The Nature of Skills (and Capacity, Talent)

Definition of Skill
Energy organising itself according to knowledge is skill.

The Nature of Skill, Talent, Capacity
Energy is organised into skill by activity. Capacity so organising into its own skill in one of the constituent skills is talent. Talent is the skill of the capacity localised. Personality is adventuring capacity. Capacity organising into its own skill is creativity. It is creative skill.

Skill, Capacity, Talent
The brute physical force released when one starts learning a work, especially in the primitive man, matures into the strength of capacity through long skill, as in the athlete of long experience or the general who leads the battle. One is crude, brutal energy unleashed and the other is energy converted into power through force as skill matures to talent through capacity and talent. There is a difference between a young democracy’s fervour for justice and the British Queen's banquet. (MSS)

Skills vs Capacity
Skill is of the part. Capacity is the essence of all skills blending together and rising to the next plane. Expert knowledge whether of astronomy or economics is a skill of the part. Knowledge is the essence of all such parts mixing and maturing. The academic learner rises from below. The seer comes down to knowledge of the particular subject. (MSS)

Skills Maturing into Capacity
For skills to mature into capacity, the horizontal must open up. No individual skill can rise to its corresponding capacity vertically. (MSS)

Skills and Accomplishment

Accomplishment and Skills
Accomplishment by an individual in any field of activity depends on the level of skill which the person has acquired. Skill converts physical energy into useful productive force for achievement.

Skill is the Agent that Enables Acts to Be Accomplished
What accomplishes in life is work. Acts are the units of work. The prime agent that brings an act about and to its result is the SKILL required for the act. (MSS)

Accomplishing and Skilled Knowledge
To really accomplish in life the knowledge one has to become a skill that one can apply through an act.  The more of such skills, i.e. the application of the idea as second-nature skill, the more he can succeed.

Skills and Accomplishment
Accomplishment is determined by the energy we have. The energy we have depends on the knowledge we have. We get knowledge from education and social resources. This enables energy, and thus accomplishment. Ultimately our knowledge of ourselves determines our energy, and thus accomplishment. We have partial knowledge through mind to complete knowledge in Supermind. Thus Supermind enables the greatest knowledge, hence the greatest energy and accomplishment. Knowledge comes form education, social milieu, knowledge of Self. Self-conception of self is the greatest knowledge, which creates the greatest results and thus greatest accomplishment. (Paraphrase of MSS)

Power of Skill for the Nation
The Chinese missionary who was carrying a fish everyday to a poor farmer, was told to teach that farmer fishing skill. A skill learnt by one person is equal to one man day. The whole nation learning one skill is equal to so many man days or man years. Skill, thus raises productivity at a million points.

ARTICLE on Personal Skills Accomplishes
How one's level of skills is key to success and happiness in life.

On the Importance of Social Skills, and Its Development through Spirit
What we know as good manners, the social scientist will term social skills. Manners are the major part of these skills. In today’s atmosphere of public life, these skills acquire a premium. Persuasiveness, presentation, presence of mind, alert attention, agility in movement, observation of others, adjusting to their viewpoint and, finally, accomplishment go with social skills. Manners, character and personality play a very large part in such an achievement.

We can witness two extremes. One who is endowed with all the knowledge and strength of character for a certain achievement is unable to enter the field of achievement for want of social skills. Another who has all the aspects of these skills having absolutely no knowledge, fully achieves in spite of being a shallow character. In international meetings, these things are much in evidence.

Parents who have taken great efforts to educate their child well, must take similar efforts to readjust him to society. Reliance on the Spirit not only enables the conversion, but ensures that the DEFECTS become STRENGTHS. (MSS, extracted)

Enduring Success through Education, Training
Success can be acquired through one's own natural capacities. Enduring success however is insured through education and training that transcends one's native abilities; where the secrets of a work, a field, a skill, etc. are fully acquired. (Paraphrase of MSS)

MSS Article on Skill and Value Formation

Perfection of Skills

Skills Perfect the Work
With all the right intentions, for the work to be smoothly completed, the strategies at each step -- the work skills -- must be perfect. (MSS)

Perfection of Skills
The skill in works approaching perfection removes one veil from the soul created by that need. (MSS)

Perfecting Skills in Integral Yoga
The secret of integral yoga is not in having many skills or capacities, but in perfecting one of them. Not the number, but the perfection is important. Not how many, but how perfect. (MSS)

Social Source of Skills

Where Skills Come From
Family imparts psychological skills, schools the mental skills and job the work skills, human interaction social skills. (MSS)

Skills and Values

Skills and Values
-Skills accomplish in the measure values and disciplines support.

-Skill acquired is of use for the individual when it is accompanied by values of e.g. cleanliness (e.g. not smudging the paper, etc.) orderliness, punctuality etc. and the personal discipline of work. (MSS, modified)

-Energy in each plane matures into skill of work in a single act and yields its full result to the individual when values and discipline are called into play. (MSS)

Power and Values of Skills Despite Other Limitations
The studios produce extraordinary films that are faithful to life and history in spite of the very low atmosphere of dissipated consciousness. It shows the least can achieve the most by values in skills.  (MSS)

Skills and Life Response

Greater Knowledge, Skills Attracts Positive Life Response
Any major attempt to raise one's level of skills and knowledge can evoke positive life response.
 
 LIFE RESPONSE EXAMPLES
 -A man tried to improve his professional condition by learning some new, higher level skills. He made a determined effort to see it through. Within a few days from out of nowhere he was contacted by a major industrial firm in the central valley of California to do his first major consulting project in years. Also, the new skill he acquired was exactly what was required for the new project!
 
 -Out of concern for the success of his people, a manager decided to train his illiterate workers. As a result of this they became so happy and energized. It permeated the business. Even the machines they were trained to work with on started to suddenly work better even though no improvements were made to their operation!
 
 -A man went through some difficult materials for his upcoming training classes. He must learn a number of difficult, new ideas. As the he gains a grasp of the concepts, especially the new concepts he never knew about, fathomed, or understood before, he notices that suddenly positive life responses occur thereafter.
 
 -A man tried to improve his professional condition by learning some new higher level skills. He made a determined effort to see it through. Within a few days he was contacted by a major industrial firm in the central valley of California to do a large consulting project. (He hadn't had a consulting project of any substantial order in over half a year, and saw the connection between his effort for improvement with life's great response to the effort.) 

Increase Your Knowledge & Skills
In an ever more complex, technology-driven society, it is important to have the highest levels of knowledge and skills. Raising either will not only increase your capacity for success in your work, but the effort itself can attract sudden good fortune. For example, one consultant made the effort to learn a new software program in order to upgrade his profession skills, and suddenly attracted a contract consisting of months’ worth of high-paying work. Action Plan: Consider the critical skills that you lack in work or other areas of your life -- including the technical skills required of your job; as well as interpersonal skills, such as listening, writing, presenting, communicating, capacity to work through problems, decision making, and so forth. Then develop a plan to upgrade them, and carry it out. Watch as opportunities open up for you from the most unexpected quarters!

Skills and Spirit

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A skill rises in quality with interest, understanding and spiritual touch. A perfect skill indicates the spiritual touch. (MSS)

Skills-Other

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The physical uses force where it lacks skill; the vital uses anger, while the mind either curses or forms an opinion. One must patiently acquire the skill. (MSS)

Skills vs. Culture
Skill gives the parts; culture the whole. (MSS)

Interest in Anything
One who is interested in anything he comes across but develops no skill in any particular field, is one in whom the basic human endowment which can become anything if chosen has surfaced. (MSS)

Consciously Adopting Skills
Always in each individual or society there exists a considerable area of skill formation unutilised. This is so because skill formation is subconscious. Making this process conscious, individuals or societies can raise themselves tenfold. Neither individuals nor societies will come anywhere near a new possibility which does not inspire the fabric of their value formation. (MSS, slightly modified)

Adding Skills in Your Work Energizes You
Once you acquire a shade more of skill in one aspect of the work, you will see the work is not tiring. It has no end. To move from 70% of skill to 95% of efficiency is possible for all of us. At that level there will be job satisfaction and unflagging energy. (MSS)

Knowledge

Knowledge, Will, Energy, and Accomplishment
The inner mental, vital, and emotional energy one has to accomplish is an expression of one's will. Will itself is a power that comes from knowledge. So the extent of the energy that one releases is determined by the breadth of one's knowledge; the more knowledge, the more energy. E.g. the more we are aware of the possibilities in life, the more out will is engaged, which releases out energy to accomplish aspects of that knowledge.