Being told the answer to something and regurgitating it later is not learning, it is memorization. Real learning is accomplished by wrestling with an idea until you have your own answer for it. Many people, because of the rush of the world today, think that the object is to come up with the fastest answer possible, so we jump at the first answer that comes to mind. This is often a very superficial answer.
In order to get to a deeper understanding, we need to wrestle with the idea for some time. Usually, if you wrestle with an idea by going back to it repeatedly for weeks on end, and eventually months, we often come to a much deeper understanding of both the question and the answer to it.
The way to do the exercise is to write down what immediately comes to mind and date it. Then, wrestle with it for a couple of months before writing down your new answer. Compare it to your previous thoughts. In the process, you will go through many emotions. each time you write answers down, write down what feelings you have had while doing the exercise, for example: Angry, bored, frustrated, impatient, confused, etc. This will lead to a much deeper understanding of how you really feel about it.
Even the two month answer is far from the depth that is available to you. It takes eight months or so before you really get to the bottom of it. Keep doing the exercise until you have done it at least eight months. Then write down your new answer and all of the insights you have gained from working towards it.
Another powerful technique is to do it as a group. If three or four people do it a s a group, not only does our own insight deepen, we learn from each other's different perspectives. The way to do that is to pick the topic to discuss and each person thinks about what he/she feels the answer is and then tells the answer to the others. Do this until each has spoken.
There are two parts of this process. First, expressing to others helps you to become much more clear about it. Second, hearing other people's point of view helps you to consider things you have not thought of.
The next step is for the group to come to a consensus of what everyone agrees the answer is. It takes work to come to the consensus and then write the group answer down. In our workshops, we take it one step further by taking each group's answer and comparing them until we come up with a consensus amongst all of us. This brings all of us to a much deeper understanding.
Wrestling with an idea can bring up many emotions and be a very stressful thing to do. That is why we do not do it during the Managed Stage. It can easily trigger another crisis by escalating the flow of energy and information. You should wait until you are in your comfort zone and have well developed skills for reducing the flow before doing this exercise.
The exercise might even be effective at bringing you outside of your comfort zone, which would then bring into use the tools you have to return to comfort. This can be part of the process of taking yourself out of your comfort zone and back in during this and future expansive stages.
For the Freedom Stage, use the question, "What does "Depression Is Beautiful" mean?” as the topic to wrestle with. This will help you to grow towards an understanding that will help you to experience the beauty in depression and to see value in it. It will also help you to no longer suffer during painful experiences because you will understand that resisting it is the source of suffering, not the flow of energy and information itself.
At the Stability Stage we are learning to function at the highest range of energy and information flow that once caused a crisis. In order to function there we need to better understand what it means to have such a high level of flow. The question to wrestle with here is: What did Saint Teresa mean when she said "The pain is still there. It bothers me so little now that I feel my soul was served by it."
Wrestling with this will help you to understand that you do not need it to go away, but need to change your relationship to the pain.
Self-Mastery is about mastering your ability to choose the right reaction to every stimulus. A powerful stimulus we all need to learn to respond to is that of criticism. The question to ponder at this stage is: What is the best way to respond to criticism? Wrestling with this will lead to insight that applies to all flows of energy and information. Perfecting this leads to self mastery in all circumstances.
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