The Mind: If what you have said is true, then bear with the pain of the treatment, and endure the bitterness of the medicine and is unpleasantness, after first giving up the bad food to which you have grown accustomed.
The Soul: What is the bad food to which I have grown accustomed?
The Mind: It is the contemptible quality which has overpowered you from the start and the forces that have strengthened it from the earliest years of your growth.
The Soul: Which quality is this, and what are the forces
that strengthen it?
The Mind: You have many contemptible qualities, but their root and foundation are two. One of them is love of bodily pleasures – eating, drinking, sexual relations, and the other bodily needs. You have acquired this quality from your bad neighbor, namely, your body. The second quality is the love of power and status, arrogance, haughtiness, and jealousy – this is what leads you to fall short in properly repaying your Benefactor. You acquire this quality from your neighbors, among whom you have grown up, namely, your brothers and relatives.
The Soul: And what are the forces that I need to keep far
from me?
The Mind: The forces of the first quality are excesses in eating and drinking, dress, sleep, rest, leisure, and the like. The forces of the second quality are excessive talking and too much socializing with other people, trying to please them, loving praise and honor from them, jealousy of their worldly possessions, pressuring them in regard to their property, ridiculing them, harping on their faults, and so forth. If what you have said is true, then keep far from you, with all your strength, the forces and qualities that I have mentioned to you. Then I will promote you to another level of treatment.
The Soul: It will be difficult for me to renounce these
vices, since I have grown used to them for so long. Therefore, be kind enough
to show me how this might be made easier for me.
The Mind: Surely you know that a sensible individual finds it easier to agree to the amputation of a part of his body and the loss of one of his limbs – if it s attacked by some disease which he fears will spread and affect his other limbs – when he understands the difference between the two [alternative] conditions, and realizes the inequality of the two evils. So it is with you. If you want to make it easier for yourself to renounce that which is hard to relinquish, then take to heart and weigh in your mind the good you will attain from the renunciation, as opposed to the evil which will befall you if you continue with it. Renouncing contemptible qualities, difficult to part with, will then be easier for you.
The Soul: What is the good that I will attain from
renouncing it, and the evil that will befall me if I continue with it?
The Mind: The good will be your tranquility and relief from the gloomy darkness of this world, the pleasures of which are mingled with sadness, its lust brought to an end. This will bring you to recognize – with the full force of your recognition – the place of your repose [the life hereafter], to work for it, and to be concerned about it. This is one class among the many classes of virtues on which your salvation and your life depend.
The evil is recurring worry, compounded sorrow, and constant grieving at the non-fulfillment of your worldly desires which – even if you were to attain them – would only bring you what is futile, fleeting, and transitory; for it will undoubtedly pass on to someone else. Nothing will remain with you of this world, nor will you secure the next world. What is more, despite your lengthy efforts, you will fail to attain your desires.
The soul: I have
understood what you have said, and I hope that, as a result, it will now be
easier for me to renounce what has previously been difficult for me to part
with. Continue now to lead me to the second parts of the curative methods,
which will teach me what I want to learn of the service of God.
Conversation to be continued - do come again.
SOURCE
Conversation to be continued - do come again.
SOURCE
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