To Know vs. To Apply

Academia is great. It adds knowledge to life. Knowledge is a fundamental requirement in all endeavors be it flower arrangement or tea ceremony or karate teaching. With out knowledge we would be reduced to mere animals using basic instincts to survive. We all know that without our intelligence and ability to reason, etc. we would not survive long with these bodies.

Where the rubber meets the road is when one has to apply their knowledge to living life. To make it "work" on the dojo floor and more important to make  it "work" out there, in the streets.

One is fairly easy to obtain and the other is a monster to apply. Application has and will always be a most difficult task but it is "doable." A lot of factors are involved and it takes a "whole" of the sum of all its parts to make it work - to apply it to life.

I learn new things daily. It sometimes reinforces what I already know, it sometimes changes what I already know and best of all it sometimes teaches me new and exciting things. In my practice and training I have to work diligently to implement it into my application of martial techniques. Where it becomes even more difficult is when I have to apply what I learn and know into my everyday "actions." What I say and do in that society relationships we all need for survival and that means things like "people skills," etc.

Not an easy thing to do. It is of interest to my studies of this subject to realize how "easy it is" to do angry and destructive things. It is most difficult to avoid that and achieve morally high ground by the actions and deeds in every day life. I take comfort that my studies and my efforts in such singular tasks and practicing and applying karate are a model, microcosm, that helps me see, hear and feel what is right and just and moral in behavior and beliefs.

It is that which creates a philosophy, culture and belief system that promotes unification and cohesion of the group for survival. After all, in a true sense of nature and the universe survival, in all its variations, is the ultimate need of all human beings, all creatures of nature in this universe.

Make it your fundamental strategy in life to "know and apply" your knowledge. Sounds like a good start to me!