How do I actually learn complex things without getting completely overwhelmed?

Patanjali spent his life studying how the mind works, and one principle kept returning: mastery comes through breaking things into their simplest parts. This is what Feynman understood too — if you can't explain something simply, you don't understand it yet. Start by picking one concept. Then teach it to yourself as if explaining to a curious friend with no background. Where do you stumble? That gap is where your real learning begins. Write it out messy. Use your own words. Don't reach for jargon until the basic idea is solid. The mind resists complexity not because you're incapable, but because we're taught to memorize rather than understand. When you slow down and actually think through each piece — asking yourself why it matters, how it connects to what you already know — something shifts. The overwhelm dissolves because you're no longer trying to swallow the whole thing at once. You're chewing it. This is practice in the deepest sense. It's also how genuine transformation happens: not through force, but through patient, honest engagement with what's true.