One of the first qualities which everyone wishing to arrive at higher states of mind has to develop is the unreserved, laying oneself open to that which is revealed by human beings or the world external to man. If man approaches a fact in the world around him with a judgement arising from his previous experience, he shuts himself off by this judgement from the quiet, complete effect which this fact can have on him. The true learner must be able each moment to make of himself a perfectly empty vessel into which the new world flows. Knowledge is received only in those moments in which every judgement, every criticism coming from ourselves, is silent. For example, when we meet a person, the question is not at all whether we are wiser than he. Even the most unreasoning child has something to reveal to the greatest sage. And if he approach the child with his prejudgement, be it ever so wise, he pushes his wisdom like a dull glass in front of what the child ought to reveal to him. Complete inner selflessness is necessary for this constant accessibility to the revelations of the new world. Anyone who wishes to tread the path of higher knowledge must train himself to be able each moment to obliterate himself with all his prejudices. One should obliterate within oneself the gauge of good and bad, or stupid or clever, which one is accustomed to apply, and try without this gauge to understand persons purely through themselves.