Everyone is born in an environment which exerts an influence on him. This is a process of conditioning. This is true of everyone without exception. And it is a problem for everyone, because such conditioning causes one to deviate from nature. That is why it is essential that everyone de-condition himself and return to his original nature.

There is only one way to decondition oneself and that is by introspection. This entails rigorously continuing to engage in the act of self-reform. There are two ways to do this. One is to tolerate the harsh criticism of others, that is, accepting with an open mind any adversarial evaluation of one’s thinking and conduct without taking this to heart, one should engage without delay in one’s self-reassessment.

Another method of deconditioning is self-criticism. That is, one should look at himself like an enemy. He should assess himself morning and evening. He should keenly feel his mistakes and then he should introspect. He should engage in a merciless hammering of his ego. In no matter should he make concessions to himself. Instead of blaming others, he should always first blame himself. He should become such a severe critic of himself, that it is as if he is trying to put an end to himself.

These are the only two methods of de-conditioning oneself. Either one accepts the harsh criticism of others or one becomes a harsh critic of oneself. Those who always want sweet polite words from others, and those who always make concessions to themselves will always remain in a conditioned state, and will never be able to de-condition themselves.

Source: Discovering God