In many religions, the responsibility of those who received this knowledge is ensured through the promise of punishments for not fulfilling God's requirements. On the Path, there is no need to use fear tactics; motivation comes from a different source. However, the principle is similar, that is, the more one knows the Lord, the more effort is required for one to qualify - both for the level of knowledge shared and the level of intimacy it creates. The fact that the Lord doesn't like slackers is evident from the way the Path is designed, and the fact that intimacy with Him requires a greater intensity of effort is learned in practice, through interaction with Him. Suppose you asked for guidance and began to receive it. Sometimes you get a vision of what you need to do now, and what is the best solution. God leads you; you have become closer to Him. But this intimacy is not forced upon you, for you are free to follow or not follow the guidance. If you have reached the stage where you follow God’s revealed Will, that would be a different degree of intimacy and the level of what’s expected of you, respectively. Those who know the guidance still have the freedom of choice. Those who know the Will of God renounce this freedom. If they refuse to follow the Will, they lose so hard-won intimacy, which is a punishment in itself.

In other words, to draw near to the Lord is one accomplishment; but maintaining that closeness is another. The traveler cannot relax; it is necessary to stay synchronized, to keep oneself in spiritual shape, and the Lord Himself sets forth the conditions and requirements for you to help you maintain that shape. The amount of internal (and external) work by those who have reached advanced stages of the Path and achieved direct interaction with the Lord is much higher than that of beginners, working at their maximum bandwidth. To not burn in the fire but to unite with it, one must acquire the qualities of fire. To avoid being scorched by the Light, one must become a bearer of Light. To draw closer to God, not only one has to purify their inner space, but also to increase inner intensity, which is always done through additional spiritual efforts, i.e., through an increase in the number or duration of the practices performed. And those who seek intimacy with the Highest must resolutely accept all additional exercises offered to them.

The stressed-out seek relaxation, and the worn-out seek rest. Those who seek God, are in need of Him, and, to put it bluntly, of what the Lord can give and reveal to them. For example, uttermost and over-worldly experience and the same transcending knowledge. Love, the intensity of which no earthly feeling can match. Many things, with the prefixes "over-" and "beyond-." But you must stay tuned up constantly and maintain a certain level of inner intensity of energies. One wrong move can pull you back; therefore, one needs to stay vigilant and trust in the Lord, who can create situations in which the right choice would not be obvious. The intensity of all inner energies is defined by the intensity of your presence - that is, depends on the level of awareness, and how freely your energies manifest themselves. The more you repress within, and the lower the amount of free attention available, the lower the intensity of your actions and states, and the more difficult to achieve intimacy, however brief, with our Lord.

That is the curse of knowledge: you seem to know what needs to be done, but you struggle to actually do it. Let me tell you this: take your time, stay persistent and persevere, and do your best with what you can accomplish now. God loves the persistent, and no one ever achieved enlightenment in the world without patience and determination.