211. Mastery

Try every day to master the correct use of a new tool, weapon or instrument. Once mastered, move on to the next one. Practice, patiently practice.

210.The Principles of Work.

These are the Principles of Work. You should keep a copy of them near you at all times or better still memorise them and bring them to mind whenever you have a task to do.

1. Attend to the working surface. (Let the mind rest at the point where the working surfaces meet.)

2. Trust the instrument to do the job.

3. The work is more important than our ideas about it.

4. Work until it is time to stop.


Then a ploughman said, "Speak to us of Work."
And he answered, saying:
You work that you may keep pace with the earth and the soul of the earth.
For to be idle is to become a stranger unto the seasons, and to step out of life's procession, that marches in majesty and proud submission towards the infinite.
When you work you are a flute through whose heart the whispering of the hours turns to music.
Which of you would be a reed, dumb and silent, when all else sings together in unison?
Always you have been told that work is a curse and labour a misfortune.
But I say to you that when you work you fulfil a part of earth's furthest dream, assigned to you when that dream was born,
And in keeping yourself with labour you are in truth loving life,
And to love life through labour is to be intimate with life's inmost secret.
But if you in your pain call birth an affliction and the support of the flesh a curse written upon your brow, then I answer that naught but the sweat of your brow shall wash away that which is written.
You have been told also life is darkness, and in your weariness you echo what was said by the weary.
And I say that life is indeed darkness save when there is urge,
And all urge is blind save when there is knowledge,
And all knowledge is vain save when there is work,
And all work is empty save when there is love;
And when you work with love you bind yourself to yourself, and to one another, and to God.
And what is it to work with love?
It is to weave the cloth with threads drawn from your heart, even as if your beloved were to wear that cloth.
It is to build a house with affection, even as if your beloved were to dwell in that house.
It is to sow seeds with tenderness and reap the harvest with joy, even as if your beloved were to eat the fruit.
It is to charge all things you fashion with a breath of your own spirit,
And to know that all the blessed dead are standing about you and watching.
Often have I heard you say, as if speaking in sleep, "he who works in marble, and finds the shape of his own soul in the stone, is a nobler than he who ploughs the soil.
And he who seizes the rainbow to lay it on a cloth in the likeness of man, is more than he who makes the sandals for our feet."
But I say, not in sleep but in the over-wakefulness of noontide, that the wind speaks not more sweetly to the giant oaks than to the least of all the blades of grass;
And he alone is great who turns the voice of the wind into a song made sweeter by his own loving.
Work is love made visible.
And if you cannot work with love but only with distaste, it is better that you should leave your work and sit at the gate of the temple and take alms of those who work with joy.
For if you bake bread with indifference, you bake a bitter bread that feeds but half man's hunger.
And if you grudge the crushing of the grapes, your grudge distils a poison in the wine.
And if you sing though as angels, and love not the singing, you muffle man's ears to the voices of the day and the voices of the night.



- Khalil Gibran.

http://leb.net/~mira/works/prophet/prophet.html

209. Important Distinctions Regarding Knowledge

There is a process and an order to the collection and use of knowledge.
1. Data is collected.
2. Data is organised to become Information.
3. Information acted upon becomes Knowledge.
4. Knowledge tried and tested becomes Wisdom.
5. Wisdom applied practically becomes Power.

Power is defined as the ability to act. This is what is meant when people say "Knowledge is Power" though they rarely understand the process.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HF6ac747gaY 

208. The Study of Philosophy

Philosophy is defined as the love of Wisdom.

Let no-one be slow to seek Wisdom when he is young, nor weary in the search of it when he has grown old, for no age is too early or late for the benefits of Philosophy.

She (Wisdom) is more precious than rubies and all the things you can desire are not to be compared to her.

207. A List of Good Practices

Here is a list of good practices. You should take each one and attempt to establish it in your character. Take one a week and in six months you will be a different (better) person.

1. Succeed at home first.
2. Seek and merit divine help.
3. Never compromise with honesty.
4. Always remember the people involved.
5. Hear both sides before judging. *
6. Obtain the wise counsel of others.
7. Defend those who are absent.
8. Be sincere and decisive.
9. Develop a new proficiency every year.
10. Plan tomorrow's work today.
11. Hustle while you wait.
12. Maintain a positive attitude.
13. Maintain a sense of humour.
14. Be orderly in person and in work.
15. Do not fear mistakes. Fear only the absence of creative, constructive and corrective responses to your mistakes.
16. Facilitate the success of others.
17. Listen twice as much as you speak.
18. Concentrate all your abilities and effort on the task in hand.
19. Get organised and stay organised. Have a system for everything !
20. Always ask "What would the Wise do here ?"
21. Make everything as simple as possible but no simpler.
22. Keep practicing.
23. Stay close to your goals.
24. Meet adversity with composure.
25. Study every day.
26. Always keep your word.

206. Habits

"We are what we repeatedly do.

Excellence then, is not an act but a habit." -Aristotle.

"Habits are like a cable. We weave a new strand every day and soon it cannot be broken. -Horace Mann.

"It is easier today to triumph over evil habits than it will be tomorrow." - Confucius.

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/h/horace_mann.html 

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/a/aristotle.html 

http://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/authors/c/confucius.html