Likewise, in all other foods and scents: if sweetness overpowers you, you become in need of saltiness, and if saltiness overpowers you you become in need of acidity; and so it is with all scents and everything you witness in the world of the senses.

Thus, while you are impoverished and in need of possessions, as soon as you obtain them, you acquire a fear for them so long as they remain with you. When they depart from you, or you depart from them, that fear ceases, yet it is followed by sorrows and anxieties. Therefore, O soul, strip away this thing through which you witness these matters, and through which you are united with these maladies and pains. Do not grieve over parting with sorrows, anxieties, fear, and poverty; nor should you loathe the pursuit of wealth, security, and joy. For whoever prefers poverty over wealth, fear over security, and humiliation over glory is indeed ignorant; and whoever is ignorant has gone astray, and whoever goes astray has perished.

O soul: Be certain that you have emerged from an Origin of which you are a branch. Even if the branch stretches to the furthest distance from its origin, there remains between them a connection and a bond. Because of this connection and bond, every branch draws sustenance from its origin—much like a fruitful tree. For the fruit, even if distant from its origin that brought it forth, maintains an essential connection through which it draws its strength.