2.1 How can an ordinary person, inevitably subject to birth, ageing, suffering and death, transform and transcend the conditions which bind and limit every life?

Know this as a certainty, provable only by direct experience: there is a state of mind not subject to birth, ageing, suffering and death. That state of mind is the source from which springs all of this, the complete cycle of conditioned existence. Your destiny, sooner or later, in this life or some other, is to re-unite with the original, all-embracing, unconditioned state of being, that.

The nature of reality is such that you are free to choose whether or not to embark on a spiritual path. Be clear: if you choose, for any reason at all, not to work at your spiritual self-development, you incur an invariable compensating response from the unified process that is reality. That is to say, if you ignore your spiritual self-progress, the inevitable consequence is birth, ageing, suffering and death – repeated endlessly.

These four – birth, ageing, suffering and death – are the unvarying experience of each one of your lives. Everything else – all joys, happinesses, achievements, loves and possessions – is transient and subject to change and loss. The only escape from this endlessly repetitive cycle of conditioned existence is the triumphant freedom gained by attaining enlightenment.