Words can never amount to experience

"A hundred hearings cannot surpass one seeing
But after you see the teacher, that one glance cannot surpass a hundred hearings.
His nose was very high
But he was blind after all"

This quatrain from "Writings from Zen Masters", follows a story in which a scholar who writes a large book on Zen sayings, is baffled when a peasant asks a single simple question about his form of Zen. This scholar spent years writing his book, never venturing out into the world. Before the question he ran his own temple and had his own disciples, but afterwards he realizes that he still has much to learn and submits to the nearest temple master. This just shows that people may be able to write large books, and speak eloquently and elaborately on certain subjects, but still be naive due to their lack of experience. This goes to show that there is no substitute to real experience, and even the greatest of books cannot teach us as a single incident can. This is typical with the human experience; we can be told a thousand times not to touch the flame, but until we are burnt we will never truly understand the power of fire.