Osho Rajneesh Book "Revolution in Education"

Revolution in Education

Education: Love-Oriented
Date unknown

This discourse was given before students under the title: Youth and Rebellion.

I am pleased at the prospect of speaking to the youth and the students. The first thing about the

youth that comes to my mind is what today I would like to say to you in detail.

For the old the past exists; that is already gone, and their whole world is behind them. Children

imagine about and desire for the future; old people think and worry about the past. For the youth,

there is neither past nor future; for them there is only the present. If you are young, you can really

be so only through your ability to live in the present. If in your mind there are thoughts about the

past, you have begun to grow old. If imagination about the future still goes on in your mind, you are

still a child.

Youth is a balancing midpoint, when the mind is in a state where there is no past and no future.

When we rightly live in the present, the mind is young, fresh and alive. The truth is that nothing else

exists except the present. The past and the future do not exist. Only the present moment exists.

How many are there who live in the present moment? I call one who lives in the present moment

youthful. One who has attained to the ability to live in the present moment has a young mind; it is

neither old nor childish. But what happens mostly is that people directly move from childhood to old

age; very few attain to youth. One does not necessarily pass through youthfulness. However, the

interesting thing is that one who really becomes youthful does not become old, because one who

knows the secret of being a youth does not need to become old. The body will become old, it will

age and pass away, but the mind will remain constantly young and sharp.

CHAPTER 3. EDUCATION: LOVE-ORIENTED

So the first thing I would say to you is not to think of yourself as young just because your age is

between that of a child and of old people. Just because of your age you do not become a youth.

Being a youth is a very deep happening. I shall tell you a few things in that connection.

I am told you are students. That too I don’t see, because if there were students in the world, there

would be a lot of knowledge; students go on increasing but not knowledge. Ignorance is increasing.

Students are increasing, universities are increasing, but the world is becoming worse and worse. If

knowledge was increasing, then the world would really be better.

It would be really surprising if someone took me to a garden and said, ”I have grown so many

plants and flowers. Flowers go on blossoming, but there is also an increasing stink, instead of any

fragrance.” We would have to ask then, ”How are these flowers and plants grown that the stink is

increasing?”

Universities are increasing and books are increasing. I am told there are five thousand books

published every week in the world. Books and students go on increasing in quantity, education is

increasing, but the world is becoming worse. In this world if wars are becoming more violent, hatred

is becoming more widespread, jealousy and envy are on the increase, there must be something

basically wrong. For this situation the responsibility really rests on those who are connected with

education – the teacher and the students.

During the last five thousand years there have been many revolutions – economic and political –

but so far there has been no fundamental revolution in education. It is worth deliberating on now

whether there is any possibility of a revolution in man’s culture without any revolution in education.

It is not possible, because education creates a structure of your mind from which it becomes almost

impossible for you to be free. A student is studying for fifteen to twenty years, during which time the

structure of his mind will be fixed. Afterwards it is very difficult to be free from that structure unless

a person is adventurous and courageous.

Is there something wrong with that structure which is educating us? Certainly it must be wrong,

because the outcome is wrong – and it is the outcome which decides if something is right or wrong.

The children who come out duly educated, also come out as perverted human beings.

I do not mean to tell you that the ancient form of education was better and that we should return to

that. All that is nonsense; in life there is nothing like going back. In the past also the educational

system was not basically right. If it had been, the present wrong system would not have come out

of it. It was wrong in the past, it is wrong now. Wrong only comes out of wrong.

I will tell you what actually has gone wrong.

The center around which our education is moving is wrong. The whole problem has arisen due to

the wrong center – which is ambition. Our whole educational system is revolving around ambition.

What is being taught to us? We are taught ambition. We are taught a race to get ahead of everyone.

Even in a small child learning in kindergarten we are creating an anxiety about coming first in the

class. There is no greater anxiety than this in the world. The only anxiety is how to get ahead of all,

leaving everyone else behind.

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