In point of fact mortality is only our conception; immortality is the reality. We make a conception of mortality because we do not know the real life. By realization of the real life and the comparison between real life and mortality, one learns that mortality is non-existent. It is no exaggeration to say that the work of a Sufi is unlearning. What he is accustomed to call or recognize as life, he then begins to recognize as death; and what he is accustomed to call death, he then begins to recognize as life. Thus for him both life and death are not conditions to which he is subject, but conditions which he himself brings about. A great Persian Sufi, Bedil, says, "By myself I become captive, and by myself I become free." In simple language this means, "By myself I die, and by myself I live." Why does a Sufi say this? Why does not everyone say this? Because for a Sufi it is a condition which he brings about; for another person it is a condition in which he is helpless.