The difference between a stupid mind and a wise mind

The following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

Acharya Prashant (AP): There is a difference between a stupid mind, a dull mind, and a wise mind. A stupid mind is very used to its being, the stupid mind is very well adjusted to life. It sees no paradox there, it sees no contradictions, it’s a very nicely patterned, grooved mind. Its patterns fit nicely with the patterns of the world. So we said it is a very well adjusted mind.

The wise man is a kind of a misfit. So as you are sitting here, there is a deep wonderment in a few eyes. This wonderment is a sense of misfit. This wonderment is about seeing something new. Whereas there are others who are alright with things as they are, ‘Oh! we are alright, I am alright.’

Listener (L): Because they got properly adjusted.

AP: Stupid man does not see any paradoxes, any contradictions, it is not sensitive to even its own torture. It is being tortured day and night but it has no love towards itself, no sensitivity. So it behaves as if there is nothing wrong, it behaves as if everything is proper and alright. It is so blind that it doesn’t see its own wounds and the blood oozing from them.

It says, ‘No, what is the need to change? What is the need to realize? What is the need to…