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Book Name: Is the Grass Really GreenerPrevious     Next
 

become wise, because his knowledgeability does not allow him innocence, does not allow him wonder. He cannot feel any surprise, he cannot taste anything mysterious, magical. His life is flat. And the reason is that he thinks he already knows, he has answers, ready-made answers for every question. He has never really asked the question, he has only learned the answer. And how can you learn an answer?

First he learns the answer and then he manages the question, but the question comes later on, it is not his own. The answer is somebody else's and just to make the answer fit with him he creates a question. The question is not part of his own growth. So he knows the question and he knows the answer, but he has never been in any quest, he has never risked anything for the question, he has never gone into it the whole way, he has never gambled. He has only learned the answer from the scriptures, from the scholars, from the philosophers. And so many answers are available. For each question thousands of answers are available -- you can have your choice.

A knowledgeable person is a stupid person, very stupid, unintelligent. He may be intellectual but he is not intelligent at all.

Wisdom is intelligence and the first act required for wisdom to happen is one has to discard all knowledge in toto; one has to become a child again -- innocent, full of wonder, awe. Everything seems to be mysterious because there is no answer.

Gertrude Stein on her deathbed suddenly opened her eyes and said "What is the answer?" The friends who had gathered were a little bit puzzled; "What is the answer?" What kind of a question is this? -- because the question had not been asked.

One person gathered courage and said "But we don't know the question, so first tell us about the question, only then can something be done about the answer." She laughed and said "Okay. Then what is the question?"... and she died! Neither the question is known nor the answer is known -- and this was at her last moment. But this is the tragedy of humanity. At least at the last moment she had the guts to ask "What is the answer?" Of course there was no time left, that's why she was saying

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