Risk is no risk when you are an expert. How many times have we watched someone with great skill and believe that they are doing the impossible, when in fact they themselves feel it is no big deal? Yet when we are ignorant and act without skill, we are the ones risking. It is really dangerous, and it is out of our wrong vision that we believe we are sure of what we are doing. Because of our lack of knowledge we are not even aware of the possible stakes. This usually ends in a mess, and the question is, why me? The answer should be, because I choose it.
When we are experts we see the whole picture and know things that people with less skill do not. So the expert is sure of all possible risk because he has more and better data [and knows how to interpret it?]. The non-expert will probably devise a solution fraught with risk because he lacks the information that would have guided him directly to the resolution. Then many will say the expert is lucky, but he will say no, the direction is clear.
So how do we become an expert? Yoga Sutras I.14 states that through practice done for a long time, with no interruption and with great devotion, we can reach our goal. We need persistent, correct hard work to bring us to the knowledge we seek. How many times have we seen people putting in effort that does not bear fruit because it is not right effort? They are inefficient and may be repeating the same shallow process and not wanting to face the challenge that is in front of them. They continue to perform this same activity thinking it will bring them success. At some point, these shallow workers decide that the knowledge is flawed or that it is impossible to attain. They abandon the work. If they had looked at how they had approached the work they could have seen that their own effort was flawed. From these conclusions they decide that the expert was just talented; it was easy for him. They ascribe words like ‘lucky’ to the expert, and this removes any sense of responsibility for their own failure. No, every true expert has worked extraordinarily hard and pushed through obstacles that most people have never met.
At some point the effort is so internal no one can see it, so observers think real effort does not exist. The path to becoming an expert follows the three levels of attention and prayer expressed by all spiritual traditions. St Symeon in the tenth Century and the Siva Sutras speak of these three levels in regard to spiritual practice. They can, however, be applied to the acquiring of any expertise. First we see the person doing the same activity as we do. This is the first level. We are all struggling with the external processes. We learn the tools and techniques of the trade. We are using our five senses. We are learning external structure and skill. For most, that is all there is. And that is the problem. Some, however, begin to question and look to understand intellectually what they are learning. They will study and will wrestle; they will even try other techniques to the same goal. These people know there is more to know and are moving in the direction of acquiring that knowledge. For them expertise is having the most knowledge and skill. They are heading in the right direction, but they are not done; there is more after this.
When I was a dancer, we used to work hard to have full control over our instrument so that it could say and do whatever we wanted it to. But we were never going to be dancers until we could go beyond technique. To be an expert we have to follow the steps, the first and second level of knowledge. We have to practice the skills and techniques and become proficient in the processes in which we are working. We have to learn the ins and outs so that our skill is at the highest level—and then we have to let go of all control. The small self cannot be a part of this. It cannot take credit for any of the work or the outcome of our work. Once we have acquired the knowledge we have to surrender to God, to the Self, to really be an expert. We may let go in the early stages by sheer accident, but that does not make us an expert. First, we have not yet acquired the skill at a high enough level, and second, it was an accident that we let go; we were not conscious. The small self will come back and say I don’t know what happened, I don’t know who that was. No, to be a true expert we have to have worked to a level where we have full control of our subject both physically and intellectually; then we let go of the control and God is the doer. At that point we are at the third level.
There are no shortcuts. The three levels have to be practiced in order to reach mastery. We own, master and then transcend. And we are now not risk takers.
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