NO ENLIGHTENMENT WITHOUT KNOWLEDGE

[Starman]

There are those who go to college right out of high school and they have very little life experience;
these people believe in putting theory before experience, and then there are those who start college
after acquiring a lot of life experience. They are often called "non-traditional students." An having had
the experience they then go about gaining the theory associated with that experience. In my opinion,
having once been a college teacher, I see no right or wrong in either approach. But I will say that
experience is the best teacher, especially spiritual experience.

I used to do an exercise with my beginning freshmen students, write the word "Apple" on the blackboard
and ask students to write down three things they know about that word "Apple." Some would write down
Apple Computers, or something else associated with the word "Apple." I would then show them a picture
of a Red Delicious Apple, and have them write down three things about that. Then I would hand out
Real Apples with a knife, and ask students to cut open, and taste the apple if they so desired, and write
down three things about that. It always amazed me how the theory of the word "Apple" rarely connected
with the experience of a real apple.