Learning & Unlearning

One day, a Student came to his Master asked:

Student : Why do I have to keep learning like this? We live at the bottom of these hills and you make me climb a different one everyday. I barely recover from all the strain that you put on my body everyday. Why do you have to train me only on these hill tops? Can’t we just stay at the bottom of hill forever or sometimes just climb half of it and train? There were days, you didn’t train me just because we didn’t reach the top on time! How will I ever learn anything like this? We can also stay at the top of this hill forever if you like hill tops so much.

Master : You know, I’m glad that you are finally starting to question my teachings! Questioning everything is very important part of learning.

(After saying this, the master stopped and went back to his meditation practice again!)

Student : I really want to know. You haven’t answered me yet. I can arrange everything for you here if you want.

(The master stayed silent for a while, then sighed and started talking.)

Master : You see, you are not the only one learning here! Today we will learn something about the process of learning. I climb up this hill everyday and I was doing this before you joined me for a long long time! Long even before you were born. Now since I’m learning with you, I have to pay attention to my learnings too and I can’t put all my focus on teaching you. Now, I have been doing this for a long time now so I can answer some of your questions and your curiosity but I can never answer all of them.

Curiosity is like infinite stream of water flowing through a small hole. You want more water to flow, you have to make the hole larger. The only way to make this hole larger is by trying to pass your finger out of the hope. Imaging this act as you trying to grab the question from the back of this very little hole. The more and more you do this, more this hole enlargens and more easily you can ask questions but what happens when this hole becomes large?

(The master waited for his disciple to reply)

Student : Water will spill more faster.

Master : Yes, and you have a large number of buckets too to fill water in them? Then what will happen?

Student : If the flow keeps on increasing like this, I can fill some of the buckets in the beginning but in then end I’ll get tired of doing this and water will start flowing on the floor, and more and more water will keep getting wasted. I can take rest for a while and then fill these buckets with same energy, and that is why I’m asking you to stay, either on top or bottom of hill! Or, we can stay somewhere in between too… If you want

(The Master laughed and then said)

Master : Yes, you will get tierd and need some rest! But what else you can do?

(The student thought for a long time but then couldn’t find the answer and after getting frustrated by the question asked by his Master, he asked what would he do?)

Master : (with a faint smile on his face) I would stop making the hole larger when I think I will fail to fill water on time and take rest at the same time. Remember you were the one who made this hole larger!

(The student was not much satisfied by his Master’s answer)

Master : You see, as I said that this stream is your curiosity! The water are your questions and the amount of water you can fill in the bucket is the amount of knowledge you gain through these questions. You can make this stream fast by enlarging it and asking many questions at a time or by learning many things at a time but after some time, very soon, you’ll start to get tierd and water will start spilling and getting wasted. Your learnings will slow down and the knowledge you gain will also start getting lesser and lesser and after some time, you’ll be in a flood of your own thoughts and questions. These questions are not just the questions you ask me, these can be the questions you ask to yourself about the daily life. The problems in life. You can either slow down the pace of your problems or collect the water faster. If you can do either way, you will be just fine.

(The student was now getting confused that why out of sudden his Master was teaching him this lesson)

Student : Ok, you still haven’t answered my question and I need an answer and why did you have to give this big example to explain me this small thing?

(The Master smiled and waited for this student to understand what he was trying to teach him and then said :)

Master : You need to keep this stream in control. As I said I have to learn and teach you at the same time, so instead of asking many questions, you should rather ask questions that can help you answer others and then answer the remaining on your own! Now, you should practice your meditation for a while and then try to ask me a more proper question. Questions lead to questions and you should first try to answer the root ones first.

(The Student thought for a while and then went back to his meditation and after recalling back all the events that happened today and after some time, there was only one question in his mind!)

Student : Ok, so I’ll ask only one question. Why is doing the same thing everyday so hard?

(Master now had a faint smile on his face and waited again before answering)

Master : Doing the same thing every day is hard. Hmm…
In life, you can infinite possibilities of the things you can do and achieve. If you take a look at it this way, then doing everthing different or event atleast on thing different everyday is hard. After some time, you’ll run out of ideas becuase in the end you are doing the same thing of doing everything different everyday. So you see, your question is actually not based on the fact you are doing the same thing daily or something different, it is infact a matter of time before you start qutting on either of these things and you’ll find both of these things difficult. What should you do then? You can’t seem lead either of these ways of life properly for a long time.
I'll give you some time to answer this. Let’s get back down before we lose the light.

(The Student was amazed by his Master’s back question and then started helping his master to collect all their things)

(The next day again the Student and Master climbed another hill top and sat for meditation again, the Student still unable to find answer to the question his Master asked him yesterday, was continiously searching for an answer in silence)

Master : Did you get an answer?

Student : I’m confused, if we can do something different everyday, then why aren’t we following that approach to life? You said we’re bound to achieve the same destination from both of these.

Master : (with a faint smile) You sure learned the lesson of asking the important questions now!
You can surely follow the other way to life. Do everything differently everyday. You wouldn’t know until you have done it, but in order to attain mastery, you have to make sure you’re not breaking the one rule to your way to mastery, doing it over and over. You can do everything different until the day you run out of ideas and repeat one of the things you’ve already done before.

(The Master then asks his Student to bring a long stick)

Master : You see, learning constantly everyday is like breaking a stick like this. Everyday you climb the hill and learn a new thing, you break the stick into half and then the following days, you break the other halves into their halves and so on until the day comes when you just can’t break it any furhter. That is how hardness is defined isn’t it? When you want to do it, but you just can’t do it!

(The Master kept breaking the stick as he spoke until he had one unbreakable piece)

Master : You see, no matter how much I try, I just can’t break this by my bare hands. You sure can use some tools to break it further but every tool you will find will have a limit. What can we do then? How can we keep learning if the stick just won’t break further?

(The Master waited for a while to let all this sink in his disciple and then answered)

Master : You are stuck and find it hard to break this, but you also have to keep learning, you have to keep breaking stick to smaller and smaller pieces.
To solve this, you just take another stick and start again! In real life, this would mean, you are now stuck by the idea that you can’t break this further, hence you have learned that you can’t break it further, hence you must unlearn the idea and pick another stick and start over again. Now you are no more stuck and you no more find it hard, atleast for sometime! You can break this stick easily and learn more again.

(The Student thought for a while and then said)

Student : …and by stick you mean my mind and body?

Master : Yes! you break yourself everyday, your mind and body. One day you find you’re at capacity. Slow down the water stream. Take your time. Take some rest. Start over again! Learn to learn and then unlearn and then learn and then unlearn and so on… Monotonocity is by property and definition something you can depend on easily. Bring monotonocity in your ways of life and then you can attain mastery too by depending on it, by depending on yourself.