8.  The Time Scale

What time scale are we talking about for this self-transformation? When will you be finished?

At first I thought that if I were only able to learn the necessary things or accomplish a particular set of objectives, I would then be finished and could coast for the rest of my life. I have since understood that was a pipe-dream. If I ever stop working on myself, if I ever think I know it all or have done it all, that’s when I know I’ve fallen back into total unconsciousness. As Don Juan told Carlos Castaneda, one of the enemies of a "man of knowledge" is clarity.

Well, since apparently an integral reason for why you do this is that it will ostensibly have an effect on the world at large, what time scale do you have in mind for there to be a substantive change in the world?

I have absolutely no idea, but I’m certainly not doing this with the hope and expectation that I will see any direct effect of my inner work or some remarkable transformation in the world before I die. I have to do this whether or not I see the fruits of the tree.