Despite the Eastern origin of Sufism, the environment from which this resource emerged, Conference has been translated and adapted repeatedly in the West since the 19th century. The text can therefore be considered a resource for the pursuit of the good life in the real world. Its value in this regard is affirmed by the importance attributed to it by the readers, translators, and publishers of Conference in both the East and West. Regarding the West’s reception of this Eastern resource, the award-winning Western director, Peter Brook, claims that Conference is “a very rich piece” due to the theme of “how to live”. Moreover, Schoch, in his book entitled The Secrets of Happiness -2006-, considers this story as one of progress “toward perfect happiness” which is introduced by Sufi mysticism. This study aims to examine how this text functions as a resource in the West by investigating the value attributed to it by translators and publishers, academic papers, and readers’ comments. Then, it scrutinizes what cultural and social practices turn Conference into a universal resource of good life. At the third level, the study analyzes how translation of this work affects the source culture, Iran, by examining the number and quality of the published books and adaptations of the story after having become popular in the West. Further, it analyzes how the popularity of the story in the West has shaped Iranians’ conceptions toward their masterpiece, and how this has made them conscious of this text as a resource in their own culture. The final part of this paper analyses how this resource relates to actors’ pursuit of good life. Reading of Conference offers a symbolic plan of living good life to individuals. Thus, the universal circulation of this resource in the translation space expands the horizon of human as actors toward the new plan of good life. Keyword: The Conference of the Birds, Good life, Recourse Culture

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