“There’s a peculiar ‘rampant’ quality to the untrained mind. It has desires, and momentum, and the person who belongs to this mind is often confused enough to believe that if its present desires were granted, all would be fulfilled.

This can be baffling, because these minds and their associated persons are usually significantly raw and undeveloped. In many case their desires, if granted, would be lethal or otherwise unnecessarily dangerous. So, when these minds arrive at the gate, thinking themselves prepared to pursue some kind of teaching or practice… they are often found running in at least 7 of the wrong directions, in the mistaken belief that their desires represent worthy goals.

Problematically, those desires were not (usually) formed with anything even approximating a mind or heart you would want to follow or obey, and they are generally fraught with egoic and or psychic snares. Shadows, if you will, that have become charged for projection and catalyze desires in a schema that sets up peculiar modes of self-generated crisis. This is incredibly dangerous, and the danger magnifies itself profoundly in the presence of power.

So the first task is sometimes to resist catering to their desires, perhaps even by helping them to see that it is better to discover the direction of development than letting desire stipulate it. In this way, we often discover paths and ways that, when enacted together are actually developmentally and perceptually nourishing, beneficial, and rich.

The process is often a bit like being engaged with puppies. They are so enthusiastic that they want to chew right through the power cord of their own nature, so to speak, and get their teeth on the raw current. Part of what we do is get them to slow down, and find developmental directions that will pay off. Often this involves endless amounts of ‘No.'”

— an anonymous ox trainer