Are children really as intelligent as often claimed?

Question: OSHO, ARE CHILDREN REALLY SO INTELLIGENT AS YOU ALWAYS SAY THEY ARE? Intelligence is not something that is acquired, it is inbuilt, it is inborn, it is intrinsic to life itself. Not only children are intelligent, animals are intelligent in their own way, trees are intelligent in their own way. Of course they all have different kinds of intelligences because their needs differ, but now it is an established fact that all that lives is intelligent. Life cannot be without intelligence; to be alive and to be intelligent are synonymous. But man is in a dilemma for the simple reason that he is not only intelligent, he is also aware of his intelligence. That is something unique about man, his privilege, his prerogative, his glory, but it can turn very easily into his agony. Man is conscious that he is intelligent; that consciousness brings its own problems.

Osho, are the children really as intelligent as you say they are, before the society starts destroying them?

A CHILD is pure intelligence because a child is yet uncontaminated. A child is a clean slate, nothing is written on him. A child is absolute emptiness, TABULA RASA. The society will start writing immediately that you are a Christian, Catholic, Hindu, Mohammedan, Communist. The society will immediately start writing the Bhagavad Gita, Koran, Bible. The society cannot wait. The society is very much afraid that if the child's intelligence is left intact, then he will never be a slave. He will never be a part of any slavery, of any structure of domination. He will neither dominate nor be dominated. He will neither possess nor be possessed. He will be pure rebellion. His innocence has to be corrupted immediately. His wings have to be cut, he has to be given crutches to lean upon so he never learns how to walk on his own feet, so he remains always…

Are children really so intelligent, Osho, as you always say they are?

I said, "I don't know. I myself am puzzled because a single question and the teacher will say,'You go out! Unless you stop asking you cannot come in.' " And it was a good excuse for me to be outside in the air. And that was so beautiful to be outside with the birds and with the trees. So whenever I wanted to go out, just a question, any question would do -- any question that was unanswerable! I was turned out of one college, expelled from this university and that university. One university accepted me, but accepted with the condition that I would not ask any questions. I said, "I can accept that, but then you have to do one thing: that I will not have to go to the classes, because if I am in class and if the professor says something stupid, I will not be able…

Mr p'ang of ch'en had a son who was clever as a child but suffered from an abnormality when he grew up. When he heard singing he thought it was weeping; when he saw white he thought it was black; fragrant smells he thought noisome, sweet tastes he thought bitter, wrong actions he thought right. Whatever came into his mind -- heaven and earth, the four cardinal points, water and fire, heat and cold -- he always turned it upside down.

A CERTAIN MR. YANG TOLD HIS FATHER: 'THE GENTLEMEN OF LU HAVE MANY ARTS AND SKILLS, PERHAPS THEY CAN CURE HIM. WHY NOT INQUIRE AMONG THEM?' THE FATHER SET OUT FOR LU, BUT PASSING THROUGH CH'EN HE CAME ACROSS LAO TZU AND TOOK THE OPPORTUNITY TO TELL HIM ABOUT HIS SON'S SYMPTOMS. 'HOW DO YOU KNOW THAT YOUR SON IS ABNORMAL?' SAID LAO TZU. 'NOWADAYS EVERYONE IN THE WORLD IS DELUDED ABOUT RIGHT AND WRONG AND CONFUSED ABOUT BENEFIT AND HARM. BECAUSE MANY PEOPLE SHARE THIS SICKNESS NO ONE PERCEIVES THAT IT IS A SICKNESS. BESIDES, ONE MAN'S ABNORMALITY IS NOT ENOUGH TO OVERTURN HIS FAMILY; ONE FAMILY'S TO OVERTURN THE NEIGHBOURHOOD: ONE NEIGHBOURHOOD'S TO OVERTURN THE STATE; ONE STATE'S TO OVERTURN THE WORLD. IF THE WHOLE WORLD WERE ABNORMAL HOW COULD ABNORMALITY OVERTURN IT? SUPPOSING THE MINDS OF EVERYONE IN THE WORLD WERE LIKE YOUR SON'S, THEN, ON THE…

Osho! You say meditation is a rebirth and one becomes gifted like small children. Are little children really so full of talent?

I find sense, consistency, and honesty in Sartre’s stance—though he is an atheist; he believes neither in God nor in any inherent meaning of life, nor in any soul that survives. Yet his courage, his boldness, his strength! One thing is clear to him: “Since I oppose the values of this society, how can I accept honors from it?” If someone conferred on me the title Bharat Ratna, how could I accept it? Impossible. Because I oppose nations. I cannot be the jewel of any nation—at best, a pebble. I cannot be any country’s jewel; that would amount to accepting nationalism. I do not believe the earth should be divided. I do not believe there should be passports. I do not believe there should be any barriers to people going from one country to another. Every constitution proclaims freedom of movement. But what freedom is this? Is there freedom of…