Table of Contents
Part I
Part II — Opportunity and self-transcendence
- The opportunity of youth
- Failure and fear
- Question: What is the easiest way to overcome imperfection in ourselves?
- Question: What is the proper role of individuality in surrender?
- Question: Is there anything we can do in order to rid ourselves of our ego?
Part III — Anxiety and emotions
- Question: Sometimes I think that I am not close to you, and I feel lost. What does it mean?
- Question: I have an enemy named anxiety. When I run 400 metres, I know I can do it, but when I think of it, my vital starts running like a motor, and I'm full of anxiety. I don't know if it's from a sense of competition, but it's the thought of being exhausted. It's a baseless fear.
- Question: Could you speak about the transformation of the disciples' emotional life?
- Question: Guru, one might decide to accept the inner life, but then it seems so difficult because sooner or later one learns that it is really hard to control certain things.
- Question: What is the best way to find good spiritual qualities that have become lost?
Part IV
Part V — Joy and sorrow
- Question: Most of our life, the finite life that we can see and feel, is usually surrounded by joy and suffering. Can we have a life of joy, or do we have to suffer, do we have to constantly sacrifice?
- Question: Can desire ever be a positive force?
- Question: Why is it that when everything is going well, instead of being happy and really aspiring, I feel restless and uneasy? I almost don't trust the good things.
- Question: When I'm in the country, I'm very happy. I meditate on scenic forests, taking in the view of flowers and trees. But when I'm not there, I don't get the same joy. Why is that?
- Question: Is there any way to prevent bad thoughts from attacking us when we want to send happiness to someone else?
- Question: Is it true that for everything positive there is something negative?
Part VI
Part VII
- Vital demands
- Question: Whenever there is a problem, it seems to attack more than one person. Why is this?
- Question: When you have to act as the umpire on the vital plane or other planes, are the disciples much more receptive to your force than on the physical plane?
- Question: Instead of fighting wrong thoughts, what if you just feed them knowledge?
- Question: Is it true that if one aspires to a higher life, to a spiritual level, then one has to totally give up ambition?
- Editor's preface to the first edition
