"But," one might say, "is it then quite useless for us to learn what we learn in life?" And the answer is no, it is all useful; but for what? For the object for which one has learned it. But not everything is learned on account of the object for which one is searching. When one is searching for the secret of life, the first thing to unlearn is that which one calls learning. No doubt this is something which is difficult for everyone to understand. And yet when we read the lives of Rumi and his teacher, Shams-i-Tabriz, the first lesson the latter gave to Rumi was to unlearn all that he had learned.