Learning and Practice

When a truth is learned, it must be practiced. Indeed, knowledge that is not put into practice is not truly learned; it soon fades away like a mirage.

True knowledge arises when the concept becomes experiential. This applies particularly to religious and moral teachings, whose practice may be difficult.

A hypocrite is someone who claims to be wise and devout but never acts accordingly. Unity of word and deed is a central quality of authentic personhood. Likewise, a teacher should first practice what he preaches.

An Oriental virtue is to be reserved and taciturn so that one does not display knowledge that he has not mastered in practice. The same wisdom applies to leaders in business or any field.

A leader who in his youth has experienced all the hard jobs will easily win the respect and loyalty of his people because he knows what he is asking of them.

Be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who observes his natural face in a mirror; for he observes himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.25 James 1.22-24

Though he recites many a scriptural text but does not act accordingly, that heedless man is like a cowherd who counts others’ cattle. He has no share in the fruits of the religious life. Though he can recite few scriptural texts, but acts in accordance with the teaching, forsaking lust, hatred, and ignorance, with right awareness and mind well emancipated, not clinging to anything here or in the next life, he shares the fruits of the religious life. Dhammapada 19-20 (Buddhism)

That knowledge is very superficial, which remains only on your tongue: the intrinsic merit and value of knowledge is that you act up to it. Nahjul Balaga, Saying 90 (Shiite Islam)

Not study is the chief thing, but action; and whoso multiplies words, multiplies sin. Mishnah, Avot 1.17 (Judaism)

Everyone then who hears these words of mine and does them will be like a wise man who built his house upon the rock; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat upon that house, but it did not fall, because it had been founded on the rock.

And everyone who hears these words of mine and does not do them will be like a foolish man who built his house upon the sand; and the rain fell, and the floods came, and the winds blew and beat against that house, and it fell; and great was the fall of it. Matthew 7.24-27

The one who would have the worst position in God’s sight on the Day of Resurrection would be a learned man who did not profit from his learning. Hadith of Darimi (Islam)

No one who really has knowledge fails to practice it. Knowledge without practice should be interpreted as lack of knowledge… No one should be described as understanding filial piety and respectfulness unless he has actually practiced filial piety toward his parents and respect toward his elder brother.

Knowing how to converse about filial piety and respectfulness is not sufficient to warrant anybody’s being described as understanding them. Or it may be compared to one’s understanding of pain. A person certainly must have experienced pain before he can know what it is.

Likewise, to understand cold one must first have endured cold; and to understand hunger, one must have been hungry. How, then, can knowledge and practice be separated? It is their original nature [to be in accord] before selfish aims separated them. Wang Yang-Ming, Instructions for Practical Living (Confucianism)

Vainly understanding without practice is understanding that has no use. It is nothing but empty understanding. Vainly practicing without understanding is practice that has no direction.

It is nothing but misguided practice. Knowledge and action always need each other. It is like a person who has eyes but no legs and so cannot walk, or who has legs but no eyes and so cannot see.

With respect to priority, knowledge comes first. With respect to import, action carries more weight. When you know something but have not yet acted on it, then your knowledge is still shallow. Once you personally experience something, then your knowledge will become increasingly clearer, and its import will be different than before. Chu Hsi (Confucianism)

Tzu-kung asked about the true gentleman. The Master said, “He does not preach what he practices until he has practiced what he preaches.” Analects 2.13 (Confucianism)

Just as a man or a woman has known what is truth, so he or she should practice that truth with zeal, and should teach it those persons who should practice it so, as it is! Avesta, Yasna 35.6 (Zoroastrianism)

The Master said, “Do not be to ready to speak of it, lest the doing of it should prove to be beyond your powers.” Analects 14.21 (Confucianism)

Teachings of Sun Myung Moon
Whatever you conceive in your head, you should practice. It is not enough to only think it. Why do you need to act?

When your actions are in accord with your words, it creates a center, a place of unity between word and deed, and of unity between mind and body.26 (248:89, August 1, 1993)

Whatever you learn, you must practice. You must practice it in all dimensions: in your vertical relationships, in your horizontal relationships, and in all four directions, widely and deeply. By so training yourself in this world, you will become adept when you go to the spirit world. (248:166, August 1, 1993)

Human beings… cannot become object partners who inspire God with joy unless they understand His will and try to live accordingly. Hence, human beings are endowed with emotional sensitivity to the heart of God, intuition and reason to comprehend His will, and the requisite abilities to practice it. (Exposition of the Divine Principle, Eschatology 1.1)

I do not have the right to teach you anything unless I have first practiced it. (134:203, July 20, 1985)

Teaching is not just a matter of repeating what you have heard. You have to speak from experience; then the knowledge becomes real. (205:130, July 9, 1990)

I believe that anyone who would become a world-level leader, in charge of many people, should first have many life experiences before the age of thirty. You should acquire unforgettable stories from having gone through many challenging life experiences. That is my conclusion after experiencing it all.

Then, when you ask your people to do manual labor, you can appeal to them with the heart you felt while you were a laborer. For example, suppose you once worked at a job where you carried loads of clay across a narrow bridge using poles to balance yourself.

When you tell your story about that job and the dangers you faced, your workers will become serious. An expert is someone who explains and teaches everything because of his or her own experience. (65:302-03, March 4, 1973)

This teaching is not just a theory. I tested everything through my own experience, which involved all kinds of suffering. I have put this teaching to the test and applied it in practice. (133:83, July 8, 1984)