The Bowl of Saki Commentary
Commentary for:
The teacher, however great, can never give knowledge to the pupil; the pupils must create their own knowledge.
Commentary from Hazrat Murshid SAM (Sufi Ahmed Murad Chisti, Samuel L. Lewis):
The Bowl of Saki Commentary, copyright © 1981, 2012 Sufi Ruhaniat International. All rights reserved.
Knowledge and life are not separate. This is the meaning of the Ilm of the Sufis which is not like the knowledge of the world. Naming is not knowledge, hearing is not knowledge, and reading is not knowledge. Experience is knowledge. Life brings knowledge, and the removal of self enables one to find knowledge in everything.
All the teacher can do is to make the pupil realize this, but the knowledge of the pupil is that of the pupil's own realization. That is why it is difficult for the average person to study with understanding the lives and precepts of the great teachers of humanity.