Impressed, I say, “I wish I could do that.” The monk pauses and turns to look at me. He asks, “Do you wish you could do that, or do you wish you could learn to do that?” “What do you mean?” I know by now that some of my favorite lessons come not in the classroom, but in moments like this. He says, “Think about your motivations. Do you want to memorize all of the scripture because it’s an impressive achievement, or do you want the experience of having studied it? In the first, all you want is the outcome. In the second, you are curious about what you might learn from the process.” This was a
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