Intelligence and sensitivity are great for developing technique (trickery) : a smart person will generally get the better of a strong one (this, if anything, sums up our colourful history). But when it comes to tackling the self, the ego, the noisy noisome mind, these qualities are a severe drawback. Why? Because they add numerous layers of complexity and subtlety to the ego, so much so that the individual finds it impossible to see through their seductive wiles: the average, intelligent, well-educated, middle-class person really believes that they are their ego, that they are indeed as magnificent as they tell themselves they are – they begin to believe their own publicity – their own lies. This is the real bummer: intelligence and sensitivity bring one to the point of realising that the mind must be quietened, and yet those self-same qualities render the task well-nigh impossible.