some excerpts from Mikhail Naimy's Book of Mirdad

Book of Mirdad

The Overcomer do I preach - Man unified and master of himself. Man made a prisoner by the love of a woman, and a woman made prisoner by the love of man are equally unfit for Freedom´s precious crown. But man and woman made as one by love, inseparable , indistnguishable are verily entitled to that prize.

No love is Love that subjugates the Lover.
No love is Love that feeds on flesh and blood.
No love is Love that draws a woman to a man only to breed
more women and men and thus perpetuate their bondage to the flesh.

The Overcomer do I speach - The Phoenix-man who is too free to be male, too sublimated to be a female. As in the denser spheres of Life the male and the female are one, so are they one in Life´s rarer spheres. The interval between is but a segment in eternity dominated by the illusion of Duality. Those who can see neither before nor aft believe this segment of eternity to be itself Eternity. They cling to the delusion of Duality as if it were of Life its very core and essence, not knowing that the rule of Life is Unity.

A Stage in Time is Duality. As it proceeds from Unity, so does it lead to Unity. The quicker you traverse this stage the sooner you embrace your freedom. And what are man and woman but the single Man unconscious of his singleness and so cloven in twain and made to quaff the gall of Duality that he may yearn for the nectar of Unity: and yearning, seek it wirh a will; and seeking; find it and possess it, conscious of it`s surpassing liberty? ...[]

But men and women yearners must realize their unity even while in the flesh; not by communion of the flesh, but by the Will to Freedom from the flesh and all the impendiments it places in their way to perfect Unity and Holy Understanding. ....[]

Too vast is Man and too imponderable his nature. Too varied are his talents, and too inexhaustible his strenght. Beware of thos who attempt to set him bounderies.

About procreation

The Overcomer feels his blood related to all blood. Therefore he is tied to none. Let the non-yearners reproduce the race. The Yearners have another race to propogate - even the race of overcomers. The race of overcomers descends not from back and womb. Rather does it ascend from celibate hearts whose blood is commanded by an dauntless will to overcome...

The Way to Painless Life.

Micaster: Show us the way. MIRDAD: This is the way to freedom from care and pain: So think as if your every thought were to be etched in fire upon the sky for all and everything to see. For so, in truth, it is. So speak as if the world entire were but a single ear intent on hearing what you say. And so, in truth, it is. So do as if your every deed were to recoil upon your heads. And so, in truth, it is. So wish as if you were the wish. And so, in truth, you are. So live as if your God Himself had need of you His life to live. And so, in truth, He does.

Love is the law of God.

MIRDAD: Love is the law of God. You live that you may learn to love. You love that you may learn to live. No other lesson is required of Man. And what os ot to love but for the lover to absorb forever the beloved so that the twain be one? And whom, or what, is one to love? Is one to choose a certain leaf upon the Tree of Life and pour upon it all one`s heart? What of the branch that bears the leaf? What of the stem that holds the branch? What of the bark that shields the stem? What of the roots that feed the bark, the stem, the branches and the leaves? What of the soil embosoming the roots? What of the Sun,and sea, and air that fertilize the soil? If one small leaf upon a tree be worthy of your love how much more so the entire tree in its entirity? The love that singles out a fraction of the whole foredooms itself to grief. You say But there be leaves and leaves upon a single tree. Some are healthy, some are sick; some are beautiful, some, ugly; some are giants , some are dwarfs. How can we help but pick and choose. I say to you, Out of the paleness of the sick proceeds the freshness of the healthy. I further say to you that ugliness is Beauty`s palette, paint and brush; and that the dwarf would not have been a dwarf had he not given of his stature to the giant. You are the tree of Life. Beware of fractioning yourselves. Set not a fruit against a fruit, a leaf against a leaf, a bough against a bough; nor set the stem against the roots; nor set the tree against the mother- soil. That is precisely what you do when you love one part more than the rest, or to the exclusion of the rest. You are the Tree of Life. Your roots are everywhere. Your boughs and leaves are everywhere. Your fruits are in every mouth. Whatever be the fruits upon that tree; whatever be its boughs and leaves; whatever be the roots; they are your fruits; they are your leaves and boughs; they are your roots. If you would have the tree bear sweet and fragrant fruit, if you would have it ever strong and green, see to the sap wherewith you feed the roots. Love is the Sap of Life. While Hatred is the pus of Death. But Love, like blood, must circulate unhindered in the veins. Repress the blood, and it becomes a menace and a plague. And what is Hate but Love repressed, or Love withheld, therefore becoming such a deadly poison both to the feeder and the fed; both to the hater and to that he hates. A yellow leaf upon your tree of life is but a Love-weaned leaf, Blame not the yellow leaf. A withered bough is but a Love-starved bough. Blame not the withered bough. A putrid fruit is but a Hatred-suckled fruit. Blame not the putrid fruit. But rather blame your blind and stingy heart that would dole out the sap of life to few and would deny it to many, thereby denying it to itself. No love is possible except by the love of self. No self is real save the All-embracing Self. Therefore is God all Love, because he loves himself. So long as you are pained by Love, you have not found your real self, nor have you found the golden key of Love. Because you love an ephemeral self, your love is ephemeral. The love of a man for woman is not love. It is thereof a very distant token. The love of a parent for the child is but the threshold to Love`s holy temple. Till every man be every woman`s lover, and the reverse: till every child be every parent`s child, and the reverse, let men and women brag of flesh and bone clinging to flesh and bone, but never speak the sacred name of Love.For that is blasphemy. You have no friends so long as you can count a single man a foe. The heart that harbours enmity how can it be a safe abode for friendship? You do noy know the Joy of Love so long as there is hatred in your hearts. Were you to feed all things the sap of Life except a certain tiny worm, that certain tin worm alone would embitter your life. For in loving anything, or anyone, you love in truth but yourselves. Likewise in hating anything, or anyone, you hate in truth but yourselves. For that which you hate is bound up inseparably with that which you love, like the face and the reverse side of the same coin. If you would be honest with yourselves, then must you love what you hate and what hates you before you love what you love and what loves you. Love is not a virtue. Love is a neccessity; more so than bread and water; more so than light and air. Let no one pride himself on loving. But rather breathe in Love and breathe it out just as unconsciously and freely as you breathe in the air and breathe it out. For Love needs no one to exalt it. Love will exalt the heart that it finds worthy of itself. Seek no rewards for Love. Love is reward sufficient unto LOve, as Hate is punishment sufficient unto Hate. Nor keep any accounts with Love. For Love accounts to no one but itself. Love neither lends nor borrows; Love neither buys nor sells; but when it gives, it gives its all; and when it takes, it takes its all. Its very taking is a giving. Its very giving is a taking. Therefore is it the same to-day, to-morrow and forevermore. In a short while there will be more to come.