EDUCATION
further point out that it is very difficult for a man to acquire
the art of contemplation unless he observes certain rules
of diet and adopts certain bodily postures. Similar
observations have been made by Christian mystics in the
West. For example, the author of The Ckud of Unknowing
insists, in a very striking and curious passage which I
shall quote in a later chapter, that enlightenment, or mystical
union with God, is unattainable by those who are physically
uncontrolled to the extent of fidgeting, nervously laughing,
making odd gestures and grimaces. Such tics and com-
pulsions (it is a matter of observation) are almost invariably
associated with physical maladjustment and strain. Where
they exist, the highest forms of non-attachment are un-
achievable. It follows therefore that the ideal system of
physical education must be one which relieves people of
maladjustment and strain.
Another condition of non-attachment is awareness.
Unawareness is one of the main sources of attachment
or evil. * Forgive them, for they know not what they do/
Those who know not what they do are indeed in need of
forgiveness; for they are responsible for an immense
amount of suffering. Yet more urgent than their need to
be forgiven is their need to know. For if they knew, it
may be that they would not perform those stupid and
criminal acts whose ineluctable consequences no amount of
human or divine forgiveness can prevent. A good physical
education should teach awareness on the physical plane—
not the obsessive and unwished-for awareness that pain
imposes upon the mind, but voluntary and intentional
awareness. The body must be trained to think. True,
this happens every time we learn a manual skill; our
bodies think when we draw, or play golf, or take a piano
lesson. But all such thinking is specialist thinking. What
we need is an education for our bodies that shall be, on
the bodily plane, liberal and not merely technical and
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