When Trungpa Rinpoche spoke about the importance of joining intellect and intuition, he was referring to combining learning and study with the practice of meditation • the practice of meditation helps us to overcome the chaos of conflicting emotions, while learning or sharpening the intellect leads to gentleness • the idea of learning in this case isn't necessarily about acquiring large amounts of of information; it is about cultivating an inquisitive mind • first you need to listen and learn, to pay attention, to get the facts • but then you have to really think about what you have learned; you have to work with it and struggle with it • there's a kind of laziness of mind that settles for a superficial understanding without really questioning what is being said, and why • this is particularly true in this “age of information,” which in many ways has become the age of disinformation and conspiracy theories • there is a tendency to not really think about what you hear, but just respond on an emotional level to rumor and innuendo • such gullibility can leave us vulnerable to manipulation by people who don't necessarily have the best of intentions • the type of questioning I'm referring to is not cynical questioning based on hatred and aggression, but a questioning that comes from curiosity and genuine interest • because we're willing to question ourselves as well as others, it leads to a kind of softness or gentleness, as well as clarity and depth.