4-7. Right Method

In training it is the way of Tang to abandon the faulty method yet to adopt the right one.
I said the Tang among Samjae is what is distinguished, then what do you distinguish in training? So what do you abandon and what do you adopt?You should distinguish what is important and what is trivial, and discern what you have to do first and what you may do later. Then, what is important and what is trivial? The basic is important while techniques is trivial. And what do you have to do first and what may you do later? You have to do first what is important while you may do later what is trivial. You have to do first what is close to your ordinary life while you may to later what is far from it. You have to do first the simple things while you may do later the complicated ones, and first the easy things while later the difficult ones.

Since you have to do first what is important and later what is trivial you should practice first the basic and later the technique. And as it was said, “the superior man does what is proper to the station in which he is; he does not desire to go beyond this,”1) this is the reason why you should do first what is close to your ordinary life while later what is far from it. And you have to seek your faults in training steadily and correct them according to the principles. This is the distinctive wisdom in training, namely, the meaning of Tang in Samjae.

The wisdom in training begins first by following correctly what you've learned, and then it should advance to understanding what you haven't been told of yet that you have to possess for acquisition of what you've learned, namely what is not well seen nor well told of. At the end, it should reach the non-distinctive Ilgiyae. If you cannot follow correctly what you've learned despite your effort to do it, it is because you have no idea about the formless factors that are not well seen. You have to seek these formless factors along the ways of Samjae.

1) The Doctrine of the Mean, 14-01 君子 素其位而行 不願乎其外.