Beautiful Zohar 1:6a

As I get more into Rabbinic texts, I think there are two ways for me to grow.  I could explore advanced halacha, or study mysticism.  They aren't exclusive, but are pretty different.  I find mysticism to often be, simply, more beautiful and so am directing a lot of my attention there recently.  Here's a section I think is especially gorgeous.  Two Rabbis are traveling in the Galilee, and their donkey driver turns out to be a hidden sage.  The Rabbis ask his name, and the sage responds cryptically:

My father's dwelling was in the great ocean.  He was a fish, circumnavigating the vast ocean from one end to the other.  So grand and splendid, ancient of days, he would swallow all the other fish in the ocean, then spew them out alive, thriving, filled with all the goodness of the world.  So strong, he could swim the ocean in one moment.  He shot me out like an arrow from the hand of a mighty warrior...  then he returned to his site disappearing into the ocean.

(Trans by Daniel Matt).