About How They Did It Back Then

Literature is full of stories about the adepts of the past. Depending on which tradition you are studying, you will encounter very rich fables about:

 1) What brought that or the other human to the path.
 2) How they found a teacher.
 3) How they were initiated and proceeded through the cathartic 2nd stage of learning.
 4) How they found companions on the path.
 5) How they achieved a critical barrier.
 6) How they become benefactors for others

This delineation is by no means final. It is only a vague outline, and many times these interchange and of course are much more denser if you apply them to life.

There is no way to describe the exact flow of this sort of narrative, since it always varies, but it is obvious that there is some sort of an abstract that can at least serve as a guide from the start. That said, this abstract is so deeply interconnected with the idea of personal power, that it is not even clear whether it even exists all in itself, or it is a creation, a monumental construction of the seekers of liberation.

The books tell us of things happening as far as 80,000 years ago in Tibetan. Similar in Toltec and Vedic and Pre-Vedic traditions. This highly contradicts what the modern anthropology knows to be "factual" information. This is because the modern science is usually limited to empirical analysis and rejects "non-factual" information related to the flight of consciousness, dreaming, and such. All of that is an indivisible part of knowledge and shouldn't be rejected. In fact it seems like the best of scientists are dreamers deep inside, just dreamers confined to their structural home base  - the lab, the particular field of science, professorship and degrees, and so forth.

However, looking back it seems that the adepts of the past were also empirically driven, no less, but perhaps sometimes more than the scientists of the modern era. In fact, their drive was so strong and passionate that they would disappear from the face of the Earth and no one would be able to find them. We don't know where, but it is at least clear that powerful dreamers prepare a getaway spot for themselves somewhere in the dark sea of awareness, and there they go one day.

What is Passion? To me it is an unyielding emotionally charged drive, unstoppable in its nature, direction and force. One doesn't want to stop because of the sheer pleasure of going. This, besides desire for gain is what drove the adepts of the past, so called "sorcerers of antiquity" as they are named in Carlos Castaneda books, yogis from Indian, Chinese, and Tibetan literature, and some such.

Caution comes in here because the uncontrollable passions, or desire for gain made some of these individuals greedy, as the infatuation with power does. Just imagine one such gentleman - high plumage for an important meeting with colleagues, jewelry and obsidian piercings, body markings and all depict a very powerful person with perhaps a loud sounding name. Not an underground lizard, but a high flying eagle. These individuals were well accepted as leaders of men and women because the practiced the types of knowledge relevant to the time and place, and understandably mysterious and hidden from the uninitiated, just like an alphabet may have been in our history not so long ago.

These individuals would choose apprentices themselves, and it would be a great honor to be accepted into their world. Many parents would gladly say "bye bye" to their children, as perhaps now many without fully knowing it say "bye bye" to them when they go off to school or college, perhaps at a later age.

Once admitted, the child would be fully immersed into learning, as this would be a replica of  life itself with one difference. From waking up until going to sleep there would be an unseizing contact with what the teacher or teachers represented. That is far from being academic - it is more like "chopping wood and carrying water", and probably included chopping some wood and carrying water, as such a learning unit would have to generate resources from living and nourishing. The knowledge was passed from higher to lower, from elder to younger, although not strictly so - it does make sense.

So how does one find the teacher of knowledge? Well, I think the 1st question would be, "which facet of knowledge is one interested in learning?" When that's decided, it is not one's parents, but a powerful urge, creates an intention to learn whatever is needed to learn to make the individual complete. True learning is without boundaries, and one can never limit himself and set the boundaries of place, time, and resources. I know that for fact, as I always have gone to great efforts to get a book that I was interested in and to find a human who could share what they know. Usually I think of myself as successful in that endeavor, because it is sometimes amazing how things that were meant for me invited themselves up into my lounge.