Lament For The Foolish

[QUOTING]

1 Our deeds are as thistledown launched upon the wind. We know not where the winds of chance will bear them, or whether they will take root or be borne away as though they never were. Our works are as edifices of mud built upon the river banks, which are swept away by the running waters. The one thing certain in life is change.

2 Men make plans. They are as naught, they are as words written on the waters, as commands given to the winds. Wise is he who knows the Plans of God, for to them the whole Earth conforms.

3 Men cry out at the tribulations of life, not knowing that by adversity alone can they find their Souls. They say, "Why are we beset with trial and tribulation?", for they cannot understand the contest. They say, "Why must we seek and never find?", knowing not that life is naught but a search and at the end man can discover nothing except man.

4 O man, gaze well upon the Earth. See, is it not by its nature a place of labor and not a garden of pleasure, or a panderer to your weaknesses? Truth is found in the book of life, but it may be understood by just degrees. For who among men receiving the whole world would not be overwhelmed and destroyed?

5 In general, men are childlike. Give the people deceitful things and they will rejoice like children. Show them amusing things and they will acclaim their pleasure. The gods of fear are held in reverence, but the Great God who banishes fear, they despise.

6 O foolish people, O foolish generation! With dust on my head I mourn your ignorance. With loud lamentations I decry your folly. Yet the path you have chosen, you have chosen freely. Ease and comfort appear to be your end and purpose.

7 The gods of deceit have temples of splendor, their priests are well-clothed and overfed. But The Great God of Truth has no more than a hidden cavern, his servants are garbed in rags and their bellies are empty.

8 The gods of lust and cruelty have storehouses of treasure, but the God of Kindness has not even a field.

9 The people worship gods that oppress and ignore The God who frees. They give to the gods that take and spurn The God who gives. O misguided generation!

10 O blind and ignorant people, to cherish the stone gods of death and mock The God of Life! O misguided generation, to clasp to its breast the things that inherit decay and spurn the things that inherit Everlastingness!

11 Let the Destroyer come as the whirlwind of barren places. In the dread day of its appearance the works of ignorance shall go down

From The Kolbrin: Book of Manuscripts - Chapter 12 - Eighty-Seventh Scroll

[END QUOTING]

As timely today as it was thousands of years ago.

~ g
.