Post-revolutionary Russian psychology, with its enforced bias towards the social and political, has nevertheless given us certain valuable clues, hinting at the existence of something – perhaps something in the brain - that goes beyond mere information-processing. It has clearly distinguished what might be called the intentional side of psychology from that of mere mechanistic information-handling and the learning of repetitive processes, placing these two classes of inner activity at different hierarchical ‘levels’ in the inner life of human beings.

We experience this intentional part of ourselves only if we make certain kinds of effort in our lives. Then, we experience it in the long-term as a slowly growing strength of mind that shows as qualities of character that are uncommon in modern times: integrity; sincerity; a caring about and even working for things that offer no personal gain, an ability to look on oneself as impersonally and objectively as one sees a stranger; a certain humility.

To begin with, these qualities are fleeting. They are soon buried under the turmoil of life. But we learn that life tests them. I myself learned long ago  that if I learn what temporarily overlays them I have learned what it is which is ‘not myself’ but acts ‘as-if’ it were myself.. But the difficulty is to grasp this intentional characteristic in the short term: to see it working in a moment or a series of moments, to recognise in single events the force that shapes the long-term changes. It is often better to try to recognise this in experience than to analyse it in theory. For example, many manual skills, as well as intellectual, begin with information. Many intellectual skills involve the learning of repetitive processes, but all can lead on from this to a whole different class of learning that has to do with self-government; a study in which one learns to pace one’s work and plan one’s life, to perceive necessities and to persist in tasks we see to be necessary even ‘though nobody else sees why they are necessary’, for instance learning to ‘postpone gratification’ in order to finish a task, etc.

We can go beyond physical strength, and even beyond ordinary forms of strength-of-mind, to discover a third kind of strength when we develop this part of our character by training ourselves in such meaningful and intentional activity. We achieve this by struggling to do and complete certain tasks because they are necessary, or even simply because they are difficult, particularly in the sense that they evoke a great deal of resistance from within us or from outside us.

It is this third kind of strength that makes certain things possible. Spiritual life is one of those things.