Beauty
"As long as you are drawn by beauty, wealth, and charm, you do not yet have the discernment to see what is really meaningful and important." [1]
"If you are not extremely physically attractive, it is such an advantage here because the people who are very physically attractive are being constantly bombarded with offers and persuasions and seductions. They are being given power and recognition though they have never really earned it through any real merit. They are being seduced, and they will seduce themselves, and you will rarely find a highly physically attractive person who has ever cultivated any depth within themselves. They have become a product to be bought and sold. They are a resource for others. Unless they can see beyond this deception, they will fall prey to it." [1]
Misery
“Those who seek advantage and who take advantage of others and their affections and who seek only to fill their own coffers of wealth and personal self-esteem will find only misery as their reward, for what they try to secure can be easily lost. They have not met their inner need; they have not answered their greater questions. So, their sense of stress and lack of well-being will persist and grow deeper and darker over time.” [2]
“Let this not be your destiny, though many choose it and express its glories and its benefits. Do not let this be your decision. It takes little courage to follow in the ways of the world. It takes great courage to follow in the ways of Knowledge. It takes little courage to accept the pleasures and to deny the pains of life around you. It takes little courage to try to live a beatific life while the rest of the world goes on without you.” [2]
“Here your personal ambitions will fail you or it will seem that they cannot be fulfilled by undertaking the Greater Community preparation. But you go on because Knowledge prompts you. This requires courage. This is choosing truth over pleasure. How secure and how powerful the man or woman of Knowledge is who would not give up their mission for love or money. Are they fanatical? Perhaps. But they are committed because they have realized that truth is a source of meaning for them. Their ability to join in relationship far surpasses that of other people. What they will experience and what they will give will far surpass the goals and ambitions of others around them.” [2]