitrotoluene
trip line
triphosphopyridine
triquetral bone
trivalent live oral poliomyelitis vaccine
trolley line
trombone
tropical medicine
tropical zone
trotline
true jasmine
true pine
truman doctrine
trumpet vine
truncated cone
trunk line
tryptophane
tsine
tubocurarine
tumor suppressor gene
tune
turbinate bone
turbine
turbo-propeller plane
turbofan engine
turbojet engine
turing machine
turnstone
turpentine
twenty-nine
twenty-one
twilight zone
twin-aisle airplane
twin-propeller-plane
twine
tympanic bone
tympanic membrane
tyne
typesetting machine
tyramine
tyrocidine
tyrosine
u.s. national library of medicine
ubiquinone
ukraine
ultramarine
ultramontane
umbrella pine
unciform bone
underline
undertone
undine
undiscipline
unemployment line
united states national library of medicine
unleaded gasoline
upper jawbone
urethane
urine
urogenital medicine
uruguay potato vine
utility routine
vaccine
valentine
valine
valve-in-head engine
vane
varietal wine
variola vaccine
vase-fine
vase vine
vaseline
vending machine
verlaine
verne
verse line
veterinary medicine
vibraphone
vicereine
vienne
vientiane
vinblastine
vincristine
vine
vinylbenzene
viramune
virginal membrane
virginia pine
vitrine
viverrine
von neumann machine
voting machine
w. v. quine
waistline
waiting line
wane
wankel engine
wankel rotary engine
war machine
war zone
warplane
washing machine
water line
waterline
watermelon vine
wats line
wayne
weather vane
weathervane
wedge bone
weighing machine
west indian jasmine
western prince's pine
western white pine
western yellow pine
westland pine
weymouth pine
whalebone
wheatstone
whetstone
whine
whinstone
white cypress pine
white line
white lupine
white pine
white potato vine
white wine
whitebark pine
whitebarked pine
whole tone
whooping crane
wild lupine
wild potato vine
wild quinine
wild sweet potato vine
willard van orman quine
william ewart gladstone
william gladstone
wimshurst machine
wind cone
wind turbine
wind vane
window pane
windowpane
wine
winter jasmine
winter melon vine
winter purslane
wireless telephone
wishbone
wishing bone
wolf's bane
wolfbane
wolfsbane
wollemi pine
wolverine
wood anemone
woodbine
woodworking plane
wormian bone
wrist bone
x-linked gene
x-ray machine
xanthine
xerox machine
xylene
xylocaine
xylophone
y-linked gene
yard line
yellow-leaf sickle pine
yellow henbane
yellow jasmine
yellow jessamine
yellow lupine
yellow pine
yellowstone
zabaglione
zalcitabine
zidovudine
zigadene
zone
zygomatic bone
zygotene