At the heart of education: The wisdom of learning

Education is not about knowledge…

We believe it to be, accumulating masses of know-how through schools, universities  and all kinds of other courses and programs to cultivate ourselves to be someone in this world. We strive for authority, by following other authorities. . . The protégée is taught by their teacher until they themselves are the ones who teach. We spiral upwards in knowledge, but remain unable to create the new as we copy from the old. We call this ‘leadership’, but in reality it is followership, or better, worship (of authority). 

Actual leadership is learning, which is the life-long process of education. It is not the accumulation of knowledge from some authority, but understanding ourselves in action through observation (sometimes of an expert on a certain subject of course).
Understanding ourselves is the ground from which to understand the world also, as it is reflected within us. We must see the violence of the world, with its hatred and aggression, in ourselves to understand it completely, and act on it effectively. Counter-action, without this kind of understanding, will remain totally ineffective, since what is being counter acted is not actually understood. 
We’re not talking about scientific or factual understanding here but observation of the fact within oneself. Only then is there change. 

Knowledge used without this understanding creates chaos. Scientists developing the atomic bomb obtained extensive knowledge on the subject but did not study really what the human mind could make of it. Our tools of destruction are getting more severe by the day, as knowledge is being used without understanding of its implications.
It is insane, and a horrendous crime against all living beings, to produce weapons of war and murder. That is a fact, is it not? Yet we seem to be fine to keep on going with it, because we mindlessly continue the knowledge of generations before us, not ever questioning its intelligence and rationality. 

The so-called ‘education institutions’ are disastrously feeding this insanity by teaching knowledge without facilitating the understanding and transformation of it. Economics classes still essentially teach the same content as decades ago, knowing of its inherent system of exploitation and degradation. We speak of rationality, behaving completely and utterly irrational. 

Actual education must facilitate the process of learning

,which is understanding oneself in relationship with the knowledge that is being taught, and what it means for all beings. It is the role of the teacher to help students find their own way, not to show them what to do and how to do it, which is the seed of violence. The learner must be given space to inquire and create the new.  

Whilst knowledge is lost over time, understanding always remains and is available to us in the instant. It is the power of the heart that needs no thinking, no strategy, and no plan to function in action.