Concentration of mind –
the Key
To me the very essence of education is concentration
of mind, not the collection of facts....Ninety percent of thought force is wasted by the ordinary human being and
therefore he is constantly committing blunders; the trained man or mind
never makes a mistake.
Free! We cannot, for a moment, govern our own minds, nay,
cannot hold our mind on a subject, focus it on a point to the exclusion of
everything else for a moment! Yet we call ourselves free. Think of it!...The
mind uncontrolled and unguided will drag us down, down, for ever – rend us
– kill us; and mind controlled and guided will save us, free us.
Take up one idea. Make that one idea your life - think of it,
dream of it, and live on that idea. Let the brain, muscles, nerves, every part
of your body, be full of that idea, and just leave every other idea alone. This
is the way to success…If we really want to be blessed and make others
blessed, we must go deeper.
Education is not the
amount of information that is put into your brain and runs riot there,
undigested, all your life. We must have life-building, man-making,
character-making assimilation of ideas. If you have assimilated five
ideas and made them your life and character, you have more education than any
man who has got by heart a whole library (Source: Vivekananda, His Call to the Nation)
