""THE ignorant man is not the
unlearned, but he who does not know himself, and the learned man is stupid
when he relies on books, on knowledge and on authority to give him
understanding. Understanding comes only through self-knowledge, which is
awareness of one's total psychological process. Thus education, in the
true sense, is the understanding of oneself, for it is within each one of
us that the whole of existence is gathered.
What we now call education is a matter of accumulating information
and knowledge from books, which anyone can do who can read. Such education
offers a subtle form of escape from ourselves and, like all escapes, it
inevitably creates increasing misery. Conflict and confusion result from
our own wrong relationship with people, things and ideas, and until we
understand that relationship and alter it, mere learning, the gathering of
facts and the acquiring of various skills, can only lead us to engulfing
chaos and destruction.
As society is now organized, we send our children to school to learn
some technique by which they can eventually earn a livelihood. We want to
make the child first and foremost a specialist, hoping thus to give him a
secure economic position. But does the cultivation of a technique enable
us to understand ourselves?
While it is obviously necessary to know how to read and write, and to
learn engineering or some other profession, will technique give us the
capacity to understand life? Surely, technique is secondary; and if
technique is the only thing we are striving for, we are obviously denying
what is by far the greater part of life.
Life is pain, joy, beauty, ugliness, love, and when we understand it
as a whole, at every level, that understanding creates its own technique.
But the contrary is not true: technique can never bring about creative
understanding.
Present-day education is a complete failure because it has
overemphasized technique. In overemphasizing technique we destroy man. To
cultivate capacity and efficiency without understanding life, without
having a comprehensive perception of the ways of thought and desire, will
only make us increasingly ruthless, which is to engender wars and
jeopardize our physical security. The exclusive cultivation of technique
has produced scientists, mathematicians, bridge builders, space
conquerors; but do they understand the total process of life? Can any
specialist experience life as a whole? Only when he ceases to be a
specialist".
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
FROM
CHAPTER 3
'INTELLECT,
AUTHORITY AND INTELLIGENCE'
"MANY of us seem to think that
by teaching every human being to read and write, we shall solve our
human problems; but this idea has proved to be false. The so-called
educated are not peace-loving, integrated people, and they too are
responsible for the confusion and misery of the world.
The right kind of education means the awakening of
intelligence, the fostering of an integrated life, and only such
education can create a new culture and a peaceful world; but to
bring about this new kind of education, we must make a fresh start
on an entirely different basis.
With the world falling into ruin about us, we discuss theories
and vain political questions, and play with superficial reforms.
Does this not indicate utter thoughtlessness on our part? Some may
agree that it does, but they will go on doing exactly as they have
always done - and that is the sadness of existence. When we hear a
truth and do not act upon it, it becomes a poison within ourselves,
and that poison spreads, bringing psychological disturbances,
unbalance and ill health. Only when creative intelligence is
awakened in the individual is there a possibility of a peaceful and
happy life".
