For thousands of years man has had the illusion that one can attain knowledge by accumulating
other people’s thoughts. This is absolutely false and wrong. No man can ever attain to knowledge
by accumulating other people’s thoughts. Knowledge comes from the inside and thoughts come from
the outside. Knowledge is ours, and thoughts are always of the other, always borrowed. Knowledge
is the throbbing of your own being, it is an exposure of that which is hidden within yourself. Thoughts
are a collection of what others have said – you can collect them from the Gita or from the Koran or
from the Bible or from teachers or religious leaders.
Whatever we get from other people does not become our knowledge, it becomes a ways and a means to hide our ignorance. And when a man’s ignorance is hidden, he can never attain knowledge. Because we have the idea that this is our knowledge, we cling to it with our whole being. We cling to our thoughts, we are not courageous enough to drop them.
We support them because we think that they are our knowledge and if we lose them we will become ignorant. But remember, howsoever much one may cling to thoughts one does not become knowledgeable through them. When a man digs a well he first takes out the soil and stones and then water seeps in from the sides of the well and fills it. The water was already there, it did not need to be brought from anywhere else. Only some stones and some layers of soil had to be removed. There were some hindrances, some obstacles; once they were removed the water appeared. It was not necessary to bring water to the well, it was already there – just some hindrances had to be removed.
Knowledge is present inside, it does not have to be got from somewhere else. Its springs are hidden inside; only the obstacles in-between, the stones and the soil, have to be removed by digging – then the springs of knowledge will start appearing.
Whatever we get from other people does not become our knowledge, it becomes a ways and a means to hide our ignorance. And when a man’s ignorance is hidden, he can never attain knowledge. Because we have the idea that this is our knowledge, we cling to it with our whole being. We cling to our thoughts, we are not courageous enough to drop them.
We support them because we think that they are our knowledge and if we lose them we will become ignorant. But remember, howsoever much one may cling to thoughts one does not become knowledgeable through them. When a man digs a well he first takes out the soil and stones and then water seeps in from the sides of the well and fills it. The water was already there, it did not need to be brought from anywhere else. Only some stones and some layers of soil had to be removed. There were some hindrances, some obstacles; once they were removed the water appeared. It was not necessary to bring water to the well, it was already there – just some hindrances had to be removed.
Knowledge is present inside, it does not have to be got from somewhere else. Its springs are hidden inside; only the obstacles in-between, the stones and the soil, have to be removed by digging – then the springs of knowledge will start appearing.
