15. Lay hold on the firm pillar of your soul, which is unborn or increate, undecaying and immortal; adhere steadfastly to thy soul, as one clings to the prop or column of his house.
16. The world is an arbor, and all things in it are as the flowers of this tree; our knowledge of all things, is as the fragrance of these flowers; but our self-consciousness is the essence of them all; therefore look internally to this inward essence before you mind the externals.
17. All outward affairs, are brought about by their inward reflection in the mind; but it is as hard to bring about a desire into being, as to raise a stone to life.
18. Get rid of your bodily exertions and lull your mind to sleep; be doing all your duties, as a tortoise with its contracted limbs. (i.e. Act with indifference, and without being moved).
19. Manage thine affairs with a half-sleeping and half awakened mind (like a waking sleeper); and do thy outward functions (without the exertion of your mental faculties).
20. As babes are possessed of their innate knowledge, and dumb creatures are endowed with their instinct, without the feeling of any desire rising in them; so they live and act with their minds unattached to anything, and as vacant as the empty air.
21. Remain untroubled and free from care, with entirely sleepy and comatose mind within thyself; a mind devoid of all its functions and quite absorbed in itself, and slightly acting on the members of the body.
22. You may continue to discharge or dispense with your duties altogether, by impairing your mind with knowledge, and resting quietly in your pure consciousness, after it is purged from the stain of appetence.
23. Go on managing your outward affairs in your waking state, as if your faculties were dormant in sleep; and never hanker to have anything, nor let go aught that presents itself to thee.
24. If you are dormant when waking, by your inattention to all about you; so are you awake when sleeping by your trance in the bosom of the Supreme soul; and when you are in the condition of the union of the two, you attain to the state of perfect consummation.