The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be rekindled.

Greetings. (Oh, how I love being formal!) If I haven't implied this before, I'd like to directly state it now: I enjoy blogging, immensely so. Blogging is a great platform for me to oust my writing and share it with people who're willing to read a child's (yes, I'm a holy child) whims, fantasies and sudden deep messages. Basically, I blog only the pieces I personally love. No, not everything I write goes into my blog, but only those which have passed harsh scrutiny by my brain will deserve publishing. This particular piece was written in a style entirely foreign to myself as it was written not because I wanted, but because I was socially obliged to write it. Perhaps that is why I have been rather hesitant to publish it. However, I have decided to publish it anyway, so enjoy!

The prompt: 'The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be kindled' (yes, that's the prompt. No explanation.)

The mind is not a vessel to be filled, but a fire to be rekindled.

Throughout history, time has always presented us with hoards of geniuses; each considered so in their own epochs in their own fields of specialization. Their minds have always been under the keen eye of jealous scientists while their brains are being stored in jars and slides for meticulous inspection by, perhaps, the less eclectic.

The mind is an incredibly powerful form of intellect. It is the most autonomous part of the human anatomy, able to function almost independently without the need for a body. The quintessential example of this is course, Stephen Hawking. Despite having being diagnosed with amyotrophic lateral sclerosis  at 21 and promised a great life expectancy of 2 years, the sheer willpower and obstinacy of his mind has extended his life by more than 5 decades AND theorized the previously thought impossible! Can it not be concluded from this that the mind is an independent part of the body capable of achieving infinite impossible feats, even miraculous ones? The mind, in fact, is the only living substance in the entire universe, in the incredible theory of existence, that can  travel to the edges of the ever-expanding universe and contemplate and build things never realized before…all while standing in a single place. The mind can be compared to God, or the ever existent force that created humanity: invisible and incomprehensible and yet ubiquitous and staggeringly influential. Conclusively, the mind is something of immense power and capability. So what is the difference between the brain and the mind? “Biology gives you a brain. Life turns it into a mind.” (Jeffrey Eugenides)

Young minds are the most inquisitive, eternal flames fueled by their perpetual ‘whys’. They have no rules, no defined boundaries for their capabilities – if you told a child he can lift a mountain, he would actually attempt to! Their endearing questions may be actually unanswerable at times, especially ones such as ‘Why isn’t water coloured? ’Children’s minds’ are unscathed by the pollution of mankind, for man has a natural instinct to kill fires with the gallows of his mind. A criminal execution! Regrettably, this is happening at a frighteningly vast scale before our own eyes. Who is the culprit?

The contemporary education system.

Children of the twenty-first century squander countless hours of their lives on volunteering; working sleepless nights to get straight A’s and studying a myriad of insignificant subjects to get into a ‘good college’. However, does the essence of life really lie on a bunch of meaningless equations, an interminable stream of nonsensical words and that Physics paper that you failed? At one’s deathbed, will one feel repentant, dejected or possibly contemplate suicide because they’re racked with guilt for getting only a 99/100 in that Math paper? Or feel ashamed that they couldn’t get into IIT, an Ivy League or the Mensa? Probably, with the current stance of events.

Today, children are being stuffed with information they wouldn’t even think about in 10 years from now. Their minds are literally being cut open, filled with trash and stitched back together, with all the information safely tucked somewhere between the nerves and the hypothalamus, only for the stitching to come off loose the following night. Don’t worry though; the persistent punishments, public humiliations and endless debasement will mend the stitches back – except for the fact that the child will be left shattered and inhumane and engender thoughts of vice in the years to come. The mind is literally tended to as a vessel - filled with years’ worth of useless information galore to its brim and yet being crammed with material beyond its capacity. Soon, the substance at the bottom of the vessel begins to rot, wherein begins the eternal rotting of the soul – the child turns to vice and the Seven Deadly Sins.

Basically, the endearing, perpetual flames of the young mind are mercilessly put off by the grey waters of an adult’s mind.  John le Carré  once said, “All men are born free: just not for long.” With this, I completely agree, for a child is born with a spark of passion towards life and learning. This spark, if properly kindled and let to rage, can perform magnificent feats and can conquer the earth, heavens and mankind. However, if it were let to rage without proper kindling, it may lead to the downfall of mankind.  If dampened, then the sorry child’s life will be of no worth. A forest fire is absolutely necessary to clear a dense overgrowth of trees. Nevertheless, if left to grow on its own, it will greedily consume the entire forest. Noam Chomsky, an American philosopher also concurs: ““The whole educational and professional training system is a very elaborate filter, which just weeds out people who are too independent, and who think for themselves, and who don't know how to be submissive, and so on -- because they're dysfunctional to the institutions.”  Basically, the current education systems’ cardinal aim is to locate students who are vapid and devoid of thinking for the self. The young mind can be likened to the caged bird in Maya Angelou’s ‘Caged Bird’ – unhappy and conformed to the social paradigms which are merely the bars of prison. Gandhiji once said, “I will not let anyone walk through my mind with their dirty feet.” This is the sorry state of affairs children unknowingly undergo – the dirtying of their minds by the ‘more intelligent’.

The only way to eliminate the mass culling is to first understand the mind.

 Noetics is an interesting branch of metaphysical philosophy concerned with the study of mind as well as intellect. Currently, it is disregarded due to its possible connection with religion and lack of rational explanations for its concepts. Hence, it is studied by only one esoteric institute, Institute of Noetic Sciences. One of their researches is on the human potential – an attempt develop or rekindle human potential when humans can experience an exceptional quality of life filled with happiness, creativity, and fulfillment.

However, for the remission of all that is happening, we need understand and then accept the idea that the mind, is not a limited vessel to be filled with useless monotony, but a raging fire of passion to be cultivated to prosperity.

*Ironically enough, we were still treated like vessels after a 30-minute lecture on the topic.