212 these are two matters from which hardly anyone can escape except one who is very low in ambition or one who has satisfied his soul with complete exercise and completely suppressed the power of his angry soul. and the cure for the greed of the soul to hear words that cover it up or see something that he kept secret from it is to think about what has been hidden from it of this type in a place other than where it is rather in different parts of the earth. if he is concerned with all of that then he is completely insane and completely devoid of reason. and if he is not concerned with that then is this that has been hidden from him anything but like all the rest of what has been hidden from him exactly the same and without any difference? then to increase his protest against his desires let him say with the tongue of his mind to himself o soul have you seen that if you did not know that there is something here that has been hidden from you would you aspire to know that? there is no way out. so let him say to himself so be now as you would have been if you did not know that there is something here that has been hidden from you so you will gain comfort and the expulsion of worry and the pain of anxiety and the ugliness of the characteristic of greed. these are many spoils great profits and noble and virtuous goals that the wise person desires and only the completely deficient person would be indifferent to them.
٢١٢ هذان أمران لا يكاد يسلم منهما أحد إلا ساقط الهمة جدا أو من راض نفسه الرياضة التامة وقمع قوة نفسه الغضبية قمعا كاملا. ومداواة شره النفس إلى سماع كلام تستر به عنها أو رؤية شيء اكتتم به دونها أن يفكر فيما غاب عنها من هذا النوع في غير موضعه الذي هو فيه، بل في أقطار الأرض المتباينة، فان اهتم بكل ذلك فهو مجنون تام الجنون عديم العقل البتة. وأن لم يهتم لذلك فهل هذا الذي اختفى عنه إلا كسائر ما غاب عنه منه سواء بسواء ولا فرق ثم ليزدد احتجاجا على هواه فليقل بلسان عقله لنفسه يا نفس أرأيت لو لم تعلمي ان ها هنا شيئا أخفي عنك أكنت تطلعين إلى معرفة ذلك فلا بد من لا، فليقل لنفسه فكوني الآن كما كنت تكونين لو لم تعلمي بان ها هنا شيئا ستر عنك، فتربحي الراحة وطرد الهم وألم القلق وقبح صفة الشره. وتلك غنائم كثيرة وأرباح جليلة وأغراض فاضلة سنية، يرغب العاقل فيها ولا يزهد فيها إلا تام النقص.