“He who loves practice without theory is like the sailor who boards ship without a rudder and compass and never knows where he may cast.” ~ Leonardo da Vinci
The oscillation between theory and practice is fundamental to effective living. There are underlying principles behind all that is and each thing has a discoverable and comprehensible essence. And the door to comprehension is opened by intellectual acuity, emotional resiliency and tactical agility.
There are three categories of people: those who tend to love practice without theory, those who tend to love theory without practice and those who sit comfortably in between. My experience tells me that practice without theory is frenzy, theory without practice is lethargy, while theory blended with practice is the crucible of creative living. Moreover, to truly understand something, your heart and mind must equate with its essence.
If you only learn techniques for overcoming obstacles in your art, in horse riding for instance, and you fail to come to grasp the essence of your mount, you will never move from proficiency to mastery. And why undertake anything with a goal less than mastery?
Discovering the underlying principles at work in that which comes to you as a problem or a challenge is at times easy and at others quite arduous, but we are endowed with the sacred capacity for reason for this reason. As Michelangelo said, “Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” If you wish to extend control in new areas of living now unfamiliar, you must take time to consider the question: “What is the underlying design and how can I harmonize with it?”
As with sculpture, you can correlate with the original roughly, that is, in approximate terms, or you can master even its subtlest essences. In our recent era, we have gone a long way on practice without theory. We’ve strayed from the classical insistence on true knowing and settled for an inexact facsimile. To what end I cannot be sure, but in my mind the two biggest mistakes one can make on the road to truth are: 1) not starting and 2) not going all the way.
Gregory Hake 
“Every block of stone has a statue inside it and it is the task of the sculptor to discover it.” well said by Michelangelo ! This is true for any leader, visionary, mother or father! Thanks for every stone you place on the path to truth. I intend to participate !
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Really great points! This is an especially inspiring post for me as we are getting close to sending the senior class of 2012 onto (hopefully) bigger and better things.
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Creating a balance between theory and practice can seem arduous to those who are not accustomed to it. For the person who is all theory, they have to beat the inertia that exists when practice is lacking. For the person who is practice with no theory, it seem dull to slow it down and thing before acting. Yet when both are mastered, ability is exponentially increased. Really, this is life’s sweet spot. It is where all the best work happens.
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Your words point to the way of true knowing. Here is a wonderful communion with essence and a delightful perspective to treasure the opportunities for the active expression of it.
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The theory of a subject is usually facinating to me and the practice in the early stages is exciting for it’s newness. I think our mettle shows when the mental learning curve declines and to progress the practice curve has to increase. In my experience if you stick with something when many would quit for frustration, boredom or distraction, just beyond that stretch there is an experience of yourself that’s a new dimension, it’s quite like pushing through clouds to suddenly see the sunlight. It’s an exhilarating experience. I think if you quit you lose a little bit with each endeavor lowering your endurance and atrophying your abilities.
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Great points, thank you.
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