Spiritual clarity diminishes whenever personal self kicks in. The main concern, therefore, for anyone hoping to sustain spiritual clarity is how to minimize personal self. This objective is not only tricky, but contradicts many basic assumptions.
Another word for basic assumptions is conditioning. We are all conditioned to behave in certain ways and we attach to that behavior as if it defines us. The conditioning is so deep and so habitual that we generally defend it before letting it go.
Learning to let it go is what the spiritual life is all about. You are not your conditioning. You are not anything that turns out to be conditioning. Are you willing to find out exactly how much that is? The part of you that isn't is the first example of more conditioning.
What happens when that part takes over? The personal self appears. One moment you are free and the next you are not. One moment you are open and the next you are closed. It can happen that quickly, and usually does. No one wins races against the personal self.
Luckily, you don't have to. All you have to do is pay attention. To anything. Simply focus your attention on anything at all and you vanquish the personal self for as long as you like. The length and sincerity of the attention determines the results.
And now for the tricky part. The best results come from paying attention to the very thing you are trying to vanquish. Hold the personal self in your undivided attention and find out directly. That's how you vanquish it forever, by observing every piece.
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