Education

Directives

"You must follow the way as it is given—without altering it, without deleting anything and without adding on things that you learned before. In fact, here you must really begin as a beginner. Forget what you have learned. Leave aside your ideas and your philosophy. Do not try to make this new education the same as something else. Do not try to make it continuous with something else.

"Here you must start from the beginning and constantly set aside things you think you understand, things that you believe in, things that you believe have to be in the world and things you hold true about yourself, others and life in general. You must keep opening yourself to something new."

• GCS, pp. 110-11

Short Quotes

"Here you do not set about to remember facts and figures, equations and details. Here you seek to wed your intellect with your deeper mind, the mind we call Knowledge. Here the emphasis is on developing stillness and the ability to focus on things objectively— two very high functions of the mind.

"As soon as you think you fully understand the curriculum and can define it for yourself and others, your progress will stop.

"Beginning students always think that they are on the verge of accomplishment. Intermediate students think they are on the verge of mastery. Advanced students realize they are on the verge of simply learning the next step."

• GCS, pp. 109, 111, 112

The Way of Knowledge vs. Worldly Education

In both the unique Way of Knowledge and in the norms of human education to which we are accustomed,

You need

a committed, willing attitude

a network of peers

a wise instructor

diligent, consistent, patient and effective practice

immersion in a unified curriculum

the ability to evaluate your progress

It takes time

no shortcuts

no substitutes

"In the world, you always build upon what you have learned in the past, adding new things as you go along. As you advance, you become more selective in what you learn because you want to validate what you have learned already. Thus, the intent of education, which is to learn something new, to experience something new and to be able to do something new, becomes lost because increasingly you will attempt to validate the past. Here you will become more fearful and anxious about the future, less willing to see things as they really are and less open to new ideas, new experiences and new capabilities. Here the mind closes down upon itself. It often does this with the belief that it is open and accessible when in fact it has become such a filtering mechanism that very little new information can come to it, either from within or from without."

• GCS, pp.110-15