no worries, no fear
1. Knowledge does not lead to wisdom .
We accumulate vast amounts of knowledge about many things, but acting intelligently on what we have learned can seem next to impossible. Schools, colleges, and universities teach about behavior, the universe, science, and various technologies, but these centers of education rarely help a person to be a good human being in everyday life . Scholars insist that humans evolved only by accumulating vast amounts of knowledge and information. Humanity has gone through countless wars and accumulated a vast amount of knowledge about how to kill, and it is that knowledge that is preventing us from ending all wars. We see war as a way of life, brutality, violence and killing as normal things in life. We know that we should not kill another human being, and this knowing has nothing to do with the fact of the killing. Knowledge has not stopped us from killing animals and destroying the planet. Knowledge cannot produce wisdom, but wisdom can use knowledge. To know is not to know. Understanding that knowledge can never solve our human problems is wisdom .
2. The purpose of education is to awaken wisdom.
In our schools, education is not merely the acquisition of knowledge, but much more importantly the awakening of wisdom, which then makes use of knowledge, never the other way around . Wisdom awakening is at the heart of all of these schools. The ensuing question must be, how to awaken this wisdom? What system, what method, how to train? This question just shows that you are still operating within the bounds of knowledge. Recognizing it as a wrong question is the beginning of the awakening of wisdom. The training, the method, the system in our daily life creates a habit pattern, a repetitive activity, and thus creates a mechanical mind . The constant movement of knowledge, no matter how specialized it may be, keeps the mind in a rut, into a narrow way of life. Learning to observe and understand the entire structure of knowledge is the beginning of awakening wisdom .
3. Our hearts live in tradition .
The meaning of the word tradition, to pass on, is precisely the negation of wisdom . It is easy and comfortable to follow a tradition, whether it is political, religious or self-invented. That way you don't have to think about it, don't question it. Both acceptance and obedience are part of tradition . The older the culture, the more the heart is bound by the past and the more it lives in the past. The interruption of one tradition is bound to be replaced by another. A heart burdened with a thousand-year-old tradition will not let go of the past until another tradition that is just as reliable and satisfying comes along. Any form of tradition, from religion to scholarship, necessarily negates wisdom .
4. Wisdom is infinite.
Knowledge, like tradition, no matter how rich, is limited . In our schools the inner mechanism of habit formation needs to be observed, and in such observation wisdom comes into play.
5. Accept that fear is part of human tradition .
Both older and younger generations have learned to live with fear. Most people don't realize they are living in fear . It is only during minor crises or explosive events that we become aware of this ongoing fear. it's there. Some are aware of it, others avoid it. Tradition says: control fear, run from it, suppress it, analyze it, do something about it, or accept it . We've lived with fear for millennia, and it seems we have a way of making peace with it. These are the natures of tradition: do something about it or run away from it, or accept it emotionally and look to some outside force to help resolve it . Religion springs from this fear, and so does the politician's craving for power. Any form of control over others is in the nature of fear . When a man or a woman possesses each other, there is fear behind it, and this fear can destroy any kind of relationship.
6. It is the teacher's job to help students face this fear.
Whether it's the fear of parents, teachers, or children older than you, or the fear of being alone or being in nature. The key to understanding the nature and structure of fear is to face it. Not to face it through words, but to observe the specific process of the fear as it is happening, without any movement away from it. Activities that escape from the facts can obscure the facts. Both our traditions and our education encourage control, take it or say no, or very cunning rationalization.
As a teacher, can you help your students and yourself with every problem that arises in life? In learning there is neither the educator nor the educated, there is only learning . To understand the full operation of fear, we need to approach it with curiosity, and curiosity has a vitality of its own. Just like a very curious child, there is something strong in his curiosity. Conquering what we don't understand, destroying it, ignoring it, or worshiping it, these are the conventional paths. Tradition is knowledge, and the end of knowledge is the beginning of wisdom .
So, adults and students, after realizing that there is neither an educator nor an educated, only learning itself, can you understand this fear by directly observing what is happening? You can if you allow fear to tell its ancient story. Listen attentively, without distraction, as it is telling you the history of your own fears. When you listen that way, you will find that the fear is not separate from you. You are that fear, that reaction that is labeled with words. Words are not important, words are knowledge, tradition, and the fact, the present that is happening, is new. This is the discovery of the freshness of your own fears. Facing the fact of fear, without any movement of thought, is the end of fear . In this observation, not a particular fear, but the real source of the fear is shattered. There is no observer in it, only observation .
Fear is a very complex thing , as old as mountains, as old as humans, and it has an extraordinary story to tell. But you have to know the art of listening to it, and there is great beauty in that listening. In fact there is only listening, there is no story .
Excerpt from: "Education is the Liberation of the Mind"
