Is intelligence based on the quality of education, the accumulated degrees like so many war medals and hunting trophies ? Is it conforming to the social codes of success, ambition and wealth ? Isn't intelligence rather the capacity for reasoning, questioning, listening, being generous, attentive to everything around us ? Isn't it to be free from images, beliefs, convictions and conflicts ? To be free from plunder and suffering ?
We were brought up to idolize all kinds of authorities : shrinks, bosses, gurus, priests, doctors, surgeons, scientists, media, lawyers, politicians, researchers. They are often arrogant beings, who can't make the difference between the tree and the forest.
Their microscopic gaze, centered on their little accumulated knowledge, makes their disciplines limited, without much scope, and often harmful. We prtend that intelligence is the accumulation of knowledge, social status and success.. But we forget to mention that these individuals are often bankrupt in all the other aspects of their life. Their success often is very the fruit of ambition, selfishness and self interest : no generosity, benevolence or empathy for anyone. They just add clutter to clutter.
What about hope in all of this ? Hope is a form of belief, a projection of thought which wishes to gain a pleasant experience, to satisfy a need for sensation. However hope does not carry any vitality, because there is no truth outside the facts. A projection is never a fact, it is the skillful movement of thought which flees the observation, thus generating a duality, a conflict, a tension : that is, wanting to be what one is not.
This form of escape only arouses dismay and disappointment. To be aware of conditioned existence without fleeing, nor justifying, nor condemning is the highest form of intelligence. Because from the observation the right action is possible immediately, and from the action the transformation of the individual. No need to hope, you just have to do it.
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