I have always been a lover of the Buddha quote, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear.”

I have been a teacher for many decades and a student my entire life. One of the discoveries I have made as a student and as a teacher is that often we are not ready for the lesson.

The lesson often appears as a mountain, one that we’re not ready to climb. We set that lesson aside because it seems too difficult or not relevant to learn.

What I have learned is that we may need to learn a preliminary lesson first, (a foothill) before the major lesson (the mountain) begins to make sense.

Perhaps a story would be helpful to have an appreciation of how a major lesson is sometimes dependent on learning a stepping stone lesson first.

Back at the turn of this century, I was not in a good mental place. Many life challenging events were arriving in my life at the same time. It seemed like the planets were aligned against me. Luckily, I had the good fortune of listening to a seminar on tape presented by Jerry Stocking. It was from that tape that I learned that I was not the thoughts in my head. It was an eye-opening, life changing revelation for me.

That caused me to attend one of Jerry’s events a year later and experience his teachings first hand. He was amazing. During that week, one of the other attendees told me about this book she was reading called “The Power of Now” by Eckhart Tolle. She highly recommended it. When I got home, I bought the book and proceeded to read it 23 times, learning something new about myself with each reading.

The point of my story is that I don’t think the Tolle book would have had the impact on me that it did, had I not previously had the realization that I was not the thoughts in my head. His book built on that lesson and I was then able to absorb more.

I guess what I’m saying is that sometimes you need to build a birdhouse before taking on a remodeling project in your home. The DIY video on YouTube may seem too daunting if you don’t own the birdhouse experience, and you’ll probably lose interest.

There will be a teacher at the ready at all times. Before you’re ready for them, you may need to learn a preliminary lesson that “greases the skids” for you to learn more.

If you’re contemplating climbing a mountain, I’ll quote a familiar, famous, and ancient Chinese proverb to bookend this this post: “A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step.”

All the best,

John

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