Will I ever understand zen?
If you mean 'understand' in the sense
that you understand the rules of football
or how to do quadratic equations, then the answer is "No." Eventually you will
develop an intuitive understanding, but it will be more like the way you
understand how to ride a bike. In other words, you can do it but, should someone
ask you how you do it, you would be at a loss to explain.
(Robert
Allen)
Academic
Academic prowess is not a clear indication of intelligence. Universities
are businesses.
They create a product.
In order to manage their workload and ensure consistency they have certain
conventions:
playing the game
rules
obedience
conformity
saying what someone else wants to hear
These call into question the value of 'further
education'.
Is your mind being challenged or are you merely being taught new
material, along a pre-existing rut?
Consider 'plagiary'. Plagiary is the act of taking someone else's work and
passing it off as your own.
This is frowned upon by universities.
Yet, when writing an essay you are required to cite source material.
In essence, you create a thesis through reference to what someone else has
already said.
The validity of your work (to some extent) hinges upon whether or not someone
else has spoke of it previously.
But does the act of publication make something 'true'?
Quoting somebody else does not demonstrate understanding, originality, or
creativity.
IQ
Intelligence cannot be measured by any known standard.
The notion of IQ was invented by Francis Galton and is widely considered to
be flawed.
IQ was intended as a discriminatory tool.
It assumes that there are preferred ways of thinking.
Da Vinci, Aristotle and Einstein are all considered to be high-scoring on the
IQ scale, yet their genius stemmed from a rejection of conventional
thinking.
If intelligence can be measured, how would you test the IQ of somebody that
cannot read and write?
Who is smarter: the doctor or the carpenter?
It depends whether or not you require a chair.
How do you test an animal's IQ?
It would be quite an assumption to judge an animal's intelligence by human
standards.
Learning
Learning is a complicated process.
People tend to think of learning in a very formal way. They go to school,
college or university and they learn.
Or they are taught something at work.
Setting time aside in order to learn is a wasteful use of our brain. Ideally, we
want to be learning all day every day.
This is not about making time to study. Or 'bettering yourself'. It is about
absorbing things informally.
Instead of sitting down and studying, we can learn things constantly - by
interacting, by observing.
You do not even need to try.
There is a difference between looking seeing, listening and hearing.
A healthy mind is like a sponge. It learns constantly. It is passive but
receptive.
Learning is not simply proceeding from a condition of 'not knowing' to
'knowing'.
That is merely acquisition, the collecting of information.
What good is that?
Learning from mistakes
People frequently fail to learn from their mistakes. They just keep on
doing the same thing again and again and again.
There is far more to intelligence than acquisition. We must be alert.
If something does not work, it is necessary to determine why it failed and try
something else.
This capacity to change is a key factor.
A dull mind is doomed to repeat the same error continually. An intelligent mind
adapts and moves on.
Finding out for yourself
Figuring things out for yourself is an important component in learning.
An intelligent mind does not have to be 'told'.
You should have the capacity to make connections and associations, have
insights and discover things for yourself.
Adapt, change, improvise
Intelligence is all about
awareness. About
seeing and moving with what is
happening.
It is not the strongest of the
species that survives, nor the most intelligent, but the one most responsive to
change.
(Charles Darwin)
In tai chi
self defence, it is not enough to learn by
rote and then churn out
techniques.
This simply will not work in reality.
You need to proceed with no techniques, no formulas, no methods.
Intelligence is not about planning or being prepared in advance.
It is about 'thinking on your feet', making the best use of what is available
and being capable of
instantaneous change.
Appropriateness is entirely contingent upon your ability to keep adapting,
changing and improvising.
You do what is necessary, and you keep on changing as the situation demands.
Sensitivity
Sensitivity is the main skill in tai chi.
Nothing else will lead to any real progress within the art.
Your capacity to accurately determine what is happening will make the difference
between success and failure.
Applying the right thing at the wrong time is pointless.
You need to be in the
here and now. Awake. Aware. Observing.
Detached. Composed.
How can your mind be clear, receptive and responsive when it is filled with
chattering thoughts?
Page created 1 February 1998