One who is able to withdraw his senses from sense objects, as the tortoise draws his limbs within the shell, is to be understood as truly situated in knowledge.
It is hard to find a man who has desire for what he has not tasted, or who tastes the world and is untouched. Here in the world some crave pleasure, some seek freedom but it is hard to find a man who wants neither. It is hard to find a man who has an open mind, who neither seeks nor shuns wealth or pleasure, duty or liberation, life or death…He does not want the world to end. He does not mind if it lasts. Whatever befalls him, He lives in happiness.
For the soul there is neither birth nor death at any time. He has not come into being, does not come into being, and will not come into being. He is unborn, eternal, ever-existing and primeval. He is not slain when the body is slain.
