teaching

There is this common notion that people are shallow and ignorant until they go out and see the world. I, on the other hand, went out and in comparison realized I was in pretty good standing.

You can never make someone like something they don't like, but you can always help them to better understand it.

We are explorers. We are at present, as far as we know, the only explorers of the universe. For a long time we thought that ours was the only planet that could support life. Then we found others that could _ a few. For still longer we thought we were unique _ the only intelligent form of life _ a single, freakish pinpoint of reason in a vast, adventitious cosmos _ utterly lonely in the horrid wastes of space._ Again we discovered we were mistaken_But intelligent life is rare_ very rare indeed_ the rarest thing in creation_But the most precious_For intelligent life is the only thing that gives meaning to the universe. It is a holy thing, to be fostered and treasured.Without it nothing begins, nothing ends, there can be nothing through all eternity but the mindless babblings of chaos_Therefore, the nurture of all intelligent forms is a sacred duty. Even the merest spark of reason must be fanned in the hope of a flame. Frustrated intelligence must have its bonds broken. Narrow-channelled intelligence must be given the power to widen out. High intelligence must be learned from. That is why I have stayed here.

Master Teachers who genuinely embody an enlightened state of being never stop __oing the work_. The ego is what assumes it knows enough, causing cessation of these daily practices, and therefore, Masters without attachment to ego are forever students of the Universe. The Masters attain an illuminated state of __eing_ as the outcome, yet it is the consistent __oing_ that promotes and maintains their enlightenment.

Yes, contrast teaches us a great many things and there is purpose for it. Yet it is time to transcend your everyday dramas that are but drops in an ocean. Cease focusing on your droplets of water and look around you. Everything you say and touch and do sets into motion ripples that either heal and create or curse and destroy. Let me repeat: Everything.

Spiritual learners too slowly graduate like students of normal education. If you are mentally elevated, you can grasp and appreciate complex teachings.

For students of every ability and background, it is the simply miraculous act of reading a good book that turns them into readers. The job of adults who care about reading is to move heaven and earth to put that book into a child's hands.

The reading of great books has been a life-altering activity to me and, for better or worse, brought me singing and language-obsessed to that country where I make my living. Except for teaching, I__e had no other ambition in life than to write books that mattered.

I explained that most great works of the imagination were meant to make you feel like a stranger in your own home. The best fiction always forced us to question what we took for granted. It questioned traditions and expectations when they seemed too immutable. I told my students I wanted them in their readings to consider in what ways these works unsettled them, made them a little uneasy, made them look around and consider the world, like Alice in Wonderland, through different eyes.

Learning to read is probably the most difficult and revolutionary thing that happens to the human brain and if you don't believe that, watch an illiterate adult try to do it.

When we did art with the kids, the demons would lie down.

You want to know how I think art should be taught to children? Take them to a museum and say, 'This is art, and you can't do it.

Leaders are raised through training and experience. Nobody was born naturally with hand-gloves of leadership. We come to life to search for it, discover it and optimize it.

No institution can become the cradle of leadership, until its teachers break their manacles of rugged dogmas.

Pass the parcel. That's sometimes all you can do. Take it, feel it, and pass it on. Not for me, not for you, but for someone, somewhere, one day. Pass it on, boys. That's the game I want you to learn. Pass it on.

Make a difference, change the game for the better, leave a legacy, be a guide that someone else can follow and make better, and then someone else will follow that and make that better.

The mediocre teacher tells. The good teacher explains. The superior teacher demonstrates. The great teacher inspires.

Give the pupils something to do, not something to learn; and the doing is of such a nature as to demand thinking; learning naturally results.