"Learn" and "practice"

The Three-Character Classic, a primer for children learning Chinese characters and early moral lessons, written a thousand years ago, has the following sentence: “A jade without polishing cannot become a tool. A person without learning cannot understand principles” (玉不琢,不成器.人不学,不知理).

Jade is precious, but if it is not polished, it will not become useful. People who do not study will never be able to "understand reason". Study is to "understand reason" (知理). "Reason" is the laws of operation, the nature of all things.

Physics is the reason for the movement of matter in nature. Normally, if we hold a heavy object up high and then let it go, the object will fall to the ground. That is reasonable, otherwise it is unreasonable. How people live together in each community, in this world, is justice.

Learning is first and foremost to gain knowledge, to understand the world around us, to proactively choose our actions, to get as close to “reason” as possible, not to be led by the nose in a chaotic world of information, to live a righteous life… We can also gain money and status from that knowledge, or we can’t.

To make a living, one should focus more on “practice” than “study”. “Practice” (習) is like a bird spreading its wings (羽) to learn to fly, which roughly means to imitate and follow someone else to master a certain skill. “Practice” often goes hand in hand with “practice”, which means to repeat over and over again until proficient. Like practicing martial arts, practicing an instrument, learning to cook, or even learning a foreign language...

You don’t need to “know the truth” or understand the essence of anything to “practice”. It’s common for good winemakers to not know the chemical symbols of wine. Of course, having a good knowledge base will help you progress faster and further, but the main thing is to just imitate what others do and diligently repeat it many times, and you’ll be fine.

Being able to cook a few delicious dishes, make shoes, sew clothes, weld or pickle vegetables... means you can live, live well. Not only for a living, "practice" also gives us countless skills to enrich our lives. It is important that we know what we need, what to prioritize first in order to "learn" and "practice" correctly and effectively.

Humans are special animals, with large brains and many complex activities, consuming about 20% of the body's energy. Using our brains a lot, to learn throughout our lives, is the destiny of humans from birth. Of course, not only to earn a living, but also to think and distinguish right from wrong, to imagine, to feel, to love, to explore this vast and wonderful world.

Source: https://baoquangnam.vn/hoc-va-tap-3151732.html