Learning to fly

In the Hitchhiker's Guide to the Galaxy series by Douglas Adams, it is stated that, "There is an art to flying, or rather a knack. The knack lies in learning how to throw yourself at the ground and miss ...  One problem is that you have to miss the ground accidentally ... It's no good deliberately intending to miss the ground because you won't".

Some things in life, especially those of a more subtle nature, seem to require a little lack of self-consciousness for their achievement.  Maybe that is why we read Order Members saying from time to time that they don't practice according to the Developmental Model of Spiritual Development?

Maybe they say they are not trying to develop anything in meditation, they are just sitting.  However, it can be asked, if we decide to just sit, are we really doing so to remain exactly the same as we were before we started, with no change whatsoever, (meaning if we were tired and stressed at the beginning, then we are happy to be just as tired and just as stressed at the end)?  Of course not!  We are looking to change somehow, if not through conscious effort then at least by creating the conditions for it to come about, and a change in a positive direction is ...  a development.  Isn't the real question is not are we practising according to the Developmental Model or not, but are our practises overtly or covertly in accordance with it?