Learning to learn — meta-cognition

Meta-cognition — thinking about thinking, monitoring one's own cognitive processes, and adjusting strategies in response to what one observes — is the highest-order learning capacity and the most reliably transferable across domains. Students with strong metacognitive awareness consistently outperform those without it, regardless of prior knowledge, because they can identify when understanding has failed and adjust their approach accordingly. The Sutras' practice of svadhyāya (self-study) is meta-cognition applied not to academic performance but to the nature of citta itself — the most radical form of learning to learn.