Hence the more he becomes aware of these frailties, the more he should discipline himself to get rid of them--otherwise the forces he has invoked will bring the pressures of pain upon him to effect this end. This is the first hidden purpose of the "dark night." The second is to develop the neglected parts of his human make-up and thus bring his personality into a safe balance. The light which originally dawned in his soul successfully illumined his emotions. He felt goodwill towards all men, nay all living creatures. But this illumination did not bestow practical wisdom or higher knowledge, did not affect his intelligence. Hence the light has still to shine down into the neglected regions of his personality. They are not automatically perfected. For the higher Self always seeks to enlighten the whole of the man. Hence the threefold-path character of the work of this quest. He may have to build more intellect or develop more will, for instance. He has to reorganize his whole personality, in short. The emotional perfecting is easiest and occurs first; the intellectual is harder and occurs second; the moral reeducation through right actions is hardest of all and occurs last. He has gained right feeling. He has yet to gain right insight. But this cannot be got without the co-operation of the full man, of all his faculties. So the higher Self turns towards his intellect and transforms it into intelligence, towards his will and transforms it into active moral work. This process, however, takes years. When all this preparation has matured him, the dark night will suddenly, even unexpectedly, come to an end and he will receive the long-sought illumination.
Such is the commoner form of the "dark night of the soul." A rarer and sadder kind may come, not to novices but to the highly advanced ones who are already within sight of their goal. For it is just here, when he has only one more step to take before the end is successfully reached, that all may be lost and he may fall headlong from this great height. The Biblical phrase, "Let him that standeth take heed lest he fall," is appropriate here. This terrible lapse is explained by the adepts as always being possible and especially probable when the sixth or penultimate stage of their seven-staged path is attained. Hence they call this the stage of "carefulness," because the mystic must now be extremely careful to preserve the delicate inward condition he has developed. He must guard this position perseveringly for a sufficiently long period and then the final, complete, and permanent merger into divine existence will be achieved.
-- Notebooks Category 2: Overview of Practices Involved > Chapter 9 : Conclusion > # 21
