如果一个人环游世界，他将注意到，不论在印度、美洲、欧洲或是澳洲，人的本性是多么地相似。在学院、大学里，情形尤其如此。我们好像用着模型制造出一种人的典型——以寻求安全感、成为重要人物，或尽可能少思考而过着舒服日子，为其主要关心的目标。
传统的教育，使独立思考变得极端困难。附和顺从导致了平庸。如果我们崇尚成功，那么要异于众人，或是反抗环境便非易事，而且可能是危险的。想要成功的动力——这是追求物质或所谓精神上的报偿、寻求内在或外在的安全感、寻求享乐的欲望——这整个过程都会阻碍了“不满之情”，遏制了自发创造、滋生了恐惧;而恐惧，则阻碍了我们对生活加以明智地了解。随着年龄的增加，心灵便冷漠迟滞了。
当我们寻求舒适时，通常会在生活里找到一处最没有冲突的安静角落。于是，我们便惧于跨出这块隐蔽的地方。这种对生活、对奋斗、对新经验的恐惧，扼杀了我们心中的冒险精神。我们一切的环境教养与教育都促使我们不要异于他人，唯恐自己的思想与社会上的模式相左，使我们对权威和传统给予错误的尊敬。
幸好，有些认真的人，愿意摒除左派或右派的偏见，而探究有关人类的问题。然而，我们绝大部分的人，都没有真正的“不满之情”，真正的反抗之心。当我们对于环境不加以了解便屈服于其中，则我们可能具有的任何反抗之心便逐渐熄灭了。不久，我们的种种责任更使它完全死绝。
反抗有两种。一种是暴力的反抗。这仅是对于既存的秩序不加了解的一种反作用而已。另一种是深入的、充满了智慧的心理反抗。有许多人反抗既存的正统规范，却又落入新的正统规范，落入了更进一步的迷惘和巧加隐饰的自溺自满之中。一般来说，我们总是脱离某一群人或某一组理想，而加入另一群人，背上另外的理想，如此地制造了新的思想模式;而对于这项思想模式，我们则必须再起而反抗。反作用只会产生对立，而改革则需要再度的改革。
然而有一种明智的反抗，它并非反作用，而是由于一个人对他自己的思想、情感加以觉察，因而随着自我认识而产生。唯有当一种经验来临时，我们面对它，而不避开它所带来的骚扰，如此我们才能使智慧保持高度的觉醒;而高度觉醒的智慧就是直觉，它是生活中唯一的向导。
那么，什么是生活的意义?我们为何生存，为何奋斗?如果我们受教育仅是为了出名，找到一份更好的工作，变得能支配他人，那么，我们的生活将是肤浅而空洞的。如果我们受教育只是为了成为科学家，成为死守书本的学者，或成为沉迷于某种知识的专家，那么，我们将助长世界上的毁灭与不幸。
虽然生活确有更高更广的意义，然而，如果我们未曾发现它，那么教育又有什么价值呢?我们可能受到高等的教育，然而，如果我们的思想和情感不能融为完整的一体，则我们的生活将是残缺的、矛盾的，被许多恐惧所折磨;一旦教育没有培养我们对生活持有一个完整的看法，它便没有多大的意义。
在目前的文明世界里，我们把生活分成如此繁多的部门，以至于教育除了是学习一种特定的技术职业之外，便没有多大的意义。教育不但没有唤醒个人的智慧，反而鼓励个人去沿袭某种模式，因而阻碍了个人，使他无法将自身作为一项整体的过程来加以了解。将生活上的许多分门别类的问题，尝试着在它们个别的层次里加以解决，这表示完全欠缺了解。
个人是由不同的实体(entities)所组成的，然而，强调它们的差异之处，而鼓励某种特定类型的发展，则导致诸多的纷乱与矛盾。教育应该使得这些分离的实体完整合一——因为如果欠缺了完整性，生活便成了一连串的冲突和悲哀。如果我们争讼持续不休，那么，被训练成律师又有什么价值?如果我们的混乱延续不止，那么，知识有何价值?如果我们利用技术上和工业上的能力来互相毁灭，那么，它们有何意义?如果我们的生活导致暴力与不幸，那么，它又有什么意思呢?虽然我们或许富有，或有能力赚取财富，虽然我们享有欢乐，拥有组织化的宗教，我们却生活在无止境的冲突中。
我们必须对“私人”和“个人”加以区别。“私人”是偶然性的;我所谓的偶然性，意指我们出生时的境遇与情况，我们凑巧生长于其中的环境，以及随环境而来的爱国心、迷信、阶级的区分与偏见。“私人”或“偶然性”只是暂时性的，虽然这一短暂的时刻可能持续一生。由于现在的教育制度是以“私人”、”偶然性的“、”暂时性的”为基础，所以它导致思想的腐化，以及对自我防御性恐惧的谆谆教诲。
我们大家都被教育和环境所训练，而寻求私人的利益和安全，为我们自己而奋斗。虽然我们用美丽的言辞加以掩饰，然而，我们都是在一个基于剥削与因恐惧而贪得无厌的制度下被教育着来从事各种职业。这种训练，必会为我们自己以及世界带来混乱与不幸，因为它在每一个人的心中制造了心理上的障碍，使得他与别人分离。
教育，并非只是用来训练心智。训练提升了效率，然而却无法造就一个圆满的个人。一个只知接受训练的心智，只是过去的延续，这样的心智无法发现新的事物。所以，为了要找出何谓正确的教育，我们必须探寻生活的全部意义。
整体的生活意义对我们大部分人来说，并非是最重要的事，而我们的教育所强调的是次要的价值，仅仅使我们熟谙了某个部门的知识而已。虽然知识和效率是必须的，然而，把它们作为主要事物而加以强调的结果，则只会造成冲突与混乱。
有一种由爱所启发的效率，它行得更远，比野心所造成的效率来得更伟大;如果没有爱——它使我们对生活有完整无缺的了解——效率便滋生了残暴与无情。现在整个世界上，情形不正是如此吗?我们现行的教育，是以发展效率为其主要目标，因此它便和工业化、战争相衔接;而我们便陷于这个无情竞争与互相毁灭的大机器里。如果教育导致战争，如果教育教导我们去毁灭他人或被他人毁灭，它不是完全失败了吗?
要建设正确的教育，显然的，我们必须把生活当做一个整体来了解它的意义，而要做到这一点，我们必须要能够思考，不是指顽固不变、死守理论的思考，而是直接地、真实地思考。一个顽固不变、死守理论的思考者，是一个不假思索的人，因为它遵循着一个模式;他重复着说过的话，循着一个窠臼去思考。我们无法抽象地或根据理论来了解生活。了解生活，就是了解我们自己。而教育的全部内容就在于此。
教育并非只是获取知识，聚集事实，将之编集汇合;教育是把生活当做一个整体而明白其中的意义。然而，整体能经由“部分”加以了解——可是这却是政府、组织化的宗教、独裁政党所尝试的工作。
教育的功用在于培养完整的人，因而是具有智慧的人。我们可能获有学位，具有像机械似的效率，然而却没有智慧。智慧并非只是一些常识;它并非来自书本，它也不是机巧的自我防御的反应，或具侵略性的断言。一个没有读过书的人，可能比一个博学的人更有智慧。我们把考试和学位当作衡量智慧的标准，而培育了一种躲避人生重大问题的心智。智慧是对于根本事物、现在存在的事物的了解能力;而所谓教育，便是在自己以及别人身上唤醒这项能力。
教育，应该帮助我们发现恒久不灭的价值，使我们不至于只依附公式或重复口号;教育应该帮助我们拆除在国籍和社会上所竖起的栅栏，而非强调它们，因为这些栅栏在人与人之间，造成了对立。不幸的是，现行教育制度正促使我们变得卑屈，变得机械化，变得毫不思考，虽然教育唤醒我们的智力，然而，它使我们的内心残缺不全、矛盾、没有创造力。
对生活如果没有整体性的了解，则我们个人的或集体的问题只有加深、加广。教育的目的，并非制造学者、专家、寻找工作的人，而是培养完整的男男女女，使他们从恐惧之中解脱出来;因为唯有在这样的人之中，才有持久的和平。唯有了解我们自己本身时，恐惧才会终止。如果每一个人想在每一刻里澄清他的生活，如果他想对生活上纷杂的事物、生活上的灾难、生活上突然降临的苛求，他便必须更具弹性，因此，他必须不为种种理论或某种特定的思考模式所束缚。
教育，不应该鼓励个人去附和社会，或与社会消极地和谐相处，而是要帮助个人去发现真正的价值——它是经由公正不偏的探讨和自我觉悟而来。如果没有自我认识，则自我表现便成为自我肯定，以及其所含的种种因野心和侵略性而造成的冲突。教育，应该唤醒一个人自觉的能力，而非只耽溺于满足自己的自我表现。
如果在生活的过程中，我们互相毁灭，那么学识又有什么用呢?一连串残酷的战争，一次紧接着一次地爆发，显然在我们培养孩子的方式里，有某种根本上的错误。我想大部分人对此都有所觉察，然而，我们却不知道该如何加以处置。
制度——不论是教育上或政治上——的改变并不神奇;当我们自身发生了变化，它们便改变了。个人才是最重要的，而非制度;一旦个人不了解他自身的整体过程，那么任何制度——不论是左派或右派的——都无法为这个世界带来秩序与和平。
EDUCATION AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE CHAPTER 1 ‘EDUCATION AND THE SIGNIFICANCE OF LIFE ‘
When one travels around the world, one notices to what an extraordinary degree human nature is the same, whether in India or America, in Europe or Australia. This is especially true in colleges and universities. We are turning out, as if through a mould, a type of human being whose chief interest is to find security, to become somebody important, or to have a good time with as little thought as possible.
Conventional education makes independent thinking extremely difficult. Conformity leads to mediocrity. To be different from the group or to resist environment is not easy and is often risky as long as we worship success. The urge to be successful, which is the pursuit of reward whether in the material or in the so-called spiritual sphere, the search for inward or outward security, the desire for comfort – this whole process smothers discontent, puts an end to spontaneity and breeds fear; and fear blocks the intelligent un- derstanding of life. With increasing age, dullness of mind and heart sets in.
In seeking comfort, we generally find a quiet corner in life where there is a minimum of conflict, and then we are afraid to step out of that seclusion. This fear of life, this fear of struggle and of new experience, kills in us the spirit of adventure; our whole upbringing and education have made us afraid to be different from our neighbour, afraid to think contrary to the established pattern of society, falsely respectful of authority and tradition.
Fortunately, there are a few who are in earnest, who are willing to examine our human problems without the prejudice of the right or of the left; but in the vast majority of us, there is no real spirit of discontent, of revolt. When we yield uncomprehendingly to environment, any spirit of revolt that we may have had dies down, and our responsibilities soon put an end to it.
Revolt is of two kinds: there is violent revolt, which is mere reaction, without understanding, against the existing order; and there is the deep psychological revolt of intelligence. There are many who revolt against the established orthodoxies only to fall into new orthodoxies, further illusions and concealed self-indulgences. What generally happens is that we break away from one group or set of ideals and join another group, take up other ideals, thus creating a new pattern of thought against which we will again have to revolt. Reaction only breeds opposition, and reform needs further reform.
But there is an intelligent revolt which is not reaction, and which comes with self-knowledge through the awareness of one’s own thought and feeling. It is only when we face experience as it comes and do not avoid disturbance that we keep intelligence highly awakened; and intelligence highly awakened is intuition, which is the only true guide in life.
Now, what is the significance of life? What are we living and struggling for? If we are being educated merely to achieve distinction, to get a better job, to be more efficient, to have wider domination over others, then our lives will be shallow and empty. If we are being educated only to be scientists, to be scholars wedded to books, or specialists addicted to knowledge, then we shall be contributing to the destruction and misery of the world.
Though there is a higher and wider significance to life, of what value is our education if we never discover it? We may be highly educated, but if we are without deep integration of thought and feeling, our lives are incomplete, contradictory and torn with many fears; and as long as education does not cultivate an integrated outlook on life, it has very little significance.
In our present civilization we have divided life into so many departments that education has very little meaning, except in learning a particular technique or profession. Instead of awakening the integrated intelligence of the individual, education is encouraging him to conform to a pattern and so is hindering his comprehension of himself as a total process. To attempt to solve the many problems of existence at their respective levels, separated as they are into various categories, indicates an utter lack of comprehension.
The individual is made up of different entities, but to emphasize the differences and to encourage the development of a definite type leads to many complexities and contradictions. Education should bring about the integration of these separate entities – for without integration, life becomes a series of conflicts and sorrows. Of what value is it to be trained as lawyers if we perpetuate litigation? Of what value is knowledge if we continue in our confusion? What significance has technical and industrial capacity if we use it to destroy one another? What is the point of our existence if it leads to violence and utter misery? Though we may have money or are capable of earning it, though we have our pleasures and our organized religions, we are in endless conflict.
We must distinguish between the personal and the individual. The personal is the accidental; and by the accidental I mean the circumstances of birth, the environment in which we happen to have been brought up, with its nationalism, superstitions, class distinctions and prejudices. The personal or accidental is but momentary, though that moment may last a lifetime; and as the present system of education is based on the personal, the accidental, the momentary, it leads to perversion of thought and the inculcation of self-defensive fears.
All of us have been trained by education and environment to seek personal gain and security, and to fight for ourselves. Though we cover it over with pleasant phrases, we have been educated for various professions within a system which is based on exploitation and acquisitive fear. Such a training must inevitably bring confusion and misery to ourselves and to the world, for it creates in each individual those psychological barriers which separate and hold him apart from others.
Education is not merely a matter of training the mind. Training makes for efficiency, but it does not bring about completeness. A mind that has merely been trained is the continuation of the past, and such a mind can never discover the new. That is why, to find out what is right education, we will have to inquire into the whole significance of living.
To most of us, the meaning of life as a whole is not of primary importance, and our education emphasizes secondary values, merely making us proficient in some branch of knowledge. Though knowledge and efficiency are necessary, to lay chief emphasis on them only leads to conflict and confusion.
There is an efficiency inspired by love which goes far beyond and is much greater than the efficiency of ambition; and without love, which brings an integrated understanding of life, efficiency breeds ruthlessness. Is this not what is actually taking place all over the world? Our present education is geared to industrialization and war, its principal aim being to develop efficiency; and we are caught in this machine of ruthless competition and mutual destruction. If education leads to war, if it teaches us to destroy or be destroyed, has it not utterly failed?
To bring about right education, we must obviously un- derstand the meaning of life as a whole, and for that we have to be able to think, not consistently, but directly and truly. A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove. We cannot understand existence abstractly or theoretically. To understand life is to understand ourselves, and that is both the beginning and the end of education.
Education is not merely acquiring knowledge, gathering and correlating facts; it is to see the significance of life as a whole. But the whole cannot be approached through the part – which is what governments, organized religions and authoritarian parties are attempting to do.
The function of education is to create human beings who are integrated and therefore intelligent. We may take degrees and be mechanically efficient without being intelligent. Intelligence is not mere information; it is not derived from books, nor does it consist of clever self-defensive responses and aggressive assertions. One who has not studied may be more intelligent than the learned. We have made examinations and degrees the criterion of intelligence and have developed cunning minds that avoid vital human issues. Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is; and to awaken this capacity, in oneself and in others, is education.
Education should help us to discover lasting values so that we do not merely cling to formulas or repeat slogans; it should help us to break down our national and social barriers, instead of emphasizing them, for they breed antagonism between man and man. Unfortunately, the present system of education is making us subservient, mechanical and deeply thoughtless; though it awakens us intellectually, inwardly it leaves us incomplete, stultified and uncreative.
Without an integrated understanding of life, our individual and collective problems will only deepen and extend. The purpose of education is not to produce mere scholars, technicians and job hunters, but integrated men and women who are free of fear; for only between such human beings can there be enduring peace.
It is in the understanding of ourselves that fear comes to an end. If the individual is to grapple with life from moment to moment, if he is to face its intricacies, its miseries and sudden demands, he must be infinitely pliable and therefore free of theories and particular patterns of thought.
Education should not encourage the individual to conform to society or to be negatively harmonious with it, but help him to discover the true values which come with unbiased investigation and self-awareness. When there is no self-knowledge, self-expression becomes self-assertion, with all its aggressive and ambitious conflicts. Education should awaken the capacity to be self-aware and not merely indulge in gratifying self-expression.
What is the good of learning if in the process of living we are destroying ourselves? As we are having a series of devastating wars, one right after another, there is obviously something radically wrong with the way we bring up our children. I think most of us are aware of this, but we do not know how to deal with it.
Systems, whether educational or political, are not changed mysteriously; they are transformed when there is a fundamental change in ourselves. The individual is of first importance, not the system; and as long as the individual does not understand the total process of himself, no system, whether of the left or of the right, can bring order and peace to the world.
