Sadhana for Self Understanding

All seekers of self understanding ask the question  - what should I be doing to make the self understanding happen faster ?  I will attempt to provide my own learnings

1.  Self understanding is a biological process.  You can only create favourable circumstances for it, but you cannot realy accelerate it.  The process is of transformation through maturity growth and evolution. 

Factors that create favourable circumstances are

1. Presence of a living Guru in your life ( one who is a master and also is skilled at guiding you)
2. Your state of complete surrender to your Guru
3. You being part of a study group.
4 Your silence practice - consistency and depth
5.  Your determination and priorities towards self understanding

Factors that create unfavourable circumstances are

1. Comparison shopping for a Guru, scripture or group
2. Excessive verbalization of the scripture
3. Thinking that it is not practical
4. Thinking that it is very hard and not for me mortal
5. Getting into arguments / defending your opinions with people who are not on the same path

Hope this puts a perspective around sadhana for your understanding