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Your problem and my problem is to see whether the mind can ever be free from desire, from sensation. Surely creation has nothing to do with sensation; reality, God, or what you will, is not a state which can be experienced as sensation. When you have an experience, what happens? It has given you a certain sensation, a ... |
Now I realize the state of my own mind; I see that it is the instrument of sensation and desire, or rather that it is sensation and desire, and that it is mechanically caught up in routine. Such a mind is incapable of ever receiving or feeling out the new ; for the new must obviously be something beyond sensation, whic... |
When you see this process, when you are really aware of it without opposition, without a sense of temptation, without resistance, without justifying or judging it, then you will discover that the mind is capable of receiving the new and that the new is never a sensation; therefore it can never be recognized, re-experie... |
LIFE IS EXPERIENCE, experience in relationship. One cannot live in isolation; so life is relationship and relation. ship is action. And how can one have that capacity for understanding relationship which is life? Does not relationship mean not only communion with people but intimacy with things and ideas? Life is relat... |
Relationship, surely, is the mirror in which you discover yourself. Without relationship you are not; to be is to be related; to be related is existence. You exist only in relationship; otherwise you do not exist, existence has no meaning. It is not because you think you are that you come into existence. You exist beca... |
Now there is no understanding of relationship, because we use relationship merely as a means of furthering achievement, furthering transformation, furthering becoming. But relationship is a means of self-discovery, because relationship is to be; it is existence. Without relationship, I am not. To understand myself, I m... |
Now if we examine our life, our relationship with another, we shall see that it is a process of isolation. We are really not concerned with another; though we talk a great deal about it, actually we are not concerned. We are related to someone sonly so long as that relationship gratifies us, so long as it gives us a re... |
sovereign governments, armies, continue, Still clinging to your own limitations, you think you can create world unity, world peace—which is impossible. So long as you have a frontier, whether national, economic, religious or social, it is an obvious fact that there cannot be peace in the world. |
The process of isolation is a process of the search for power ; whether one is seeking power individually or for a racial or national group there must be isolation, because the very desire for power, for position, is separatism. After all, that is what each one wants, is it not ? He wants a powerful position in which h... |
There is no such thing as living in isolation—no country, no people, no individual, can live in isolation; yet, because you are seeking power in so many different ways, you breed isolation. The nationalist is a curse because through his very nationalistic, patriotic spirit, he is creating a wall of isolation. He is so ... |
Can one live in the world without the desire for power, for position, for authority? Obviously one can. One does it when one does not identify oneself with something greater This identification with something greater—the party, the country, the race, the religion, God—is the search for power. Because you in yourself a... |
Relationship is a process of self-revelation, and, without knowing oneself, the ways of one's own mind and heart, merely to establish an outward order, a system, a cunning formula, has very little meaning. What is important is to understand oneself in relationship with another. Then relationship becomes not a process o... |
In ALL OUR experiences, there is always the experiencer, the observer, who is gathering to himself more and more or denying himself. Is that not a wrong process and is that not a pursuit which does not bring about the creative state? If it is a wrong process, can we wipe it out completely and put it aside? That can com... |
So long as I am experiencing, so long as I am becoming, there must be this dualistic action; there must be the thinker and the thought, two separate processes at work; there is no integration, there is always a centre which is operating through the will of action to be or not to be— collectively, individually, national... |
Our effort is to bridge the two. |
The will of action is always dualistic. Is it possible to gobeyond this will which is separative and discover a state in which this dualistic action is not? That can only be found when we directly experience the state in which the thinker is the thought. We now think the thought is separate from the thinker; but is tha... |
Is there a division between the thinker and the thought? So long as they are separate, divided, our effort is wasted; we are pursuing a false process which is destructive and which \ is the deteriorating factor. We think the thinker is separate from his thought. When I find that I am greedy, possessive, brutal, I think... |
Is it possible to experience that state when there is only one entity and not two separate processes, the experiencer and the experience? Then perhaps we shall find out whåt it is to be creative, and what the state is in which there( is no deterioration at any time, in whatever relationship man may be. |
I am greedy. I and greed are not two different states; there is only one thing and that is greed. If I am aware that I am greedy, what happens? I make an effort not to be greedy, either for sociological reasons or for religious reasons; that effort will always be in a small limited circle; I may extend the circle but i... |
What will you do when your whole being is greed, when whatever action you do is greed? Unfortunately, we don't think along those lines. There is the 'me', the superior entity, the soldier who is. controlling, dominating. To me that process is destructive. It is an illusion and we know why we do it. I divide myself into... |
Question: Can thinking solve our problems? |
THOUGHT HAS NOT solved our problems and I don't think it ever will. We have relied on the intellect to show us the way out of our complexity. The more cunning, the more hideous, the more subtle the intellect is, the greater the variety of systems, of theories, of ideas. And ideas do not solve any of our human problems;... |
Thinking has not solved our problems. The clever ones, the philosophers, the scholars, the political leaders, have not really solved any of our human problems—which are the relationship between you and another, between you and myself. So far we have used the mind, the intellect, to help us investigate the problem and t... |
Surely thinking is a reaction. If I ask you a question, you respond to it—you respond according to your memory, to your prejudices, to your upbringing, to the climate, to the whole background of your conditioning; you reply accordingly, you think accordingly. The centre of this background is the 'me' in the process of ... |
That is one of the problems, is it not ? Can thought resolve our problems ? By thinking over the problem, have you resolved it? Any kind of problem—economic, social, religious—has it ever been really solved by thinking? In your daily life, the more you think about a problem, the more complex, the more irresolute, the m... |
The more we think over a problem, the more we investigate, analyse and discuss it, the more complex it becomes. So is it possible to look at the problem comprehensively, wholly? How-is this possible? Because that, it seems to me, is our major difficulty. Our problems are being multiplied—there is imminent danger of war... |
The self is a problem that thought cannot resolve. There must be an awareness which is not of thought. To be aware, without condemnation or justification, of the activities of the self—just to be aware—is suffcient. If you are aware in order to find out how to resolve the problem, in order to transform it, in order to ... |
As long as the activity of the mind exists, surely there can be no love. When there is love, we shall have no social problems. But love is not something to be acquired. The mind can seek to acquire it, like a new thought, a new gadget, a new way of thinking; but the mind cannot be in a state of love so long as thought ... |
Seeing this problem, this complex problem. of living, and being aware 9fthe process of our own thinking and realizing that it actually leads nowhere—when we deeply realize that, then surely there is a state of intelligence which is not individual or collective. Then the problem of the relationship of the individual to ... |
there is only intelligence, which is neither personal nor impersonal. It is this intelligence alone, I feel, that can solve our immense problems. That cannot be a result ; it comes into being only when we understand this whole total process of thinking, not only at the conscious level but also at the deeper, hidden lev... |
To understand any of these problems we have to have a very quiet mind, a very still mind, so that the mind can look at the problem without interposing ideas or theories, without any distraction. That is one of our difficulties— because thought has become a distraction. When I want to understand, look at something, I do... |
Such a mind is not a result, is not an end-product of a practice, of meditation, of control. It comes into being through no form of discipline or compulsion or sublimation, without any effort of the 'me', of thought; it comes into being when I' understand the whole process of thinking— when I can see a fact without any... |
WHEN YOU OBSERVE your own mind you are observing not only the so-called upper levels of the mind but also watching the unconscious; you are seeing what the mind actually does, are you not? That is the only way you can investigate. Do not superimpose what it should do, how it should think or act and so on; that would am... |
What is the function of the mind ? To find that out, you must know what the mind is actually doing. What does your mind do? It is all a process of thinking, is it not? Otherwise, the mind is not there. So long as the mind is not thinking, consciously or unconsciously, there is no consciousness. We have to find out what... |
Now what is mind as it is functioning? It is actually a process of isolation, is it not ? Fundamentally that is what the process of thought is. It is thinking in an isolated form, yet remaining collective. When you observe your own thinking, you will see it is an isolated, fragmentary process. You are thinking accordin... |
memory, of your experience, of your knowledge, of your belief. You are reacting to all that, aren't you ? If I say that there must be a fundamental revolution, you immediately react. You will object to that word 'revolution' if you have got good investments, spiritual or otherwise. So your reaction is dependent on your... |
Is not the function of the mind, as we know it and as we function daily, a process of isolation? Aren't you seeking individual salvation? You are going to be somebody in the future; or in this very life you are going to be a great man, a great writer. Our whole tendency is to be separated. Can the mind do anything else... |
The function of the mind is to be separated; otherwise your mind is not there. Having cultivated this process for centuries we find we cannot co-operate; we can only be urged, compelled, driven by authority; fear, either economic or religious. If that is the actual state, not only consciously but also at the deeper le... |
Until we understand how to transcend this separative thinking, this process of giving emphasis to the 'me' and the 'mine', whether in the collective form or in individual form, we shall not have peace; we shall have constant conflict and wars. Our problem is how to bring an end to the separative process of thought. Can... |
How are you to come to the end of thought? Or rather how is thought, which is isolated, fragmentary and partial, to come to an end? How do you set about it? Will your socalled discipline destroy it? Obviously, you have not succeeded all these long years, otherwise you would not be here. Please examine the disciplining ... |
When you realize that any reaction is a form of conditioning and therefore, gives continuity to the self in different ways, what actually takes place? You must be very clear in this matter. Belief, knowledge, discipline, experience, the whole process of achieving a result or an end, ambition, becoming something in this... |
We see the ways of the intellect but we do not see the way of love. The way of love is not to be found through the intellect. The intellect, with all its ramifications, with all its desires, ambitions, pursuits, must come to an end for love to come into existence. Don't you know that when you love, you co-operate, you ... |
It is only when we know how to love each other that there can be co-operation, that there can be intelligent functioning, a coming together over any question. Only then ig it possible to find out what God is, what truth is. Now, we are trying to find truth through intellect, through imitation— which is idolatry. Only w... |
WOULD LIKE TO discuss or consider the question of self-deception, the delusions that the mind indulges in and imposes upon itself and upon others. That is a very serious matter, especially in a crisis of the kind which the world is facing. But in order to understand this whole problem of self-deception we must follow i... |
Similarly, when we are discussing this kind of selfdeception, I think we should guard against any_ superficial explanations and rejoinders; we should, if I may suggest it, not merely listen to a speaker but follow the problem as we know it in our' daily life; that is we should watch ourselves in thinking and in action,... |
What is the reason, the basis, for self-deception? How many of us are actually aware that we are deceiving ourselves? Before we can answer the question "What is selfdeception and how does it arise ? " must we not be aware |
that we are deceiving ourselves? Do we know that we are deceiving ourselves ? What do we mean by this deception ? I think it is very important, because the more we deceive ourselves the greater is the strength in the deception; for it gives us a certain vitality, a certain energy, a certain capacity which entails the i... |
Is not thought itself a process of search, a seeking of justification, of security, of self-protection, a desire to be well thought of, a desire to have position, prestige and power ? Is not this. desire to be, politically, or religio-sociologically, the very cause of self-deception? The moment I want something other t... |
How will you find it out? First, you must purge your mind completely of every factor that is in the way—every hope, every desire to continue, every desire to find out what is on that other side. Because the mind is constantly seeking security, it has the desire to continue and hopes for a means of fulfilment, for a fut... |
The seeker is always imposing this deception upon himself; no one can impose it upon him; he himself does it. We create deception and then we become slaves to it. The fundamental factor of self-deception is this constant desire to bc something in this world and in the world hereafter. We know the result of wanting to b... |
So we begin to deceive ourselves the mdment there is this urge to be, to become or to achieve. That is a very diffcult thing for the mind to be free• from. That is one of the basic problems of our life. Is it possible to live in this world and bc nothing? Then only is there freedom from all deception, because then only... |
So long as we deceive ourselves in any form, there can be no love. So long as the mind is capable of creating and imposing upon itself a delusion, it obviously separates itself from collective or integrated understanding. That is one of our diffculties; we do not know how to co-operate. All that we know is that •we try... |
Is it possible for us to co-operate, for us to be together without an end in view? Can you and I work together without seeking a result? Surely that is true co-operation, is it not? If you and I think out, work out, plan out a result and we are working together towards that result, then what is the process involved? Ou... |
Is it not important to find out whether you and I can co-operate, commune, live together in a world where you and are as nothing; whether we are able really and truly to co-operate not at the superficial level but fundamentally ? 'I'hat is one of our greatest problems, perhaps the greatest. I identify myself with an ... |
Until we dissolve those barriers which are a self-deception, which give us a certain vitality, there can be no co-operation between you and me. Through identification with a group, with a particular idea, with a particular country, we can never bring about co-operation. |
Belief does not bring about co-operation; on the contrary, it divides. We see how one political party is against 'another, each believing in a certain way of dealing with economic problems, and so they are all at war with one another. They are not resolved in solving, for instance, the problem of starvation. They are c... |
Experience becomes a dividing factor in our human relationship; experience is a way of deception. If I have experienced something, I cling to it, I do not go into the whole problem of the process of experiencing but, because I have experienced, that is sufficient and I cling to it; thereby I impose, through that experi... |
Our difficulty is that each of us is so identified with a particular belief, with a particular form or method of bringing about happiness, economic adjustment, that our mind is captured by that and we are incapable of going deeper into the problem; therefore wp desire to remain aloof individually in our particular ways... |
are really serious, to understand this whole problem—the desire to become, to achieve, to gain-—not only at the superficial level but fundamentally and deeply; otherwise there can be no peace in the world. |
Truth is not something to be gained. Love cannot come to those who have a desire to hold on to it, or who like to become identified with it. Surely such things come .when the mind does not seek, when the mind is completely quiet, no longer creating movements and beliefs upon which it can depend, or from which it deriv... |
MOST OF. us, I think, are aware that every form of persuasion, every kind of inducement, has been offered us to resist self-centred activities. Religions, through promises, through fear of hell, through every form of condemnation, have tried in different ways to dissuade man from this constant activity that is born fro... |
To understand what this self-centred activity is, one must obviously examine it, look at it, be aware of the entire process. If one can be aware of it, then there is the possibility of its dissolution; but to be aware of it requires a certain |
understanding, a certain intention to face the thing as it is and not to interpret, not to modify, not to condemn it. We have to be aware of what we are doing, of all the activity which springs from that self-centred state; we must be conscious of it. One of our primary difficulties is that the moment we are conscious ... |
We realize that self-centred activities are detrimental, are destructive, and that every form of identification—such as with a country, with a particular group, with a particular desire, the search for a result here or hereafter, the glorification of an idea, the pursuit of an example, the pursuit of virtue and so on—i... |
Most of us are aware that this self-centred activity creates mischief and chaos but we are only aware of it in certain directions. Either we observe it in others and are ignorant of our own activities or being aware, in relationship with others, of our own self-centred activity we want to transform, we want to find a s... |
I am only conscious of this activity of the 'me'. when I am opposing, when consciousness is thwarted, when the 'me' is desirous of achieving a result, am I not? Or I am conscious of that centre when pleasure comes to an end and I want to have more of it; then there is resistance and a purposive shaping of the mind to a... |
This self-centred process is the result of time, is it not? So long as this centre of activity exists in any direction, conscious or unconscious, there is the movement of time and I am conscious of the past and the present in conjunction with the future. The self-centred activity of the 'me' is a time process. It is m... |
Can the mind be free from all this? It may be possible at rare moments; it may happen to most of us when we do an unconscious, unintentional, unpurposive act; but is it possible for the mind ever to be completely free from selfcentred activity? That is a very important question to put to ourselves, because in the very ... |
Surely the process of time is not revolutionary. In the process of time there is no transformation; there is only a continuity and no ending, there is nothing but recognition. It is only when you have complete cessation of the time process, of the activity of the self, that there is a revolution, a transformation, the ... |
Being aware of this whole total process of the 'me' in its activity, what is the mind to do ? It is only with renewal, it is only with revolution—not through evolution, not through the 'me' .becoming, but through the 'me' completely coming to an end—that there .is the new. The time process cannot bring the new; time is... |
I do not know if any of you have had a moment of creativity. I am not talking of putting some vision into action ; I mean that moment of creation when there is no recognition. At that moment, there is that extraordinary state in which the 'me', as an activity through recognition, has ceased. If we are aware, we shall s... |
Our question surely is: Is it possible for the mind to be in that state, not momentarily, not at rare moments, but—I would rather not use the words 'everlasting' or 'for ever', because that would imply time—but to be in that state without regard to time? Surely that is an important discovery to be made by each one of ... |
Love is not of time; you cannot come upon it through any conscious effort, through any discipline, through identification, which is all of the process of time. The mind, knowing only the process of time, cannot recognize love. Love is the only thing that is eternally new. Since most of us have cultivated the mind, whic... |
know what love is. We talk about love; we say we love people, that we love our children, our wife, our neighbour, that we love nature; but the moment we are conscious that we love, self-activity has come into being; therefore it ceases to be love. |
This total process of the mind is to be understood only through relationship—relationship with nature, with people, with our own projections, with everything about us. Life is nothing but relationship. Though we may attempt to isolate ourselves from relationship, we cannot exist without it. Though relationship is painf... |
We do not have to seek truth. Truth is not something far away. It is the truth about the mind, truth about its activities from moment to moment. If we are aware of this momentto-moment truth, of this •whole process of time, that awareness releases consciousness or the energy which is intelligence, love. So long as the ... |
I WOULD LIKE TO TALK a little about what is time, because I think the enrichment, the beauty and significance of that which is timeless, of that which is true, can be experienced only when we understand the whole process of time. After all, we are seeking, each in his own way, a sense of happiness, of enrichment. Sure... |
It is interesting to realize that our lives are mostly spent in time—time, not in the sense ofthronological sequence, of minutes, hours, days and years, but in the sense of psychological memory. We live by time, we are the result of time. Our minds are the product of many yesterdays and the present is merely the passag... |
yesterday by memory. You cannot reject chronological time; it would be absurd—you would miss. your train. But is there really any time at all apart from chronological time ? Obviously there is time as yesterday but is there time as the mind thinks of it? Is there time apart from the mind ? Surely time, psychological ti... |
Is transformation a matter of time? Most of us are accustomed to think that time is necessary for transformation: I am something, and to change what I am into what I should be requires time. I am greedy, with greed's results of confusion, antagonism, conflict, and misery; to bring about the transformation, which is non... |
Our problem is, can a conflict, a disturbance, be overcome in a period of time, whether it be days, years or lives ? What happens when you say, "I am going to practise nonviolence during a certain period of time" ? The very practice indicates that you are in conflict, does it not? You would not practise if •you were no... |
very resistance to conflict is itself a form of conflict. You arc spending your energy in resisting conflict in the form of what you call greed, envy or violence but your mind is still in conflict, so it is important to see the falseness of the process of depending on time as a means of overcoming violence and thereby ... |
To understand anything, any human or scientific problem, what is important, what is essential ? A quiet mind, is it not ? , a mind that is intent on understanding. It is not a mind that is exclusive, that is trying to concentrate—which again is an effort of resistance. If I really want to understand something, there is... |
Revolution is only possible now, not in the future; |
regeneration is to-day, not to-morrow. If you will experiment with what I have been saying, you will find that there is immediate regeneration, a newness, a quality of freshness ; because the mind is always still when it is interested, when it desires or has the intention to understand. The diffculty with most of us is... |
Thus regeneration is only possible in the present, not in the future, not to-morrow. A man who relies on time as a means through' which he can gain happiness or realize truth or God is merely deceiving himself; he is living in ignorance and therefore in conflict. A man who sees that time is not the way out of our diffc... |
wE SEE THAT A radical change is necessary in society, in ourselves, in our individual and group relationships; how is it to be brought about? If change is through conformity to a pattern projected by the mind, through a reasonable, well studied plan, then it is still within the field of the mind ; therefore whatever th... |
To consider this problem fully we must go into the question of what is consciousness. I wonder if you have thought about it for yourself or have merely quoted what authorities have said about consciousness? I do not know how you have understood from your own experience, from your own study of yourself, what this consci... |
We can see what we mean by consciousness at the superficial level of the mind. Obviously it is the thinking process, thought. Thought is the result of memory, verbalization; it is the naming, recording and storing up of certain experiences, so as to be able to communicate; at this level there are also various inhibitio... |
When we discuss how to bring about a change we generally mean a change at the superficial level, do we not? Through determination, conclusions, beliefs, controls, inhibitions, we struggle to reach a superficial end which we want, which we crave for, and we hope to arrive at that with the help of the unconscious, of the... |
Will this inner conflict bring about a change? Is that not the most fundamental and important question in our daily life: how to bring about a radical change in ourselves ? |
Will mere alteration at the superficial level bring it about ? Will understanding the different layers of consciousness, of the 'me', uncovering the past, the various personal experiences from childhood up to now, examining in myself the collective experiences of my father, my mother, my ancestors, my race, the conditi... |
I feel, and surely you also must feel, that a fundamental change in one's life is essential—a change which is not a mere reaction, which - is not the outcome of the stress and strain of environmental demands. How is one to bring about such a change? My consciousness is the sum total of human experience, plus my particu... |
How are you to bring about true revolution ? What is the power, the creative energy that brings about that revolution and how is it to be released? You have tried disciplines, you have tried the pursuit of ideals and various speculative theories: that you are God, and that if you can realize that Godhood or experience ... |
Suppose you assume, as most so-called religious people do, that there is in you, fundamentally, deeply, the essence of |
reality; and that if, through cultivating virtue, through various forms of discipline, control, suppression, denial, sacrifice, you can get into touch with that reality, then the required transformation will be brought about. Is not this assumption still part of thought? Is it not the outcome of a conditioned mind, a m... |
One must first see the extraordinarily subtle activities of the 'me', of the mind, one must become aware of the ideas, beliefs, speculations and put them all aside, for they are really deceptions, are they not? Others may have experienced reality; but ifyou have not experienced it, what is the good of speculating about... |
Perhaps, in coming to this point, we have used the conscious mind; we have followed the argument, we have opposed or accepted it, we have seen it . clearly or dimly, To go further and experience more deeply requires a mind that is quiet and alert to find out, does it not? It is no longer pursuing ideas •because, if you... |
processes, the experiencer and the experienced, the observer and the observed. Revolution, this psychological, creative revolution in which the 'me' is not, comes only when the thinker and the thOught are one, when there is no duality such as the thinker controlling thought; and I suggest it is this experience alone th... |
We know the way of power—power through domination, power through discipline, power through compulsion. Through political power we hope to change fundamentally ; but such power only breeds further darkness, disintegration, evil, thé strengthening of the 'me'. We are familiar with the various forms of acquisition, both i... |
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