Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities Quotes

“The swan is also a liminal bird, able to live in two worlds, land and water, or matter and spirit.”
― Wendy Doniger, Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities

“The fish is an ancient symbol of liminal consciousness in India: “As a great fish goes along both banks of a river, both the near side and the far side, just so this person [the dreamer] goes along both of these conditions, the condition of sleeping and the condition of waking.”
― Wendy Doniger, Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities

“The qualities that make the soul cling to rebirth or to illusion are vividly encompassed by a Korean word, won, which has a cluster of meanings, including resentment, ingratitude, regret for lost opportunities, and a knot in the stomach; this state of the soul results from being poorly treated or unappreciated while living or from any of the many situations covered by the rubric “to die screaming.”
― Wendy Doniger, Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities

“the bee perishes because his lust for the lotus stupefies him and makes him stick to her even in death.”
― Wendy Doniger, Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities

“bees in Indian love poetry are said to form the bowstring of the god of lust and to plunge deep inside the flowers that ooze with sap even as the rutting elephant’s temples ooze with musk.”
― Wendy Doniger, Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities

“bees in Indian love poetry are said to form the bowstring of the god of lust”
― Wendy Doniger, Dreams, Illusion, and Other Realities