Then, despairing from that direction as well, I raised my head and looked at the top of the tree of my life, and saw that the tree bore only a single fruit, and that was my corpse; it stood at the top of the tree and was watching me. Feeling horror at this direction, too, I bowed my head. I looked to the foot of the tree of my life, to its roots, and saw that the soil there, the earth which was the source of my creation and the dust of my bones mixed together, was being trampled underfoot. That was no remedy, rather it added further pain to my affliction.

Then I was forced to look behind me. I saw that this unstable, transient world was tumbling, disappearing into the valleys of nothingness and the darkness of non-existence. While seeking a salve for my pain, it only added poison. Since I could see no good in that direction I looked in front of me, I sent forward my view to the future. I saw that the door of the grave was to be seen open right in the middle of my path, it was watching me with its mouth open. The highway beyond it which stretched away to eternity, and the convoys travelling that highway struck the eye from the distance. And apart from a limited, partial power of choice as my support and defensive weapon in the face of the horrors coming from these six directions, I had nothing else.