04 Feb Judas must have thought that he was being very intelligent, but he was simply cunning.. (OSHO)
After centuries of cunningness man has learned one thing: that to remain innocent is dangerous, you will not be able to survive. Hence parents try to drive their children out of their innocence. Teachers, schools, colleges, universities exist for the simple work of making you more cunning, more clever. Although they call it intelligence, it is not intelligence.
Intelligence is not against innocence, remember. Intelligence is the flavor of innocence; intelligence is the fragrance of innocence. Cunningness is against innocence; cunningness and cleverness are not synonymous with intelligence. To be intelligent needs a tremendous journey inward. No schools can help, no colleges, no universities can help. The parents, the priests, the society, are all extrovert; they cannot help you to go inward. And buddhas are very rare, few and far between. Not everybody is fortunate enough to fine a buddha. Only a buddha can help you to be an intelligent person, but you cannot find so many buddhas who want to become primary school teachers and high school teachers and university professors; it is impossible.
So there is a substitute for intelligence. Cunningness is a substitute for intelligence. It is a very poor substitute, remember, and not only is it a poor substitute, it is just the opposite of it. The intelligent person is not cunning; certainly intelligent, but his intelligence keeps his innocence intact. He does not sell it for mundane things. The cunning person is ready to sell his soul for small things.
Judas sold Jesus for only thirty silver coins- just thirty silver coins and a Jesus can be sold. Judas must have thought that he was being very intelligent, but he was simply cunning. If you don’t like the word cunning you can call him clever; that is just a good name for the same thing, for the same ugly thing.
Society prepares you to be cunning so that you are capable of competing in this struggle for existence, the struggle to survive. It is a cutthroat competition, everybody is after everybody else’s throat. People are ready to do anything to succeed, to be famous, to climb the ladder of success, name and fame. They are ready to use you as stepping-stones. Unless you are also cunning you will be simply used, manipulated. Hence the society trains every child to be cunning, and these layers of cunningness are hiding your innocence.
Innocence has not to be achieved, it is already there. Hence it is not a question of becoming, it is your being. It has only to be discovered- or rediscovered. You will immediately be innocent once you have dropped all that you have learned from others; hence my antagonism toward all knowledge that is borrowed. Don’t quote the Bible, don’t quote the Gita. Don’t behave like parrots. Don’t just go on living on borrowed information. Start seeking and searching for your own intelligence.
OSHO
