The Sufis say that if a man has no awareness nothing can be taught. So the first thing to be taught will be awareness. And awareness takes a long time because you have lived many lives in unawareness. It has gone very deep in your blood, it has entered into your very texture, into every cell of your body; every fibre of your psyche is full of sleep.
This sleep has to be broken. Once this sleep is broken then... then the disciple is ready to learn. It will depend on how aware you are. The Master can pour in only that much.
A small parable....
There was a tradesman in a small village in the East who sat on his knees in his little shop, and with his left hand he pulled a strand of wool from the bale which was above his head. He twirled the wool into a thicker strand and passed it to his right hand as it came before his body. The right hand wound the wool around a large spindle. This was a continuous motion on the part of the old man who, each time his right hand spindled the wool, inaudibly said, 'la illaha illa'llah.' There could be no uneven movement or the wool would break and he would have to tie a knot and begin again. The old man had to be present every moment or he would break the wool. This is awareness, this is JIKR, this is life. Sufi means awareness in life, awareness on a higher plane than that on which we normally live.
-Osho, “Sufis - The People of the Path, Vol 1, #3”