Abu-Yazid Al-Bistami

This very first line kind of caught my eye right away, "Nothing is better for a man than to be without anything, having no asceticism, no theory, no practice. When he is without everything, he is everything. " (75). Sounds a little like Buddhism, doesn't it? I read it over and and over and tried to grasp what he really means by that. I came up with that trying to figure out a theory or what practices you should do will have you running in circles. Find it within yourself, you dont need facts and materials to determine faith. WITHIN ONESELF, over and over, each religion is shouting this out. It was a little tought to understand but I enjoyed reading it. I like it when you really have to go deep in your mind and try and comprehend what these great men are trying to show.

"A single atom of the sweetness of wisdom in a man's heart is better than a thousand pavilions in Paradise"(76).

He probably was referring to his wisdom or something, ha ha just kidding. I agree with that for sure. Great wisdom is like a good song on the radio. If you like the song, you rock out and keep it on the station. If you don't like it you move on to the next station. If you like the wisdom its something that you will keep listening to and will always be in your mind, like the lyrics of the song. To be honest a lot of these little short sayings, confused me. Its hard to fully know what he is trying to get at. I got out of it a bunch of confusion. I could try and tell you what it all means but would fall real short.

I noticed that I seem to enjoy pretty much every reading. Thats why religion is so great, because you can interpret it the way you want. From within your own mind and heart is the answer. This was a good quote, "For thirty years I used to say, "Do this" and "give that"; but when i reached the first stage of wisdom, I said, "O God, be mine and do whatever You want"(76). I liked it because you definitly notice that a lot do ask or say what god should do. The real important thing is to have faith and take God in your heart and expect everything your praying for. Man wouldn't that be great if I could look up and tell god to put a million dollars under my bed in the morning. Thats not what its all about, its about having faith and God will continue doing things, and maybe you won't agree but it doesn't mean to stop believing and loving.

"This thing we tell of can never be found by seeking, yet only seekers find it".