"It is one of the miseries of life that the obvious becomes the most difficult, and that which is available becomes almost absent to your eyes; only departure wakes you up from your dreams and your sleep.

"And now it was evening. And Almitra the seeress said… She was the one who had first recognized Almustafa twelve years before, when he had come to the city of Orphalese, and she was also the first to ask significant questions about life, love, children. Naturally she is the last to show her gratitude to him. These words are of thankfulness. She said: Blessed be this day, and this place and your spirit that has spoken.

"It is an ancient saying in most of the lands, that wherever a man of blissfulness stands, that place becomes holy and sacred. And wherever and whenever a blessed man speaks, those words are no longer ordinary language – they have wings, they are sacred. If you are available, receptive, those words will take you to the faraway stars, to unknown spaces within you which you have carried all along for many lives but you have never visited.

"George Gurdjieff used to say that most people are born emperors, with huge palaces, with immense treasures, but their whole lives they have lived on the porch – absolutely unaware that the porch is not a place to live, and that they are born to live in the palace. But they never demand their right. They never ask existence, 'What is my destiny? Why am I here? What is this life all about?' They are not seekers, they simply accept whatever accidentally becomes available to them, and they think this is all life has to offer.

"A man becomes a seeker the moment he becomes aware that this mundane existence cannot be all there is. Life must contain much more. There must be treasures which we are not aware of; otherwise, just to get up every morning, eat your food, go to your job, come back home, and move like a circle from cradle to the grave… Do you think this routine is life? Do you think this routine can give you a singing and dancing heart? If you have a little intelligence you will refuse to live this routine."