Learning

Cannot people learn by imitating others?

A man purchased a Picasso painting. It was very costly, one million dollars, but he knew perfectly well that it is authentic -- he knew it because he was an eye witness when Picasso was doing it. When he had purchased he was so happy -- he was a friend to Picasso -- he went to show him the painting and to tell him that, "I have purchased your painting. Of course it has cost me a fortune, but I am immensely happy that I have got one of your original paintings with me." Picasso looked at the painting and said, "This is not original -- this is a copy." The man was shocked. Then he has been robbed of one million dollars! He said, "But what are you saying? -- because I have seen with my own eyes! I was staying with you in those days when you were…

Osho, what is learning?

LEARNING, in the first place, is not knowledge. Let us start from negating, from eliminating; let us first say what learning is not. Learning is not knowledge. Learning has become too much identified with knowledge. It is just the opposite of knowledge. The more knowledgeable a person is, the less he is capable of learning. Hence children are more capable of learning than grown-ups. And if the grown-ups also want to remain learners, they have to go on forgetting whatsoever they have learned. Whatsoever has become knowledge in them, they have to go on dying to it. If you collect your knowledge your inner space becomes too heavy with the past. You accumulate too much garbage. Learning happens only when there is spaciousness. The child has that spaciousness, innocence. The beauty of the child is that he functions from the state of not-knowing, and that is the fundamental secret of…

Beloved Osho, let's reverse the question for once: what have you learned being with us?

And it is a one-sided bridge; I am not a partner in it. I know it is hard for you but your very question implies, Sarjano -- perhaps you have not read it very consciously while you were writing it. You say, "Let us reverse the question for once." You cannot reverse it even for once. You are asking now, "What have you learned being with us?" I have nothing to learn. You are here only because of the fact that you have found a person who has nothing to learn -- and particularly from you, who are groping in darkness, in unconsciousness, who are almost on the boundary line of insanity -- any moment, just one step more and you are in a madhouse. Neither from you, nor from anyone else. And my whole approach is -- and I have been insisting millions of times -- that as far…

Are you still learning too?

Yes, because if learning stops, you are dead. Learning is life. You can ask me, "Are you still alive? " -- that will be the same question. The ego is a perfectionist and the ego thinks that when you have attained, when you have become enlightened, then there is no learning; then you know all. But if you know all, that 'all' will be finite. Just by being known it has become finite. You cannot know the infinite. The infinite simply means that you can go on learning and learning and learning and the end never comes, it is an eternal journey. It begins, but it never ends. But then the ego thinks: then what is the difference when we are also learning? The difference is that you are learning while fast asleep, unconscious, and a man who is enlightened learns consciously. Your learning is not knowing; your learning is…