A break and checking the answers, making an idea a part of us

A BREAK AND CHECKING THE ANSWERS
1.1 While I was in the army I loved studying mathematics. Whenever I had time to spare I’d find a place to sit and then get pleasantly lost in the process of solving problems. I found it soothing, like a form of self-hypnosis. But it wasn’t easy, at least not straight away.
1.2 I remember that the first time I looked at Binomial Coefficients, they looked so challenging that I put the book down after barely a quick glance. The next day I read the instructions again and was surprised because even though my first look at the new material had been quick, it was enough that while I rested I somehow began to open up it. Then the problems seemed easier, more understandable and so I began to try to solve them. A lot of my solutions were incorrect but I had the answers in the back so that I could see afterwards straight away where I went wrong. I didn’t have to wait for the teacher to correct my work. Instead, looking back over my attempted solutions, I saw for myself where I went wrong, and then carried on practicing.
1.3 While I was doing the problem I was “in it.” Afterwards, when I was checking the answer, I was resting and looking at the problem from another point of view, from the outside. The more regularly I changed my view of the problems, from being in them to looking at them from the outside the quicker I learned, and the quicker I was able to make the idea of what I was learning a part of me. And then I rested from it for a while and did something else.
1.4 After a while I got to a stage so that as I practiced the solutions would flow from my pen, and they were correct, as if the idea of what I was doing was a part of me and I was able to express it. I was able to check the answer as I was doing the problem. Those were the times when time seemed to stand still.
1.5 Learning a new idea, resting we get a chance to see that idea from another point of view, so that we can make the idea a part of ourselves. When have we learned the idea? When we can express it freely, when we can check our answers as we answer the problem, when we can watch ourselves doing what we are doing. Expressing an idea freely it’s like we are riding a wave, and the wave is time and because we are on the wave of time, time stands still.