X. The ten errors

These precepts are addressed to monks, yet the principle in precept 8 – to eradicate worldly ambition so that one is not dominated by worldly motives – certainly applies to people working in the fourth way, in life, because they have to overcome life temptations with nonattachment, which makes it harder for them than for the monk whose involvement with the world is less than that of people in ordinary life. When you begin work on yourself the situation you are in is the right one for you, but as your commitment increases the time comes when you see that you have to stop doing things in the same old way.

When Neil [Abdullah as a younger man] first started working on himself he had a large successful business. After some time he became strongly aware that his activities were making his ego bigger and bigger, so he decided to give up his business and all that went with it. This was very difficult to do. He did not have anyone to advise him and tried to find his own way through the situation. Now Abdullah can tell people that it is better to learn to continue to carry out what they are doing in life but with less attachment; they can do this if they are helped to see when they are too attached. Worldly temptations, such as those mentioned in the last two precepts, will always come along, but as a person becomes stronger, more balanced, he will be better fitted to withstand them.