EDUCATING TO BE WHOLE

How would you, if you had a son here or a daughter, you want to educate them, or bring about a holistic life? You’ve got so many students here, capable, intelligent—at least some of them—and would you bring about, through what means, through what kind of attitude, what kind of verbal explanation, would you go through to educate a holistic way of living? That is what I am proposing. I mean by ‘holistic’ whole, unbroken, not splintered up, not fragmented, as most of our lives are. So, my question is, if I may put it to you: what would you do, in what manner would you educate, how do you bring about a holistic way of living? An outlook that’s not fragmented in specialisations. How would you help them, or educate them to bring this about? Is this too complicated a question? ...I happen to…like the place, the beauty of the place, the hills, the rocks, the flowers, the shadows on the hills. I like the place. And I am one of the educators here; parents send me one of their children and I want to see that their whole life from the very beginning of their days, while they come here, I want to see that they live a life [that is whole] … ‘whole’ means ‘good’. Good, not in the ordinary sense of that word ‘good’. It has a special meaning, not the old traditional word ‘good’; a ‘good boy’, a ‘good husband’—that’s all very limited, in the verbal sense. But it has much greater significance when you relate goodness to wholeness. I don’t know if I am making any sense. Good has that quality of being extraordinarily generous; good has that sense of not wanting to hurt another, consciously—you may do it unconsciously, but the whole attitude towards life, not to hurt, not to do something unkind consciously, [though] you may say something unconsciously. Good, in the sense that it is correct—not only for the moment; correct all the time…Correct in the sense it doesn’t depend on circumstances—if it is correct now, it will be correct a hundred years later or ten days later. Correctness, which is connected with goodness, is not related to environment, circumstances, pressures and so on. So, from that comes right action. I don’t know if you are following what I am talking about. So, goodness and holistic way of living go together. And I am one of the… educators here, this gentleman sends his son to this school. In what manner am I going to see that the boy grows in goodness and a holistic way of living? That’s my question. Do we rely on each other? Is it anindividual problem or is it the problem of the whole school, of the whole body? So, it must be a comprehensive [approach]—not that gentleman thinks one way and I think one way about goodness. It must be a cohesive action. Right? Now, is that possible? And do you want that? Sir, please, in the word ‘holistic’ is implied not the orthodox, organized and all that stupid nonsense, but that quality of religion…So, how am I, living here as an educator, to bring this about? ...I want to find out what way I can help the student. I may not be holistic. You understand? Don’t say you must first be holistic and then you can teach. Then we are dead. I am responsible to the parents of that boy or girl. Right? They have sent them because we have a good reputation, we look after them, we do all that. That’s not the point. He comes along and tells me, ‘It’s all right, but what matters is a holistic way of life’. Not intellectual, but the whole psyche, the whole being, the whole entity, which is now fragmented, if that can be whole then you have done the most extraordinary education—he tells me that. And he goes away, and I don’t know what to do. I understand the verbal meaning of whole, non-fragmented, not broken up, not saying one thing and doing something else, thinking something and doing quite the opposite to that. All that is fragmentation of life. And I don’t know what to do. I really mean deeply, profoundly, gravely, seriously I don’t know what to do. Right? Am I deceiving myself when I say, ‘I don’t know what to do’, or waiting for somebody to tell me or some book, something [that] will accidentally come along and give me…insight. So, I can’t wait for that because the boy is growing up in the meantime, kicking around. So, what shall I do? I know one thing, absolutely for certain—I don’t know. Right? I don’t know. All my inventions, all my thinking, have collapsed. Right? I don’t know if you feel that way. So, the brain is open for reception. You understand what I am saying? The brain has been closed—by conclusions, by opinions, by judgements, by values, by my problems—it’s a closed thing. When I say I really don’t know, I have broken something, I have broken the bottle which held the champagne. Out of that I begin to find out, when the bottle is broken. Right sir? Then I find out what love is, what is compassion and that intelligence that is born out of compassion. It has nothing to do with intellect. I’ll work at it.

—From Teachers Discussion 2, Rishi Valley, 7th December 1985