HERE IS NO END to learning. The Chinese philosopher Xunzi says that he once spent a whole day ruminating but that it was not as good as a moment’s learning. The best kind of learning gets us out of the head. The Buddhist monk and poet Kenko observed that it is a joy to find someone after one’s own heart to speak with. But what one needs to learn is not “a companion who never utters a word in contradiction” (for then, as Kenko goes on to note, “one might as well
