The Taming Power of the Great in Learning

The image gives your method exactly: study the words and deeds of the past — the masters of your field, the worked examples, the accumulated wisdom of those ahead of you — and convert their experience into your own character and competence. This is how the mountain charges. Holding still is not idleness; the knowledge that cannot be applied yet is accumulating for the moment it can (line 2: the axletrees removed, the halt accepted and turned into stored force). Advance like the good horse of line 3 when the way opens — swift but responsive, willing to be led, drilling daily rather than galloping off alone. Restraint now is investment; every disciplined session adds to a charge that will one day pour out as achievement.

An ambitious undertaking is possible here — it is favourable to cross the great water — but only because the power has been stored first. Do not rush the beginning against a real obstruction (line 1: danger is at hand, it is favourable to stop); when the moment resists, keep still, centre your energy, and let the way reveal itself. The wisest move at the outset is line 4's headboard on the young bull: discipline your own surging impulses — the urge to skip fundamentals, the impatience to be advanced — early, before they harden into bad habits that others must later correct. Restraint applied at the root is far cheaper than correction at the branch. Gather before you spend.