Simplicity in Growth: Mastering Personal Development Through Core Principles

Chapter Twenty | Free One Million Minds: Simplicity in Growth: Removing Development's Complexity

12/31/2024

Duration | 6 minute 55 seconds
Guest: Dr. Symeon Rodger

Synopsis

In this chapter, Jamie Meyer and Dr. Symeon Rodger explore the concept of personal development and growth through the lens of simplicity. They discuss how development should involve layers of experience, incorporating thought, body, and spirit to create depth. However, Dr. Rodger warns against overcomplicating the process, where people often fall into the trap of trying to learn too many techniques at once, leading to overwhelm rather than progress. He shares a story about a Tai Chi master who emphasises the value of focusing on foundational principles and going deep rather than broad. Both agree that the key to true growth lies in mastering simple, core principles and finding what resonates personally, rather than trying to learn every method available.

Dialogue Summary

Jamie Meyer:
We started this conversation talking about advancement and different avenues of development and understanding. Something that’s kind of come up from me throughout the evolution of that conversation is that really what we’re looking for is more layers. So whatever we’re doing needs to be more layered. Whether it’s we start with the thought process, we need to introduce the body, we need to introduce an energetic or spiritual understanding of that one thing. Instead of doing everything with one part of ourselves, we really need to do anything with all parts of ourselves. And that’s what creates the depth or the semblance of what you’re describing as available through the Tao, Tai Chi, and Qigong. Have I missed the mark, or am I kind of somewhere in the right realm?

Dr. Symeon Rodger:
I think there are a lot of different ways, Jamie, of describing this, and that’s one of them, for sure. Yeah, it’s more depth, more layers of ourselves. Yeah, we want to connect with more layers of ourselves. Certainly, things that are very somatic, like Tai Chi and Qigong, are examples, yoga to a certain extent, other things can help with that, for sure. One of the traps is that it can become, and I think you alluded to this earlier with personal development, it can become an endless litany of things to do. Okay, if I want to develop personally, I have to have time for meditation, Tai Chi, yoga, tapping, this, that… Pretty soon, you’re spending theoretically 24 hours of your day doing these things, and you don’t have time for sleep.

Jamie Meyer:
Or a job. You don’t have time to make any money.

Dr. Symeon Rodger:
No, exactly. As you said, we like to complicate things. Part of that complication is looking at all these things and saying, “What? You have to do this. I have to do that.” You end up with a to-do list, and then you feel more stressed because of the to-do list. That seems counterintuitive, doesn’t it? Well, yes, it is. Maybe what might help is another story from this particular Tai Chi master I referenced—kind of a fun one—where he takes people down a peg. At one point, people were training with their partners, doing various things, and he stopped the whole class and said, “Look, I just had someone come up to me and ask if I could teach them this form or that form or this other Qigong set. I understand that in your culture, you’re all about complexity. You want to learn a whole lot of stuff. You want the whole thing. You want the slow form, the fast form, three versions of each, six different Qigong sets. But you’ve got to stop going broad. If you want actual progress, go deep.”

He continued, Traditionally, when this was originally being taught, there were people who would never be allowed to see the Tai Chi form for the first years they were training. They wouldn’t even be allowed to see it. All they did for the first six months was stand in a low horse stance for hours a day, which developed an enormously strong lower body. That’s foundation number one. After that, they might spend six months doing nothing but projecting power, issuing power, which is something you do in combat. He used one particular movement as an example. And he said, ‘There are some people who will do nothing but that for six months. You might know more about Tai Chi than that person, but that person can throw any of you through a wall. So who knows Tai Chi better—him or you?’” Because they’ve gone very, very deep into very specific principles.

Jamie Meyer:
So it’s about simplicity?

Dr. Symeon Rodger:
Exactly. Principles can always be condensed into simplicity. There’s no end to complexity. Even something like Tibetan Buddhism falls victim to this. The number of meditation systems is blinding—absolutely crazy. And yet, you go back to the person who actually brought Vajrayana Buddhism from India to Tibet, Padmasambhava, who says, “Forget all that. Here’s one thing.”

Jamie Meyer:
Take the concept that all of those differentials exist so that for every person, there is an idea—one thing—that works for them. They don’t exist so we learn them all, but so that one person can find the thing that suits their being, their way of being, the best.

Dr. Symeon Rodger:
Yes, ancient systems talk about it in that way. There are different things for different groups of people because they have different orientations. Find what works for you, what resonates with you. It’s about finding what works for you, and then always going back to the basic principles. Principles can always be reduced to simplicity.

Credits Roll