Experience - the only way to learn?

"The way that is spoken is not the way" There's some truth in that, some things must be experienced to be understood, but how much truth? "Have you experience of...?" It's a common question, espescially in the martial arts world, as though experience automatically conveyed understanding.

Think about it though, things happen to all of us and there's nothing very clever about letting them do so.

Travelers visit dozens of countries and assume that dossing around in cheap accommodation gives them some sort of insight into the place they've visited - as though by buying knock off cd's and calling joints chillums for six weeks you become an expert on Indian poverty. The beggar will be just as real and just as poor if you stay in London as if you go to India to stare at him. If you watched tv or read books and applied a little bit of empathy and imagination you could understand him just as well as you will by going to see him and you could even give some of the money you spent on a flight to a charity that might help him. Even if you go out there, give away all your money, and sit down to beg and you won't get more than empathy and imagination can give you - "But still you'll never get it right /'Cos when you're laid in bed at night watching roaches climb the wall /If you call your Dad he could stop it all"
It's the same with martial arts. People draw an arbitary line and claim that so much experience is sufficient to predict from and so much is not. The fact remains that no matter how much experience you gather you are still predicting the outcome of unknown events with countless variables based on your own limited experience.
How much do you have to experience yourself in order to understand it? How much is your own specific experience a blinker preventing you seeing the wider picture? What can be learned from other's experience and what has to be learned from your own?

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Consider Phlebas, who was once handsome and tall as you
High mountains are a feeling
I don't need to sell my soul, he's already in me

All good questions ... the real question this all begs is, If you lived in London and had no idea about India at all, would that beggar still exist?


Personally, though -- there are several kinds and levels of experience. Believe me, an American who has traveled to India (or anywhere, really) has a much greater level of experience, and usually an altered opinion of the places he has visited, than an American who hasn't. (There are several reasons for this, but I'm trying to keep it short.) This doesn't make him an expert on India, but it certainly provides a different perspective.

In life and martial arts there isn't really a line. There is a certain level required by certain jobs, social exchanges, and (in MA) fights or competitions. The levels vary by requirement. To put it another way: you need this much of this type of experience to graduate from college. You need this much of this type of experience to get your first job. Or, you need this much of this type of MA experience to fight full-contact with no headgear.

People may draw an arbitrary line, but stopping at the line is to step off the way. Meet the requirements of the "line of experience," pass them, and continue to grow in experience and knowledge.

“	Think about it though, things happen to all of us and there's nothing very clever about letting them do so.	”

A coworker made an interesting point about the difference between knowledge and experience. Using Lord of the Rings, of all things. In "The Scouring of the Shire," she points out, you see the difference in Merry and Pippin between knowledge and experience: when they left the Shire, they knew that bad things could happen to their home. When they got back, they knew what to do about it. Experience gave them a measure of control over their environment.

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"Pain can be a great teacher of compassion and humility."~ Unkotare-san

"Whatever the case, it proves that countless disasters can be prevented by simply assuming everyone you're working with is a moron." ~ Adam Brown, 5 Tiny Mistakes...

experience reduces the likely options, however it does not make it correct, but it does make it relational at the personal level.

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You are not where you have been and you are not where you are going you are only here.

experience adds a multi-dimentional "knowledge" to your brain because it incorporates other senses. So you recall it better and it means more.


seeing a picture of a a begger versus being there with the filth, smelling him, seeing the way he moves if he/she is maimed/disabled, seeing the environment in a 360 degree angle etc...


BIG difference.

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May the force be with y'all.

Experience is a good teacher, but you need education as well because experience can sometimes seriously skew your world view.

Just because it has been your experience that blah blah blah blah doesn't mean that it is the only way things can go.

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Arrogance: n. The idea that your experience has shown you the ONLY way things are in the world.

Absence of proof is not proof of absence.