At this stage of his inner life, the disciple will find himself being led more and more in the direction of his own past. He will find himself considering its various phases but especially those which were marred by ignorance, error and sin, wrong decisions, and foolish actions. These broodings will inevitably take on a melancholy saddening character. That, however, is no reason for avoiding them. Those super-optimists who would have men gaze only at the present and future, who deprecate all remembrance of the blundering past, seek a transient pseudo-happiness rather than a truly durable one. For, in the disciple's case certainly and in other men's cases perhaps, it is by frank confession of these mistakes and misdeeds and by gloomy recognition of their chastening consequences that their valuable lessons are distilled and their useless recurrence avoided. The disciple should search thoroughly for his weaknesses of character and faults of intellect, and having thus detected them as well as humbled himself, be constantly on his guard against them until he has succeeded in eliminating them altogether.
-- Notebooks Category 4: Elementary Meditation > Chapter 4 : Meditative Thinking > # 149
