CHAPTER THIRTEEN

O soul: You ought to know and be certain that the true definition of Pleasure is that which never brings weariness. Whenever the soul seeks pleasure while it is in the world of nature, it has aspired toward a non-existence and sought the impossible.

The clear evidence for this is that everything the soul encounters in this world is wearisome; and that which is wearisome should not be called "pleasure," since the definition of pleasure is that which is never tired of. Do you not see, O soul, how most of the people of this world search for pleasures, imagining them to exist in this world when they do not? Thus, realize that people are seeking in this world what is not within it.

O soul: Contemplate the souls of people and how they approach all the meanings of this world, encountering them with the experience of one who tastes and tests. Then, they turn away from them with the aversion of one who is bored and vexed. This is among the clearest proofs that souls, in their search within this world, are seeking a station that matches their nobility and resembles their [essential] meanings; yet they do not find it. Thus, the soul is ever approaching and retreating, seeking that which might satisfy it. Whenever the reality of this explanation is established in the soul, it acquires despair [of this world] and removes the greed for seeking pleasures while it is in the world of generation and corruption.