Inner and outer difficulties are often related. What appears to be an ugly state of affairs may well be a definite attack of certain evil forces using interested human instruments. In such a situation, the individual should never practise nonresistance in any way, but, on the contrary, should fight them off as hard as he can. At the same time, he must remember that weakness in self-control can give these evil forces an opening which they might not have had otherwise. He must be on his guard if he wishes to emerge victorious in the struggle. If he does not throw off this condition, he, himself, unwittingly erects a barrier through which the divine help sent him finds it difficult to penetrate. Although the temptation to seek release at such a time through, for example, the easy way of drink is understandable, he must nevertheless remember the duty he owes to his spiritual life, to his personal interest on the relative plane, and to others.
-- Notebooks Category 11: The Negatives > Chapter 4 : In Thoughts, Feelings, Violent Passions > # 114
