Imagine, if you will, there is a man inside of a box. The box is on fire, and the man knows it is on fire. Inside of the box he has all the creature comforts: food and drink, methods of distraction like tv, games, books etc. But outside the box are the people he loves, the things he loves doing for and with them. Imagine, also, that the man knows exactly how to escape the box, and has the answer written on the walls.

What would keep the man inside the box? On the one hand, if he wants to leave, but doesn't, what keeps him there, what keeps him from overcoming himself? But if he doesn't want to leave, why could this be, he has absolutely nothing to lose and everything to gain. For the purpose of this thought experiment we will assume the former; that he does in fact, wish to leave, but finds himself unable to.

The only thing I can think of is that ones tolerance to corruption is equal to that of his motivation to change... One must overcome himself, to overcome himself, to be himself. How is this achieved? It is a simple matter to think of leaving the box. He wants to leave the box, but not more than he wants to stay in the box. Confronted with conflicting desires he must identify with one or the other... Let's say he identifies with wanting to leave the box.

To actually leave, he must figure out how to lower his tolerance for corruption, increase his desire for purity, in order to actually overcome his resistance, and step outside the box into heaven, so to speak. It is a simple matter to just say to this man "just leave the box!" But is another matter entirely if you are this man.

My questions to you are: What would keep the man inside of the situation he knows to be detrimental to his health? What prevents him from following through with his desire to escape? And what tools or methods can he apply to overcome himself?