Knowledge That Takes You, Not Beyond Yourself

I Slept Peacefully That Night, Feeling Exultant And Determined. Little Did I Know That I Was Making The Most Common And The Most Painful Mistake Women Have Made All Throughout The Ages: To Naively Think That With Their Love They Can Change The Man They Love.

Ways Of Loving From A Distance, Mating Without Even Touching-amor Platonicus! The Ladder Of Love One Is Expected To Climb Higher And Higher, Elating The Self And The Other. Plato Clearly Regards Any Actual Physical Contact As Corrupt And Ignoble Because He Thinks The True Goal Of Eros Is Beauty. Is There No Beauty In Sex? Not According To Plato. He Is After `more Sublime Pursuits.' But If You Ask Me, I Think Plato's Problem, Like Those Of Many Others, Was That He Never Got Splendidly Laid.

I Like To Borrow A Metaphor From The Great Poet And Mystic Rumi Who Talks About Living Like A Drawing Compass. One Leg Of The Compass Is Static. It Is Fixed And Rooted In A Certain Spot. Meanwhile, The Other Leg Draws A Huge Wide Circle Around The First One, Constantly Moving. Just Like That, One Part Of My Writing Is Based In Istanbul. It Has Strong Local Roots. Yet At The Same Time The Other Part Travels The Whole Wide World, Feeling Connected To Several Cities, Cultures, And Peoples.

Knowledge That Takes You, Not Beyond Yourself Is Far Worse Than Ignorance.

Hell Is In The Here And Now. So Is Heaven. Quit Worrying About Hell Or Dreaming About Heaven, As They Are Both Present Inside Us This Very Moment. Every Time We Fall In Love, We Ascend To Heaven. Every Time We Hate, Envy, Or Fight Someone, We Tumble Straight Into The Fires Of Hell.