I progressed so much. You can study in the Movement of Spiritual Inner Awareness for twenty years and in the first two years, say, “I progressed so much, you can’t believe it.” Those were easy miles. You were fresh, vital, wide-eyed, bushy-tailed. And then the next eighteen miles were uphill, downhill, over rocks, hiding, waiting, climbing, mud. You’re being tried out.
This is not just something to do; it’s much more difficult, because you don’t know what you’re going to have to deal with inside of yourself.   On the outside, that last mile is going to look very similar to the first one. But on the inside, along the way, you will have the demons of your own self to overcome. You may be up against others’ opinions of you and what you’re doing, quitting, self-judgment, doubt, fear.
These times of self-honesty and introspection are when you start to open up to the strength of the Spirit. It’s called confronting your own ego dilemmas, your own demons of failure, and your own demons of the god of opinion, and stepping forward and acknowledging that you have every one of them, and continuing on anyway. Pretty soon, that acknowledgement that they’re there also, starts to disempower them.
– John-Roger  (From: Spiritual Exercises, A Journal of Soul Transcendence)
