If his understanding of this teaching delivers him from excessive dependence on another man or on external methods, it will clear his path and help his self-reliance. But if it outruns itself and makes him cocksure, proud, arrogant, and irreverent towards the masters, then it has degenerated into misunderstanding. This will block his path.

-- Notebooks Category 1: Overview of the Quest > Chapter 3: Independent Path > # 181