In ancient times the king of a certain country was concerned because his son was something of a fool. The king's counsellors urged that the son be sent away to a great university in another land in the hope that the boy would acquire learning and wisdom.
The king agreed.
The son studied hard for several years then wrote his father that he had learned just about everything possible and pleaded to be allowed to return home.
The king assented.
When the son arrived at the palace the king was overjoyed. A great feast was prepared and all the great men of the kingdom were invited.
At the end of the festivities one of the sages present asked the son what he had learned. The young man ticked off the university's curriculum that he had gone through. While the lad was talking the sage slipped a ring off his finger, closed his hand over it, held up his hand and asked: What do I hold in my hand?
The son though for a moment and said; It is a round object with a hole in the centre.
The sage was astonished at such wisdom. Maybe the lad had become a great mind.
Will you now name the object? asked the sage.
The king's son pondered for a few moments, then said: The sciences that I studied do not aid me in answering your question, but my own commonsense tells me that it is a cartwheel.
The sage concluded to himself that you can educate a fool but you cannot make him think.
Information is not knowledge because information is not transformation and can never be - and knowledge comes only through transformation. Information is adding something to the same old mind. It is quantitative; there is no qualitative change because the mind behind remains the same. That is why all that is called education just proves superficial. Mind must go through qualitative change otherwise there is no wisdom; and to go on adding information to ignorance is fatal. I call meditation the method for mind's total mutation. First let there be a transformation of the very quality of the mind and only then education can be educative.
The king agreed.
The son studied hard for several years then wrote his father that he had learned just about everything possible and pleaded to be allowed to return home.
The king assented.
When the son arrived at the palace the king was overjoyed. A great feast was prepared and all the great men of the kingdom were invited.
At the end of the festivities one of the sages present asked the son what he had learned. The young man ticked off the university's curriculum that he had gone through. While the lad was talking the sage slipped a ring off his finger, closed his hand over it, held up his hand and asked: What do I hold in my hand?
The son though for a moment and said; It is a round object with a hole in the centre.
The sage was astonished at such wisdom. Maybe the lad had become a great mind.
Will you now name the object? asked the sage.
The king's son pondered for a few moments, then said: The sciences that I studied do not aid me in answering your question, but my own commonsense tells me that it is a cartwheel.
The sage concluded to himself that you can educate a fool but you cannot make him think.
Information is not knowledge because information is not transformation and can never be - and knowledge comes only through transformation. Information is adding something to the same old mind. It is quantitative; there is no qualitative change because the mind behind remains the same. That is why all that is called education just proves superficial. Mind must go through qualitative change otherwise there is no wisdom; and to go on adding information to ignorance is fatal. I call meditation the method for mind's total mutation. First let there be a transformation of the very quality of the mind and only then education can be educative.
