Reference: Course on Subject Clearing
When we are young, we receive considerable “schooling” from our parents and from the school. We never question that data because it is all new to us. We are told that data in an authoritative manner, so we are not encouraged to question it. This amounts to your understanding being suppressed or conditioned. This has unwanted consequences later.
The truth is: as you understand better, you know what to do better. The first step is to clear up your feelings of not understanding by using The Listing Process.
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Find the Key Subject
Make a list of all the areas of knowledge about which you feel some understanding to be missing. These could be school subjects, job skills, or life skills. Put them all in one list.
Next, arrange the items of that list in the order that you would like to handle them. As you do this, you may find that you need to break some of the broad subjects down into smaller parts increasing the number of items. Do not get rid of any item at this stage—simply arrange or rearrange them in the best possible sequence in which they should be handled. Give it a good thought and enough time.
Continue until you come up with a well-ordered list that you are satisfied with. This should bring all your scattered attention to just this list of subjects.
The first item on that list is the subject that you need to handle first.
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Find the Reason for that Subject
The first hole in understanding occurs when a person does not know what the subject is all about, and why he should be studying it. The hole remains a hole even when he fills it with assumptions. See The First Hole in Understanding.
The subject title may give you a clue. Look up the meaning of the words in the title of that subject and clear them up thoroughly. See Word Meanings. Make sure the subject is what you thought it to be. Get the correct orientation on that subject. Find a good reason to study that subject.
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Clear up the Discomfort
Next, you want to handle any force that went along with the schooling in that subject. See Viewpoint Expansion. Follow the steps of this exercise with the following question:
“In your schooling in __(the subject)__has anything been suppressed?”
Contemplating on this question may bring to mind some traumatic or unpleasant experiences from your school years. This is because pain always accompanies conditioning. If you still feel uncomfortable about the subject, they try out some more buttons provided in this exercise.
You may end this step when you do not feel aversion towards the subject any more. You should be able to confront this subject comfortably.
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Clear up the Fundamentals
Now that you feel comfortable about the subject, the next step is to clear up the fundamental concepts. See Key Word List & Glossary. A logically arranged Key Word List for the fundamentals of a subject may already have been worked out and made available. There may be a Glossary to go along with it too. If not then make them up as follows.
Start by making a list of all the key words that come to your mind from the vocabulary of that subject. Start arranging them in a logical order. For example, the key words of MATHEMATICS may be listed as follows: Digit, Number, Place Value, Counting, Adding, Subtracting, Multiplying, Dividing, Whole Numbers, Integers, Rational Numbers, Rational Numbers, and so on.
A dozen or so key words will suffice. As you clear up the meaning of these key words, you may get a better idea of their logical order. Rearrange them as necessary. If you find holes in that logical order, find the missing key words. Do this until you have all the key words to cover the fundamental of that subject. You may also keep a record of the definitions of these key words to put together a Glossary.
Once you have the logically arranged Key Word List, and a Glossary to go along with it, make sure you understand the meaning of these key words.
Now you have the logical context to understand the information provided on the subject. See The Second Hole in Understanding. You may now see clearly what you understand and what you don’t.
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Other Subjects
Repeat this whole cycle again to find the next Key Subject. Clear up its fundamentals by following the same sequence of steps as above.
Keep repeating this cycle until you no longer have the mysterious feeling of not having understood something. You will now have the certainty on what you know, and what you don’t know.
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Continuing Study
Now that you have cleared up the fundamentals, you may study, in detail, those subjects that you are interested in. See Subsequent Holes in Understanding.
As you select textbooks and start to study them, make sure you do not go by any paragraph, sentence, or word that you do not understand the meaning of.
Use the tips provided in the following posts:
- Blanks in Understanding
- The Earlier Blanks
- Filling the Blanks
Good luck!
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