' Struggles and failures '...

The tendency to assume that the spiritual man was perfect in his youth and never made a mistake in his maturity,

is common among his followers and passed on by them to the public--with the result that the latter stares at him with great awe as a rare phenomenon but does not dream that it is possible to follow in his footsteps to the same achievement.

The truth is that he had his share of struggles and failures, that he was born with his own particular imperfections, and that he had to make the character and expand the consciousness which adorned his later years.


-- Notebooks Category 25: World-Mind in Individual Mind >
Chapter 3: The Sage > # 352 Paul Brunton