Thought can never change man
Public Talk 1
Relationships, images and hurt
Public Talk 1 Ojai, California
April 03, 1976
Where there is no relationship, there is disintegration. What does it mean to be related to another? When you say ‘I am hurt’, what is the ‘me’ that is hurt? If I have an image about myself and my wife has an image about herself, how can there be any relationship? When there is no image, picture or conclusion, what is the relationship between two human beings? Questions from the audience followed the talk
Public Talk 2
Why is thought fragmentary?
Public Talk 2 Ojai, California
April 04, 1976
What is the nature of thought? Why has thought divided you and me, we and they? Why has thought invented ideals? The interference of the observer, who is the past, prevents a radical change of ‘what is’. Our consciousness is full of the things of thought and is fragmentary. Is there a consciousness that is not fragmentary? Thought as knowledge has its right place, but it has no place in the psyche. Can the mind, the whole structure of the psyche, cease to be? Questions from the audience followed the talk
Public Discussion 1
What is the function of learning?
Public Discussion 1 Ojai, California
April 06, 1976
Why are we being educated? Can anybody help me to learn about myself? Can you observe without verbalising? Why are human beings in conflict? Is contradiction two opposing desires? Where there is comparison there must be envy, imitation and the desire to conform to a pattern. Can you look at the feeling of envy as it arises? Can you look without conclusion, opinion or judgement? As long as there is a division between the observer and the observed, there must be conflict.
Public Talk 3
Fear and the structure of the ‘me’
Public Talk 3 Ojai, California
April 10, 1976
What is the root cause of fear? Is time a factor of fear? The ‘me’ to which we cling is fictitious. Clinging to something non-existent may be the root cause of fear. Deep-rooted fear is the movement of thought in time, a material process. Thought has created an artificial structure called the ‘me’ and clings to that fragment. Thought is itself a fragment. If you don’t waste energy, and that is only when the observer is the observed, you have immense energy to transform ‘what is’.
Public Talk 4
Reality, pleasure and sorrow
Public Talk 4 Ojai, California
April 11, 1976
Is there a way of living, a non-mechanistic action not based on the movement of thought as time? The psychological reality in which we live is mechanistic. Is there is an action that in itself is the flowering of order, free of regret and corruption, that doesn’t leave a residue or create contradiction? Why does the human mind pursue pleasure? Action through insight is not mechanistic. What takes place when you suffer?
Public Discussion 2
What is the correct action in life?
Public Discussion 2 Ojai, California
April 13, 1976
What do we mean by action? Can there be correct action if based on an ideal? We live in the past, which meets and modifies the present. In this process, action is never complete. To find correct, accurate, right action, needs care. Can you look at fragmentation without judgement? Thought is a fragment and creates fragmentary activity. Why do human beings behave as they do? Thought leads to sorrow.
Public Discussion 3
Correct action in a disintegrating society
Public Discussion 3 Ojai, California
April 15, 1976
What do we mean by action? Does thought bring about correct action? Is there thinking when there is no word? Can you listen without thinking? Is biological survival possible when the world is divided? Will you give up the psychological securities to which you hold? As long as you are seeking security in illusion or attachment, physical security becomes impossible. Is there freedom which is not a reaction?
Public Talk 5
Desire, love and death
Public Talk 5 Ojai, California
April 17, 1976
Is love desire, pleasure, attachment? Sensation plus thought is desire. What is dying? Can you without choice observe the mechanical movement of the brain? Time has a stop when there is no longer any movement of the stream of fear, conflict, sorrow and confusion. When death takes place, we are afraid of losing the structure which thought has built as ‘me’.
Public Talk 6
Meditation implies a life of great order
Public Talk 6 Ojai, California
April 18, 1976
If religion is divorced from our daily life, it can only create further chaos, confusion and conflict. Without order in your life, without being totally moral in your daily activity, how can you think of meditating? By clearly observing the outer you discover the inner, and see it is one movement. To see clearly you must observe silently. Meditation is the emptying of the content of consciousness. Is beauty the total absence of the observer?