Can the brain be completely still?
Public Talk 1
Will action come about through explanations?
Public Talk 1 Saanen
July 16, 1970
War is the result of the violence, prejudices and division of myself. What does it mean to be serious? How does one find a different way of life? Does total action come when you observe the total movement of life? Do our brains function in habit? In listening, old habits are wiped away. Explanations prevent us from seeing ‘what is’. Can one see ‘what is’ and go beyond it? Do we look at life non-fragmentarily? Is conditioning strengthened through experience? If you are born in a tyrannical country how are you responsible for society? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 2
Is freedom the denial of outward authority?
Public Talk 2 Saanen
July 19, 1970
How can a brain conditioned by authority and conformity listen to anything new? Conformity implies comparison. What is the quality of a mind that does not conform? Can one learn all the time? What does a silent, clear mind have to learn? Can one be free of inward authority? Do we depend because we are confused? Can freedom exist without discipline? A sensitive mind has no pattern. Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 3
To observe without division implies love
Public Talk 3 Saanen
July 21, 1970
Analysis is the negation of total action. Is the division between the observer and observed the root cause of conflict? Can you observe without division the censor, vanity, pride, despair, which are the ‘me’? Can you observe without the past? Living in this world with a job and family, can I look at myself? The inward revolution is the outward revolution. Is inward revolution a matter of time? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 4
Can any problem be solved in isolation?
Public Talk 4 Saanen
July 23, 1970
Why do we try to solve each problem as though it is not related to other problems? Social structure and morality are based on division. How does thought divide? Can thought ever be new, fresh to meet every new, fresh problem? The brain is the result of time and so the past cannot possibly see the whole. What is it that sees life as a whole? When you see something as a whole, how can there be a problem? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 5
Fear and pleasure are two sides of a coin
Public Talk 5 Saanen
July 26, 1970
When you face physical danger is there fear? Can the movement of thought, which breeds fear in time, and as time, come to an end? How will I uncover unconscious fears? If I analyse my fears, who is the analyser? Can the movement of thought during the day be watched without the observer? Can fear and pleasure which produce sorrow end? Is pleasure totally different from the full delight of existence? Why would a sensitive mind, alive and full of clarity, need to have experience at all? Is there a difference between thought which breeds and sustains fear, and intelligence which says, ‘Be careful’? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 6
Can the mind ever be free of conditioning?
Public Talk 6 Saanen
July 28, 1970
Why has the mind let itself be conditioned? What is the machinery that is constantly adjusting itself to conditioning? If thought is mechanical, conforming and therefore conditioned then what is love? Is love conditioned by society and religion? Is love nurtured and cultivated by thought? Can one be free of thought to find love? Is compassion a mechanical repetition of being kind, polite, gentle and tender? Can thought be completely silent, respond when necessary and let silence pervade? Death is freedom from the known. Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 7
Can the brain be quiet?
Public Talk 7 Saanen
July 30, 1970
Can the old brain be completely quiet and only awaken when it is necessary to operate and function? Can the brain, so tremendously active during the day and in sleep, be completely relaxed and quiet without any compulsion? Caught in problems can I act without choice? Is it possible to end a problem as it arises? Can the brain be clear and quiet to see confusion instantly and act? Can my brain, conditioned in the old, decide what is beauty, responsibility and love? Is there something sacred, incomprehensibly new, an ecstasy that thought has never touched, that can be found only through meditation? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Discussion 1
How shall I know myself?
Public Discussion 1 Saanen
August 02, 1970
Will I learn about myself according to philosophers, teachers, saviours or priests? How am I to be attentive? How am I to live in the present when my whole past is burdening me? What happens when you are aware that you are the effect of the past and that is preventing learning in the present? Am I frightened to learn? We are afraid to lose the image of ourselves. What takes place when there is awareness of fear? If you are the fear, what happens?
Public Discussion 2
Attachment is an escape
Public Discussion 2 Saanen
August 03, 1970
Q: What is the effect of fear on the mind and on one's life? Fear prevents the development of the mind. Becoming conscious of what fear does, it might be possible to go beyond it. See the effects of fear. Are you watching without memory what actually takes place when there is fear? When you are afraid you are completely isolated. Any action that takes place from isolation must be fragmentary. If you see the truth that attachment and dependency are escapes, will you still try to escape?
Public Discussion 3
The mind that breeds habits
Public Discussion 3 Saanen
August 04, 1970
Q: How does the mind watch the whole of the habit in which it lives? Can you find out the machinery, the network of habit, go into it and let it flow through you? Let this learning about habit carry you all day and you will discover enormous things. Can you be aware of the waste of energy in pursuing a particular pattern of habit? As long as the mind is caught up in the habit of fragmentary activity it cannot see the whole. To discover something totally new and fresh the past must end.
Public Discussion 4
The mind is crowded with the known
Public Discussion 4 Saanen
August 05, 1970
Q: What is the basis of fragmentation in life? Fragmentation exists as long as there is thought. Thought operating all the time breeds fragmentation, therefore conflict, fear and all the misery in the world. Fragmentation means there will be no peace whatsoever. Thought is the response of memory and memory is the past. Can you live in the present? In the present there is no past, no future, no success and no ambition. Can the mind empty itself of the known? If you put this question with tremendous earnestness, seriousness and passion then you will find out.
Public Discussion 5
The danger of conditioning
Public Discussion 5 Saanen
August 06, 1970
Q: Can inner revolution change the outer structure of society? The inner is the result of the outer and the outer is the result of the inner. Society is me and I am society. Seeing the world as it is you become utterly responsible to free the mind completely from conditioning. You are a fragment of this whole structure and becoming aware that you are conditioned, you finish it. Then you can do something about society. If you can free the mind you will find the greatest mystery, and the beauty of that mystery.
Public Discussion 6
The brain demands order
Public Discussion 6 Saanen
August 07, 1970
Q: Are the conscious and unconscious one movement? We are not aware of the many fragments that compose consciousness. The effect of today becomes the cause of tomorrow. It is a movement, a chain. Can we learn about the movement of consciousness as a whole? When there is exaggeration of a fragment, neurosis takes place. A mind emphasizing a fragment cannot see clearly. When I see the totality, the immensity, the greater, then the lesser disappears. The mind demands order. Order implies the ending of a problem as it arises. Don't bear it as burden; end it.
Public Discussion 7
A brain that is completely attentive
Public Discussion 7 Saanen
August 08, 1970
Q: Can the mind go beyond limited consciousness? The fragments composing consciousness must inevitably bring about contradiction, confusion and misery. Can consciousness empty itself and find out if there is a consciousness that is free? How can limited consciousness go beyond itself? What is the quality of attention in which there is no centre? What happens to a brain that is completely attentive?
Public Discussion 8
Seeking security
Public Discussion 8 Saanen
August 09, 1970
Q: What takes place when the mind is attentive? Can the mind see the movement of fragmentation outwardly and inwardly as a whole? If the mind is completely attentive and intensely aware then there is no centre and no seeking. Out of stability and sensitivity the mind can act without breaking up life into fragments. That which is stable and sensitive sees something which has never been found. Time doesn't exist for such a mind.