Here we shall notice that since meditation is the attempt tosearch for an answer that is not obvious to the question that is not trivial, one’s readiness to “look” beyond one’s habitual stereotypes comes as a mandatory precondition of its performance.
It is safe to say that if the answer that has come asa result of meditation process was “somehow clear” from the very beginning, it means that you’ve done something incorrectly. Either the question that you’ve taken was wrong, or you have failed to complete the meditation. The right answer always comes as conceptually new information that generates anew opinion, a new view of the problem. It astonishes the consciousness and turns it upside down. However, in order to do this, one should from the very beginning be able to accept the boundedness of his present point of view, the inefficiency of the existing behaviour pattern, imperfection of one’s forms of emotional response, and so on. And we should say that most people are not able to do this.
A person may for years be falling into the same trap and consider all the bumps on his forehead to be the result of someone else’s schemes, or a mere disfavor of the Universe. Moreover, most people out of principle don’t want to listen to the one who points out at the imperfection of their method of moving and its link to their falling into the trap. And been unable to listen and hear, they will hate the one showing this, since having once heard about the problem they will have it more difficult to keep from solving it, let alone that one’s picture of the self as a “god some” person might get shaky. Let us not stretch the truth – the majority of people consider themselves to be awesome and their ideas and actions to be the only correct ones, even if they are up to the neck in the shit, this being Life’s hint at their opinion to be wrong. By the way, this is what explains both the esotericism of esoteric traditions and the traditionally cautious attitude to them on the part of Joe Public. You think such an attitude has been set only recently and only in our society? Nothing of the kind. Here is a saying from one of Indian treatises: “Fire, water, king and yogi are of specific disposition. Keep aloof from them”)))) Yes, it comes from ancient India))).
The same happens to convictions. One may easily see that the less competence a person has in some fields (psychology, medicine and social relations are on top positions here) the more peremptory and confident he is in his convictions. They are experts who reflectively scratch their heads saying that “it’s not as easy as it seems…” While Masters usually prefer to keep silent, for they understand that it will take them several years and tons of tears to explain things.
A person’s capability to see his bounds and imperfection sand to have this authentic strive for a self-change (mind you thatI speak about genuine desires and not hypochondriac’s stories about the misfortunes of his life) is a specific set-up, a separate skill that not everyone has. In one textbook on social psychology I have read the results of investigation carried out by American scientists stating that only one third of officers will work better if they are promised a better salary, and only 6 percent are ready to change the selves, and not only expand extensively the amount of their effort, to make their wages higher. These 6 percent have come close to the state that we call “the state of traineeship (apprenticeship)”.
The core point of this state is one’s readiness, willingness to listen. Not to obey, but to listen to the things the Universe is telling you. This state is neither addressed to some separate person nor is it merely a type of relations between a Teacher and a Student. It is not even a dramatic “search for one’s bounds”. For there’s no need to search for them – the Universe uses your everyday problems to clearly show you the limits and the opportunities of your development. All you have to do is to see and hear obvious things…
You can gain the state of traineeship when facing something that obviously goes beyond the limits of your understanding, that makes you admire it, but so that you don’t rush into the already prepared answers and don’t lock yourself from it. It can be stipulated from the outside through specific procedures (called diksha), though this is not the topic of this article…
But it can be lost. When one thinks that he has understood everything, that it is enough for him, the problems will start. Because the Universe will once again try to make the person see obvious things.
We could proceed with this topic even further. But I will finish by citing myself: “Yoga, just like any development, ends up with the words “I AM LIKE THIS”.