A questioner expresses her feeling of making a mockery of the spiritual path by attending retreats but then returning to her old life, lacking the courage to fully commit to change. Acharya Prashant appreciates her honesty and addresses the concept of making a mockery of the whole arrangement. He explains that while there is no upper limit to the gains one can have from such a setting, the lower side is the possibility of gaining nothing, which is a humiliation. He advises focusing on guarding against this lower side first. Acharya Prashant introduces the idea of a "humiliation threshold." He suggests that instead of aiming for the infinite, one should strive for a minimum, concrete gain that prevents the feeling of having wasted one's time and effort. This small, initial success, if protected with fierce, beast-like determination, can set in motion a series of internal, unforeseen changes. He emphasizes that this initial step requires a conscious effort and a single-minded pursuit of a small, concrete goal. He further elaborates that the path to liberation from suffering is through conscious, discretionary suffering. There is no easy way to liberation without saying "no" to the conditioned stream of life. He compares the required determination to a lioness protecting her cub, urging the questioner to defend her freedom and truth with violent intensity. He concludes by advising her to pick one small thing to change and give everything to it, as this is the only way to initiate a real transformation.
