Great Throughts Treasury

"One day we must go, one night we will descend into the region of mystery. Here, we only come to know ourselves; only in passing are we here on earth. In peace and pleasure let us spend our lives; come let us enjoy ourselves. Let not the angry do so; the earth is vast indeed! Would that one lived forever; would that one were not to die!"

" Where are we going? We came only to be born. Our home is beyond: In the realm of the defleshed ones. 4 I suffer: Happiness, good fortune never comes my way. Have I come here to struggle in vain? This is not the place to accomplish things. Certainly nothing grows green here: Misfortune opens its blossoms. "

"Do flowers go to the region of the dead? In the Beyond, are we dead or do we still live? Where is the source of light, since that which gives life hides itself?"

"Truly do we live on earth? Not forever on earth; only a little while here. Although it be jade, it will be broken, Although it be gold, it is crushed, Although it be quetzal feather, it is torn asunder. Not forever on earth; only a little while here. "

"Do we speak the truth here, oh Giver of Life? We merely dream, we only rise from a dream. All is like a dream ... ' No one speaks here of truth "

"Does man possess any truth? If not, our song is no longer true. Is anything stable and lasting? What reaches its aim?l"

"The false wise man, like an ignorant physician, a man without understanding, claims to know about God. He has his own traditions and keeps them secretly. He is a boaster, vanity is his. He makes things complicated; he brags and exaggerates. He is a river, a rocky hill (a dangerous man). A lover of darkness and corners, a mysterious wizard, a magician, a witch doctor, a public thief, he takes things. A sorcerer, a destroyer of faces. He leads the people astray; he causes others to lose their faces. He hides things, he makes them difficult. He entangles them with difficulties; he destroys them; he causes the people to perish; he mysteriously puts an end to everything. "