“There was a water-drop, it joined the sea,A speck of dust, it was fused with earth;what of your entering and leaving this world?A fly appeared, and disappeared.”

“Know the world from end to end is a mirror;in each atom a hundred suns are concealed.If you pierce the heart of a single drop of water,from it will flow a hundred clear oceans;if you look intently at each speck of dust,in it you will see a thousand beings.A gnat in its limbs is like an elephant;in name a drop of water resembles the Nile.In the heart of a barleycorn is stored a hundred harvests.Within a millet-seed a world exists.In an insects wing is an ocean of life.A heaven is concealed in the pupil of an eye.The core at the center of the heart is small,yet the Lord of both worlds will enter there.”

“Skin was earth; it was soil. I could see, even on my own skin, the joined trapezoids of dust specks God had wetted and stuck with his spit the morning he made Adam from dirt. Now, all these generations later, we people could still see on our skin the inherited prints of the dust specks of Eden.”

“It's true that even though I'm a world unto myself, I've just a speck of dust in the avalanche of events. But nothing will ever force me to think like a speck of dust!”

“We can see the Divine in each speck of dust, but that doesn't stop us from wiping it away with a wet sponge. The Divine doesn't disappear; it's transformed into the clean surface.”

“Cyrano: The leaves---Roxane: What color---Perfect Venetian red! Look at them fall.Cyrano: Yes---they know how to die. A little wayFrom the branch to the earth, a little fearOf mingling with the common dust---and yetThey go down gracefully---a fall that seemsLike flying!”