Know and be certain, O soul, that everyone who lacks [knowledge] is astray, and everyone who is astray is perished. Therefore, beware of acquiring what you are bound to lose, lest you fall into delusion and perish.

O soul: How painful is the parting from loved ones! Yet, more painful still is the love for anything that is bound to depart.

O soul: Indeed, the people of the world are oppressed yet oppressive, deceived yet deceiving. Among the proofs of this is that they receive the soul entering the abode of anxieties and sorrows with merriment and joy, yet they escort it with weeping and wailing when it departs from it.

This alone, O soul, suffices as an act of injustice and a defiance of truth and justice.

O soul: Be certain and understand through induction and contemplation; know that four things are inevitably the cause of your destruction: "Ignorance, Sorrow, Poverty, and Fear."

Know, O soul: He who seeks knowledge shall be devoid of ignorance. He who abandons external possessions shall be devoid of sorrow. He who abstains from desires shall be devoid of poverty. And he who longs for natural death and is content with it shall be devoid of fear.

O soul: The ignorant one never truly knows a thing. The one who amasses external things remains sorrowful throughout his era. The one who is impoverished by animalistic desires is forever poor.