Q&Rohaa for the Teahouse, by Rohaa (January 14, 2012)
The question asked was:
What factors a person would do well to consider and what a person would to well to do or not do in order to progress on one's path at a pace that is healthy for them? Like, what is a good energy/mindset to be holding if one wants to progress at a healthy, steady pace?
Climbing a mountain
Think of your path like climbing a mountain, and you’re all mountain climbers. The higher up the mountain you go, the more you become you, the more aware you get, and mature, skilled, confident, the works.
Everyone's got their own mountain, their own path. Student 4 would be climbing up Mount Student 4, not Mountain of Student 3. They're all very different mountains. It helps to remember that.
For some people, the mountain starts out rather flat, with only slight hills with lots of trees and lush greenery and pretty streams. For others, there's a big cliff hanging you have to get up first, and then there's a beautiful mountain meadow for a while in the middle stretch.
So you can't say "this person took 2 months and I took 2 months so we should be at the exact same place now". You're not even climbing the same mountain. And because everyone has their own mountain, we don’t have a giant map on your particular mountain.
We do, however, know a lot about mountain climbing.
Student 1: So what we are basically learning at EP are general mountain climbing tools and strategies.
Rohaa: Yes.
We can tell you, if you walk for a long time, you'll probably get blisters. Wear these socks, take breaks now and then, bring water!
In this metaphor, you can see intro much as a pre-climbing shopping trip that you can take with a lot of other people. You're all going to the hiking shop to get walking shoes, your water bottles, bandaids, maybe a walking stick and GPS. All nice, useful things that you'll need for your hike. The hike gets difficult without them.
Paths up the mountain
You can think of the six spiritual paths as different paths up your mountain. They'll all eventually get you there, but some work much better for who you are than others. If you're super tall and you’re trying to take a path that goes through a tiny little tunnel, you might have trouble. If you're tiny and you take a path where you have to leap for high rocks a lot, you might have trouble too
Student 1: And the three primary gift sets might be the toolsets you can choose to bring along on your path?
Rohaa: That makes sense to me.
Then think of your teacher as the one in the helicoptor above you, telling you what's likely ahead, and what you got yourself stuck in. Sometimes teachers come down and haul you out of the mud, or lift you up on a ledge you couldn’t reach by yourself. The most important part of your process, your hiking trip, is that you get there. "There" being a bit of a vague term.
Those of you who have experience with mountain climbing will know that when you get to what you thought was the top, there's a whole big stretch of mountain beyond that.
Student 2: If they tried to lift you onto the mountain top, you'd get no experience, and the change in air pressure might harm you..
Rohaa: Right. it’s the hiking up there that gets you the experience, the skill, the muscle. If you were just lifted all the way to the top, you’d be exactly the same person as when you started. Just on a top.
Student 3: No learning that way.
Rohaa: The point of the hike is for you to change. Because you're not happy with who you are. By climbing, you get a better condition, and a sun tan, and you experience all the beautiful nature around you, and you get to see the mountain goats climb and the bubbies play. It shapes you.
You may have heard of people who’ve climbed Mount Everest; they'll often tell you that it changed them in lots of ways. To be challenged, and have to push forward when it gets rough. That's what shapes you. Not getting to the end. But the end does have to stay your goal, or you’d end up walking in circles.
That's why we ask students in intro already: who do you want to be? Where do you want to go? And then we give them tools and advice to walk in that direction. All directions are fine. But if you ever want to get there, you do have to keep walking in the same one, at least approximately.
Mountain hiker’s guide to dealing with bears
Student 2: All roads lead to Student 2. For me, anyways.
Rohaa: Not always. Only if your goals is Student 2, and you keep going there. Imagine you're happily climbing up your Mountain of Student 2, and there from a rocky part just above you, an enormously big grizzly emerges and roars very loudly. And your path goes right by that grizzly. Now what?
Student 1: Unleash a primal roar and show the bear who's boss, sneak around the bear, take a different route? Or do the holy child thing and befriend the bear if possible.
Student 4: You can slowly sneak around the grizzly.
Rohaa: All good options.
What some people do is get terrified of the bear, turn tail and run down the mountain as fast as they can, away from where they were going before.
Sometimes, people who ran away from the bear come to their senses halfway down the mountain, stop, and think "oh. actually. I was going UP. I'll try it slower this time, or a different route".
And they do, and then again, "ROARRR!" there's that blasted bear. Bears have a way of camping out exactly at those parts of your path that you HAVE to cross to get higher up. So every time you try, it's there roaring at you. Imagine further youve never seen a bear before, and the first time you get near, it bites your hand off. You're not going near that thing again. That's why some people get stuck.
What helps is to ask a teacher, or an older student with more perspective, and tell them "I was on my mountain, and there was a giant brown beast with big teeth and it roared! What is this thing?! what do I do?!" And if they've a little experience, they'll say "it’s a bear. This is how bears act. Btw, your hand is bleeding, you should put a bandaid on that".
If you know what sort of bear it is, and how bears usually act, it’s easier to deal with them. You might learn that they can’t climb trees, and that's how you can sneak by. Or that they really like red meat, and if you toss them meat, you might distract them. Or that if you shoot them in the head, they're dead. Or that if you can make yourself big enough, the bear will back down and go away.
A lot of people will take one look at the bear and say "Mountain climbing is an evil business! I don’t want to do it! My teachers are devils, that they put me here!". Look sweetheart, it’s your own mountain, and your own bear
. If you ever want to get to the top of your mountain in this life, that bear's going to be there. Whether you do it with this travel company or another. And we're all in the business of mountain climbing.Student 4: Some people try to pretend it's not there though. Then they don't get anywhere.
Rohaa: True. Those are the people who tend to plunk down on a rock just under the bear, hear the roaring and tune it out, and they'll tell you "I really enjoy the view here. look, pretty flowers. I really want to stay here. Got nothing to do with no bear that's up there. I dont see a bear. Look, flowers!"
This happens for example with young students who are frightened to look at what we've called gutmuck, the fears inside themselves.
Student 4: Bear could eat you in the meantime.
Rohaa: Not if you stay safely down there.
But you'll never see all the beautiful things higher up, and get the experience and growth that you otherwise would. With younger students, we'll often take them by the hand and walk them up there, say "here. this what you're seeing is a bear. it won’t eat you, it just roars a lot. Step here, step there, and look, you're through already!"
It helps. With a teacher, you can go much, much faster than if you’d go all by yourself. They have more perspective, they know what sort of bears and other scaries to expect and how to deal with them, and even if it’s a new bear, they've got some useful tools. They can see if you're on your path or if another path would help you better. Maybe you're climbing the wrong mountain. Maybe you're climbing Mount Student 2's-mom.
A lot of people grow up to be their parents. It’s because they're trying to climb their parent's mountains, because that's all they’ve ever seen. You have to climb your own mountain.
And if your teacher says "Step here, then there" and you're terrified of the bear and you think “No! I'll step there, then over there, instead, because that keeps more distance between me and the bear!" ... you might fall of a cliff. That's where the trust comes in. You trust that your teacher knows what they're doing, and that when you listen to them and step where they tell you to step, you get through this difficult place. When there's bears, it’s always ok to call for backup.
There's not a whole lot you can do as a travel company or teacher if your student doesn’t actually want to get up their mountain, or if they refuse to listen. If a teacher says step right, and they step left and fall - that's not the teacher's fault. That's why we ask for trust in the difficult scary places.
If you trust me and go where I tell you to and you fall, that's on me, that's my fault. Teachers know that, and they'll be very careful to tell you to step in the safe places.
If teachers know that you don’t listen and halfway through the dangerous part decide you'll step wherever you want, they probably don’t want to take you into the dangerous part to begin with, saying "you stay down there or do it on your own, I’m not taking responsibility for that" And I think that’s fair.
Hiking up Mount-You in 3D
How about routine, discipline, in this metaphor? where does that fit in?
Student 4: The will to keep going and how. "Do I take this path or that one? Where do I turn next?" And scan. decide. act.
Student 5: If you fall, get back up, take care of the bruises, mark the dangerous spot for next time and try again?
Student 1: Routine, discipline: keep on climbing a healthy amount daily, to both keep going forward, keep you in shape, and improve your stamina. The keeping in shape could be metaminutes, and they help you a few steps forward as well
Rohaa: Angel often says "decision, discipline, dedication". some of those are charged words for people, so let me see if I can put them in nicer terms.
Decision would be you saying "Yes! I want to go to the top of mount-me! And no other mount will do! And I really want to do this climbing thing, and see what's up there!”
Discipline is the right tools. using your walking shoes and GPS, and phone to call people if you need, and to bring along that water bottle and some food.
Dedication is the will to keep going, to set one foot in front of the other, and to keep doing it.
I’ve had students who, every time i talk to them, give me a giant list of everything that's wrong with them/their path. "I suck at this and that and X is better at this thing than me and my shoes are broken and..."
Ok. Are you using the right tools? are you doing the disciplines? (for us, that'd be gcb, sweet, meta-minutes).
Others'll tell me "Ok I’ve been doing all these things but I’m still not where you said I’d be!"
Ok. Are you putting one foot in front of the other, every time, and keep doing it? "No, I took a left turn here to stare at the canyon for a few days, and I took three steps, and I’m still not at the top!"
Climbing mountains doesn’t work if you don’t want to walk, if you dont take breaks sometimes to rest. If you go up for three days, then get confused or listen to a fear or something else and suddenly go down for four days. That's why we say some people are running away. They see a scary, and they run all the way down the mountain.
Sometimes they never try again and never look back, trying to forget all the beautiful things they saw up there and pretend to live a normal life at the base of the mountain. looking up now and then to think "wouldn't that have been something". Sometimes they run down only half way, and stop at a place they remember well, a place that's safe. And then they stay there and walk in circles a lot, because they don’t want to go down, don’t want to go up, and don’t like to stay where they're at either.
Student 5: So how about seeing a scary, staying at the same level for a while, while exploring the other side of the mountain you're on, until you're back to try again?
Rohaa: What Mel has been trying out lately is to sit down right under the grizzly and say "Yup, there's a grizzly, I know. I see it. I dont want to deal with it yet. I’m going to hang out here and enjoy the view for a bit. don’t give me too many cool travel updates. But I’d be happy to help younger hikers who are hanging out in places that I know well and feel comfortable with" To me that sounds like a much smarter approach than running all the way down the mountain.
Sometimes you get to that big high up peak that you saw all the way from the base of the mountain, the one you were going for all along, and when you get there, you're happy. You can see there's other peaks, higher peaks further along, but you don’t feel much of a pull to go there. You got to the one you wanted, and you want to stay there. That also sounds entirely reasonable.
So that's the difference between running away, taking a break and calling it enough.
I heard some of our younger students are working really really hard at intro things, spending many hours a day and not getting much result. Think of something like that as trying to climb straight up a cliff for 23 hours a day and sleeping for one hour and trying again. You might strain and bruise all sorts of things in the process.
Student 4: Look for the grizzly? If you feel there is one there but can't see it.
Rohaa: Usually you won’t immediately see the grizzly. You'll hear some roaring . You might see the cave. You might notice it suddenly got quiet, or there's lots of rabbit bones. Call them symptom soup, and ask yourself "Given all this weird stuff, what's up? what do I need to know?" “OH ITS A BEAR!"
Then you grab your travelling encyclopedia or give your teacher a ring and say "what do bears do? I seem to have one here, now what?" Knowing that bears exist and how to look for them already helps.
On the upside, especially lower on the mountain, people all tend to run into the same things. “It’s water! It’s flowing and too deep and how do I cross?” Use a bridge. its there. Simple
. So we know what classes and topics to give them at approximately what time, so they can all deal with the same type of problem at the same time, while knowing what's up. "Ok class, today we're doing an expedition to the bear cave. Bears live there. This is what they look like, this is why they'll be a problem. lets get him out of the way".
This is also why we recommend against quitting in the middle of basic: you're in the middle of bear territory. Quit before you go in, or when you come out the other end, but in the middle's just not a good idea. If you leave that bear injured but not dead, and then you pretend it doesnt exist, you're in for trouble.
Rising challenge levels in the World of Climbcraft
Anyone ever notice that when you get to the higher levels, you still have things that freak you out and scare you? or that much higher belts still hit really difficult spots sometimes?
Student 4: Yup. It may be different types of bears or maybe something else that's not a bear.
Student 1: Beginning to notice, at least. When I was just yellow I encountered even more stuff I was unaware of, and went 'zomg I feel like a white belt again 0.o'.
Student 4: Ya I felt that way before.
Rohaa: We all feel like that sometimes, Angel and myself included
We've had higher belts run away or get really freaked out now and then. How do you think that happens?
Student 1: Because we keep encountering bears and other challenges that are of an appropriate challenge level for us. Like a level 80 hunter in WoW might easily deal with a lvl 60 bear but might have trouble with a level 83 bear
Student 5: I have no idea why it happens really. Just the altitude makes it hard to breathe and then you need more effort that you're not used to putting in.
Rohaa: Younger belts often get totally terrified by what you might call aggressive bunnies. If we've run 200 younger belts through this process, we know pretty well what an aggressive bunny is like and how to deal with it, we give them bunny-prep just before they start hitting it/. And we've teachers who are big enough to take on aggressive bunnies if the student gets too scared.
If you get higher up, you may get aggressive racoons and aggressive goats. And there are fewer people up there, so we don’t know everything about angry goats yet. Plus, dealing with a bunny vs. a goat is a bit of a difference. When you grow, you get to a place where you're getting big enough to take on the big problems inside. usually they are very considerate and wait ‘till you're ready for them. So you can assume that if a problem's there, you can probably handle it if you use all the resources and tools that you have available.
Student 1: Or aggressive-goat-territory has a certain level requirement, so you can't even enter before you can deal with them to begin with
Rohaa: That works.
Sometimes you get really high up, and bam, killer bunny the size of a house. And you thought you were done with bunnies. And it was waiting for you to get big enough to handle it. Yay
.So yes, youll still have gutmuck when you're a green belt or even a black belt. And the small stuff will be easier, but there'll still be really scary, deep pieces of gutmuck that were just waiting for you to get strong enough.
Student 4: Kinda like getting all the other monsters out of the way for the big boss in a WoW dungeon, or doing something to bring out the boss.
Rohaa: Right, a lot of this is like gaming
. It’s why we called this an easy, light, fun path. Because sure, there's bears sometimes and angry goats. But in between those, smell the flowers, admire the view, take a bath in the mountain lake. That's also why it helps us so much to have higher belts. Because the first ones to get to the top will likely go "omg, what is that GIANT MONSTER there!". but after twenty have gone past it, we may have learned "it’s an elephant. feed it this thing, talk like that, not a problem"
Student 4: But it's different for everyone?
Rohaa: You'll find different obstacles than Student 1, sure. And your mountain'll look a little different. Teacher path for you might be really steep, while student path could be easier.
Summary
Rohaa: So what do you need if you want to be mountain climbing:
· Good basic equipment. walking shoes, GPS, phone, stick, water, basic mountain knowledge (say, intro. gcb, sweet, etc)
· A desire to climb mountains and a drive to get to the top.
· Sensible climbing attitude. don’t jump off cliffs, don’t walk through the night, take breaks but also push forward sometimes. Get stones out of your shoes before you get blisters.
