We are a peculiar race of beings. On one hand, each of us professes to be concerned with growing and self-developing while, on the other hand, none of us ever wants to be wrong. This is a paralyzing contradiction. If we are always right, or at least afraid of being wrong, what have we to learn? Couched in our hidden attitude is that we already know everything. This is a serious problem if we are at all serious in our quest for self-liberation since this Higher Freedom comes to us in direct proportion to what we are willing to learn about ourselves.

Learning is a correction process. Real correction, at any level, always purifies the matter and so leaves it less confused and thus in a higher state. Taking this beautiful idea one step further reveals to us the promise that self-elevation always follows self-correction. You may not as yet fully understand the implications of this powerful Inner Law, but it holds within it the promise of endless heights.

The whole idea of modifying ourselves, of slowly improving through time, is born out of our reluctance to be wrong. Perhaps this is why so few of us ever really learn to stop hurting ourselves. Let's take a moment and look at the difference between self-improvement and self-correction. With self-improvement we teach ourselves lessons of our choice based on what we think we need to learn in order to grow. Self-improvement teaches and confirms the process of self-addition where we acquire new knowledge, behaviors and beliefs.

With self-correction we learn for ourselves that we have been teaching ourselves incorrectly [from childhood]. Seeing this allows us to let go of our incorrect thinking. As we experience the benefits of letting go of ourself, vigorous new inner-growth then takes place as naturally as it does for a young plant that has been moved from a shadowy place out into the sunlight. A new tree cannot grow in the shadow of an old one. Learning can only take place outside the shadow of pride. Anything that resists correction is a part of what is wrong.