A Sleepless Eye: Aphorisms from the Sahara

Nature

Nature 5 Nature, a sleepless eye. Nature, the demon inside the bottle. Nature, a mother who observes our mischief, yet pardons all our faults. Nature is a sage, and to anger a sage is dangerous. To ravish Nature is to provoke the demon inside the bottle. Nature does not beget the wicked. Nature begets us as innocents; the world makes us wicked. By iniquity we betray Nature. Nature—body of the unseen; the unseen—spirit of Nature. There are no means to cross the barrier between seen and unseen. The seen is the trunk, the unseen the root. In the unseen we live; in the seen we die. Nature—that hand by which the unseen grasps us. Nature’s hand also affords us the unseen. 6 Nothingness is in conflict with the world but has a pact with Nature. Nature is by instinct a hermit. Every corner of Nature is God’s own house. Nature—God’s house, one we defile instead of worshiping therein. Godhead: Nature in the heavens; Nature: godhead on earth. The godhead is Nature in the unseen; Nature is a godhead on earth. The roots of compassion lie in Nature; those of mercy in God’s heaven. Evil has no power over one whose heart has become a friend of Nature. Nature may move slowly, but it does not forget. For God’s creatures Nature is homeland and knowledge is exile. Nature is fully capable of discovering the means to help it recreate itself. Nature is in eternal conflict with reason. 8 Nature grants species victory over the individual; reason grants the individual victory over Nature. Hence the conflict of reason and Nature. Nature is anger; mankind is revenge. Nature will never escape the evil of mankind unless that miracle occurs whereby mankind’s greed is finally staunched. Nature—our own sacred house, daily despised. Mankind shuns Nature, the giver of life, preferring the company of mankind, the bringer of death. You can commit your affairs to Nature, but beware of doing so to mankind. Nature snatches by force those paltry oblations that we refuse to offer it. Nature gives life because it also gives death. Nature only kills us to give us life. The world only gives us life to kill us. We kill Nature’s body, forgetting that Nature’s body is our own. We only really die when Nature dies within us. 10 Through our death in Nature we live; through Nature’s death in us we die. When we die by Nature’s hand, we also live. When we die by mankind’s hand, we die. Death at Nature’s hand is life; life by mankind’s law is death. Nature brings life; knowledge death. Only those who seek refuge in Nature will escape its retaliation. Nature never gives itself to an artist who does not give himself to it. Estrangement from Nature is the secret cause of illness. Estrangement from Nature—wilderness; separation from the world—birth. The world chastises anyone who fails to amuse himself; Nature chastises anyone who does so. When we are frivolous, our destination is the world; when we shed the ability to indulge in frivolity, that destination becomes Nature. Worldly people are convinced that passion is something established by the law of Nature. Chaste people are convinced that passion is totally alien to the law of Nature. 11 Nature’s fault is that unblemished gain should fall into the hands of the corrupt heir. If we learned how to listen properly to the sound of Nature, we would not be so mistaken about our own interests. Nature’s requital is always just. Nature’s cruelty towards us is only to teach us a lesson. Nature teaches us to look inside ourselves, but warns us not to become too introverted. Nature only turns in on itself in order to lose its own Nature. Nature refuses to acknowledge its mistakes since its errors are final and irredeemable. We travel the sea to quench our thirst for Nature. From within Nature itself we fashion chains with which to throttle it. Nature is in conflict with the powerful. In Nature’s law the indigent are loyal soldiers. Exclusive authority is Nature’s law. Rejection, Nature’s religion. [18.216...