When my bier moves on the day of death, Think not my heart is in this world. Do not weep for me and cry "Woe, woe!" You will fall in the devil's snare: that is woe. When you see my hearse, cry not "Parted, parted!" Union and meeting are mine in that hour. If you commit me to the grave, say not "Farewell, farewell!" For the grave is a curtain hiding the communion of Paradise. After beholding descent, consider resurrection; Why should setting be injurious to the sun and moon? To you it seems a setting, but 'tis a rising; Tho' the vault seems a prison, 'tis the release of the soul. What seed went down into the earth but it grew? Why this doubt of yours as regards the seed of man? What bucket was lowered but it came out brimful? Why should the Joseph of the spirit complain of the well? Shut your mouth on this side and open it beyond, For in placeless air will be your triumphal song.
The end and object of all negation is to attain to subsequent affirmation, as the negation in the creed, "There is no God," finds its complement and purpose in the affirmation "but God." Just so the purpose of negation of self is to clear the way for the apprehension of the fact that there is no existence but the One. The intoxication of Life and its pleasures and occupations veils the Truth from men's eyes, and they ought to pass on to the spiritual intoxication which makes men beside themselves and lifts them to the beatific vision of eternal Truth.
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