"The two young fish swim on for a bit, and then eventually one of them looks over at the other and goes, 'What the hell is water?'"

By Sam Yang - Get similar updates here

I sit back in my chair and reflect on my years of martial training. Attempting to understand what it is that I have been doing. Constant learning is important, but there needs to be time to digest. Otherwise, my understanding is only surface level. It is like eating without tasting. We often get too absorbed with accumulation, and we become unaware of what it is that we have taken in. Buying books without reading them. Picking up habits when there is no point for them. Pointless productivity is not productivity.

We are taught, but we are not learning. The teacher is free to speak, but our mind is not free to listen. We have yet to organize and inspect what is already there. It is too much. We count hours of practice but what about hours of meditation? When there is practice without deep-thinking, how are we different from machines? How can we be creative with our practice while mechanically going through our practice? How do we create?

There is a need to step away and dwell. How can one look at something in a new way if one never looks away?

So I open myself and muse, not only to my experiences but the experiences of others. As a collective stream of consciousness; to forget whatever it is I think I know and start anew.

Based on the Taoist concept of wu-wei (無爲), Bruce Lee gave this now famous metaphor: