the state of someone avid in earning and storing, competing in this with worldly people who have no trust.
Trust is an inward matter: reliance upon God. If this person who stores relies upon what he has stored, this contradicts trust. If he does not rely upon it, it does not contradict trust, although it contradicts outward divestment and cutting off causes. This latter belongs to the states of wayfarers rather than those who bring others to completion, so that what they have accepted as a belief may become tasting for them. Tasting gives fuller establishment, removing disturbance when the cause upon which the soul customarily rests is absent. The realization of this will come in the station of trust below, God willing.
Greed and avidity have eight hundred and sixty-five degrees according to the knowers, whether they belong to the people of courtesy and standing or intimacy and union. According to the people of blame, whether they belong to intimacy and union or courtesy and standing, they have eight hundred and three degrees.
If the knowers belong to the people of secrets, they have one thousand five hundred and thirty-five degrees; if they belong to the people of lights, eight hundred and sixty-five. If the people of blame belong to the people of secrets, they have one thousand four hundred and seventy-three degrees; if to the people of lights, eight hundred
Notes
Translator’s note TN4108-1: The practice not assigned to those who bring others to completion is outward divestment and cutting off causes, rather than storing without relying upon the store. The degree counts distinguish the general ranks and the people of secrets from the people of lights.
