Acquiring Education

This past week I was walking with a friend in a bookstore and we discussed the book 'Zen and the Art of Motorcycle Maintenance' by Robert M. Pirsig. The 25th anniversary edition was out and it was interesting to read the blurbs about how it was supposed to revolutionize the world, something which a quarter century on we were still waiting for.

It made me wonder about the way that we acquire education and what it actually means to us. Learning something by rote from a book is fine and well if you want to regurgitate it at a later stage to a professor as part of an exam, or to impress someone who may not know what you are talking about. But being able to repeat facts and the words of others does not mean that you have been educated.

Similarly, reading a book by a avant garde thinker may stimulate your thoughts and make you realise that there are more to life and inspire you to do more and follow your dreams. For at least a week.
For surely if you do not follow through and carry on and go further, which surely the author meant you to do, what is the purpose of even reading the book? You have gained a momentary enlightenment and saw something bigger, but ignored it and there was no point in reading the book beyond being able to comment on it when you see it displayed on the shelf of your dinner party host. A few minutes of faux intelligence and a half-heartedly discussion about garbled concepts which you dimly remember is all it has meant for you.

It has failed to bring you closer to the self realization and higher plane that you saw and envisioned. It has failed to put you where you belong and you are still drudging along in the same rut, waiting for that moment which will not find you unless you go looking for it. Reading and learning by rote should rather be shunned if that is the only thing that it will do for you.

It is better to go sit on a mountain top and medidate than to try digest second hand facts which does not touch you.

It does not mean that you have to go out of your way, but that you should start looking and know that there is more. This will put you faster on the path as 'Man does not have to strive, but only to realize the spiritual reality of the world in which he actually lives.'