Study in Gotama’s teachings is the complement to practice. Study & practice together form a mutually reinforcing wholesome spiral toward liberation from dukkha—stress & suffering. We learn about Gotama’s understanding of what it really is to be a human being, & how to deal with it, by the mental act of studying. It is training advice, & a map of what we find in our experience as we practice meditation. We need a little of this understanding to start practicing, because in large part his teachings consist of instructions for practice: meditation, & the wholesome conduct that makes meditation more fruitful (sīla). The concentration & mindfulness that develop from this initial practice allow for an increasingly clearer seeing, a better understanding of the matrix of ideas that make up Gotama’s Dhamma. These two energies, study & practice, chase each other in a virtuous cycle: Deeper practice yields deeper insight, which in turn makes intellectual understanding of Dhamma richer, & so on. Each person tends to dwell more on either study or practice, but progress always moves back & forth between them, regardless of how formally one pursues either. For some, study helps resolve skeptical doubt about the truth of Gotama’s teachings (vicikicchā), one of the hindrances (nīvarana) to practice.