Action/Study

One who studies and doesn’t practice is like a ladle in a soup pot. It’s in the pot every day but it doesn’t know the flavor of the soup. If you don’t practice, even if you study til the day you die, you won’t know the taste of freedom!
Ajahn Chah:
Taste of Freedom
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I have been blessed with an attention disorder, partially because of so many head injuries and then most likely because of years of alcohol and drug abuse. I say blessed because I have a hard time retaining what I study without immediately putting it into practice. I.e., I just got a new laptop and it came with the Windows 8 operating system. This damned program is so complicated to me… (Maybe there’s a Windows 8 for Dummies?), I get confused and can’t retain anything from the time I read the manuals to the time I put my hands on the keys and mouse. I have to act first… bumble about from one blind alley to another and then go to the manual for an Ah Ha moment. My experience with all the academic plundering of philosophy and study of theology is that I have retained little. I am grateful for all the academic instruction but I am humbled by the simplicity of the nature of truth. That is to sit down… look inward… let the mind quiet down… get up and go out into the world and practice mindfulness. The knowledge that the Heart of Compassion is with me is the nourishment that employs the sutras of life in my actions.

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