During chapter 3 of The Brothers Karamazov, elder Zosima speaks to a mother who questions her own faith, with their dialogue entering a deep philosophical tone, with Elder Zosima reassuring the mother of her own capability of love and goodness. In his discourse, Elder Zosima reflects the thinking in S.L Frank’s The Meaning of Life, because both of the texts emphasize personal transformation through reflection and selfless thought. During their conversation, the mother remarks to Zosima that she herself was waiting for Zosima to praise her own sincerity, and not personally reflecting on her own sincerity and thoughts. Zosima, in response, labels her as having a good heart, and speaks on how to maintain a good path in life. He tells her to avoid lies, and especially “the lie to yourself”, and that what seems “bad” in herself is inherently “purified” by her own recognition of what lies in her inner being. (61) He goes further in describing how love in dreams and hopes is not conducive to spiritualness. Zosima emphasizes that idealistic love is fast, and is accompanied by the immediate praise of those around you, with your ego being the target of the love. But, real love, and love in the eyes of the Lord, according to Zosima, comes not to you but from you, in the form of “labor and perseverance”. (61) When someone commits the folly of seeing love as a tool for their own ego and the praise of others, they will move farther from their goals of virtue. However, at the end of his dialogue, Zosima emphasizes that in the moment when it seems as if one has drifted farther from love, they will look inside themselves and realize that they have in place of their false love, the ever-present love of the Lord. S.L Frank Emphasizes many of the same ideas about self reflection and exploration in order to reveal a deeper and spiritual understanding of oneself. He says that many of us have yet to explore the deeper parts of our inner being, and when those are reflected upon they are “immediately revealed to us”, and in those depths ones “being” is revealed. (56) Once that has occurred within someone, they can completely expand their own horizons, and enter “an entire new world of true, spiritual being (a world that is immeasurably more profound, significant, and stable than the other one)” (56) The light that Frank talks about is the same light, or in the words of Zosima, “love” that one imbues with oneself after inner reflection. Both Frank and Zosima recognize that a spiritual world is only attainable through confronting one’s own inner thoughts. Both of them also recognize a hidden world of spirituality present within everyone, which is present through self reflection but is more profound and loving than anything that comes from outside someone. They also recognize the personal transformation that accompanies the finding of grace within oneself and the rejecting of the “darkness” of superficiality and materialism.