It seems to me that learning is astonishingly difficult,as is listening also.We never actu
ally listen to anything because our minds is not free;our ears are stuffed up with those
things that we already know,so listening becomes extraordinarily difficult.I think-or rath
er,it is a fact-that if one can listen to something with all of one's being,with vigor,wit
h vitality,then the very act of listening if a liberative factor,but unfortunately you nev
er do listen,as you have never learned about it.After all, you only learn when you give yo
ur whole being to something.When you give your whole being to mathematics,yuo learn;but wh
en you are in a state of contradiction,when you do not want to learn but are forced to lea
rn,then it becomes merely a process of accumulation.To learn is like reading a novel with
innumerable characters;it requires your full attention,not contradictory attention.If you
want to learn about a leaf-a leaf of the spring or a leaf of the summer-you must really lo
ok at it,see the symmetry of it,the text of it,the quality of the living leaf.There is bea
uty,there is vigor,there is vitality in a single leaf.So to learn about the leaf,the flowe
r,the cloud,the sunset,or a human being,you must look with all intensity.