O soul: Indeed, clear and pure water allows the sight to reach all that is within its essence.

But when turbidity and filth are mixed within it, the vision is veiled from perceiving the secrets of the things hidden therein. Likewise, when the light of the sun shines upon things, the sight perceives them in their true reality.

But if vapors, smoke, and dust intervene, they stand between the sight and the perception of those things. Similarly, the subtle and noble lights of the Intellect, when mixed with coarse, dense, and dark things, become turbid; this hinders them from perceiving the forms and shapes within their own essence and deprives them of intellectual visualization. At that point, the soul remains impoverished of its possessions, ignorant of its knowledge, and lacking the quality of guidance toward the path of its salvation.

O soul: Asceticism regarding a house is not merely abandoning its decoration and repair while being content to remain within it. Rather, complete asceticism is the contentment to move away from it and the longing to be transferred out of it. Likewise, O soul, asceticism in the realm of nature is not just the abandonment of its pleasures and desires while being content to dwell within it; true asceticism is the intensity of longing to depart from it and to find rest from it—and from its burdens, its oppositions, its discord, and its darkness.