The Book of Life

ARTICLES OF WISDOM attached. A person must guard against these weaknesses with the utmost care. In any matter where he is negligent, the weakness will take effect and spoil the whole affair. If the owner of a neem tree were to protest against the insects that infest it, such a protest would never stop them from burrowing into its trunk. The presence of those insects exists by the permission of nature’s law—and whatever operates under that law cannot be eliminated. In the same way, the “insects” that appear in the affairs of human life also exist by the decree of nature. They are bound to remain. To raise waves of protest or complaint against them is entirely futile. What we must do is seek means of protection, not waste our energy in protest. Protection is one of the fundamental principles of life in this world. Only those survive who take care to safeguard themselves. Those who become heedless of their own protection will find, in God’s world, nothing but ruin. BOUNDLESS POSSIBILITIES O n my trip to Afghanistan in October 1988, I came across something interesting I had never seen before. In simple terms, people called it a “fish.” It was a countermeasure used against the dangerous Americanmade Stinger missile. The process of using this device was known as flare fishing.