Krishnamurti -The Function of Education

在很掙扎的時候, 我總是會想起這篇文章.
2003年第一次讀, 之後讀了好幾次.
教育的意義?我提醒自己.


I WONDER IF we have ever asked ourselves what education means. Why do we go to school, why do we learn various subjects, why do we pass examinations and compete with each other for better grades? What does this so-called education mean, and what is it all about? This is really a very important question, not only for the students, but also for the parents, for the teachers, and for everyone who loves this earth. Why do we go through the struggle to be educated? Is it merely in order to pass some examinations and get a job? Or is it the function of education to prepare us while we are young to understand the whole process of life? Having a job and earning one's livelihood is necessary - but is that all? Are we being educated only for that? Surely, life is not merely a job, an occupation; life is something extraordinarily wide and profound, it is a great mystery, a vast realm in which we function as human beings. If we merely prepare ourselves to earn a livelihood, we shall miss the whole point of life; and to understand life is much more important than merely to prepare for examinations and become very proficient in mathematics, physics, or what you will.

So, whether we are teachers or students, is it not important to ask ourselves why we are educating or being educated? And what does life mean? Is not life an extraordinary thing? The birds, the flowers, the flourishing trees, the heavens, the stars, the rivers and the fish therein - all this is life. Life is the poor and the rich; life is the constant battle between groups, races and nations; life is meditation; life is what we call religion, and it is also the subtle, hidden things of the mind - the envies, the ambitions, the passions, the fears, fulfilments and anxieties. All this and much more is life. But we generally prepare ourselves to understand only one small corner of it. We pass certain examinations, find a job, get married, have children, and then become more and more like machines. We remain fearful, anxious, frightened of life. So, is it the function of education to help us understand the whole process of life, or is it merely to prepare us for a vocation, for the best job we can get?

What is going to happen to all of us when we grow to be men and women? Have you ever asked yourselves what you are going to do when you grow up? In all likelihood you will get married, and before you know where you are you will be mothers and fathers; and you will then be tied to a job, or to the kitchen, in which you will gradually wither away. Is that all that your life is going to be? Have you ever asked yourselves this question? Should you not ask it? If your family is wealthy you may have a fairly good position already assured, your father may give you a comfortable job, or you may get richly married; but there also you will decay, deteriorate. Do you see?

Surely, education has no meaning unless it helps you to understand the vast expanse of life with all its subtleties, with its extraordinary beauty, its sorrows and joys. You may earn degrees, you may have a series of letters after your name and land a very good job; but then what? What is the point of it all if in the process your mind becomes dull, weary, stupid? So, while you are young, must you not seek to find out what life is all about? And is it not the true function of education to cultivate in you the intelligence which will try to find the answer to all these problems? Do you know what intelligence is? It is the capacity, surely, to think freely without fear, without a formula, so that you begin to discover for yourself what is real, what is true; but if you are frightened you will never be intelligent. Any form of ambition, spiritual or mundane, breeds anxiety, fear; therefore ambition does not help to bring about a mind that is clear, simple, direct, and hence intelligent.

You know, it is really very important while you are young to live in an environment in which there is no fear. Most of us, as we grow older, become frightened; we are afraid of living, afraid of losing a job, afraid of tradition, afraid of what the neighbours, or what the wife or husband would say, afraid of death. Most of us have fear in one form or another; and where there is fear there is no intelligence. And is it not possible for all of us, while we are young, to be in an environment where there is no fear but rather an atmosphere of freedom - freedom, not just to do what we like, but to understand the whole process of living? Life is really very beautiful, it is not this ugly thing that we have made of it; and you can appreciate its richness, its depth, its extraordinary loveliness only when you revolt against everything - against organized religion, against tradition, against the present rotten society - so that you as a human being find out for yourself what is true. Not to imitate but to discover - that is education, is it not? It is very easy to conform to what your society or your parents and teachers tell you. That is a safe and easy way of existing; but that is not living, because in it there is fear, decay, death. To live is to find out for yourself what is true, and you can do this only when there is freedom, when there is continuous revolution inwardly, within yourself.

But you are not encouraged to do this; no one tells you to question, to find out for yourself what God is, because if you were to rebel you would become a danger to all that is false. Your parents and society want you to live safely, and you also want to live safely. Living safely generally means living in imitation and therefore in fear. Surely, the function of education is to help each one of us to live freely and without fear, is it not? And to create an atmosphere in which there is no fear requires a great deal of thinking on your part as well as on the part of the teacher, the educator.

Do you know what this means - what an extraordinary thing it would be to create an atmosphere in which there is no fear? And we must create it, because we see that the world is caught up in endless wars; it is guided by politicians who are always seeking power; it is a world of lawyers, policemen and soldiers, of ambitious men and women all wanting position and all fighting each other to get it. Then there are the so-called saints, the religious gurus with their followers; they also want power, position, here or in the next life. It is a mad world, completely confused, in which the communist is fighting the capitalist, the socialist is resisting both, and everybody is against somebody, struggling to arrive at a safe place, a position of power or comfort. The world is torn by conflicting beliefs, by caste and class distinctions, by separative nationalities, by every form of stupidity and cruelty - and this is the world you are being educated to fit into. You are encouraged to fit into the framework of this disastrous society; your parents want you to do that, and you also want to fit in.

Now, is it the function of education merely to help you to conform to the pattern of this rotten social order, or is it to give you freedom - complete freedom to grow and create a different society, a new world? We want to have this freedom, not in the future, but now, otherwise we may all be destroyed. We must create immediately an atmosphere of freedom so that you can live and find out for yourselves what is true, so that you become intelligent, so that you are able to face the world and understand it, not just conform to it, so that inwardly, deeply, psychologically you are in constant revolt; because it is only those who are in constant revolt that discover what is true, not the man who conforms, who follows some tradition. It is only when you are constantly inquiring, constantly observing, constantly learning, that you find truth, God, or love; and you cannot inquire, observe, learn, you cannot be deeply aware, if you are afraid. So the function of education, surely, is to eradicate, inwardly as well as outwardly, this fear that destroys human thought, human relationship and love.


教育的意義
Krishnamurti 原著

我不知道有多少人問過自己受教育的意義是什麼？我們為什麼要上學？為什麼要學習各種科目？為什麼參加考試，和同學比得分高低？所謂的藥浴究竟含有什麼意義？它涵蓋了什麼？這時再是一個非常重要的問題，我們不只是為學生質疑這問題，同時也為父母、老師，以及所有熱愛地球的人們共同來探究這個問題。

我們為什麼要透過競爭來受教育？難道教育只是為了通過幾項考試，得到一份工作？還是位我們在年輕時奠定基礎，以便來矯人生的整個過程？獲得一份工作來維持生技是必要的，然而這就是一切了嗎？難道我們受教育就是為了這個目的？顯然的，生命並補只是依份工作和職業而已，生命是極為廣闊而深奧的，它是ㄧ個偉大的謎，在這個浩瀚的領域中我們更有幸生為人類。如果我們活著只是為了謀生，我們就失去了生命的整個重點。去了解生命本身，比只是準備考試，精通數學、物理或其他科目要重要多了。

所以不論我們是老師還是學生，我們是否應該捫心自問為何教育他人或受教？生命到底是什麼？難道生命不奇妙？飛鳥，花朵、翠木、藍天、星辰、河流、游魚……這一切都是生命。生命是貧窮的、富足的；生命是群體、種族、國家之間永不停歇的戰役；生命是靜思冥想；生命是所謂的宗教；同時它也是心靈中微妙的、隱藏的東西，包括羨妒、野心、激情、恐懼、成就及憂慮等等。這所有的一切及更多的事物都是生命。然而，我們通常只準備去了解生命的一個小角落。

我們通過一些考試，找一份工作，結婚，生子，然後就越活越像一部機器。我們依然對生命恐懼、焦慮。因此幫助我們了解人生的整個過程，難道不是教育的目的？除非教育能夠幫助你去了解廣大生命的所有精微面、它驚人的美、它的哀愁及歡樂，否則教育是沒有什麼意義的。你也許會得到學位，得到一連串的頭銜，得到非常好的工作，然後呢？如果在這一切過程中，你變得遲鈍、衰竭、愚蠢，那麼生命的目的又是什麼？所以當你年輕時，你是不是應該弄清楚生命究竟是怎麼一回事？

要育的真正意義，難道不是培養出你的智慧，藉著它找出所有的問題的答案？你知道智慧是什麼嗎？它是一種無限的包容力，允許你去自由的思想；沒有恐懼，沒有公式，然後你才能開始弄清楚什麼是真實的、真正的事物。

但是如果你有恐懼，你永遠也不可能有智慧。任何形式的野心，不論是精神的或是物質的，都導致焦慮及恐懼。所以野心不能導引清明、簡單而直接的心智，所以是不可能有智慧的。

你知道當你年輕時，生活在一個沒有恐懼的環境裡是非常重要的。大部分的人，當年記漸長，都變得有所恐懼。我們對生活恐懼，怕失去工作，怕傳統，怕鄰居，怕別人的批評，怕死亡。大半的人都有不同形式的恐懼，當有了恐懼就失去了智慧。我們是否可能在我們仍然年輕時，身處在一種自由而無懼的氣氛中，不只是去做我們所喜愛的事情，更是了解生命的整個過程。

生命真是美極了，它不是我們製造出的這些醜惡。惟獨當你對所有的事物革新之後，你才能夠欣賞到它的豐富、深度及可愛之處；革新組織化的宗教、傳統和現今敗壞的社會，然後以人本的立場來弄清楚什麼是真理；不是去模仿而是去弄清楚。這就是教育。

服從社會、父母及老師的教導是很容易的，那是一條安全又容易的生存之道，但是它不是生活，因為在其中存有恐懼、腐敗及死亡。活著就是去弄清楚什麼是真相，而只有在自由中才能作得到；或是當你的內心中，有一種永不停歇的革新時。

但是你從沒有被鼓勵去做這件事，沒有人告訴你要發問，去弄清楚上帝究竟是什麼，如果你開始反叛，你會和所有的錯誤對立。你的父母及社會要你過得安全，你自己也想過得安全。生活的安通常代表的是模仿，所以是活在恐懼中。顯然的，教育的意義是要幫助我們活得自由無懼，不是嗎？創造出一種沒有恐懼的氣氛，需要你和你的老師，共同做很多思考。你知道這是什麼意思嗎？去創造一種沒有恐懼的氣氛是一件多麼偉大的事，我們必須創造它，因為這個世界勞線在無止境的戰爭中，它被追求權利的政客誤導，這是ㄧ個充滿律師、警察及軍人，充滿互相搶奪地位野心男女的世界。還有ㄧ些所謂的聖人、宗教的教主以及它們的追隨者，它們也想在今生獲來生得到權力、地位。

這是ㄧ個瘋狂的、完全混亂的世界，在這個世界上，共產主義者和資本主義者作戰，社會主義者又反抗這兩者，每個人都在和別人做對，極力想到達一個安全的位置，一個有權勢或享福的位置。這個世界被衝突的信念、被階級意識、被不同的國家主義、各種形式的愚蠢及殘酷所分割，而這就是你學著去適應的世界。你被鼓勵去適應這個悲慘的社會，你的父母要你這麼做，你自己也想這麼做。
然而教育的意義只是幫助你順應這個敗壞的社會制度嗎？還是要給你自由，一種完全的自由，來讓你成長並且創造一個不同的社會，一個新世界？

我們必須擁有這份自由，不是未來，而是現在，否則我們會被完全毀滅。我們必須立刻創造出自由氣氛，然後你就可以在其中生活並且弄清楚什麼是真相，然後你就會變得有智慧，有能力面對並且了解這個世界，而不只是順服它而已。因為你再你的心底深處，你是不斷在革新的，也只有那些不斷革新的人，才會弄清楚什麼是真理，那些服從與跟隨傳統的人是無法坐到的。如果你心中有恐懼，你就不能探索、觀察、學習、不能深入的覺察。所以教育的意義，很顯然的，就是消除外在及內在破壞人類思想、關係及愛的那份恐懼。