But if this rust is entrenched and enduring, then return to the fire and be smelted within it, so that you may emerge from it pure and unalloyed. For the mirror possessed of fixed mange and rust cannot be successfully cleared by polishing, and its rust cannot be removed except by fire and smelting.

Once you are purified, O soul, from your mange and your rust, then your action shall become unified, without association or hypocrisy. You will then be either truly desiring of hardships and sorrows and truly renouncing of bliss and joy; or truly desiring of bliss and joy and truly renouncing of sorrows and wretchedness. Act, O soul, according to this testament; thus you shall be granted success in happiness, guided toward salvation, and directed toward correctness—thereby harvesting the beauty of reward and a good end.

O soul: Be certain first that natural death is nothing other than the absence of the soul from the body. Once this is established in your knowledge, then realize that the wise, learned man is wise and learned in his presence, and he remains wise and learned in his absence; he does not depart from his wisdom and knowledge wherever he turns or whichever path he treads.

Pay heed, O soul, to this meaning and acquire it. Be certain also that the planter of the tree of Goodness and the planter of the tree of Evil are distinct from one another, for the tree of Goodness yields nothing but good, and the tree of Evil yields nothing but evil.