“You will need will power and self-discipline in order to battle all your faults, which can never happen by pushing them into the subconscious, by merely covering them up so that they do not show on the surface. For do not believe that something you are unaware of does not exist. The process of eliminating your faults, which is the next step after self-knowledge is a very different one. Briefly speaking, the process is to watch yourself first as you really are, without vanity, without wanting to be better or more than you are at this point. Simply take stock of yourself and get, for the time being, accustomed to see yourself where you really are and not where you want to be. Accept this temporary reality for two reasons: (1) you have to be unemotional and undisturbed about what you are before you can change yourself; and this needs the new habit of seeing yourself clearly for a while without any false motives and excuses and blindness; (2) this will also teach you the necessary humiliation that is a major requirement of spiritual development and true detachment. This acceptance does not mean that you should remain that way. The goal must be to ultimately change these trends, but this cannot be done before you have learned this stage entirely. Thus observe yourself daily when and how your faults manifest, not only outside, but in your feelings. Observe your reactions. By this reaction, you will learn to judge how far you have come in accepting yourself without embellishment. When this is mastered, then the next stage will begin by meditating on what the opposite of this particular fault really is, how you might react and feel if you had already acquired this. If you do this with the help of God, asking for inspiration, for help and strength, you will, after doing this faithfully for some time, begin to feel differently, to have new inner reactions that will leave you so free, so wonderful! You may also meditate how each of your particular faults is a direct hindrance of the unfoldment of love. For each fault is just that. It blurs the love force in the soul. If you proceed in this way, God will inspire you and guide you, you can be quite sure of that. But, as I said, it is a difficult path. But blessed are those who take it; who have the courage and the wisdom to do so.” (PL #21)