The enigmatic questions which have long haunted the human mind and will long continue to haunt it and which will rise insistent in the mind of the aspirant are: What is he to seek? How is he to gain the objects of his search? What are the prospects of the fulfilment of such an aspiration and the hindrances likely to attend it? The answers to them are a gradual revealing which follows on the heels of the cultivation of certain attitudes to truth and to persons and things.
"What is he to seek?" He should seek reality and the knowledge of it which is truth. This is the ideal which is set before him. This is to realize his spiritual nature and thus achieve his higher destiny. Because truth is so subtle and so hard to find, his search after it should be well guided, his knowledge of it properly tested, and his adventures in meditation morally and intellectually safeguarded. Truer ideas are needed; nobler standards are called for. Such ideals, truthfully formed, deeply held, and wholeheartedly applied, can only benefit man and not hurt him. He who has been given a glimpse of the Ideal will not be able to lie always asleep in the sensual. The finer part of his nature will revolt against it again and again.
The Ideal serves more than one useful purpose. It is not only a peak to whose summit he tries to raise himself by slow degrees. It is also a focus for meditation exercises, a guide for practical conduct in certain situations, and a compass to give general direction to his trend of thought, feeling, and doing. It causes the aspirant to feel that he has been led through varying events to the new path which now opens up before him, that a spiritual meaning must be given to the period of his life just closed. The sequence of events and the accumulation of experience will force him to face his problems in the end. If he can do this honestly, analyse them intelligently, and intuit them adequately, he may acquire a valuable new point of view.
"How is he to gain the objects of his search?" The truth-seeker will begin to turn inward in quest of unity with his own soul and outward in quest of unity with mankind. Life is the guide that is bringing him home to himself and to kindlier relation to his fellows. Life itself teaches and disciplines towards these great ends. The following of the integral philosophic quest, with life as the guide and teacher, will involve the re-education of moral character--which is done in part by constant reflection and special meditations on the one hand and discipline of the senses on the other, and in part by prayer, aspiration, and worship. In addition, if a man cultivates the habit of barring entrance to negative thoughts and of instantly throwing weakening ones out of his mind, his character will strengthen itself more quickly. The outcome will be certain relationships to oneself, to others, and to situations and things.
The ascent toward truth proceeds by steps. If at first the merits of a particular teaching or teacher impress the emotions unduly, it is also likely that a more critical study of the one and a more thorough experience of the other will show up unsuspected defects. The philosophic student tries to avoid undergoing these unpleasant changes by getting a balanced view of the pros and cons from the start. He ought not to be so swept off his feet by the great admiration felt for a genius or a doctrine that he has no clear perception of the former's defects or the latter's faults. He must maintain balance not only in the face of lower emotions but also of nobler ones.
-- Notebooks Category 20: What Is Philosophy? > Chapter 3 : Its Requirements > # 82
