Book 18 Chapter 20

108 Books Every Student Should Read-But Almost No One Else Does

Thirteen Non-Extensive Utilitarianisms

-Excerpt

…(strategy)…….

…Some argue that class, whether it's a thousand years old or five hundred, is just an antique that's been unearthed and is of no use. This is the non-classical theory of dance. But this is a big mistake. Of course, it's impossible to capture all the essence of martial arts in a class. But if that were the case, why do we read the Four Books, the Five Sutras, and other texts left behind by past masters?

I think it is a grave mistake for "non-dance theorists" to dismiss the utility of biro as a tool for recording information. It saves elements of martial arts that might otherwise be lost from not only individual dementia but also historical dementia. How many masters' martial arts have been buried in the past with their deaths, and how many more would have suffered the same fate had it not been for the existence of classification. It is very important to be able to remind ourselves of hazy memories. Many people forget the basics of martial arts when they are learning them. Even if you memorize them all, some of them are quickly forgotten again if you don't use them for a month or two. This is why it is so difficult to memorize the forms, not to understand the principles and realize their essence. Even licking the outside of a watermelon is not so easy when the watermelon is too big. How much harder would the process be if there were no one to help you along the way? Dull pen wins, and dull pen wins over brilliance, not for nothing.

It is a guide and a map for expanding one's mind into the wider world. Without it, we would have to go through a lot of trial and error every time. Our lives are finite, and how can we make progress if we keep repeating the same mistakes over and over again? Despite the obvious limitations of language, books are the most powerful tool that finite humans have created to combat infinite time. Only the lazy, uninterested in reducing ten failures to one, would fail to recognize its usefulness.

…(more)…….