CHAPTER ELEVEN

O soul: You have arrived in this world of nature and experienced it; yet, have you experienced anything within it except desolate sights, terrifying and bewildering sounds, painful and wearying tastes, foul and stinking odors, and impure, filthy touch? When you first arrived among these things, you rejoiced in them out of admiration, passion, and attachment, forgetting your own noble, essential meanings. Then, when you recognized your error and lapse, you desired to associate another with you in your mistake and to shift the blame onto someone else.

Far be it, far be it, O soul! There is no guilt except the guilt of the one who committed it, and no error except the error of the one who made it.

So, rectify your error, O soul. For just as you fell into what you loathe through your own passion and desire, likewise shall you be delivered from it through your own [reformed] passion and desire.

O soul: Every hateful thing that has afflicted you while you are in the world of generation, be certain that its cause and origin are from you, stemming from your own error and lapse. Whenever you recall such a thing, you recognize its source. But if a hateful event occurs whose cause and origin you do not recognize, do not shift the blame onto others; rather, attribute its origin and cause to your ancient, primary error which you have forgotten.