You Cannot Grow if You Cut Your Roots

Respect for tradition seems to be an important part of the learning process. We can regard tradition as the foundation and stepping-stone for learning rather than something to be rejected. You cannot grow if you cut off your roots. You will become a monster, having no relationship with your environment and no possibility of cooperation with it. Cooperation with ones background beyond personal trips provides richness and precision rather than pure inventiveness and the glamor of newness or the museum mentality of dwelling in the past. The sense of total commitment to one tradition brings about the perspective and wisdom to work with ways that have developed in other traditions. Other disciplines can then be seen as process rather than purely for their end product. Having fully incorporated into ones own life experience the knowledge and discipline learned through one tradition, you can then see the essential meaning of other traditions. When you are willing to let go and relax with experiences, not holding onto the sense of security in what you know, information becomes part of the learning process, and cooperation develops naturally.