The Application of Wisdom

There is a process to what we do in class:

First, our teacher demonstrates. He sets a standard, something for us to aspire to.

Then, we imitate. At first, our imitation is flawed, rough, clumsy, almost a parody of what we have seen. But with a few corrections and adjustments, we find a semblance of the form.

Then we drill. We repeat the form over and over again, cleaning our movements up, making them richer, fuller, and learning to work with energy, and not with muscle. As the drill starts to make the moves become real.

Then we practice applications of our practice, making the theoretical effect the real world. Finally, after we have enabled the application of wisdom, we come to the highest level of knowledge: inspiration.

Inspiration is the moment that we are able to take what we have learned, and apply it in ways that we have never been taught. It’s the moment that we are able to embody the wisdom we have learned to such a great degree that we can explain it in our own terms, our own way, our own metaphors. We are no longer parroting, or imitating what we’ve been taught. We have become the lesson.

DEMONSTRATION
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IMITATION
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DRILLING
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APPLICATION
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INSPIRATION

Work to make the lesson your own. Drill and apply the lesson until you embody it. That is the true application of wisdom.