Thanks to all of the people who passed long their experiences.

Just because I used the terms 'master' (since I was thinking of Zen
at the time) and the term 'great leap forward' does not mean any
'yet-to-be masters' who reads posts in this group are disqualified
from telling the rest of us what experiences causied the scales to
fall away from their eyes and better techniques to appear.
Enlightment may be gradual or sudden in the different Zen traditions
and I assume in learning how to turn it is the same. .

The current question evolved from an earlier question I posted on how
to notice torn grain before you put finish on a piece. The people who
anwered that post definitely helped the scales fall away from my eyes
and my bowls look much better thanks to those 'masters'.