Frantic Learning

There is a lot of freedom that comes with living simply. As I continually strip away excess in my life, I find a heightened sense of clarity in my perspective. When I am not busy chasing more, I find I have everything I need. As a father and a teacher I strive to give that sense of clarify of perspective to my children and my students, but I can't always prevent those I care about from repeating the mistakes of my past.

Many of my advanced students find themselves caught in a cycle of frantic learning. Like all of us their appetite for new knowledge is insatiable. The problem is with their lack of clarity in perspective. The value of knowledge/skill is found in how it serves you. Knowledge is a tool used to achieve goals, it is not a goal itself. If knowledge is acquired but never applied, the student slips into this fanatic cycle where they are so busy learning that they master nothing. Activity is not necessarily an indication progress.

Knowledge changes everything. New information when applied to old information, changes the old information and makes it new information. I liken kung fu training to a pyramid. Your core techniques are the foundation of the pyramid and the strength of that foundation determines the maximum possible height of the pyramid. Students who do not have a firm grasp of their core techniques will never progress to the higher levels of the art. Rather than doing what it takes to build a stronger base so that more advanced knowledge can be piled on top, many just begin building a new pyramid. It can be a lot more fun to start from scratch than to continually renovate what you have already built. This is why very few people master anything and why there are hardly any real martial artists anymore.

As a master level instructor I am continually rebuilding the base of my pyramid. Everyday my kung fu evolves with new knowledge that is redefining and refining my old knowledge, especially my core techniques. My understanding this morning is deeper than it was on Friday night and come Monday night, I will be a different instructor with more clarity behind my perspective.

In our consumer based society, we tend to mistakenly pursue happiness by acquiring things. When we simplify our lives and reduce the excess, our real values become apparent. No one on their death bed ever wished they would have spent more time at work earning more money. Acquiring knowledge is no different. If you spend all your time chasing knowledge and forget why you were chasing the knowledge, you are going to end up with a lot of regrets.

"Without knowledge action is useless and knowledge without action is futile." - Abu Bakr (573 - 634)