"The death of self is needed here, not rhetoric ..."

"One must, then, read the book of his own self, rather than some treatise on rhetoric. Wherefore He hath said, “Read thy Book: There needeth none but thyself to make out an account against thee this day.” 6

The story is told of a mystic knower, who went on a journey with a learned grammarian as his companion. They came to the shore of the Sea of Grandeur. The knower straightway flung himself into the waves, but the grammarian stood lost in his reasonings, which were as words that are written on water. The knower called out to him, “Why dost thou not follow?” The grammarian answered, “O Brother, I dare not advance. I must needs go back again.” Then the knower cried, “Forget what thou didst read in the books of Síbávayh and Qawlavayh, of Ibn-i-Hajíb and Ibn-i-Málik, 7 and cross the water.”

The death of self is needed here, not rhetoric:
Be nothing, then, and walk upon the waves. 8

Likewise is it written, “And be ye not like those who forget God, and whom He hath therefore caused to forget their own selves. These are the wicked doers.” 9

-Bahá'u'lláh, The Seven Valleys And the Four Valleys, pp. 51-52
The First Valley in The Four Valleys


6. Qur’án 17:15.
7. Famed writers on grammar and rhetoric.
8. The Mathnaví.
9. Qur’án 59:19