“Poverty”, “simplicity” and “childhood”, are no more than one same thing, and the process of being stripped which all these words express (footnote: It is the “BEING STRIPPED OF METALS” in the Masonic symbolism.) culminates in an extinction” which is, in reality , the fullness of the being, just as “inaction” (wu-wei) is the fullness of activity , because it is from it that all the particular activities are derived; “The Principle is always inactive, and yet everything is done by it”(Tao-Te-Ching). Studies in Comparative Religion Winter Issue (1973) AL-FAQR (‘SPIRITUAL POVERTY’)