A Simple Practice for Developing Internally Experienced Wisdom

Solutions are rarely 'out there'

Below is a story told during S.N. Goenka’s Vipassana Meditation Course.

A young professor was making a sea voyage. He was highly educated with an alphabet soup of letters after his name, but he lacked life experience.

In the crew of his ship was an illiterate old sailor. Every evening the sailor visited the professor’s cabin to listen to him talk about different subjects, as he found the young professor very knowledgeable.

One evening, after several hours of conversation, the sailor was about to leave the cabin when the professor asked, “Old man, have you studied geology?”

“What is that, sir?”

“The science of the earth,” replied the professor.

“No, sir, I have never been to any school or college. I have never studied anything.”

“Old man, you have wasted a quarter of your life.”

With a long face the old sailor closed the door and left the cabin. “If such a learned person says so, certainly it must be true,” he thought. “I have wasted a quarter of my life!”

The next evening, the sailor was about to leave the professor’s cabin and again, the professor asked, “Old man, have you studied oceanography?”

“What is that, sir?”

“The science of the sea.”

“No, sir, I have never studied anything.”

“Old man, you have wasted half your life.”

With an even longer face the sailor went away. “I have wasted half my life; this learned man says so.”

The following evening, once again the young professor questioned the old sailor: “Old man, have you studied meteorology?”

“What is that, sir? I have never even heard of it.”

“Why, it is the science of the wind, the rain, the weather.”

“No, sir. As I told you, I have never been to any school. I have never studied anything,” replied the old sailor.

“You have not studied the science of the earth on which you live; you have not studied the science of the sea on which you earn your livelihood; you have not studied the science of the weather which you encounter every day? Old man, you have wasted three quarters of your life.”

The old sailor was very unhappy. “This learned man says that I have wasted three quarters of my life! Certainly, I must have wasted three quarters of my life.”

The next day was the old sailor’s turn. He came running to the cabin of the young professor and yelled, “Professor sir, have you studied swimology?”

“Swimology? What do you mean?”

“Can you swim, sir?”

“No, I don’t know how to swim.”

“Professor sir, you have wasted all your life! The ship has struck a rock and is sinking. Those who can swim may reach the shore nearby, but those who can’t swim will drown. I am so sorry, professor sir, you have surely lost your life.”

Moral of the Story

You can study all the “ologies” in the world but if you don’t learn “swimology,” then everything in your head is useless. You can read and write books on swimming, you can debate its theoretical components, but none of that intellectual knowledge matters if you can’t survive in the water. You must learn how to swim, and that only comes from the experience of swimming.

In this story, swimming represents truth—the truth about reality, the truth about oneself, the truth about what is. The old saying that “the truth shall set you free” is a good reminder that without direct experience, there is no truth.

Experiencing Truth

In 2018 I had a very lucid dream. I found myself hearing this little girl’s voice on the other side of what can only be described as a plasma-like border that separated two parallel worlds. I could see the blonde-haired, blue-eyed little girl, and hear her name and what she was asking me, “Daddy, why won’t you let me out?”

That was when I realized I had a daughter. She just wasn’t born yet.