How can one be a light to oneself if there is any kind of dependence?
Seminar 1
The art of questioning
Seminar 1 Brockwood Park
September 12, 1978
Q: How can one be a light to oneself? Most of us are slaves, either to religious concepts, beliefs and symbols, or to some kind of experience, to institutions and images. One is caught in a routine, which prevents freedom. How can I understand the depth of myself without understanding how the mind has become dependent? Do you question the way you live your life - why you think this, why you do that, why you have certain reactions? Do you question the whole thing? Can I differentiate the word from the fact? How can one approach something without any knowledge? How do I actually approach a problem? Can we find out the right way of questioning so that intelligence can arise?
Seminar 2
Is it possible never to be hurt?
Seminar 2 Brockwood Park
September 13, 1978
Q: What do we mean by relationship? Relationship is one of the most important things in life. Relationship between me and another, with many others, which creates society. In my relationship with another there is tension, a sense of division, guilt, possession, protection or responsibility. Apparently there has been, from time immemorial, conflict between you and me. Pain, attachment, jealousy, fear, and also sexual pleasure - the whole of that is implied in daily relationship. Why do we accept it? Why are we hurt? Do you have an idea about yourself which can be hurt? Why do you have images about yourself or conclusions about something? Do we actually want to find a way of living in which there is no possibility of being hurt?
Seminar 3
Can you face the fact that you are absolutely nothing?
Seminar 3 Brockwood Park
September 14, 1978
Q: Is it possible to be completely free of fear? There is physical fear and psychological fear. Are we aware of fear and our reactions to it? What do we actually do with that fear? Do we run away from it, suppress it, control it, or wait for some incident to resolve it, or accept it as part of life? Why do we wait? Why do we go through this process? I reject that anybody is going to solve my fear, Jesus or the priest or the Pope or the Archbishop or the analyst, or anyone. Can I face the fact that I am frightened, and not do a thing about it, just face it? If you face the fact then inquiries begin, real inquiries, not intellectual, verbal inquiries. You are investigating, exploring, and you understand it, have an insight into it, and resolve it completely.
Seminar 4
Observing fear as it happens
Seminar 4 Brockwood Park
September 16, 1978
Q: What is the root of fear? In division thought is in operation. When there is no observer, who is the very essence of thought which is the past, then there is only actually what is happening. Can that actuality, the fact, be observed without the movement of thought? Can you watch the moon without thought drawing a curtain across it? As long as there is division there must be conflict. Is that division actual or is it artificially created by thought? Can thought be conscious of itself as a movement? Only when there is inattention fear comes. Does attention contain or hold thought? What is the quality of the brain when there is total attention? Is there any registration at all?
Seminar 5
Pain is the reaction to attachment
Seminar 5 Brockwood Park
September 17, 1978
Q: Can we observe the actual implications of attachment? One is attached to one's experience. There is holding on to the knowledge, the memory of it, never letting go. Can you watch that and let the story involved reveal itself? Can you let the thing that you are watching tell its story, rather than you tell it? Like a flower, when you watch it very closely, when you see everything in its detail, the beauty of the whole thing, can we watch attachment in the same way? Is there an observation of this happening, the actual state and the nature of it, instantly? Why do we find it so difficult to remain with a fact?
Seminar 6
Can I be a light globally?
Seminar 6 Brockwood Park
September 18, 1978
Q: Is it possible to be a light to oneself, not dependent on anybody? Can we remain with the fact, without any deviation, without any interference of the accumulated memories of the past, to observe what is taking place without thought acting as a barrier? Is it possible to be completely, totally free from all influence, from all propaganda, tradition, superstition, every form of influence, both external and inward? Face the fact that dependence means pain. Look at it. There must be freedom from the known. The known is the memory, the past. To be a light to oneself, the past with all its tradition must totally vanish. What has been registered on the brain must end and no present or future registration take place.