< Previous | Contents | Next >
Chapter 26 - Life's aim is life itself
China. By the end of this century India will have gone ahead of China. China is behaving more intelligently.
But the real intelligent people you will find in Germany, in Switzerland, where population is decreasing. Increasing the population is increasing death. The situation is new; it needs new methods to face it.
Intelligence means the capability to respond to new situations. It comes from your being --
mind is only a vehicle -- a kind of awareness of what the mind is, without belonging to it.
You are only intellectually thinking about it. But whatever you are saying, if it becomes your experience, it will transform your whole life.
Intelligence is the quality of the witness; it watches the mind and it gives direction to the mind. Right now, whatever you have in your mind has come from the outside. Intelligence comes from your inside. That used to be the basic meaning of the word education -- it means
"to draw out." But what is being done in the name of education is just the opposite -- it is "to stuff in," to stuff in all kinds of nonsense. Nowhere are efforts being made that your intelligence be drawn out. You have it already, it just needs a passage, a way.
Meditation creates that passage, that way. It makes your being the master and your mind just a servant.
Memory is from the outside, intelligence is from your innermost sources, your very life, responding to situations.
"Is meditation connected with intelligence?"
Meditation is connected with your being, and your being has many aspects: intelligence, blissfulness, grace, gratitude, prayer, love, compassion... infinite is the treasure of your being.
Intelligence is only one of the parts.
"And is intelligence a potential that we all have, and that simply needs to be awakened?
Can we raise our consciousness with intelligence?"
Everybody is born with the same potential. Differences exist because we are not using our potential to the same extent.
You will be surprised to know that even a man like Albert Einstein, whom you can call an example of genius, uses only fifteen percent of his potential. The people whom you think of as very talented use only ten percent of their potential. And the ordinary masses, the millions of people, use between five and seven percent.
The world would be a totally different place if everybody was using a hundred percent of their potential, in different directions, in different dimensions.
Meditation can only make you aware of your potential, can make the passage in which your potential can grow and can find its expression. And nobody is devoid or unequal as far as intelligence is concerned. The inequality appears only because of our use: somebody uses it, somebody does not use it.
An American, a very devout Catholic, had tried for years to get a private audience with the pope. When his request was finally granted, he flew to Rome, and within the hour was kneeling before His Holiness. Kissing the ring after the pope had blessed him, the man said,
"Your Holiness, I want you to know this has been the most inspirational experience of my life.
Osho - The Hidden Splendor 266
< Previous | Contents | Next >