"A man goes to knowledge as he goes to war, wide awake, with fear, with respect, and with absolute assurance. Going to knowledge or going to war in any other manner is a mistake, and whoever makes it will live to regret his steps.
When a man has fulfilled those four requisites there are no mistakes for which he will have to account; under such conditions his acts lose the blundering quality of a fool's acts. If such a man fails, or suffers a defeat, he will have lost only a battle, and there will be no pitiful regrets over that."
— Carlos Castaneda. The Teachings of Don Juan.

"He is pure who expels fleshly love with divine love, and who has extinguished the material fire by the immaterial fire
Not he who has kept his clay undefiled is pure, but he whose members are completely subject to his soul."
— John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Step 15

"The offspring of flint and steel is fire; and the offspring of chatter and joking is lying.
A lie is the destruction of love, and perjury is a denial of God."
— John Climacus. The Ladder of Divine Ascent. Step 12

All problems start when the kirtan stops.

"Only a crackpot would undertake the task of becoming a man of knowledge of his own accord. A sober-headed man has to be tricked into doing it."

"I'm sure there must be scores of people who would gladly undertake the task," I said.

"Yes, but those don't count. They are usually cracked. They are like gourds that look fine from the outside and yet they would leak the minute you put pressure on them, the minute you filled them with water. "

"I had to trick you into learning once, the same way my benefactor tricked me. Otherwise you wouldn't have learned as much as you did. Perhaps it's time to trick you again."

Carlos Castaneda. A Separate Reality.

The attraction between male and female is the basic principle of material existence. On the basis of this misconception, which ties together the hearts of the male and female, one becomes attracted to his body, home, property, children, relatives and wealth. In this way one increases life’s illusions and thinks in terms of “I and mine.”

ŚB 5.5.8