Transcending the Form
A sense of wonder is a powerful motivation. The broader and more encompassing it is and the more it is used to explore every avenue of life, the more depth and complexity the experience. Having that wonder leads to a curiosity and the curiosity to a passion; the desire to find out more and more.
That passion can engender an understanding and, if you’re lucky, an epiphany. Connections are made to prior knowledge in a way that clarifies the previously unknown. New skills and perspectives become available and greater possibilities open up.
The problem here is that this feeling can be addictive. The student associates the means with the feeling of achievement and greater potential, which can become problematic when the same activity fails to generate the same feeling. Logically, it couldn’t possibly as the epiphany has already occurred and greater stimulus is needed in order to achieve greater understanding or ability. The mistake is to think that doing more will have the same effect as going deeper into what has already been done. Like carving a sculpture, the key is not in looking externally to add more but going inward to remove the excess.
This is why people plateau in their training. The initial learning curve is so steep as they are introduced to new experiences and concepts that they equate development with the new rather than refining the known. Less immediate, this process takes a commitment and attitude toward the work that encourages trial and error, but it is the focus of this commitment that begs consideration.
Finding a new way to reveal new understanding or remind us of what we knew is intoxicating. We want to share this experience with others as a means of justifying our new perspective or helping others achieve the same understanding. The problem here is the misconception that “if it works for me, it will work for everyone”, which is reductive and implies that there is a right or wrong, or singular path to the goal. Society has seen what becomes of this attitude in conflicting schools of thought or warring religions – even when the goal is the same, there are many ways to achieve it.
This compulsion to convince others of the worth of the method can, depending on the environment, lead towards fanaticism, particularly if the methodology asks something of the participant that they find challenging. The more physical, mental and socially distancing the demands of the practice, the more likely the participant to exhibit fanatic tendencies, reinforced by shared belief systems, attitudes and exposure to the isolated environment. The other thing that creates this aberration of passion is the uncertainty and doubt of the participant; their lack of knowledge and faith that the method will work for them in meeting their goals is filled by false bravado and desperate hope. The need to convince others is often borne of their own need to convince themselves. Unconsciously, they are trying to reconcile the outcomes with the means and finding some disparity. Often this disparity exists in the teaching - the message somewhat distorted or diluted as a result of the ego of the teacher themselves, their sense of self-importance, or desire for financial or other form of return.
It is this difficulty that forms a common obstacle during training. Once a means of attaining a greater or higher understanding is organised, and the organisation believes it is the sole means of achieving this higher understanding, its’ acolytes often feel they have some power, entitlement or control bestowed upon them. There is a story of God and Satan walking together when God notices something shiny and picks it up. “Huh,” he says, “Truth”. Satan says “Pass it here and I will organise it.”
Hopefully, the teachers, understanding that theirs is but one way of many, exemplify the fact that the goal in these cases is not to become a great organisational member. Furthermore, if they are good teachers, then they would instil their students with the confidence to trust their own understanding, rather than relying on someone to provide them with it.
The great irony is that the organisation is needed – whether that is ordering the ideas into a community of practice or a particular methodology – to transcend that organisation. You practice and practice the form until the form is no longer necessary, because you understand that it is simply the means, not the goal. All forms are like dogma – they are the finger pointing to the moon, rather than the moon itself. Like different religions interpretation of God - same, same, but different.
If you trust your own inner understanding that you have gained everything you can from the form, there is no need to enslave yourself to it. Perhaps another form will further your journey toward your goal, because it is this truth, not consistency to which you are committed.
Any form is but a vehicle, and one of many, with which you can achieve your understanding. The form is limited; your understanding is not. The form is what you do. Your goal, your greater understanding, your truth is the lens through which you see the world. It’s what you are.
