Many people will see things they want to accomplish, including spiritual growth and enlightenment, but, when they look at how far the goal is from where they are now, they see it as too great a task and decide to not even try. Years later, of course, they will complain that they failed where others succeeded and they don't know why. They just must have bad luck. The gods do not favor them. Rarely do the recall that first law and realize that if they are going to sit on their butts all day, they are not going to accomplish anything except getting big, flat butts.

    Just because the goal is difficult and far off doesn't mean it is impossible. Climbing the highest mountain really is just a matter of taking one step, then another. Of course, a successful mountain climber makes proper plans first. He buys mountain climbing gear. learns from other mountain climbers, climbs smaller, less difficult mountains first, etc.

    When it comes to spiritual enlightenment though, there is only one mountain to climb, so it is not possible to practice climbing to a lower enlightenment first. There is still a way to do it though. Remember the movie Karate Kid and how the kid was getting disappointed because, instead of teaching him karate moves, Mr. Miyagi is having him paint fences and polish cars. Mr. Miyagi then shows him how, in learning those things, he was also learning karate moves. Spiritual teachers will often do similar things by having students engage in activities that seem to not be spiritual at all and seem to not be accomplishing anything spiritual. The reason for doing so is that the student must learn to be disciplined, goal-oriented, and to follow instructions. If he can't do that, than to move on to true spiritual disciplines would be pointless, a waste of the teachers time, and possibly harmful to the student. Unfortunately, sometimes when outsiders hear of some of the things being taught by such schools or teachers, they label the school a fraud. Nothing could be further from the truth. A good teacher knows that he must start teaching the student to move forward from where he is now, not where the teacher would like him to be, and to keep him moving forward, even if very slowly, until he is ready for the advanced training.