5. The acts which are deemed as one’s own deeds and beings, and whereby the acutely intelligent man thinks himself to be living, and by which he counts the duration of his lifetime, (according to the saying, that our lives are computed by our acts, and not by the number of our days); these very acts, turn at last, against him, for his accountableness of them.
6. Do not rely thy eyes on visible objects, which are unreal in their nature, and are produced to perish soon after, and to please thy sight for a moment only. Know them as destroyers of thy otherwise indestructible soul.
7. O my eyes! that are but witnesses of the forms, which are situated in the soul; it is in vain that ye flash only to consume yourselves, like the burning lamps after a short while.
8. The vision of our eyes is as the fluctuation of waters, and its objects are as the motes that people the sun-beams in the sky. Whether these sights be good or bad, they are of no matter to our minds.
9. Again there is that little bit of egoism beating in our minds, like a small shrimp stirring amidst the waters; let it throb as it may, but why should we attribute it with the titles of “I, thou or he or this or that”?
10. All inert bodies and their light appear together to the eye, the one as the container of the other; but they do not affect the mind, and therefore do not deserve our notice.
11. The sight of objects and the thoughts of the mind, have no connection with one another (because the sight is related to the eye, and the thoughts bear relation with the mind); And yet they seem to be related to each other, as our faces and their reflexions in the mirror. (The retina of the eye receive the reflexions, and convey them to the sensory of the cranium, in the form of reflections or thoughts, and hence their mutual relations).
12. Such is their inseparably reciprocal relation in the minds of the ignorant; but the wise who are freed from their ignorance, remain aloof from the visibles with their mental meditations alone.
13. But the minds of the vulgar are as closely connected with the visibles, as the sacrificial wood with the lac dye.
14. It is by diligent study, that the chain of mental thoughts are severed from the visibles; in the like manner, as our wrong notions are removed by means of right reasoning.