An energy that will transform the human mind
Public Discussion 1
Can the mind free itself from the habit of comparison?
Public Discussion 1 Madras
December 15, 1973
What are greed and envy? Comparison is one of the factors of envy. Can the mind stop comparing? Progress and greed. Habits are formed as a means of living easily and therefore mechanically. What happens to a mind that lives mechanically? Knowledge has made us mechanical. Can the mind function within the field of knowledge when necessary and be free from knowledge when it is not? Can a mechanical mind ever come to something which is not mechanical? The habit of conformity is a deadly thing.
Public Discussion 2
We are the world and the world is us
Public Discussion 2 Madras
December 16, 1973
How do you look at the world? How am I to live in this world sanely? You are the world, you are the product of the culture in which you live. You are not an individual, just an expression of culture. When I am ambitious I create a society that supports my ambition. Why do we live in abstractions? Calling yourself a Hindu is an abstraction. What takes place in a mind that has realised that it is the world and the world is itself, and doesn’t move from that fact? A man who lives in tradition is betraying the present. We must give tremendous attention to the fact of learning without accumulation. Learning all the time with never a moment of not-learning. Non-learning is the accumulative factor.
Public Talk 1
A different quality of mind not bound by thought
Public Talk 1 Madras
December 18, 1973
To survive sanely, rationally, healthily, survive as a whole entity, we need a different energy. A different energy can only be brought about by a religious mind. A religious mind is not a negligent mind; in the very negation is energy. What is the responsibility of thought with regard to the structure in which it lives? We must find a different quality of mind that is not bound by thought. To see the present with all its immensity, there must be freedom from the known, from tradition, from knowledge. To look we need energy, and we dissipate energy when we look through the eyes of the past. Can you observe your violence without withdrawing from the fact to a conclusion and looking with a conclusion? To be so free you need total attention, which is religion. A religious man is free from violence; he has no concepts of non-violence. A religious man is concerned with ‘what is’, not with ‘what should be’. Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 2
Living in the past prevents action in the present
Public Talk 2 Madras
December 22, 1973
We need a new kind of energy to transform society. Intellectual energy is mechanical because it is based on experience, knowledge. The response to knowledge is thought. Thought is essentially mechanical and all our structure is based on thought. Ideological action is always divisive and therefore in essence it is rooted in conflict. Is there an action which is universal, not mine or yours? Diligent negation of the mechanical gives a certain quality of energy. It is part of our tradition to analyse, and analysis is paralysis. Is there a way of looking at fear which is not an observation with a conclusion? Action in the present is not possible if you are living in the past, if you are carrying out a tradition. Perception means seeing without the observer. Seeing without the observer is action in the present. There is an action which is non-ideational, and that action is the total revolution of the mind. Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 3
Order is essential for survival
Public Talk 3 Madras
December 23, 1973
Order is essential for the brain to survive and to function rationally, healthily, objectively and effectively. Why do you believe that there is a God or in anything that you hold dear? When a disorderly mind chooses, what it chooses must be also disorderly. A life that is lived in fragments is disorderly. Order is necessary, and this order comes when you have an insight, the capacity to look at disorder choicelessly. Choiceless awareness is intelligence, and that intelligence will bring order. Relationship means direct contact, perception, understanding, and you cannot have an understanding of another when looking with an image you have built. A mind that suffers has no love. It is only the mind that is free from suffering that knows compassion and love. You must understand death as you must understand living. Are you frightened of letting go of the known? Questions from the audience followed the talk.
Public Talk 4
In meditation there is no direction
Public Talk 4 Madras
December 26, 1973
Only the totally humble mind can understand very deeply what is involved in meditation. Energy is wasted through control, through friction and there is friction when there is the controller and the controlled. If there is no division between the controller and the controlled there is no friction. Every day, every minute, watch. If you are tired let go, but the next minute watch. In meditation there is no control whatsoever. The whole movement of desire as will comes to an end in meditation. Is it necessary to sit in a certain way, to breathe in a certain way, to keep your eyes closed? A quiet, silent mind is necessary to listen. In space there is no direction, there is no time. In meditation there is the complete emptying of the mind of the known. The known is the ‘me’.