Learning and Knowing

LEARNING AND KNOWING
One of the great joys in life is learning something new. The brain gets excited, the heart get happy, our whole life gets stimulated, we feel more alive and free and fresh.

And one of the great tragedies in life is that so often we are so stuck in Knowing, that we have no room left over for Learning.

You've all head the story, the great student who goes to the Master and says, "I go to all these teachers, and they tell me stuff, but I don't seem to be making any progress." The Master orders a glass of water, an already full glass, and then she begins to pour water in, pour and pour. The Great Student yells, "Stop," what are you doing? The Master says, "Teaching you is like filling this glass: no room for anything else.

This often happens when people are introduced to Feldenkrais Work or the Byron Katie work. Instead of going inside and sensing and learning what that can be learning new, they shift it into something they already know: this is just like what I do in …..(yoga, my stretch exercises, something someone taught once in college gymnastics, NVC, 12 steps).

So now they are protected from learning. This is nothing new. They already know everything. The glass is full. No need to waste time on any exploration or discovery, and so they can zoom off and keep doing the same old things they've always been doing.

One minor problem: no learning and thus none of the joy and delight from opening up and becoming new as our life becomes new.