Thought, fear, death and meditation
Public Talk 1
Thought in relationships brings disorder
Public Talk 1 Rajghat
November 25, 1981
The word ‘religion’ means to bind oneself to something greater. Thinking is common to all humanity. Thought is necessary to do any skill, but psychologically is thought necessary? What is our future if machines take over the operations thought does now? You cannot create order when your mind is in disorder. We live in disorder because we have reward and punishment as causes for action. If love has a cause, it is not love.
Public Talk 2
Perceiving the whole movement of fear
Public Talk 2 Rajghat
November 26, 1981
How you approach a problem is more important than the problem itself. Do you look at the tree with all your senses, or with only part of your senses? If there is time inwardly, there is fear. Is there a motive behind your approach to the problem of fear? Negating fear by perceiving that the observer is the observed. Is pleasure different from fear? How you approach sorrow matters enormously. Compassion has its own intelligence.
Public Questions 1
Question & answer meeting
Public Questions 1 Rajghat
November 28, 1981
1st Question: What does it mean to inquire? Is inquiry itself a process of thought? 2nd Question: Does thinking together mean collective thinking? 3rd Question: What is the nature of evil? Must we compromise with evil? 4th Question: Is it possible to retain essential memories and discard the psychological to live beyond the shadow of time? 5th Question: Which is a healthier, more natural way of bringing up a child, the Eastern or Western way? 6th Question: Please enlighten me on the question of struggling with your teaching of listening, seeing and learning. 7th Question: You often say that thought is a material process. What does this mean? 8th Question: Don’t you think that yoga and meditation prepare one’s mind to look within? 9th Question: What is the basis for your getting pessimistic about the growth of computers?
Public Talk 3
Understanding the nature of meditation
Public Talk 3 Rajghat
November 29, 1981
Who is it that dies, apart from the organism? The ‘me’ is essentially the product of experience and thought. Is your consciousness different from another’s? What is a mind that has understood the true nature of religion? Only perception can keep the house in order: to see ‘what is’ and remain with it. Meditation is to understand the movement of the known and see whether it is possible to move away from it. Attention is far more important than concentration. Concentration is focusing on one point; attention has no borders because it has no centre. Is there a silence without a cause or end?