Why practice? Flourishing/ Stretching

Had a hard time naming this post, but it's an idea that's been conking around in my head for a while, kicked into focus by an article I just read called The Fine, The Good, and the Meaningful, in The Philosopher's Magazine, via a blog I read called Integral Options Cafe.

Basically: since everything is in a constant state of flux (that is, every thing,) each thing is either growing, or dying. If you take "thing" to mean, say, "My French Language Aptitude," then it's easy to see that either one is practicing their French, or slowly losing it (something I can attest to personally.) There is no "constant state," only a continual balance. Following this, unless one is getting better and better, actively practicing, one will get worse, even with practice. That is, it's not enough to just practice, one needs to continually practice just outside of their level of comfort, in something I call "The Quick of Practice."

In a bodily sense, this is why I feel to be truly content as a person one must exercise their body and their bodily awareness. The body is made to move. Let it. Harness it, be aware of it, and you will become happier and happier. The body is like the soil for the tomato plant in the passage below. With a really unhappy body it's much harder to be happy emotionally. The good news is that once you've started paying attention to the body instead of a neutral resting state you begin to feel a subtle happy playfulness throughout it anytime a stronger feeling (like pain, or sadness, or joy) isn't present (and even sometimes as a discernible background if they are.)

As far as one's life goes, unless one pushes against one's limits, however you want to think of that, one is floating through life without living. Part of the point of the article, and something that I agree with, is that the idea of human life, the goal if you will, is to flower. This doesn't by any means denigrate the majority of people who never truly flower, or people who have yet to, it is merely to say that nobody goes to Washington D.C. in the summer to watch the Japanese Cherry trees photosynthesize.

And, of course (something I am overly aware of teaching here in China) this continual pushing of limits can't literally be continual. A wave must draw back and forth to wear a cliff away. The body needs rest, like a peak needs a trough. Balance. Push out a little too far, heal. Healed, you're able to push out a little further.

So, then, why practice? In a certain way, there are two phases to human life: socialization, or the mostly mandated period of learning before adulthood when one picks up, consciously and not, the rules and skills valued by their society, and post-socialization, when one is an adult. In this second period the opportunity exists to continue self-directed growth, though many do not. But adulthood is not a plateau. You either grow, or die (a maxim of evolution?) With evidence recently that intelligence is flexible and can be increased, even speaking only of one's brain power the case is clear for practice. While children have the most energy and time to study any number of skills, the paradox is that it is not until one has become a self-realized adult that one can really begin to push the boundaries of who one is and what one can do. Practice, in adulthood, becomes not merely the acquisition of skills, but the conscious engagement with life itself.

The below is from the article.
'Flourishing is a biological term, which etymologically connotes flowering – that is to say the healthy, vigorous unfolding of the capacities peculiar to each species. For a tomato plant, flourishing is quite simply its production of strong leaves and shoots, and then its coming to maturity and bearing rich and succulent fruits. But what are the fruits of human life?

The Lotus Eaters are contented enough – but, as it slowly dawns on Odysseus (or Ulysses), there’s something disquieting about them – they never do anything, just loll around eating the lotus (perhaps the ancient Greek equivalent of reaching for the valium). The moral drawn by Homer, and Tennyson, is that the truly happy life must be one where we are stretched. '

Mistakes are systematic.

Mistakes are systematic; excellence, brilliance are individual.

What I mean by this is that people tend to make the same mistakes as large groups of other people, and that they fall into a few easily recognizable categories. I mean this in the broadest sense possible: in anything one could possibly make a mistake in, from cooking eggs to managing money to much larger life decisions, the mistakes made are basically the same from person to person. However, mastery of any of these is personal. That is, if grandma's recipe is delicious (I'm talking out-of-this-world-delicious), it's because she made it according to her own circumstances, and adjusted where necessary. If you mimic her recipe, it'll taste good, but it won't be the same. It'll be missing the intangibles. Now, if you take that recipe and use it as a base, learn the basics, and then adjust according to your taste and circumstances, and do it a thousand times until it's just right, your recipe will be out-of-this-world-delicious as well.

The less complicated this is, the less difference there will be between individuals, walking, say, or cooking eggs, though still, mistakes will be systematic, and brilliance will be individual.

But the more complicated the subject is, living one's life, for example, the greater the appearance of difference is between individuals, though they are making systematic mistakes (and so, the more and larger mistakes there are to be made) and the more infinite and incalculable the difference will be between those who do it well.

So, learn form others' mistakes, but know that ultimately at some point in your life you'll get to the point where models and predecessors are entirely unhelpful, if you're good at what you do. Unfortunately, if they're even aware of doing it, most people follow the examples of others too closely, and you get whole industries that build up around following in others' footsteps, parsing their words and actions and ideas for meaning, rather than just taking the leap to do it for one's self. Unfortunately, because the world would be much more diverse if this were not the case, and it would be easier in contrast to see what the tie that binds is. It's not bad, though, it's just the way we do things.

As a practical example, take playing the guitar.

At first, if you don't have a teacher (not necessarily a literal person) you'll suck, hardcore, and for a long time. However, following his or her example, you'll learn how to play, mostly things that have come before. But, if you only stick to the known, stick to playing in the styles of the master's, and playing their songs, you'll be no more than a recording of someone else, and you'll never be quite as "them" as they were. Think about how many really good guitar players there are out there (not to mention how many infinite more mediocre ones there are) and then think of how many truly great, unique ones there are. Getting stuck in others' ruts is not the only reason there aren't a billion immortal guitar players, another reason is just lack of practice, but it's one of them. The mistake is thinking that you ever could copy someone a hundred percent. Without their body, their mind, their past, how is that possible? Your fingers are unique, the guitar you're using is different, if only very subtly, and you are a different person. It's impossible! Use examples to learn from, but never forget that they are only examples, and you are you.

So, if you find a teacher (of anything) that tells you the way they do it is the only way, be very skeptical. They're probably caught in someone else's wake. Don't, however, make the opposite mistake of rejecting all examples and sliding back to the stone-age. One needs to get as high (or far) as possible on the path of others before striking out for one's self. When to do it? It really doesn't matter. Just be aware of it, and you'll know.

Also, be aware of the above, that it is impossible to walk in the literal footsteps of someone else, just as it is impossible to shape your fingers in the same way as your guitar teacher's and that every step includes your own individuality necessarily. Learn every stage, then play with it. When you've learned as much as anyone can teach you, if you've been playing your own tune and making the practice your own, you shouldn't find it so difficult to jump at the end.