Is it possible to observe the whole movement of consciousness?
Public Talk 1
The structure of self-centred concern
Public Talk 1 Saanen
July 09, 1978
Why are most human beings throughout the world so concerned with themselves? When you listen to these statements of the speaker, do you actually listen or do you make a conclusion or an idea about what you hear? Can you observe the movement of ordinary, natural sensations without identifying? Is there an observation of the senses without any form of thought? Can you be free of pressure? Where there is a centre held by thought as the ‘me’ there must be suffering. Violence, brutality, cruelty and hate is centred there.
Public Talk 2
The identification of thought
Public Talk 2 Saanen
July 11, 1978
Does one see the actual danger of self-centred occupation? Is it possible to live in this world without any sense of identification? Can the mind totally dissociate from the knowledge it has become attached to, and not remain in isolation? When you are jealous, greedy, angry, violent, are ‘you’ different from that? Who is the entity that says, ‘I have been violent’? Can you look at yourself in the mirror without the observer? Is love a remembrance? Is it possible to observe without force, discipline and dualistic effort?
Public Talk 3
The limitation of thought
Public Talk 3 Saanen
July 13, 1978
What is freedom? Can thought solve the problems it has created? What is the source of all thought, the root of thought? The past is limited, as memory and knowledge are always limited. Scriptures, poems, literature, rituals, gods, and images are the product of thought. Is it possible not to register hurt? There is a total, complete, holistic action in which thought doesn’t interfere at all. Is there a perception and action devoid of memory and divorced from the past?
Public Talk 4
Is thought necessary in relationship?
Public Talk 4 Saanen
July 16, 1978
Thought is never free, it is limited in all circumstances. Is relationship a movement of identification? Is it possible in your daily relationships with each other not to register insult or flattery? Through identification with another are you escaping from yourself? When you strip yourself of conclusions, words and experience, you are nothing, you are empty. Can the mind observe emptiness and not move away from it? Is it possible to have no fear whatsoever, physically and psychologically? When you watch closely, without any movement of thought, direction, motive, trying to change or go beyond, the thing that you are watching undergoes a fundamental change.
Public Talk 5
Is love a movement of time and thought?
Public Talk 5 Saanen
July 18, 1978
Is one aware that one lives in contradiction, a constant conflict between ‘what is’ and ‘what should be’? Why have human beings become so mechanical? What is the root of disorder? Thought that hasn’t realised its proper place is the very essence of disorder. Is it possible to act and function naturally, happily, without a centre and without the content of consciousness? What is that action in which there is no contradiction, regret, reward or punishment, therefore an action that is whole? If we can find out what love is, our life may be totally different, without conflict, control, or any form of effort. Is love the movement of the senses or desire?
Public Talk 6
Can consciousness go beyond itself?
Public Talk 6 Saanen
July 20, 1978
Is it possible to bring about a fundamental psychological revolution? Why do human beings live the way we do? Is it possible to investigate without analysis the content of the deeper layers of one’s mind? Can consciousness become completely empty, except in the area where knowledge is necessary? Consciousness contains mankind’s sorrow. That is, you as a human being are part of the world. Is it possible to end the depth, enormity and weight of sorrow? When the past is ending, there is a new observation, a sense of extraordinary freedom and a movement not born of the past. If you end the way you live now, there is a new beginning without the ‘me’, and then death has no meaning.
Public Talk 7
If you are not occupied, are you nothing?
Public Talk 7 Saanen
July 23, 1978
You cannot possibly look objectively, without any direction and motive if you are consumed with your own importance, ambitions and problems. We have divided sleeping and waking, which may be entirely wrong. We have never inquired into the state of the mind that is not sleeping. Why is the mind occupied so endlessly? Can you be nothing, that which you actually are? Humility comes into being when you understand the nature of power. The movement of meditation is to live in daily life without measurement. The movement of thought is measure. What is awareness and what is attention? When you put everything in order there is no effort.
Public Discussion 1
Can the drive of selfishness end?
Public Discussion 1 Saanen
July 26, 1978
Is it possible for the mind to uncondition itself completely and not occasionally? Is the experiencer different from experience, is the thinker different from thought? When there is a division there is conflict. Q: Many of us have been here many years. I am exactly where I was on the very first day. From conditioning all problems arise, a certain drive to be more and more separate, violent. One who is serious says, ‘Will there be an end to all this?’
Public Discussion 2
What will make a human being change?
Public Discussion 2 Saanen
July 27, 1978
What will make a human being change very deeply? What is loneliness? Is loneliness separate from solitude? Do you know you are conditioned, or somebody is telling you that you are conditioned? Any form of psychological choice is conditioning. Why don’t we see the immense danger of being held within the narrow space of our conditioning? Don’t give energy to conditioning.
Public Discussion 3
Can time end?
Public Discussion 3 Saanen
July 28, 1978
What place has meditation in daily life? I am not different from what I think, the experiences I have had, my anxiety, fears. Can thought be aware of itself? Can you live without comparison and example? People have asked throughout the centuries whether time has a stop. Why do you keep your hurts? How is hurt to be totally disarmed, not leaving a single scratch?
Public Discussion 4
Constant effort damages the brain
Public Discussion 4 Saanen
July 29, 1978
How can one keep a brain that is constantly renewing itself? What takes place when there is contradiction? Our present social structure is based essentially on competition, reaching, struggling. We carry hurt and never end it. The mechanical way of living is one of the factors of deterioration. What is the source of energy which is now being used for thinking? Do we see the fact that thought is mechanical?
Public Discussion 5
Order in oneself
Public Discussion 5 Saanen
July 30, 1978
What is the root of disorder? Why do we live this way? Do we conform psychologically? Are you serious and dedicated enough to live a life of total order? Anything that is limited and functioning within a narrow space must create disorder. If I love one person and hate others, it must create disorder. When you observe something without the past, without prejudice, the very thing that you are looking at is living, moving, changing, never still. Disorder is always still, in the sense it is disorder all the time. But if you watch disorder, it is transforming, becoming something else.