We need to learn the technique in the beginning and then leave it behind

This principle is a common one I believe. It cuts across many seemingly dissimilar domains: health, yoga, writing.

We were watching Journey to cure today (It is available on Amazon Prime in the US, UK, Ireland, etc. The US VPN did not work. The UK one did.) In it Dr. Jha said this, in terms of the work he does, and the teaching he imparts.

I'm paraphrasing here.

You learn the techniques when you're starting. You learn all these things, what one should do when these symptoms appear. What a particular symptom can mean and so on. But after a time, you need to forget about the technique. You need to leave it behind.

When he touches a patient, takes their pulse, he gets to know, by referring to all these things that are there at the back of his mind, what the problem with the patient is. And then things pop in his head. And that's how he cures.

I believe the same thing applies to yoga. I wrote about this, tangentially in [[202503302203 It does not matter how many times I surya namaskar|It does not matter how many times I surya namaskar]]. It is very important that the first time when you're learning yoga, you do so with a proper guru, a proper teacher. Form is crucial then. Form, posture, your breathing. But after a time, once you are certain about the form; after you have practiced it for many many days, you need to move on from the technique.

In writing too, grammar, structure, plot, dialogue, how to write things, basically, matters when you're starting. When you're practicing. When you're learning to write. But once you have these things internalized, once these techniques are second nature to you, you can almost forget about it, not think about it, and just write.