I agree. It's both the greatest strength and the greatest limitation of the Socratic method--it relies on the learner to take an active role. When they do, the lessons are POWERFUL. But, when they turn away, they are easily corrupted.

After all, Socrates always called himself a philosophical midwife--helping others give birth to ideas.

I also like your Rumi reference (RE: the light getting in through the cracks). As he puts it elsewhere: "keep breaking your heart until it opens."

Rumi's view also reminds me of what Aeschylus wrote in the Agamemnon: "And the gods, who set mortals on that brutal voyage toward understanding, have decreed that we must suffer into learning."

Cheers!