5. The limit of purification decides to which (of the three hypostases
of) divinity the soul may hope to assimilate and identify herself;
therefore we shall have to consider that limit. To decide that would
be to examine the limit of the soul's ability to repress anger,
appetites, and passions of all kinds, to triumph over pain and similar
feelings--in short, to separate her from the body. This occurs when,
recollecting herself from the various localities over which she had, as
it were, spread herself, she retires within herself; when she estranges
herself entirely from the passions, when she allows the body only such
pleasures as are necessary or suitable to cure her pains, to recuperate
from its fatigues, and in avoiding its becoming importunate; when she
becomes insensible to sufferings; or, if that be beyond her power, in
supporting them patiently, and in diminishing them by refusing to share
them; when she appeases anger as far as possible, even suppressing
it entirely, if possible; or at least, if that be impossible, not
participating therein; abandoning to the animal nature all unthinking
impulses, and even so reducing to a minimum all reflex movements;
when she is absolutely inaccessible to fear, having nothing left to
risk; and when she represses all sudden movements, except nature's
warning of dangers. Evidently, the purified soul will have to desire
nothing shameful. In eating and drinking, she will seek only the
satisfaction of a need, while remaining foreign to it; nor will she
seek the pleasures of love; or, if she does, she will not go beyond the
exactions of nature, resisting every unconsidered tendency, or even in
remaining within the involuntary flights of fancy.