You must lose your life to gain It...

It is better to lose your life in the quest than to languish
miserably. If we should not succeed, but die of grief, ah well, so
much the worse, but, because errors are numerous in this world, we may
at least avoid acquiring new ones.
Thousands of creatures are craftily occupied in the pursuit of the
dead body of the world; so, if you give yourself up to this commerce,
above all with guile, will you be able to make your heart an ocean of
love?
Some say that the wish for spiritual things is presumption, and
that no mere upstart can attain them. But isn't it better to sacrifice
one's life in pursuit of this desire than to be identified with a
business?
So long as we do not die to ourselves, and so long as we are
identified with someone or someting, we shall never be free.

Fariduddin Attar
as collected by James Fadiman & Robert Frager