In complete silence of the mind is love
Public Talk 2
No system will help man be free
Public Talk 2 Saanen
July 09, 1968
To understand non-cooperation one must also learn what it means to cooperate. The central issue is complete, absolute freedom, first psychologically then outwardly. Conditioning makes us self-centred, isolated, separated, divided, which makes it impossible to cooperate. Is it possible to live in this world completely free, not only consciously but at the very roots of our being? No system outwardly or inwardly will free man from his misery. Thought prevents looking. The search for security through systems is destroying man.
Public Talk 3
Freedom, systems and conditioning
Public Talk 3 Saanen
July 11, 1968
Is it at all possible for man to be free? Why do you want a system? Systems are tradition, discipline, habits, a groove which the mind follows. Can a mind that is certain about anything psychologically ever be free? Duality and conflict are in essence a complete waste of energy. When the mind is seeking certainty it must inevitably create opposites. Why does the mind hold on to formulas and systems; why can’t it live freely? Can the mind uncondition itself? Is the observer separate from the thing it observes? Am I different from the thing I want to get rid of? What happens when the mind sees there is only a conditioned state? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 4
Looking at conditioning without distortion
Public Talk 4 Saanen
July 14, 1968
A religious mind is not burdened with ideologies, dogmas or assumptions. A religious mind is concerned with facts, with ‘what is’, and going beyond it. Is there a looking that will reveal the whole content of our conditioning? If I am aware that whatever I do, whatever movement of thought, whatever effort I make is within the limitation of conditioning, what takes place? Am I aware of my conditioning as an outsider looking in? Can I look at myself with eyes that have never been touched by experience? Attention and freedom must go together. That is love and the quality of attention in which the observer is not. Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 5
Living is the beauty of action and love
Public Talk 5 Saanen
July 16, 1968
Is there an action which is right under all circumstances, or is there only action, not right or wrong action? What is one to do in a world that is appalling and brutal? Is there a life of action which is never fragmentary, never exclusive, never divided? The intellect or thought cannot answer this. Is it possible to live so completely, so wholly, so totally, that there is no fragmentary action? Have you ever considered what love is? Without love there is always right and wrong action breeding conflict, contradiction and opposition.
Public Talk 6
Pleasure, love, beauty and loneliness
Public Talk 6 Saanen
July 18, 1968
When there is self-expression in any form, does it convey beauty? What relationship has pleasure to beauty or love? When there is a sense of the deep, unfathomable void of loneliness, is beauty possible? What is loneliness? As long as my activity is self-centred and self-expressive there must be the void of loneliness. Filling the void is self-centred, so it becomes a wider and deeper emptiness. When you say you will not be self-centred, you are already self-centred. When you exercise will to deny the activity of the self, that very will is the factor of isolation. Only when there is complete silence of the mind is there beauty and love, which may or may not express. Beauty is something beyond self-expression. Love is bliss, which is not pleasure.
Public Talk 7
The ending of fear
Public Talk 7 Saanen
July 21, 1968
Psychologically, we refuse to follow the movement of life because our roots are deep in habit, tradition, in what has been told to us, in obedience and acceptance. What is possible can be found out only when you go beyond the ‘impossible’. Avoidance of fear only increases fear. Flight from fear is a form of fear. One must give space for fear to flower, for it to come out into the open. What is important is not to interpret dreams but to find out if there is a possibility of not dreaming at all. To not dream is only possible if you are aware during the day of every movement of thought. When the mind is completely still within its own freedom there is the ‘impossible’, which is love.