Positive Thinking -- The Right Kind And The Wrong Kind

By The Pathwork Guide

In the Name of the Lord, I greet you, my friends and I bring you His blessings. There are many people who, when they come in contact with God, with Absolute Truth, with the Spirit World, believe that this experience -- the certainty of all this -- can come to them by some staggering proof which they expect to receive personally. But, my friends, it cannot happen this way. When you desire this kind of proof, then it means that you believe that through this you can eliminate your doubts. These doubts are, in themselves, understandable enough. However, your doubts can never disappear by the sort of proofs for which you hope. Doubt is the opposite of faith. And faith is nothing but the experience -- the certainty -- of all that which you may presently doubt. In other words, it is the inner experience of it. And an inner experience cannot come into existence by outer happenings. So here we are dealing with two entirely different levels of consciousness. To accomplish something within you, you also have to prepare the respective inner condition by first finding and then conquering your inner blocks, or hurdles, or obstacles. In short, everything that stands in your way of faith in its true meaning.

Let us suppose that you would receive the kind of proof for which you hope without your inner obstacles having been removed by yourself first. At the moment you would certainly be impressed. You might say: "This is strange indeed. This is wonderful. This is astounding." Yet, after this first effect has worn off, then the doubts still existing within you would come to the surface again. You would say to yourself: "Perhaps the medium knew about it"; or, you might say that all this was merely a "coincidence." So, you see, when outer occurrences are not substantiated within, then the greatest outer effect must either wear off or fade away after a while, because these two levels of perception can never replace one another. They can be integrated only by the steady growth of inner development. The experience of Absolute Truth is like a living organism. It cannot come to you by the most miraculous outer happenings. It can only be nursed, cared for, and developed like any living organism. Physical growth also happens slowly, step by step. You hardly notice the growth while it is going on. But all of a sudden you discover the preceding gradual development. It is this way with all physical growth and not a bit different with spiritual or emotional growth. Any seeming shortcut has never any lasting effect and is therefore a farce. Shortcuts -- sudden measures which are supposed to eliminate the effort of setting slow growth in motion -- are in accordance with the laws of the powers of darkness. Their ways are immediately very effective, they are very quick, but they are never lasting. Whereas slow growth and development is in accordance with divine law, and therefore must eventually be crowned with success. Thus, it would be good for all my friends who find themselves in this position to remember that you cannot come to the kind of faith we are talking about by a single experience, astounding as it may be. But you will obtain this faith by working spiritually, by walking on this Path of perfection, by getting to know yourself as you really are, by understanding your inner conflicts, and by finding out in what way you have -- be it only as an emotional reaction -- broken the spiritual laws. As you proceed to free yourself, step by step, from your inner chains, then the doubts will come less and less often. They will not disappear suddenly, but they will recur more and more seldom, with less and less strength, until they gradually disappear altogether. This is the only way. Anything that is given to you merely from the outside would only have a momentary effect, but never a long-term one. This is the law for all divine things. Anything that is substantial and permanent grows slowly, with a maximum of personal effort, and little by little. While it happens, you may not even be aware of the extent to which you and your faith -- your experience of the Absolute, your sense of it -- grows.

Not only people at the beginning of this path or those on the threshold of it need to know about these facts. For, as I have explained, even those already in the process of their inner development find themselves occasionally -- though less often and with less impact -- assailed by their original doubts. For these inevitable times of doubting I wish to give you a simple word of advice in order that you may know how to go about meeting these doubts.

Most of you know that there are two forces within the human soul. There is the higher self or the divine spark, which is that part of man where he strives upwards. It is that part of man that wishes perfection for the whole human being, that wishes complete integration. In this part you know all that which your conscious being doubts. This part of you wants to convey this knowledge to your consciousness. The other part, the lower self -- which comprises not only your faults and your weaknesses, but also your ignorance and all the facets whereby you, either consciously or unconsciously, break divine law -- is often divided into two further parts: one part fears the certainty of the spiritual world. For knowledge also means responsibility. And in his lower nature man prefers to remain ignorant because thus he is freed from the obligation to conquer his lower self, which is certainly not easy to accomplish. The other part dearly wishes for the truth of all that which he still doubts, because as difficult as it may be to attain, it means eternal happiness and bliss. But the fear existing in his lower self -- each for its own reasons -- tries to make man doubt the latter in order to avoid disappointment. Therefore, the higher self and the lower self are at war with one another. When there is inner disharmony, then it means that man's two natures are fighting.

Thus, when the doubt reappears, then it is the lower self of man that is speaking. When the doubt is gone, then it is the higher self that is speaking. Then you know that God, His wonderful creation, His Spirit World is truth. It is a world where everything is possible and where no unhappiness can possibly exist. But when the lower self is stronger, then you believe that your doubt, your despair, and your hopelessness may be true after all. There is just one question for you to settle, and that is, which side is right? Which side is actually the truth? For this is really the question which it boils down to. What you should do when you are in a state of doubt is to retire into your quietness. Formulate this argument in a clear cut, concise thought and then ask God this simple question: "Father, which is true?" Then keep yoursef open for the answer. Do not expect that this answer be given to you immediately. In the days that follow, just be aware of it. In one way or another you will eventually receive it.

Actually the answer is already settled within you, although you may not know it yet. It is evident by the mere fact that when you are in doubt, then you are depressed. When you are in the state of experiencing truth, then you feel happy. And the truth must always make you happy, even the unpleasant truth. All my friends on the Path have experienced this: how they must occasionally encounter unflattering or unpleasant facets within themselves. But when the desire for the truth within becomes greater than all else, then this unpleasant truth will always strengthen you and it will bring you happiness. By the same token, if you observe your feelings closely, then you will find that untruth, pleasant as it may seem at the moment, never gives you real peace. For deep down your higher self always has the correct answer and you must feel it. This truth will never depress you. There you will find the answer to the question that you have not yet settled when you are in doubt. But if you are not satisfied with your inner voice that tells you the truth and you wish additional answers, then ask God this question: "Father, which is true? I am ready to receive Thy answer." I promise you the answer, provided you do not forget about it, provided you do not put it out of your mind. But if you go about your business in a relaxed and serene way, patiently and yet aware of it, then the truth will be shown to you: which of the two battling sides within you has the right answer. Even those friends at the beginning of this path can make use of this advice and handle it in a similar way.

When you have overcome the hurdles within you and when you are mature enough to remain in a state of truth, then the proofs that you have first desired -- for the purpose of being able to believe -- will also come to you from without. This will be not just once, but a hundred times. But the purpose will not be to make you see reality as it actually is, to make you feel convinced, to overcome your doubts. But these proofs -- which are much more than you ever dreamed possible and which are much more wonderful than you ever thought possible -- will come as a natural byproduct of your inner victory. In other words, their purpose is not to convince you, for this is impossible anyway. But they are the natural result, or part of the result, when one walks the Path to God. When you do not need this proof anymore, then you will receive it abundantly. These incidents will just be an additional confirmation for you, and this confirmation it will make you happy, though it will not represent the condition by which you can believe and accept the truth. This is profound wisdom and divine law, and it should not be any different.

Now I wish to talk about a much disputed subject among my friends, the subject of positive thinking. Positive thinking is essential for the person who wants to grow spiritually. However, unfortunately it is often misunderstood and therefore applied wrongly. To build clean and proper thoughts according to divine law is one of the fundamentals. Since your thoughts are a reality, they have both form and substance. With your unclean thoughts you build disharmonious forms which must eventually have their effect both in your lives and in your destinies. However, not only thoughts have this effect but also feelings and emotional reactions, or subconscious thoughts. In any case, it is the great temptation of the spiritually and emotionally immature person to put everything that is uncomfortable into the subconscious, where it does infinitely more harm than any conscious thought, even the worst. Consciously it could be dealt with and met, whereas it smolders like a time bomb when it is enclosed in the subconscious mind, from where the disharmonious forms build themselves every bit as destructively as from the conscious thoughts. Therefore, the diligent student of the positive thinking principle is often encouraged to do precisely what is worst for him. He is so concerned with not harboring any negative thoughts that he is inclined to push all the negative thoughts existing in him into his subconscious, and thus he disregards the discrepancy in him: what he wants to think and what he actually still thinks or feels. It should be stressed that your thoughts can be controlled by the direction of your conscious mind, just as your actions can. However, your feelings cannot. You cannot directly control your feelings. For example, you may know that it is sinful to hate. But when hatred is still in you, then you cannot change this inner current by trying to force yourself. Or if you do not love a person, then as much as you may want to, you cannot force yourself to do so. The change can be brought about only indirectly: by remote control, if I may use this expression. With every step upwards that you take on the Path, your feelings will change automatically, naturally, and gradually. One of the conditions to bring this about is that you make your subconscious known to your consciousness. And in trying too hard, the system of positive thinking may actually work the other way and induce you to think superficially of what actually has no root in you. Thus, you live a lie, well meant as it may be. This is the most harmful of all things. Therefore, it is imperative to meet what actually still exists in you squarely, to face it. And yet when you are so concerned with this positive thinking -- right as it is in the proper way -- then you fall into danger by your good will and also partly by the side in you that hates to recognize unpleasant currents within yourself and which tends to disregard what actually exists in you, locking it up where it will ferment. Therefore, it will work all the harder against you than if your thoughts were to remain conscious. So this is one important factor that all of you should remember. Certainly, you should practice positive thinking. Do observe your thoughts. But observe them quietly, detachedly, and in a relaxed way, without guilt feelings in order that your emotions be not always parallel to your thoughts or to the way you want your thoughts and your feelings to be. You have to learn to view your lower self, accepting its present existence, although it is a temporary one. How temporary depends entirely on you. However, it is still a reality on this plane, and therefore you cannot close your eyes to any reality on whatever plane this may be.

Another misunderstanding, misuse, or abuse which often arises in the principle of positive thinking is the following. Man wants to be happy. This is a natural wish. This wish comes both from the higher self and from the lower self. The difference is that the higher self knows that there is a price to be paid. This price is all the effort that one has to make on the Path: self-knowledge, the overcoming of one's faults, learning the spiritual laws generally and applying them particularly and personally, etc. The lower self, on the other hand, wants to attain happiness by outer means and without paying the price of conquering itself. The basis for conquering the lower nature consists of self-knowledge, of honesty towards oneself, and of self-analysis. The lower self, in its pride, wants to be perfect without doing the often tiresome work necessary to accomplish this. Thus both the higher self and the lower self want happiness, but each wants it in a different way. Your higher self knows that only by perfection within can you achieve perfection without, and that is happiness. Your lower self is not prepared to pay any price. It wants to have its cake and eat it too. If you have difficulties in your lives, then you know that they are the result of your lower nature. In other words, the result of your breaking divine law in some respect, and often in many respects. The mature person is prepared to pay this price, to accept the workings of the law. Thus, he honors God. He will not try to get out of paying it. However, misapplied or misunderstood positive thinking often wants to have outer perfection too quickly, merely by learning thought control. But this is not enough. Thus, man's lower nature borrows this principle because it fits in well with what he wants.

The first step to true positive thinking is to take the consequences of what one has done at a past time, regardless of whether it concerns a previous incarnation or this same life. The mature person, and the true follower of positive thinking, will say: "I have gone against the Law. Therefore, the effects have to be worked out. This means that, among other things, I have to accept these conditions." We often observe people who try very hard to practice positive thinking. But one reason in trying so hard is that subconsciously their thoughts are not being clearly formulated, and in their desire for happiness coming from the lower self they are inclined to quarrel with God and with destiny because difficulties and hardships exist in his life. You may observe intellectually all you want that God did not want your difficulties in the first place and that you yourselves are responsible for them. But emotionally you have not learned this truth as long as you are not willing to pay the price. And paying the price means accepting your difficulties, knowing that they are only temporary. For God is love. Therefore, He wants all His children to be happy. But happiness can be achieved only by, among other things, consciously accepting the laws of cause and effect and not trying to get out of the effect by mere thought control. Happiness cannot come to you as long as you love yourself so dearly that a little pain becomes so terrible that you are unwilling to bear it. Only by accepting this pain can you become detached enough from your ego that pain will no longer be necessary for your development. That does not mean that you should resign yourself and become hopeless, wallowing in your little pains and tribulations. It means that you should be aware that every difficulty in your life is self-inflicted. Therefore, you have to go through it, you have to bear it, you have to accept it, and, most important of all, you have to find within you the cause so as to eliminate this cause once and for all. This cause can be found only on the Path by self-knowledge. Find the fault in you that is responsible for your outer hardship, and then eliminate this fault, knowing that the outer manifestation of the evil root cannot disappear immediately but has to be dissolved by the process of slow, organic growth. And as long as this lasts, then honor God by accepting His laws. Do not love yourself so much that you shirk a little pain, but shoulder it courageously and humbly, not making your little comfort so important. This is the best way to practice positive thinking. With this attitude you will be penetrated by the profound conviction that God's world is a happy world in which you have nothing to fear and in which you have so much to look forward to. Your sense of time will gradually change, not only by intellectual knowledge but by a deep feeling whereby you will know that the time your little pain lasts is short when viewed from the spiritual and only real outlook.

You have often heard, either from me or from others, that what is important is not the fact that you have difficulties, but how you take these difficulties. I have shown you how you should meet them. "He who wants to win his life will lose it. He who is ready to give up his life will win it." What does that mean? It means exactly what I have just explained. If you are constantly afraid of a little pain, if you hold on so tightly to your ego and to your little sensitivity or to your vanity, then you do not give up your life, but you hold it too tightly. Therefore, you must lose it. To lose in the spiritual sense is what this means, wherein you cannot find peace, harmony, or happiness either from within or from without. But he who does not take himself so seriously, he whose comfort and everything pertaining to the ego is not so terribly important, he whose own little pains and hurt vanities do not matter so much, he who does not think constantly, "If I show my affection or my true feelings, then what will people think? I might be hurt or I might jeopardize something" is the one who truly gives himself up. He who truly gives himself up in this way -- in other words, he who gives up his life and does not hold on to himself so tightly -- will receive life, again in the spiritual sense. He will find harmony within by going with the law, and he will find the love and the respect from others which he could never have found by holding so fast on to himself.

Therefore, it is of the utmost importance on the spiritual Path to learn to give up one's life in the true sense. And that also entails the ability to accept pain. The misunderstood application of positive thinking leaves out this entire chapter of spiritual development.

The next time I will talk about how we spirits see human beings, the whole unit of the human personality, and how this affects the process of purification or the Path of perfection -- or psychological therapy or whatever you want to call it. I want to give you the spiritual angle on this subject. And I wish to inform you that my next lecture will also be in English in order that more of you can profit by it. Then we shall see if we shall have a lecture in German again or not. But at any rate, the German lectures will take place less frequently.

Before I turn to your questions, I would like my friend Walter to arrange a little organization the next time and thereafter, insofar as the question period is concerned. It would be advisable if you would discuss beforehand with all the participants the questions they want to ask. Then I suggest that you sift the questions, generally speaking, and see to it that they are asked in order of their importance and their interest. If all the questions cannot be answered at that time, then the rest will be carried over for the following session. It is more advisable to handle it this way because then there will be no pauses. In the spontaneous way, it is often the case that some friends who may want very much to ask questions often hesitate because they are shy. They think that someone else may want to ask and they do not dare to speak up. Then there is an unnecessary pause and this time could be utilized. Now that your circle is growing bigger and bigger, these things could work out better if they are organized properly.

And now, my dear ones, I am ready for your questions and I will answer them to the best of my ability.

QUESTION: If, for instance, I want to ask something pertaining to the foregoing lecture, I would not know it before.

ANSWER: That is quite all right. You will have the opportunity to ask spontaneous questions pertaining to the foregoing lecture. Before I turn to the planned questions, I will ask all of you if there is anything about the preceding lecture that you would like to ask. Only afterwards, will we turn to the planned questions.

QUESTION: Why should an answer to our doubts come as an anti-climax?

QUESTION: I will tell you why. When man expects answers from God and from the spirit world, he somehow imagines that this must happen in a very dramatic way, or perhaps even melodramatic. That is, by some sort of miracle. And yet this is not the way God works. God works through you or through other human beings, and the answers granted seem to happen in a way that is so natural that at the moment you may even be uncertain as to whether there really was an answer. There is also a very good reason for this -- in fact, a number of reasons. One reason is that the highest state of happiness and grace -- the experience, the fact of the existence of the other world and its closeness to you -- must not be made too easy. Man has to be tested again and again to determine whether he is worthy of living in truth constantly. In short, man has to work for this. He has to keep his eyes open. He has to keep his inner feelings and his perception tuned to the spirit world. He must not take it far granted. He must train these senses by observation and by awareness. Thus he works upwards by using everything that is given to him from the spirit world, and this is the way it should be. Thus if he meets it properly, then the result will be infinitely better. He will not be sustained by some outer happenings or outer experiences, but from the strength and the wisdom that he has developed within. Therefore, he will find constant strength and constant happiness that is built on a rock and that can therefore never be pulled out from under his feet anymore. Thus the answers happen in a worldly way, almost as though by chance, naturally -- and not supernaturally. And that is why it seems like an anti-climax. If you are not sure, then take this uncertainty, voice your question clearly, and ask for the truth. Ask whether this was an answer or not, and you will receive it again without the shadow of a doubt. Alas, it rarely occurs to people, even those who are accustomed to pray, to turn to God with all these little problems and uncertainties. You are prone to let these uncertainties formulate in your feelings, and that creates disorder in your soul. All these unclarified conflicts -- regardless of whether big or small -- weaken you. Therefore, it would be advisable to always turn to God with all things when you are uncertain. When a decision is to be made, then ask for His enlightenment, ask for His truth, ask for His will. Thus you will reach the state we are always talking about and the one for which you are longing sooner than by not going to God.

QUESTION: How far is desirelessness a necessary step towards the Path of perfection? I refer especially to the differences of the teachings between East and West.

ANSWER: This desirelessness is often misunderstood, not only by Westerners, but also by Easterners. For some desires must remain in the human heart. And it is the same old question that the how is so important, the shade of it. Not a Yes or a No, but the how. In other words, in one way, there must be desire. In another way, desire must gradually cease. The desire must remain in order to reach God, to experience Him, to serve Him. And by serving Him one then serves one's brothers and one's sisters. This must not be merely an intellectual wish or a dutiful wish because it is recognized to be the right thing, but this wish alone will bring happiness, or rather its fulfillment. By spiritual growth the thing that one desires merely changes. However, where desirelessness should set in is as far as the ego is concerned. This detachment is one about which I always talk to my friends.

This cannot come by forcing oneself. It is the natural result of spiritual growth. You can attain this state of being only indirectly, not merely by wishing to be that way. Here, again, it is important to be able to accept pain in a healthy way. If you are so set against pain -- and therefore if everything in you cringes at the very thought of it -- then you very much desire not to have pain. Therefore, you are not detached. Thus you have to train yourself to realize that your pain, your vanity, and your comfort do not matter one iota more than those of the next person. When you feel that you do not matter to yourself any more than anyone else whom you may not even know personally, and when you do not take yourself as more important, then you are a step nearer to this detachment. And thus to your Path to happiness. When personal success or failure does not grip you inside -- and both can do that, one pleasurably, the other unpleasurably -- then you have attained some of this detachment, in which alone you will find real security. For the security that you are seeking is always dependent on things outside your control. Everything has to go your way so that you can feel happy, satisfied, and secure. But when it does not, then you are lost and in the grip of forces within you that you cannot control. In other words, you are controlled by them. Therefore, you lose your serenity, or what you thought was serenity when things went well. While by being detached in the way that I mean, you are independent. In other words, you do not need outside conditions to give you harmony and security. You are swinging along in the stream and you never press against it. Nothing can touch that can throw you off.

I realize that this is difficult to understand for people who are not that far yet. I do not like to talk too much about it, for as development proceeds properly, then it comes by itself, and therefore it does not need to be discussed too much. While reading these words before you can feel their true flavor, you may be afraid to become detached because you are sure to misunderstand what detachment truly is. You think that this kind of detachment means that you do not love any more or that you do not care. In other words, that you become resigned and indifferent. But this is not true! For indifference means not to be alive, not to vibrate with vitality. And the higher you are on the Path, then the more alive you become. You do care and you do love, but differently, without the pangs of the ego, without the shadowy side that all good has on your plane. The granting of your desires does not make you really happy. It may give you a moment's satisfaction, but it will never give you what you yearn for: peace of mind, serenity, and the steady happiness that can never be lost and which one does not have to fear, as you do unconsciously so often -- perhaps because you are afraid of the consequences, because you are afraid of the emotions which you are not yet mature enough to sustain.

So be not afraid, my friends. It is something to look forward to. It will not happen suddenly, but you will grow with it. Like everything else, this too will develop gradually and organically if you proceed on the Path. At the beginning, you will not even be aware of it. In other words, you will not be not aware that an actual transformation is actually taking place in you. You will just feel more and more at peace. Things that go wrong will not effect you any more. At first less than previously, and finally not at all. You will not be gripped by anger, gripped by anxiety, gripped by hostility, or what not. You will live more constantly in a state of joy. And do not think that then the little joys will give you less pleasure. On the contrary. Now your capacity of enjoyment is hindered by your disturbed soul, by all your desires and wishes, some of which are not capable of being fulfilled. While then, you will really enjoy.

As long as you are in the grip of your ego -- with its fears and its anxieties -- then you cannot live in the present. Sometimes you live in the past. And this is undesirable. And it is also true that you often live in the future which, in its own way, is equally as bad. This applies just as much to old people, because by living in the future, you think that it is sufficient to think of tomorrow or the next hour, and therefore you do not live this moment. Often you live in the morrow. What does that mean? It means that there is some desire connected with it. And anxiety comes out of the wrong type of desire. If you fear something, then you desire that this thing does not happen. So it is with most of you. Almost all your life is lived in the future, and thus you let life slip by you. You miss out on seeing and appreciating the most beautiful things right in front of your eyes. You do not see it because you are too busy with your desires. The Now is lost for many of you because of your desires. If this this kind of detachment is not reached, then you constantly miss the happiness of the Now. And I beg all of you -- my friends to whom the thought of this desirelessness or detachment is still a little frightening -- do not think about it. It will come as a byproduct, if and when you follow this Path of happiness. This is what I have to say about it.

QUESTION: When you speak of positive thinking, you say that we should be aware of the hatred or resentment we feel. But just how are we to relate the kind of thinking we should have with the feelings in us and not be in conflict?

When you go into meditation, then listen within you. Just observe your inner feelings, your reactions, and your trends. Do not try to cover your true feelings for whatever motive. Say to God: "Father, I want the truth. But I also want the temporary truth about me. That is, the truth about my true feelings and my true thoughts." For you cannot reach Absolute Truth unless you first discover your temporary truth --- unpleasant as this may be. Therefore, ask God for your own truth and then be ready to face it. Above all, bring yourself to have the will for it by meditating on these words. For instance, by the fact that you cannot reach your goal without it, you can only free yourselves of all your chains by knowing of, by facing, and by conquering yourself. Observe yourself clinically. Then just note it. Register it detachedly. Say to yourself: "This is the way I want to think and the way I want to feel. But in this or that respect I know that my true feelings and my inner thoughts still deviate from what so far I have understood intellectually. But I know that this understanding has not as yet reached my emotions. In other words, I know that it is still not an emotional understanding." Watch it continuously every day, again and again. Sometimes there will be a greater discrepancy, sometimes less. This depends on many things.

If you practice this process for a while, then you will learn several things at once. First, you will learn to take yourself as you are. With that you will learn the humility which so many of you lack because you all want to be perfect and on top of the mountain, and you disregard the fact you have not even reached the first valley yet. This is also a kind of pride, coupled with laziness. You want to be there without getting there. Again, your lower self does not want to pay the price. So you have to learn humility; you have to learn to take yourself as you are; you have to learn your true inner nature with its many facets -- not only the facets you want to see. This process is extremely healthy and it will give you infinitely more strength than any type of wishful thinking you might be tempted to use, prompted by a misunderstood theory of positive thinking. This is the kind of thinking that is much more "positive," for you learn to live in reality -- the reality that you have made your own for the time being by your previous attitudes. If you do just this for some time and you get accustomed to accepting your imperfections and to living in your lower nature objectively, almost coldly, without feeling too disturbed about it -- less and less disturbed about it -- then after a while you will come to the next step.

The next step is to mediate on the divine law regarding your inner trend that has broken it. Whoever follows this Path, whoever sincerely wants to walk it, will be guided to the teacher best suited for his own particular personality and problems. This must happen and will always happen because you cannot take this Path without teachings from the outside. Thus you will learn what particular meditation is best for you and for the problem which you are dealing with. The same things in different individuals may need different approaches with each person; they may require different types of meditations. Hate or resentment may have different roots, causes, or motives in different people. Therefore, different meditations are necessary for different people. But this will come later. First, this clinical observation of the self -- of the lower self with regard to the higher self -- has to be practiced and fully mastered before the second phase sets in. First, you have to learn to take yourself as you are, to come down from the high place you have put yourself in. Take yourself humbly and without feelings of guilt: "This is the way I am. But this is the way I want to be. To bridge over the discrepancy I need to have patience and willpower, and I shall have to work at it steadily and unceasingly, for otherwise I cannot expect to own the spiritual place I endeavor to reach." After you have learned that, then your particular second phase will be made known to you -- about that you can rest assured.

September 27, 1957