Only when you find God you will know yourself, only by knowing yourself will you know God.
Any thoughts?
O my eminent friend! They that seek to ascend to the heaven of mystic wayfaring are of four kinds only. I shall describe them in brief, that the signs and degrees of each may become plain and manifest to thee.
If the wayfarers be among them that seek after the sanctuary of the Desired One, this plane pertaineth to the self—but the self which is intended is “the Self of God that pervadeth all His laws”.
In this station the self is not rejected but beloved; it is regarded with favour and is not to be shunned. Although at the beginning this plane is the realm of conflict, yet it endeth in the ascent to the throne of glory. As it hath been said:
O Abraham of the Spirit and God’s Friend in this day!
Slay! Slay these four thieving birds of prey!
that after death the mystery of life may be unravelled.
This is the plane of the soul that is pleasing unto God, whereof He saith: “Enter thou among My servants, and enter thou My Paradise.”
This station hath myriad signs and countless tokens. Hence it is said: “We will surely show them Our signs in the world and within themselves, until it become plain to them that there is no God save Him.”
One must, then, read the book of one’s own self, rather than the treatise of some grammarian. Wherefore He hath said, “Read thy Book: There needeth none but thyself to make out an account against thee this day.”
The story is told of a mystic knower who went on a journey with a learned grammarian for a companion. They came to the shore of the Sea of Grandeur. The knower, putting his trust in God, straightway flung himself into the waves, but the grammarian stood bewildered and lost in thoughts that were as words traced upon the water. The mystic called out to him, “Why dost thou not follow?” The grammarian answered, “O brother, what can I do? As I dare not advance, I must needs go back again.” Then the mystic cried, “Cast aside what thou hast learned from Síbavayh and Qawlavayh, from Ibn-i-Ḥájib and Ibn-i-Málik, and cross the water!”
With renunciation, not with grammar’s rules, one must be armed:
Be nothing, then, and cross this sea unharmed.
Likewise He saith, “And be ye not like those who forget God, and whom He hath therefore caused to forget their own selves. Such men are the evil doers.”
(The Call of the Divine Beloved)
www.bahai.org/r/657441667