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is really significant, philosophy has no answer. You will have to look in a different direction. That direction I call Zen, that direction I call awakening -- not theorizing, philosophizing, but becoming silent; not becoming more knowledgeable but dropping all knowledge, discarding it, so that you can be empty, utterly empty. In emptiness there is clarity, there is cleanliness, there is purity, there is innocence, a childlike wonder and awe. And those are the moments of love and wisdom growing in you; they grow together. Knowledge and logic grow together. Wisdom and love grow together.
A famous zoology professor at the Sorbonne had the habit of giving his students an oral exam at the end of his course, and he always asked the same question: "Tell me all you know about worms."
Of course his students would goof around all semester and then just before the exam study assiduously all about worms. And they all got very high marks.
Finally the professor became concerned that all his students were doing so well. The time came to give the exam and meanwhile all the students were studying all about worms. When the first student came for the exam, the professor asked, "Tell me all you know about elephants:'
The student was profoundly flustered for a moment, then he answered, "Elephants have worm-like tails. Worms are classified... " And then he started.
Knowledge is always unintelligent. If a question is asked for which you have a ready-made answer it is good, if a question is asked for which you don't have a ready-made answer you are in trouble. You are just behaving mechanically. Knowledge is mechanical, and how can anything mechanical help you to be wise? Knowledge is nothing but categorization.
Once upon a time there was a handsome young lion. He was captured in the African jungle and brought to America, where he was put on display in a zoo. This made the lion very unhappy because he preferred the freedom of his wild native land and the companionship of other jungle beasts. But after a time he became resigned to his fate and made up his mind that if he had to live behind bars he would be the best zoo lion around.
In an
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