The aspirant must begin by examining himself, by enquiring into the honesty or dishonesty, the impartiality or partiality of his views, beliefs, and judgements, by questioning how much or how little his will is enslaved by passion, appetite, or instinct. For the average aspirant sets up inner resistance to that purification of his emotions, passions, egoisms, prejudices, intellectualizations, desires, and hatred which would permit him to reflect the undistorted truth. Emotional tensions and mental strains which cause inner suffering have first to be brought out into the open and resolved before he can approach truth in the atmosphere of tranquillity which she requires. The mental knots and passional complexes which exist within his personality, whether near the surface or deep out of sight, must be dealt with and dissolved before he can come at the truth. It is the conscious or unconscious forces, these obvious or unrecognized impulses that drive him into deeds hurtful to society and discouraging to himself. The complexes which dominate his mind and influence his beliefs must be brought into the open by the philosophic discipline. He must know where, psychologically, he stands. The desires and fears which operate in the subconscious can then be evaluated, developed, or discarded. He should seek to understand his own character, to perceive impartially its merits and demerits. On the basis of such self-understanding, he should root out persistently those faults which hinder progress.
-- Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practices Involved > Chapter 4 : Practise Mental Discipline > # 1
