“There are four definite “qualifications” that the probationary chela must set himself to acquire, that are by the wisdom of the great Brotherhood laid down as the conditions of full discipleship.
They are not asked for in perfection, but they must be striven for and partially possessed before Initiation is permitted.
The first of these is the discrimination between the real and the unreal which has been already dawning on the mind of the pupil, and which drew him to the Path on which he has now entered;
the distinction grows clear and sharply defined in his mind, and gradually frees him to a great extent from the fetters which bind him, for the second qualification, indifference to external things, comes naturally in the wake of discrimination, from the clear perception of their worthlessness.
He learns that the weariness which took all the savor out of life was due to the disappointments constantly arising from his search for satisfaction in the unreal, when only the real can content the soul;
that all forms are unreal and without stability, changing ever under the impulses of life, and that nothing is real but the one Life that we seek for and love unconsciously under its many veils.
This discrimination is much stimulated by the rapidly changing circumstances into which a disciple is generally thrown, with the view of pressing on him strongly the instability of all external things.”
Annie Besant
The Mark Of God: Understanding Your "I AM Presence" 