Reference: The Happiness Rundown
17-3. Practice
Learning bears fruit when it is applied. Wisdom, of course, can be pursued for its own sake: there is even a kind of beauty in it. But, truth told, one never really knows if he is wise or not until he sees the results of trying to apply it.
Any activity, skill or profession—ditch digging, law, engineering, cooking or whatever—no matter how well studied, collides at last with the acid test: can one DO it? And that doing requires practice.
Movie stunt men who don’t practice first get hurt. So do housewives.
Safety is not really a popular subject. Because it is usually accompanied by “be careful” and “go slow.” People can feel restraints are being put on them. But there is another approach: if one is really practiced, his skill and dexterity is such that he doesn’t have to “be careful” or “go slow.” Safe high speed of motion becomes possible only with practice.
One’s skill and dexterity must be brought up to match the speed of the age one lives in. And that is done with practice.
One can train one’s body, one’s eyes, one’s hands and feet until, with practice, they sort of “get to know.” One no longer has to “think” to set up the stove or park the car: one just DOES it. In any activity, quite a bit of what passes for “talent” is really just practice.
Without working out each movement one makes to do something and then doing it over and over until one can get it done without even thinking about it and get it done with speed and accuracy, one can set the stage for accidents.
Statistics tend to bear out that the least practiced have the most accidents.
The same principle applies to crafts and professions which mainly use the mind. The lawyer who has not drilled, drilled, drilled on courtroom procedure may not have learned to shift his mental gears fast enough to counter new turns of a case and loses it. An undrilled new stockbroker could lose a fortune in minutes. A green salesman who has not rehearsed selling can starve for lack of sales. The right answer is to practice, practice and practice!
Sometimes one finds that what one has learned he cannot apply. If so, the faults lay with improper study or with the teacher or text. It is one thing to read the directions, it is sometimes another thing entirely to try to apply them.
Now and then, when one is getting nowhere with practice, one has to throw the book away and start from scratch. The field of movie sound recording has been like that: if one followed what recordist texts there have been, one wouldn’t get a bird song to sound any better than a fog horn—that is why you can’t tell what the actors are saying in some movies. The good sound recordist had to work it all out for himself in order to do his job. But in the same field of the cinema there is a complete reverse of this: several texts on cine lighting are excellent: if followed exactly, one gets a beautiful scene.
It is regrettable, particularly in a high speed technical society, that not all activities are adequately covered with understandable texts. But that should not stop one. When good texts exist, value them and study them well. Where they don’t, assemble what data is available, study that and work the rest of it out.
But theory and data blossom only when applied and applied with practice.
One is at risk when those about one do not practice their skills until they can really DO them. There is a vast difference between “good enough” and professional skill and dexterity. The gap is bridged with practice.
Get people to look, study, work it out and then do it. And when they have it right, get them to practice, practice, practice until they can do it like a pro.
There is considerable joy in skill, dexterity and moving fast: it can only be done safely with practice. Trying to live in a high speed world with low speed people is not very safe.
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Exercise
0. Make sure you have completed the exercise section at Happiness: Precept 17-2. Study the precept above.
1. Check the responses to the following questions for false data (see false data steps at Happiness: Prologue).
(a) “Have you been told or taught not to practice?”
(b) “Do you have any rules or ideas contrary to practicing?”
(c) “Have you been led to believe that you shouldn’t practice?”
(d) “Do you know of anything that conflicts with practicing?”
(e) “Do you have any false data about practicing?”
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2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers:
(a) “How have others transgressed against the precept: ‘Practice’?”
(b) “How have you transgressed against the precept: ‘Practice’?”
Do a quick review to see if you did not miss any answers on this step. You should be feeling good about this step.
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3. See if the following question definitely brings up some name you know of:
“Is there any specific person in your past who really transgressed against the precept: ‘Practice’?”
If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:
“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”
If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.
“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?”
“Is there any time when you decided that not practicing was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
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4. Handle any anomalies that come up on the following question by looking at the anomaly more closely.
”Do you have any reservations about practicing?”
If the anomaly does not resolve then review the precept as well as all the exercise steps above to see if anything was missed. Then do step 4 again. When there is no anomaly go to step 5.
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5. Contemplate on the following question.
“Do you have any reservations about getting someone else to practice?”
If any reservation comes up, then consider the following:
“How would that be a problem?”
Get answers to this question until there are no reservations.
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Wrap up Precept 17
0. Review Precept 17.
1. Contemplate over the following question.
“Is there any conflict between being competent and any other ideas you have encountered?”
Handle any conflict with false data steps.
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2. Go over each of the following questions repetitively, until there are no more answers:
“Have you thought of any other transgressions of others against the precept: ‘Be competent’?”
“Have you thought of any other transgressions of your own against the precept: ‘Be competent’?”
“During these sessions have you thought of any withhold?”
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3. Consider this question:
“Do you have any feeling that you wouldn’t be yourself if you followed the precept: ‘Be competent?”
If this is not the case, go to the Step 4. Otherwise, ask yourself,
“Can you recall any person who felt the way you do about the precept: ‘Be competent’?”
If no name comes up then go to step 4. if a name has come up, then continue with step 3 as follows:
“Can you recall an exact moment when you observed ___(name)___ transgressing this precept?”
If there is a realization, go to step 4. Otherwise, continue contemplating as follows, until there is some realization.
“Is there any time when you wanted to be like ___(name)___ ?”
“Is there any time when you decided that not being competent was a good thing?”
“Did you ever do anything bad to ___(name)___ ? (Get all possible answers)
“Are there any differences between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
“Are there any similarities between ___(name)___ and yourself?”
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4. Check over the following questions. and handle any anomalies that come up.
“Do you have any other considerations about being competent ?”
“Do you have any other considerations about others being competent ?”
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