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learn to think. At the outset, bear in mind the difference between accumulating thoughts, and developing the faculty of thinking. The notion is that collection of thoughts and the ability to think are one and the same. But accumulation of anything is not real gain; accumulation is only the means of hiding one's lack, and thereby deceiving oneself. And self-deception is self-destruction. This self-deception is universal; and because of it, though there is phenomenal worldwide increase in the number of ideas, there is, at the same time, marked decrease in the ability to think. Seldom do we come across an independent thinker.
Question 18
QUESTION: BUT WHAT ABOUT OUR UNIVERSITIES? DON'T THEY TEACH US TO THINK?
No! They teach us only to learn by rote what others have thought, they do not teach us to think for our-selves. They teach us to memorise.
When thoughts rise from within, you gain knowledge. And thoughts can rise from within, in all of us. This thinking power which lies dormant in us all, can be invoked and arisen if we have the know-how of it. The first thing necessary for this awakening, is that we should stop filling the mind with others' thoughts. It is a pity that we are so full of thoughts all the time, yet seldom think! Yes, it is true that we seldom think! Most of us are not even aware of our ability to think. After all, we can be aware only of those of our capabilities of which we make some use. The capabilities can become realities by utilising them; it is not surprising if the inactive capabilities are forgotten and lost. In most of us, the ability to think is also that type of an inactive, unused faculty. Usually, we react like automatic machines we do not think. The external stimuli make us move like a machine; we do not pause to think.
If you doubt my words, study yourself all day long. You find no time I gap between the external stimuli that strike your consciousness, and your reaction to the same. Is there any pause for thought between somebody insulting you, and your becoming angry? No; there is no time-gap, and therefore no thought-gap. This is because there is no place for 'thinking' in your life. My meaning
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