We think we are very intelligent and so we try to mould our children to become intelligent like us. When we start this process, we first teach the child the logic of running in life driven by either fear or greed. Either he has to do something to achieve more, or he has to do something to prevent what he doesn’t want to happen. When you want something to happen, it is greed. When you are afraid that something will happen, it is fear. Either he has to study so he can get better grades and win admission in a good college, this is being driven by greed. Or he has to study so he is not left behind in his future professional life, this is being driven by fear. The motivation for the child is greed or fear, never inner fulfillment. Naturally, the child gets into the rat race and just keeps running, with no time to even look whether he is running for what he really wants. He does not even know that he can enjoy the run! He has been taught that with any other diversion, precious time will be wasted in reaching the goal.

But how many people have felt fulfilled after reaching the ‘goal’?

When you reach the goal you have set, you realize the goalpost is no longer there. It has moved further, and you want something else now! Just look in. See if you are really bringing up your children or just teaching them to be driven by greed and fear. Take a deep look at yourself and see if simply running the rat race gives the feeling of real fulfillment deep within you. Are you doing what you are doing because that is what you really want to do? Or are you doing it because that is what is expected of you by your family, friends and society? Understand, if you are living your life based on just seeing what others are doing, you are just wasting your precious life. This is what they call ‘herd mentality’ – joining the rat race because everybody else is a part of it. You may even win the rat race, but you are still a rat!

Can we measure intelligence?

Is there a standard to measure intelligence?

Right from school, we use standard benchmarks to determine a person’s so called level of intelligence. In the grading system used from elementary school through college, we compare and grade all children for various skills and aptitudes. One child may be good in science and another may have a natural talent for music. But both are graded on the same scale in science, and both are graded on the same scale in music.

Now, how do you decide which child is ‘more intelligent’?

If the intelligence is measured based on performance in science, the child with an interest in science will be declared more intelligent. If the intelligence is measured based on musical performance, then, naturally, the child with a flair for music will be seen as more intelligent than the child who has the aptitude in science. Say you choose science as the benchmark for intelligence. Then, the child poet gets the idea that he is not as intelligent as the science based child. Consciously or unconsciously, the poetic child starts suppressing his natural intelligence and tries to imitate the scientific child.

Everyone is born intelligent, it is a question of just discovering each one’s unique dimension of intelligence.

We need to understand an important thing here. One kind of intelligence is needed to be a scientist and another kind of intelligence is needed to be a poet. To be an Olympic swimmer one needs yet another kind of intelligence!

Intelligence is the ability to respond to a situation or challenge. As the situation differs, the dimension of intelligence that responds to the situation also differs. The scientific child responds to a particular situation from a particular dimension of intelligence, whereas the poetic child responds to another situation from another dimension. The swimmer responds to yet another kind of situation from yet another dimension of intelligence! Everyone is born intelligent, it is a question of just discovering each one’s unique dimension of intelligence.

source: Living Enlightenment