Most people are satisfied with themselves, although not with their circumstances. So when they are told they must work on their Being, they either do not understand what it means or do not see why they should. Now if a person in the Work is capable of observing themselves sincerely, they cannot remain satisfied with themselves for long in the light of the Work.

Suppose what you have seen in yourself is some bad negative emotion, some really evil ill-will. Hitherto you have identified with it and so you have been it and it has been you. You have been for years under its power.

If you begin to see all this about your state of Being you are already much further on, however hopeless you may feel, than a person who has never caught such glimpses of himself or herself, because it is exactly this feeling of vacuum, of deficiency, of lack, that is the starting point of work on one's own Being.