Acquiring Knowledge

The Mature Magician is a perpetual student. He picks things up, turns them over, asks how they work. He acquires knowledge not to hoard it but to put it to use.

The Manipulator acquires knowledge to gain power over others. He withholds what he knows to keep others dependent. The Dummy refuses to learn because it's hard and failure is scary. The Mature Magician acquires knowledge to serve himself, others, and the realm.

Acquiring knowledge requires:

Curiosity: The Magician follows what grabs him. What keeps him reading past midnight? What questions won't leave him alone? He lets that pull guide his learning.

Humility: He approaches every subject with beginner's mind. No matter how much he knows, there's more to learn. Every person can teach him something.

Discipline: Learning takes work that most people quit on: reading, practicing, getting it wrong, trying again. The Magician stays with it.

Sources: He learns from books, teachers, mistakes, and watching how things work. He looks for truth in places that disagree with each other.

Application: Knowledge that stays in the head is trivia. The Magician tests what he learns, tries it out, and pays attention to what holds up.

Teaching: The best way to learn something is to teach it. The Magician shares what he knows, and his understanding deepens.

Knowledge is not wisdom. Knowledge is information; wisdom is knowing how to use it. The Magician acquires knowledge in service of wisdom. How does this serve? How can this help?

Some knowledge comes not from study but from living an engaged, awake life. We can read about grief, but we don't know grief until it sits on our chest. The Magician pays attention to what his body and experience teach him, not only what's in the books.