which flows with the world of generation. Beyond this, absolutely nothing else exists.

Return to your essence, O soul, and seek all your knowledge within yourself, not outside of you. Do not depart from your essence, returning to your dross to seek knowledge within it, for you would then fall into discord. The accidents would toy with you just as the raging sea toys with the ships within it; then, the end of your matter would be that you gain neither good nor evil from it, nor would any true knowledge be attained.

Trust, O soul, in the truth of this saying. Do not forget the thing that is with you only to go seeking it in another place. For everything that the soul ought to know is within the soul, without alteration or otherness from the soul; rather, the [only] accident arises from the senses, which is the body.

O soul: If the artisan’s tool becomes worn out or broken, having no proper form (Hindam), how meager is its benefit to him and how little is its utility! Leaving it is better for him than using it, and replacing it is more correct than being stingy with it.

O soul: Indeed, whenever an artisan finds a commendable tool, he must work with it, strive, and be eager to acquire and gather wealth. For when the artisan’s wealth abounds, he becomes independent of labor; and once he is independent, he sells his tool for a meager price and rests from toil and exhaustion.