|
|
Osho challenges the idea that the best way to promote intelligence is to train the intellect. Intellect is logical, he says, intelligence is paradoxical. Intellect takes things apart to see how they work; intelligence puts things together to see the functioning of the whole. When our education systems put too much emphasis on developing intellect, an imbalance is created and both the individual and the society suffer. It is only through intelligence that we can respond creatively to the challenges of a changing world. |
First,
know well that intellectuality is not intelligence.
To be intellectual is to be phony; it is a pretending intelligence. It is
not real because it is not yours; it is borrowed. Intelligence is the growth
of inner consciousness. It has nothing to do with knowledge, it has
something to do with meditativeness.
An intelligent person does not function out of his past experience; he
functions in the present. He does not react, he responds. Hence he is always
unpredictable; one can never be certain what he is going to do.
A Catholic, a Protestant and a Jew were talking to a friend who said he had
just been given six months to live.
"What would you do," he asked the Catholic, "if your doctor gave you six
months to live?"
"Ah!" said the Catholic. "I would give all my belongings to the Church, take
communion every Sunday, and say my 'Hail Marys' regularly."
"And you?" he asked the Protestant.
"I would sell up everything and go on a world cruise and have a great time!"
"And you?" he said to the Jew.
"Me? I would see another doctor."
That is intelligence!
...
THE SIN OF DISOBEDIENCE
It is said that when
Henry Thoreau came out of the university, Emerson gave a great party to
celebrate the occasion. And he told the participants, "I am giving this party
not because Thoreau has attained great knowledge in the university but because
he has been able to come back from the university and he is still intelligent.
The university has not been able to change his intelligence. The university has
failed, that's why I am giving this party! I respect this young man for the
simple reason that he has escaped from the whole cunning strategy that our
education is."
Intelligence simply means ability to respond, because life is a flux. You have
to be aware and to see what is demanded of you, what is the challenge of the
situation. The intelligent person behaves according to the situation and the
stupid behaves according to the ready-made answers. Whether they come from
Buddha, Christ or Krishna, it does not matter. He always carries scriptures
around himself; he is afraid to depend on himself. The intelligent person
depends on his own insight; he trusts his own being. He loves and respects
himself. The unintelligent person respects others.
And you can see the point. Why are the vested interests interested in creating
stupidity? -- because that is the way they will be getting respect. No parents
really want their children to be intelligent, because if the children are
intelligent they are rebellious too, they are disobedient too. Obedience has
been imposed on you as a great value; it is not a great value. It is one of the
basic causes of the destruction of your intelligence.
I am not saying be disobedient. I am simply saying when you feel like being
obedient, be obedient; when you feel like being disobedient, be true to yourself.
Your only responsibility is towards yourself and nobody else.
An intelligent person risks. He will be ready to die rather than to compromise.
Of course, he will not fight, as the Desiderata says, with unnecessary things,
with non-essentials, but as far as essentials are concerned he is not going to
be obedient.
...