The true will is the will of the individual essence of which what we commonly mistake for our selves is but the vehicle. The perceptions of this vehicle are “conditioned” by many things, social influences being one, but just the nature of its own mechanics gives rise to most of its problems. It’s not a case of unravelling the tangles in the “ego” so that it permits a smooth flow, but a case of seeing through the tangles altogether and perceiving what you really are.

It’s like spending a lifetime sitting in front of a dirty and distorted window, looking out at the world. You can try to clean the window all you like, but you are still perceiving a warped picture of the world through a window. Success in this matter is like realising you can actually get up, walk through the open door and go outside. It really is as simple that that, but the problem is that this course of action will be inconceivable to you if you’ve never looked over your shoulder and realised there’s a door back there. It isn’t that the concept or even the practice is especially more difficult than many other things, but it’s like trying to explain colour to a blind man – the chief difficulty is getting people to perceive in this way just once, and getting them to realise what they’ve done. Once they’ve done that, their chances of being able to replicate it improve enormously, since they now know what they’re trying to do.