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(1) At the very outset [of one's religious career] one should
have so profound an aversion for the continuous succession of
deaths and births [to which all who have not attained Enlightenment
are subject] that one will wish to flee from it even as a
stag flees from captivity.
(2) The next necessary thing is perseverance so great that
one regrets not the lose of one's life [in the quest for
Enlightenment], like that of the husbandman who tills his
fields and regrets not the tilling even though he dies on the
morrow.
(3) The third necessary thing is joyfulness of mind like that
of a man who has accomplished a great deed of far-reaching
influence.
(4) Again, one should comprehend that, as with a man
dangerously wounded by an arrow, there is not a moment of
time to be wasted.
(5) One needs ability to fix the mind on a single thought
even as does a mother who has lost her only child.
(6) Another necessary thing is to understand that there is
no need of doing anything, [1] even as a cow herder whose cattle
have been driven off by enemies understands that he can do
nothing to recover them.
[1] The yogin's goal is complete quiescence of body, speech, and
mind, in accordance with the ancient yogic precept, "Be quiescent,
and know that thou art That". The Hebrew Scriptures echo the same
teaching in the well-known aphorism, "Be still, and know that I am
God" (Psalms 116. 10).
(7) It is primarily requisite for one to hunger after the
Doctrine even as a hungry man hungers after good food.
(8) One needs to be as confident of one's mental ability
as does a strong man of his physical ability to hold fast to a
precious gem, which he has found.
(9) One must expose the fallacy of dualism as one does the
falsity of a liar.
(10) One must have confidence in the Thatness [as being
the Sole Refuge] even as an exhausted crow far from land
has confidence in the mast of the ship upon which it rests.
These are The Necessary Things.
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