Imagine arriving at a teacher's door empty-handed, with only a feeling. You will get something. But you will spend the first part of the meeting reconstructing what you could have brought ready.
Now imagine arriving with the verse you stumbled over, the line of commentary you half-understood, the practical situation written plainly, and the one place where your thinking stalled. The conversation begins a full step ahead.
Come with what you found, not only with what you lack — and the conversation begins a full step ahead.
What Counts as Gathering
Gathering does not mean mastering. You are not expected to arrive with answers. You are expected to arrive with the materials — the texts you touched, the questions they raised, the contradictions you could not reconcile.
This threshold helps you collect those materials and set them in order. It can point you toward what is generally relevant and help you name what you have read, accurately and without invention. It will not pretend to a source it cannot show you.
Come with what you found, not only with what you lack.
The Teacher Reads the Pile
When you bring gathered sources, a teacher can do the thing only a teacher can do — read your pile through the eyes of the whole tradition, see which source actually governs your case, and tell you what it means for you.
That reading is the ruling, and it is theirs to give, not the tool's. The gathering is yours. The judgment is the teacher's. Honor both jobs by doing your own well, and the meeting will be richer for it.