A Mason's Work

When we talk about the second level of the seek and ye shall find or the three knocks

or what have you, you get to the second phrase which is ask and it shall be given you.

Now this is a very ironically kind of a different take on the same kind of first process which

is seek and find which is all happening kind of internally to you.

As your cognitive process, it's your refinement and definition.

The ask and it shall be given to you automatically then implies that you need to interact or

relate with the people around you with somebody who knows more or somebody who has capacity

or capability.

It really demands and the ask and it shall be given to you.

It demands an interactive process with the other.

Whatever the other is, the other could be your neighbor, it could be a friend, it could

be a guy in the lodge, it could be the Grand Architect of the Universe.

Whatever that kind of related interactive process, the ask and it shall be given to you,

really is again strongly implies that there is somebody in a position of authority or power

that you have to interact with to get kind of what you're looking for.

If you think about this, there's those situations in your life on a regular basis.

There is always somebody kind of better at what you do or better at what you're trying

to learn or an expert in this space.

When you start to interact with experts in this space, more than seeking, you have the

beginning of a longer term relationship, the beginning of a back and forth that develops

your sort of knowledge skills, abilities, capacities over time.

The mentor can be viewed in this ask and it shall be given to you, Role.

When you begin this sort of dynamic where you are now moving from kind of this internal

only observation and discovery process and into a more relational capacity, the nature of

the knowledge changes and the beginning of formation with kind of these related entities

that are independent agents also happens.

So you're really beginning the process of building that network, of building the sort

of domain of expertise, the relatedness.

And again, it's kind of bizarre, right?

It's all in the three knocks.

It's not this is something that we kind of do in almost all of our large functions as

we knock them out of the door three times.

And yet it's kind of baked right in there the entire process of this discovery.

Now you couple this with the aprons as we've discussed in the previous weeks and all

of a sudden this starts to get much more interesting and much more dynamic.

So when again, we look at this relatedness portion, understand that what you ask for also

may not necessarily match what you are given.

So you might find that that back and forth process is also its own form of discovery

where your ideas and concepts about the way certain piece of knowledge is laid out or

the way a technique is executed or whatever it is you're trying to acquire.

That this this back and forth dynamic also just like in the sec and fine process through

that relatedness now sculpts and crafts a new awareness about what you're trying to learn

or what you're trying to discover.

So as you're out trying to develop these you know that relatedness and that sort of interactive

process be mindful of the notions of the questions you're going to ask in the beginning

versus the questions you might ask later on in your development.

This will help you track and connect with in a more meaningful way your sort of earlier

beginner self versus your sort of more cultivated fellow craft self or what have you.

And stay tuned because we will be hitting the systemic understanding of the three knocks

in the next episode.