"You have found salvation from death. It has come to you in the course of your own search, on your own path, through thoughts, through meditation, through realizations, through enlightenment. It has not come to you by means of teachings! And—thus is my thought, oh exalted one,—nobody will obtain salvation by means of teachings! You will not be able to convey and say to anybody, oh venerable one, in words and through teachings what has happened to you in the hour of enlightenment! The teachings of the enlightened Buddha contain much, it teaches many to live righteously, to avoid evil. But there is one thing which these so clear, these so venerable teachings do not contain: they do not contain the mystery of what the exalted one has experienced for himself, he alone among hundreds of thousands." - Siddhartha to Gotama in [[Siddhartha]] Instead, Siddhartha explains his fear of becoming one of Gotama's disciples when he says, "If I merely were one of your disciples, oh venerable one, I'd fear that it might happen to me that only seemingly, only deceptively my self would be calm and be redeemed, but that in truth it would live on and grow, for then I had replaced my self with the teachings, my duty to follow you, my love for you, and the community of the monks!" **Meaning:** You can give someone knowledge through your own knowledge but you can't give someone wisdom through your own wisdom; they must learn that for themselves. Siddhartha respects the Buddha for trying to teach others the enlightenment he has himself reached. But he understands that by having other Monks rally around him and devote their lives to spreading his message, they have made their selves stronger by tying it to the purpose of spreading his message. Only through wordily experience--which these monks are depriving themselves of by tying themselves to Gotama--could they possibly achieve enlightenment themselves. **Related:** - [[On the difficulty of passing on wisdom compared to knowledge]] - To get wisdom you have to learn to break through your [[Perception is like a window to the world|walls and roofs]]