I was recently watching a qi gong training video and the instructor made a really interesting point: Learning How to Do leads to why. The point he was making is that if you want to know the why behind an activity you are doing, you first must necessarily learn how to do the activity. It’s a salient point to make and one often missed when people get caught up in trying to understand the why, without doing anything experiential first.
I will, on occasion, have people ask me questions about a given practice, which is very reasonable to do, but at a certain point the answer becomes, “Do the work,” if the work hasn’t already been done. The reason is simple: A conceptual framework of the actual work can only take you so far. Until you apply the concepts into actual practice, you don’t know the concepts. Theory without practice can only take you so far, especially if theory becomes a crutch that keeps you away from the practice.
I apply this to my own practice by making the choice to do qi gong everyday. Learning the practice allows me to experientially open myself to the concepts and turn them into felt experiences that shape my understanding of the concepts. Each movement I perform and learn leads me deeper into the mysteries I’m exploring, allowing me to discover how to deepen my practice but also illustrating the why behind the practice.
Learning how to do something will naturally create more questions, but it will also answer a lot of your questions. The new questions can lead you deeper into the practice, and while the insights someone else offers can be valuable, the real work begins when you answer your own questions through the engagement in your practice and discover the why through the embodiment of your practice. The whys’ you discover will lead you on to richer and deeper insights, providing clarity and focus around the work.
