"Buddha renounced his throne and kingdom to overcome old age, disease, and death. Yet he himself reached the goodly age of eighty, on his deathbed he lay attacked by ptomaine poisoning, and he died. Then of what value were his renunciation and struggle? The answer is this: Buddha revealed and reaffirmed the truth that the body of man is subject to old age, disease, and death, but that the Soul of man is ageless, perfect, and immortal; and, furthermore, that one who lives his earthly life in the consciousness of the true nature of the Soul progresses through all the vicissitudes of space, causality, and time, without begin overpowered by them."