“It is said a great Zen teacher asked an initiate to sit by a stream until he heard all the water had to teach. After days of bending his mind around the scene, a small monkey happened by, and, in one seeming bound of joy, splashed about in the stream. The initiate wept and returned to his teacher, who scolded him lovingly, ‘The monkey heard. You just listened.’”
Comment:
The initiate, no matter how long he sits by the stream, will not learn all there is to know about water unless he goes to the stream, wade in the water and get wet. He wept because the monkey learned so much about the water in a few minutes by jumping in the stream, whereas he spent days meditating and yet he was not able to learn as much.
This is so true. We cannot learn something by just mere observation. We have to dip our fingers. Theories are useless unless they are practiced. We learn more by doing because we will get first hand experience where all our senses will be involved.
How will we know if the food in a restaurant is good when we don’t taste it?
As the saying goes, “Experience is the best teacher.”
Goethe said,
“Knowing is not enough; we must apply.
Willing is not enough; we must do.”
True. We can't read our way to enlightenment. 
