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6
142-151

  • Didst thou ever, O son, offer thy silvery limbs to the pictured forms in the bath-house?
  • (No); thou leavest those houri-like figures and displayest thyself to a half-blind old woman.
  • What is there in the old woman that was not in them, so that she rapt thee away from those figures (and attracted thee) to herself?
  • (If) thou wilt not say (what it is), I will tell (thee) plainly: ’tis reason and sense and perception and consideration and soul. 145
  • In the old woman there is a soul that mingles (with the body): the pictured forms in the hot-baths have no (rational) spirit.
  • If the pictured form in the hot-bath should move, it would at once separate thee from the old woman.
  • What is soul? (Soul is) conscious of good and evil, rejoicing on account of kindness, weeping on account of injury.
  • Since consciousness is the inmost nature and essence of the soul, the more aware one is the more spiritual is he.
  • Awareness is the effect of the spirit: any one who has this in excess is a man of God. 150
  • Since there are consciousnesses beyond this (bodily) nature, in that (spiritual) arena these (sensual) souls are (like) inanimate matter.