Inquiry · “You Are Not Your Thoughts”
Self-Analysis & Self-Correction
To make a frank, itemised estimate of one’s own virtues and vices, examine each with discriminating care, and then correct faults not by violent suppression but by gently outgrowing them — ‘effortless effort.’
Honestly estimate your virtues and vices. Classify your faults so each is specific. Examine each with cool, discriminating care — where it comes from, what it costs. Then correct by “effortless effort”: don’t crush a fault, outgrow it by living its opposite. Plant the positive virtue in its place. Keep it gentle, and keep it going.
What it is
Hall’s Second Realization makes self-knowledge the engine of growth: you cannot unfold what you have not first honestly seen. Self-analysis is the frank itemising of your own virtues and vices; self-correction is the gentle, gradual outgrowing of the faults you find. He states the requirement bluntly — “A frank and honest estimation of your virtues and vices is absolutely necessary to spiritual growth” — and prescribes a discriminating examination: “When you get your faults and failings all classified … examine each of these products of your own consciousness with discriminating care.” Crucially, the correction is not violent suppression: “It is possible to overcome any undesirable characteristic by what the Taoists call ‘effortless effort.’” This is participatory self-shaping (Life Is a Dream), a releasing of what no longer serves (The Inner Creates the Outer), a working at the level of character that precedes circumstance (The Inner Creates the Outer), driven by honest attention (The Inner Creates the Outer).
The Method
Synthesised faithfully from Hall’s Second Realization:
- Take a frank inventory. Sit down and honestly estimate both your virtues and your vices — Hall insists on the honesty: a flattering self-portrait is useless.
- Classify what you find. “Get your faults and failings all classified” — sort them, name them, so they are no longer a vague cloud but specific items.
- Examine each with discriminating care. Take the faults one by one and look at each as a “product of your own consciousness” — where it comes from, what it costs, what it really is. This is analysis, not self-condemnation.
- Correct by outgrowing, not crushing. Apply “effortless effort”: rather than wrestling a fault by force, displace it by living its opposite until the old habit withers. Hall’s blunt corollary: “if you have a bad temper there is only one way to overcome it: stop having a bad temper” — i.e. simply cease feeding it, gently and persistently.
- Build positive foundations. Hall pairs correction with “Positive Foundations”: purification is “a gentle motion toward virtue,” outgrowing “useless attitudes” rather than merely policing them — the Platonic school’s “most normal, gentle, and effective method.”
- Make it continuous. The Realization closes on “Continuity”: this is not a one-off audit but a standing habit of honest self-watching and quiet correction. (Sourcing: “A frank and honest estimation of your virtues and vices is absolutely necessary to spiritual growth,” “examine each of these products of your own consciousness with discriminating care,” “effortless effort,” “if you have a bad temper there is only one way to overcome it: stop having a bad temper,” purification as “cathartic” and “a gentle motion toward virtue” are from Self-Unfoldment.)
Source & Lineage
The method is the Second Realization of Self-Unfoldment by Disciplines of Realization (1942): Methods of Development → Self-Analysis → Self-Correction → Positive Foundations → Continuity. Hall fuses the Eastern (Taoist “effortless effort,” wu-wei) with the Platonic doctrine of purification by outgrowing the lower, presenting both as gentle and gradual rather than ascetic and forced.
Common refinements
Flattering the inventory. Hall’s whole method depends on frankness; a vanity audit yields nothing.
- Violent suppression. Forcing a fault down (“effortful effort”) tends to rebound; outgrow it instead.
- Self-attack. “Discriminating care” is calm examination, not a tribunal; shame is not a method.
- One faults at a time, continuously. Trying to fix everything at once scatters the work; take faults singly and keep the habit going.
- Skipping the positive. Don’t only prune vices — plant the opposite virtue (“positive foundations”) so the space fills.