Reality is the beginning not the end, Naked Alpha, not the hierophant Omega, Of dense investiture, with luminous vassals.
About this quote
- What does it mean?
- Reality is the starting point, not the mystical end goal.
- In plain terms
- Start with reality, not with spiritual endings.
- What can you take from it?
- Value reality as the origin of things.
Where it applies
Putting it to work
Questions to consider
- Is reality the beginning or the end?
- Does spirituality start with reality?
Another view
Some believe spiritual goals define reality rather than begin it.
More from Wallace Stevens
It is not in the premise that reality Is a solid. It may be a shade that traverses A dust, a force that traverses a shade.
Permalink to quote #181 It may be dismissed, on the one hand, as a commonplace aesthetic satisfaction: and, on the other hand, if we say that the idea of God is merely a poetic idea, …
Permalink to quote #183 The house was quiet and the world was calm. The reader became the book; and summer night Was like the conscious being of the book. The house was quiet and the …
Permalink to quote #180
Related quotes
How do I know that enjoying life is not a delusion? How do I know that in hating death we are not like people who got lost in early childhood and do not know t…
ZhuangziZhuangzi quote #2 Our passionate preoccupation with the sky, the stars, and a God somewhere in outer space is a homing impulse. We are drawn back to where we came from.
Eric HofferEric Hoffer quote #2 They do not live in the world, Are not in time and space. From birth to death hurled No word do they have, not one To plant a foot upon, Were never in any plac…
Edwin MuirEdwin Muir quote #3