The Story on the Nature of the Self

There was a dark-souled man, without faith or justice, whose life the demon of heedlessness had thrown to the wind. He had several measures of grape syrup in a jar, and by chance a mouse fell into it and died. He grabbed the mouse and quickly pulled it out; the poor mouse had died from its own greed. The man went, distressed, to the judge, showed him the mouse and complained of his misfortune. The judge ruled that the syrup was now forbidden, right there before the crowd of high and low. When the wretched man heard this, he told the judge: you have made a big mistake. I tasted it, and it was sweet on my tongue; since it is sweet, why should it be forbidden? If my syrup had turned bitter, then, without any doubt, I would have called it forbidden myself. The man's nature was foul and upside down, so of course he saw bitter and sweet reversed. You whose face is black like these dark souls: obedience tastes bitter to you and sin tastes sweet. Falsehood is sweet to the appetite of the self; truth is bitter to the taste of ordinary people. Because they are sick, with bile in their temperament, even sugar tastes to them like bitter vitriol. The whole heart of the world is sick, from end to end, its face pale from longing for silver and gold. You who are trapped in the snare of worldly pleasure: do not die like the mouse from greed for sweetness. Though obedience to God tastes bitter to you, it is a bitter medicine that cures your pain. Bitter medicine proves useful in the end; it grants the ailing person healing and a good outcome. If someone keeps flattering you without limit, your ill-omened self will praise him for the empty words. You take him as a friend and imagine he speaks truly, though his words are false, lies, and hypocrisy. But the truth-teller, moved by concern for your faith, if he stops you from arrogance, denial, and spite, you take him as your enemy with all your heart and soul, you who are lower than the lowest thing in the world. If you are famous for a good name, that too is an error; the pain of a bad name is the cure for the soul's suffering.