This may be understood by a little example. A jinn wanted to amuse himself, but when about to do so, he brought upon himself a problem. For the jinn was powerful, and he said to himself "Be thou a rock"; and the jinn turned into a rock. But by becoming a rock he began to feel solitary, left in the wilderness he felt the loss of action, loss of movement, lack of freedom and lack of experience. This was a terrible captivity for the jinn. For many years this jinn had to have patience, to change into something else. It did not mean that through the rock he did not realize life. For even the rock is living, even the rock is changing, and yet a rock is a rock; a rock is not a jinn. It was through the patience of thousands of years that the rock began to wear out and crumble into earth. And when, out of that earth, the jinn came out as a plant, he was delighted that he had grown out as a tree. The jinn was so pleased to find that out of a rock he could become a plant, that he could enjoy the air more fully, that he could swing in the wind. He smiled at the sun and bathed happily in the rain. He was pleased to bring forth fruits, to bring forth flowers.

But at the same time his innate desire was not satisfied. It kept him hoping some day to break through this captivity of being rooted in a particular place and of this limitation of movement. For a long, long time the jinn was waiting to come out of this limitation. This was better, yet it was not the experience the jinn desired. But at last the fruit became decayed and part of that fruit turned into a little worm. The jinn was even more delighted to feel that he could move about; that now he was no longer rooted to one place and unable to move. And as this worm breathed and was in the sun, it grew wings and began to fly. The jinn was still more delighted to see that he could do this. From one experience to another he flew through the air and experienced the life of a bird, now sitting upon the trees, now walking on the earth. And as he enjoyed life on the earth more and more, he became a heavy bird. He could not fly; he walked. And this heaviness made him coarse, and he turned into an animal. He was most happy, for then he could oppose all the other animals that wanted to kill birds, because he was no longer a bird.

Through a process of gradual change, the jinn arrived at becoming man. And when a man, the jinn looked around and thought, "This is something that I was destined to be. Because now, as a jinn, I can see all these different bodies that I have taken in order to become more free, in order to become perceptive, sensitive, in order to know things, in order to enjoy things more fully. There could not have been any vehicle more fitting than this."

And yet he thought, "Even this is not a fitting vehicle, because when I want to fly I have no wings, and I feel like flying also. I walk on the earth, but I have not the strength of the lion. And now I feel that I belong to heaven, and where it is I don't know." This made the jinn search for what was missing, until in the end he realized, "I was a jinn, just the same, in the rock, in the plant, in the bird, in the animal; but I was captive and my eyes were veiled from my own being. It is by becoming man that I am now beginning to see that I was a jinn. And yet I find in this life of man also a great limitation, for I have not that freedom of expression, that freedom of movement, that life which is dependable, that knowledge which is reality."

And then this thought itself took him to his real domain, which was the jinn life; and there he arrived with the air of the conqueror, with the grandeur of the sovereign, with the splendor of a king, with the honor of an emperor, and realizing, "After all, I have enjoyed myself, I have experienced though I have suffered, and I have known Being, and I have become what I am.'