In my youth...

In my youth, when I had vigor and ability, die to the machinations of Satan and his minion, the commanding self,[^20] I became preoccupied with various notions and grandiose expressions by which I acquired neither concentration nor a spiritual state, because I never took in the spirit of these things. I didn’t go from the exoteric to the esoteric, from the earthly domain to the angelic domain.

I finally realized that I did not gain anything from all the clamor of the casuistry of the seminary but some heart-rending words. I was sunk so deeply among such expressions and such regards that instead of seeking to lift the veils, I collected books as if nothing else mattered in the entire world but a handful of papers. In the name of the humanities, divine goals and philosophical truth, the seeker, who has been endowed with a divine nature, is diverted and sinks beneath a great veil.

The weighty tomes of The Four Journeys [^21] diverted me from my journey to the Friend; I acquired…