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Q: What is the connection between inner strength and periods of solitude? It seems we must sometimes stand apart from others to prevent drainage of our energies? A: Petrarch gives a similar reason for wishing to be alone -- that tender spirit, so strong and constant in his love of seclusion! The streams, the plains and woods know well, he says, how he as tried to escape the perverse and stupid people who have missed the way to heaven.
Q: History proves over and over again that the masses never follow a teacher of genuine strength, at least not for long. I this because, as the teachers themselves point out, darkness dislikes the light? A: Mental superiority of any kind always tends to isolate its possessor; people run away from him out of pure hatred, and say all manner of bad things about him by way of justifying their actions.
Q: What is an example of self-defeating effort? A: The effort people make as far as possible to conceal their misfortunes, and to put the best face they can upon them, for fear lest their misfortunes ma show how much they are to blame.
Q: Why do we fail to use our minds with full power? A: Every man takes the limits of his own field of vision for the limits of the world.
Q: Anger is a major problem with most of us, even more so because we keep this particular emotion well concealed. Do you have suggestions for dealing with other people with calm and poise? A: If you want your judgment to be accepted, express it coolly and without passion. All violence has its origin in the will, and so, if your judgment is expressed with vehemence, people will consider it an effort of will, and not the outcome of knowledge, which is in its nature calm and unemotional.
Q: I have an important business project which I must put into the hands of a responsible man. How can I estimate the reliability of several prospective employees? A: A man shows his character just in the way in which he deals with trifles -- for then he is off his guard. This will often afford a good opportunity of observing the boundless egotism of a man's nature, and his total lack of consideration for others; and if these defects show themselves in small things, or merely in his general manner, you will find that they also underlie his action in matters of importance, although he may disguise the fact . . . Do not trust him beyond your door.
Q: You say that we make authentic gain by first experiencing a loss. Will you provide an example of this basic teaching? A: It is only after a man has rid himself of all pretence, and taken refuge in mere unembellished existence, that he is able to attain that peace of mind which is the foundation of human happiness.
Q: Why are the most useless people always those who are the most noisy and demanding? A: It is difficult to keep quiet if you have nothing to do.
Q: I sense the folly of depending upon others, so would appreciate counsel for breaking away.
 The only way to obtain superiority in dealing with men is to let it be seen that you are independent of them. 
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-- Schopenhauer
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A: If a man comes to think that I am more dependent upon him that he is dependent upon me, he feels as though I had stolen something from him, and his aim will be to have revenge and get it back. The only way to obtain superiority in dealing with men is to let it be seen that you are independent of them.
Q: Then through right self-work we can win command over our circumstances, regardless of their nagging nature? A: Self-control, too, is something which we have in our own power.
Q: Why do we fail to see false ideas as false? A: Hardly one in ten thousand will have the strength of mind to ask himself seriously and earnestly, "Is that true?"
Q: Mine is a familiar question about self-independence, but the answer is not so easily found. Is there a method by which I can learn to cast aside my artificial personality traits and to simply be myself? A: A man can be himself only so long as he is alone, and if he does not love solitude, he will not love freedom, for it is only when he is alone that he is really free. Restraint is always present in society, like a companion of whom there is no riddance, and in proportion to the greatness of a man's individuality, it will be hard for him to bear the sacrifices which all contact with others demands.
Q: Please connect self-independence with self-happiness. A: Himself is the source of the best and most a man can be or achieve. The more this is so -- the more a man finds his sources of pleasure in himself -- the happier he will be . . . For all other sources of happiness are in their nature most uncertain.
Q: I recently suffered severe humiliation in my relation with another person. Before meeting esotericism, I would have wanted revenge, but now I wish to use the experience for inner elevation. How? A: How is inner unity even possible under such circumstances? . . . To be sure, the best thing he can do is to recognize which part of him smarts the most under defeat, and let it always gain the victory. This he will always be able to do by the use of his reason . . . Let him resolve of his own free will to undergo the pain which the defeat of the other part involves. This is character.
Q: Several of us in our study group have been helped by seeing the folly of wasting our time in the social beehive. Will you please make this even clearer to us? A: The social impulse does not rest directly upon the love of people, but upon the fear of solitude. It is not just the charm of having the company of others that people seek; it is the dreary oppression of being along -- the monotony of their own consciousness -- that they would avoid. They will do anything to escape it, even put up with bad companions, and tolerate the feeling of restraint which all society involves, which is very burdensome.
Q: Is it correct to say that we need not strain to add anything to ourselves, but to live within our own natural and unpretentious self? A: Simplicity, therefore . . . will contribute to happiness . . . Our existence will glide on peacefully like a stream which no waves or whirlpools disturb. Q: I am like a man in a haunted house who has at least made his way to the windows to see the outside world. I know I can eventually break out. A: In the meantime, of course, you must have patience. He who can see truly in the midst of general infatuation is like a man whose watch keeps good time, when all clocks in the town in which he lives are wrong. He alone knows the right time. Q: Please enlarge your explanation of obtainments. A: A thousand illusions and follies are overcome . . . A thousand things become clear which were formerly enveloped in obscurity, and results are obtained which give a feeling of difficulties overcome.
Q: What is an example of self-deception, of believing what we prefer to believe? A: Were you to hear how your dear friends speak of you behind your back, you would never speak another word to them.
Q: I have been helped by your advice to not tie myself to either the past or the future. May I have further comment on it? A: The present alone is true and actual; it is the only time which possesses full reality, and our existence lies in it exclusively. Therefore we should always be glad of it, and give it the welcome it deserves, and enjoy every hour. (There's More! Click "next" below)
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