The difference between a student and a non-student is that a non-student is trying to achieve something and a student is trying to achieve nothing. A student has one understanding: nothing can be achieved. A student knows that there is nothing to be achieved. A student has tried and learned this. She is simply allowing the teachings to be absorbed as they come. There is no hustle about it!
Becoming a Student is a Milestone
Becoming a student is a very important milestone. We aren’t born a student. We have to reach that state and it’s reached naturally. After we’ve tried all our tactics and cleverness and realized that nothing is working. Nothing is working to satisfy that deep deep longing in the heart.
It is after we are burned and burned and burned some more from all our avidya (ignorance of truth) that we reach a point of surrender. We may have cooked (metaphorically) for lifetimes until we are finally done and want the truth and nothing but the truth.
We reach a point when we say, “Money, sex, power, worldly knowledge, fame, respect, etc…nothing is doing it for me. I am not here for all these things, I am here for something else. There’s got to be more to this life.”
This is what makes us willing to drop it all and walk-in empty handed. This is when we are truly ready to receive that which CANNOT BE ACHIEVED.
So, first, we enter each day to become a student. Once we’ve fully surrendered to being a student, then the learning begins.
