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have not as yet yielded any satisfactory results. This much, of course, is possible that old age should be free from pain or its arrival delayed.
Disease and old age are painful conditions from which none can deliver us. How can then mortal chance offer any protection? The only means to salvation in this atmosphere of uncertainty is constantly awakened consciousness. In other words, a man's own soul is his only refuge. "I seek refuge in the Enlightened Ones; I seek refuge in the Liberated Ones; I seek refuge in the Saints; I seek refuge in Religion, the Way of Salvation"—this fourfold refuge is symbolic. The enlightened, the accomplished, the monks and religion symbolise four forms of the soul. Excepting these, nothing in this world can ensure salvation. Through constant contemplation of the total absence of salvation in this world, it is possible to neutralize concepts which only serve to increase delusion.
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