# LXVI explained — The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám

> Chapter companion for The Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám by Omar Khayyám.

## What happens

The poet sends his Soul into the invisible realm to learn the secret of the afterlife, but the Soul returns with the revelation that Heaven and Hell are not external places but are within the self.

## Themes in this chapter

### The Quest for Meaning

The Soul's journey into the Invisible represents the search for ultimate truth about existence and the afterlife.

### Skepticism and Doubt

The revelation that Heaven and Hell are within the self challenges traditional religious doctrines of external reward and punishment.

## Character check-ins

### Omar Khayyám

The poet who sends his Soul on a quest to understand the afterlife.

## Key lines

> I sent my Soul through the Invisible, Some letter of that After-life to spell: And by and by my Soul return’d to me, And answer’d “I Myself am Heav’n and Hell:"

I dispatched my Soul into the unseen realm to decipher a message about the afterlife. Eventually my Soul came back and told me, 'I myself am both Heaven and Hell.'

_The Soul's discovery that the divine and the damned are not places but states of being within oneself._

## Links

- HTML: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rub_iy_t_of_omar_khayy_m_se/chapters/lxvi
- Book: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rub_iy_t_of_omar_khayy_m_se
- All chapters: https://www.betterreads.online/discover/the_rub_iy_t_of_omar_khayy_m_se/chapters