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AM71T3 - I cannot assume anything about myself
Amsterdam - 24 May 1971
Public Talk 3



0:01 This is J. Krishnamurti’s third public talk in Amsterdam, 1971.
0:08 Krishnamurti: One finds it’s awfully difficult to communicate with another about matters that are very serious.
0:28 One can communicate deeply if one is intense at the same time, at the same level, consistently.
0:49 And if we can this evening discuss not only about death but also find out in this rather chaotic world how to bring about order – because we must have order.
1:42 For most of us, order implies following a certain pattern of behaviour, certain acceptance of rules, a discipline of conformity, suppression, in the hope of achieving a complete, total order.
2:17 The monasteries throughout the world, the monk, has tried this, because he sees the necessity of having not only within himself but also outwardly a detailed order, behaviour, a conduct, based on certain rules.
2:54 And all that structure of behaviour, rule and sanction, has completely disappeared.
3:07 We live in rather a confused world both outwardly and inwardly.
3:17 Inwardly we are fragmented, contradictory, and if we can observe ourselves closely, we live in disorder.
3:40 And the brain can only function, as we were saying the other day, when there is order.
3:56 Then it can function efficiently, non-contradictorily, but directly, with great deal of perception.
4:22 How is one to bring about order in oneself, knowing we live in a contradiction, contradictory desires, purposes, intentions?
4:59 And we have exercised will as a means of bringing about order – which implies suppression, acceptance, conformity, comparison – and we have relied on will to bring about this order, and that too has failed.
5:59 So one asks oneself, if one is at all serious, how is one to have total order in oneself?
6:15 And therefore, perhaps, bring about a world in which there will be order – politically, economically, in social behaviour, and so on.
6:36 How would one set about it? How would I, realising that I need order in myself – because without order one lives rather a dispirited life, leads a life of fragmentation, misery, confusion – so realising that, how do I set about to bring order in my life?
7:21 This order not according to any particular blueprint, according to some religious sanctions or social morality, which obviously is immoral – how does one bring about this order?
7:50 I don’t know if you have put that question to yourself ever.
8:07 Because when one has order, one lives a totally different kind of life, a life of complete harmony.
8:21 Order means harmony in which there is no control – please listen to all this very carefully – no control, no resistance, no conformity, and a life that is non-comparative.
8:57 Because all that implies freedom of order.
9:13 That is, one wants to live a life in which every form of control is non-existent.
9:29 I’m going to explain this very carefully.
9:37 We are not saying do what you like, live without control; on the contrary, we’re going to go into this whole question.
9:54 Because the moment you control, there is an effort either of suppression, conformity, overcoming or resisting.
10:17 All that implies conflict.
10:24 And where there is conflict there is division, division not only in oneself but outwardly, which leads to various forms of other conflicts, like war, divisions of nationalities, religions, and so on.
10:55 So one asks, can one live a life in which there is no effort at all?
11:12 And a life without effort does not mean a sloppy, ineffectual, irresponsible life and conduct.
11:38 And effort implies a distortion.
11:48 Effort is disharmony.
11:55 And can a human being, we or I, one, live a life that is without effort, without any form of control, and yet have complete order?
12:19 If you have ever put that question to yourself, and if you have, and I hope you are putting it now, how do we set about it?
12:46 Because we see the logic, the rational... the reason for such a life, a life in which there is no conformity.
13:02 Conformity implies not only contradiction but comparison.
13:21 And where there is comparison there must be competition and all the ruthlessness involved in that, both socially, communally and individually.
13:46 So, how is one – when I use the word ‘how’, we’re not using that word in order to find a system, as we explained, if there is a system and you practise it, it becomes another form of conformity, conflict and so on – so is it possible to live a life that is totally free of all comparison, free of all contradiction, therefore effort, and without any form of suppression, resistance or control?
14:53 You know, when one asks this question the older generations throw up their hand.
15:06 They say, ‘Good Lord, you are advocating anarchy.’ And the younger generation love it because they really don’t understand what we’re talking about but the idea not to have any control whatsoever is a most... they say, ‘That’s just right.
15:30 This is what we want. You’re part of us. You belong to us,’ and the older generation, throw you out.
15:46 But if we do not belong to either the old or the young but examine what is implied, then perhaps we shall be able to find out the truth of the matter – not according to any particular philosophy or an intellectual theory, but actually.
16:21 That is, to live a life, daily, not at odd moments, not when you all go off into a monastery, daily life, so that the mind and the heart are in complete harmony, in which there is never a question of an action of will, which is resistance, negatively or positively.
17:05 Now if the question is clear – I’m quite excited about this question because I’m putting it myself for the first time – I don’t know what is going to come out of it but we’re going to examine it together – how do I set about it?
17:35 First of all, I reject totally the moral structure – which is totally immoral because you have wars, you can kill people, institutionalised killing.
18:23 Society admits competition, society allows envy, greed to flourish, hatred, society admits a hierarchical structure of thought and action.
18:58 And yet I want order – not imposed, not to follow somebody as a hero, as an example.
19:33 Now how do I, or you, having put that question – and it is a valid question, not just an intellectual, theoretical question – how does one have order?
19:59 Order being virtue.
20:10 Not the virtue that society or the culture cultivates; you cannot cultivate virtue.
20:21 And that’s the beauty of virtue. You cannot cultivate humility. So, how does one set about it?
20:43 First, I want to know about myself.
20:57 I want to study, observe myself – the way I live, the way I think, the action, the desires, the appetites – I want to know totally, completely, all about myself.
21:20 Because without knowing oneself – not according to any psychologist or philosopher, or the accepted traditional point of view – I want to know, because without knowing myself totally, both at the conscious level and as well as at the deep layers of the conscious, hidden, because without knowing myself I am a plaything of disorder.
22:11 Not knowing or learning about myself is the cause of disorder.
22:22 That’s a fact not a theory.
22:33 Why I live a contradictory, imitative, resisting, a life of conflict, all my life – I want to know.
22:51 And I can only come to the end of it, find the right answer, if I can learn about myself.
23:08 Without knowing myself completely, this ignorance produces disorder.
23:19 That’s clear. Now, how do I learn about myself?
23:33 What do I mean by learning?
23:44 For most of us, learning means acquiring knowledge, learning a language, learning engineering, biology, and so on, acquiring information, knowledge.
24:01 Having acquired knowledge, act from that knowledge. That’s generally what we mean by learning, but we are talking of a learning in which there is no acquisition of knowledge at all.
24:28 May I go on?
24:35 We are communicating with each other? Not yet. All right. Learning implies, doesn’t it, as we said, acquiring a great deal of knowledge about a certain subject and then acting from that knowledge.
25:00 Now, can I collect a great deal of knowledge about myself and act from that knowledge?
25:21 What happens if I collect a great deal of information, knowledge about myself and act from that or live according to that?
25:42 Then I am living in the past, for all knowledge is in the past.
25:55 Therefore I am not learning about myself. I have accumulated knowledge about myself and have stopped learning about myself.
26:08 I can add or take away from that knowledge but it’s not learning.
26:17 Because ‘myself’ is a living thing, it’s not a dead thing.
26:28 And if I want to learn about a living thing I have to watch it.
26:35 I cannot come to it with previous information, knowledge, conclusion.
26:43 So, as it is a living thing, it must be approached with a freedom.
26:56 Therefore there must be constant learning, not having learnt act, but it is an active present of the verb ‘to learn’.
27:10 Are we proceeding together? So, there is never an accumulation of knowledge about myself, therefore there is no contradiction in my action.
27:35 I am always... there is always learning. It is only the mind that has accumulated knowledge, information, experience, and acts on the fact of the present, and therefore creates a contradiction and conflict.
27:58 Are you following all this? Questioner: Excuse me.
28:03 K: Just a minute, sir. You’ll ask questions afterwards.
28:15 I want to learn about myself. ‘Myself’ is a living thing not a dead centre.
28:29 So, my mind must be capable of observing every movement swiftly, subtly.
28:45 And I cannot do that if I am approaching the living thing with a dead weight of knowledge.
28:56 Right? So I discover that when I want to learn about something that is living, non-mechanical, knowledge brings a contradiction.
29:20 Whereas a mechanical thing, an action mechanically, acting mechanically, needs knowledge.
29:29 You see the... So, I cannot assume anything about myself.
29:43 You’re following?
29:51 Any assumption about myself is contradiction of learning about myself – that I am God or that I am not God, that I suffer, some saviour must save, free me from my suffering – those are all conclusions, those are all ideas planted in my mind by religions, by society.
30:35 And I reject them totally to find out how to live a life without control, with complete harmony.
30:44 Right? So, there must be learning about myself. That means an awareness about myself.
31:02 So there are two things: awareness, what it means, and what is ‘myself’? You are following? I won’t ask – I’ll go on.
31:18 To be aware. You know, we make a lot of ado about this word, a lot of fuss.
31:31 There are people who go to monasteries to become aware, practise awareness.
31:49 And that is too complicated and rather contradictory, and not worthwhile, at least for the speaker.
32:03 What is awareness? To be aware of what is happening outside you as well as what is happening inwardly.
32:18 That is, to be aware, to learn – not to condemn, not to judge, not to rationalise, not to resist, but to learn.
32:30 And we have pointed out the meaning of that word ‘to learn’ – which is quite different from the learning which is the acquisition of knowledge.
32:50 So awareness implies a learning.
32:57 Therefore there is never a judgement, a condemnation. Just to be aware – to be aware as I watch, the green shirts and purple, and all the rest of the colour, the proportions of the hall, the people, how they look, their attitudes, their postures and so on – to be aware.
33:32 Not condemning, not judging, but watching.
33:41 And inwardly, watching without any movement of judgement or identification – I’ll keep this, I will reject that, this I like, that I don’t like – but watching.
34:11 So there is the action of learning, which is immediate.
34:24 That is, I watch… the mind is watching itself, its thoughts.
34:31 Not – please bear this in mind – not in any sense of condemnatory, any sense of control – just watching.
34:47 Then you will see, if you so watch, the mind becomes extraordinarily sensitive, has to be very quick, subtle, non-mechanical.
35:09 Whereas if you watch with knowledge it becomes mechanical, and therefore contradictory and therefore conflict.
35:22 In watching oneself, in being aware without any choice, in that there is no conflict, because there is no entity as the observer, which is the past, which is the residue of knowledge, who judges.
35:47 There is only learning. And by watching, by being aware, every form of control disappears, doesn’t it?
36:23 Control exists only when there is the action of will, positively or negatively.
36:35 Will is resistance.
36:43 And when the mind is learning, there is no resistance.
36:53 And when it is learning, learning then is action. Not having learnt, I act. Learning then is instant action.
37:09 So, in watching, in being aware of all the disorders that exist in one, both consciously as well as deeply, there comes a discipline naturally.
37:37 Discipline, that word means to learn.
37:44 The dictionary root meaning of that word is to learn – not to conform, not to suppress, not to imitate, not to be bullied or drilled by society or by the priest or by your wife or husband to a particular pattern – to learn.
38:12 And where the mind is learning, the very act of learning is order, is discipline.
38:22 Are you following all this? Are you doing it as we are talking or are you going to think it over when you go home and then agree or disagree?
38:35 Because after all that’s what we are doing, aren’t we?
38:42 We are communicating with each other. We said to communicate means to share. You can only share now, not when you go home.
39:00 And communication means, also, having something common between us.
39:12 And the common thing between us is the understanding of a life that is so full of conflict.
39:28 And therefore sharing it together now, not when you go home.
39:40 So, order comes naturally, without any blueprint, when there is a learning about disorder in which I live.
39:59 Learning about disorder – not condemning disorder or putting up with the disorder, or rationalising disorder, but learning.
40:22 And out of that learning there is order, and therefore order in behaviour, not imposed by any culture, by any environmental influence.
40:46 Because without order there is no morality, there is no virtue.
40:54 And after all, to understand or live a life in which there is no conflict implies a life in which there is love.
41:16 Again, to understand that, one has to, as we pointed out yesterday, we can only approach it through negation.
41:35 That is, what is not love. And for most of us, love is associated with pleasure, sex.
41:50 You don’t mind my talking about it? Do you mind?
41:58 Q: No.
42:00 K: I’m so glad.
42:12 [Laughter] You know, whatever we touch, we human beings, we bring problems.
42:36 Everything we touch becomes corrupt, mechanical, absurd, childish.
42:55 And when we are talking about love, we must also – sorry, I mustn’t talk too long.
43:13 We are asking, we are saying that love is associated with pleasure – and pleasure especially sexual.
43:32 And more and more in this strange, rather mad world, sex has become extraordinarily important.
43:51 Why?
43:58 [Sighs] Because probably one thinks through sex one will discover something extraordinarily beautiful.
44:16 Through sex, one wants unity, the self-forgetfulness in that act, the total absence of the ‘me’ and the ‘you’.
44:51 And we have made sex as a symbol of love.
45:03 And when one observes, not only in Europe, America, India, and all the rest of it, perhaps it has become so important now because it has been suppressed in the past.
45:24 I doubt it very much but that’s what they say.
45:32 And now everybody is open, talking about it – it’s a permissive society, culture.
45:46 And one asks, when one observes all this, why has the human being made this one thing so colossally important?
46:09 The Church, religion, organised institutionalised religion, has condemned it.
46:20 And in spite of that, man has made this thing into a most extraordinarily vital, immense – you know – thing out of it – why?
46:37 Go on, sirs, find out. Why has a human being given such significance to it?
46:53 Is it because intellectually he’s a second-hand or third-hand human being?
47:04 Intellectually, he has forgotten, or he never used, reason, logic, sanity, clarity, except in certain directions, as a lawyer or as a doctor, and so on.
47:28 But as a human being, the intellect doesn’t play a great part, because he just imitates, conforms.
47:45 And emotionally he’s just sentimental, enthusiastic.
47:54 Being sentimental, he’s cruel.
48:02 So, his life is generally mechanical.
48:13 As it was said, somebody pointed out yesterday, ninety-nine per cent of the people live a mechanical life.
48:24 And sex is the only non-mechanical action, though you make it mechanical by repetition.
48:43 So pleasure becomes mechanical.
48:50 Please follow all this. And if you... if there was love, it is non-mechanical.
49:04 If there was love, you wouldn’t send your children to war, you’d have totally different kind of education, not just training boys and girls to pass an exam, get a job, but be concerned with the total, whole, total process of living, the vast structure of life.
49:36 So, where there is the pursuit of pleasure, life must be mechanical.
49:52 And sex, we hope, will be non-mechanical, but it is soon made mechanical by thought as pleasure.
50:06 And in that there is jealousy, envy, maladjustment, you know, all this fuss that goes on about it.
50:21 And then what is love? Which is not the opposite or contradictory, as those who take vows of chastity.
50:45 What is chastity?
50:52 All this is involved when you are talking about love. Don’t say, ‘Oh, that’s irrelevant, that’s not important, what is important is the sexual way of life.’ Man has been concerned very deeply about chastity, and he has taken vows.
51:29 And those people who have taken vows of chastity have a terrible time.
51:38 They are denying the whole biological urges, suppressing, you know, in the name of God and all the rest of it.
51:49 And when the lid is taken off they go and marry. That’s what’s happening now. They are no longer frightened of God.
52:02 So what is chastity?
52:10 Can a man live a chaste life? You know, that is really quite… important question.
52:31 Can a man who leads a chaste life be sexual?
52:41 Can a man who loves, who has no jealousy, envy, ambition, greed, you know, all the rest of thing that denies love, can he be chaste and yet be married, or not married?
53:03 What is chastity? It is the state of mind in which every form of thought as the image of pleasure is not.
53:27 Do you know all this?
53:38 That is chastity – to live a life of every moment in which the image of the past as pleasure or pain no longer exists, so that the mind is completely clear, uncontaminated by the past event or happening.
54:10 You know, when you see a marvellous cloud, the low sky in Holland, the beauty of it, or the tree on a hill, that’s a great delight, that’s great pleasure – it is extraordinarily beautiful.
54:46 Then thought says, ‘I must have that delight again repeated.’ That is not being chaste.
55:06 Are we proceeding? Are we meeting each other? See the beauty of a lovely sunset or a lovely face, or the bird on the wing or the flight, and see it with all your senses completely aware, and end it, not carry it over the next minute.
55:43 Such a mind is a chaste mind, so that it is always free, fresh and innocent.
55:54 That is a mind that is not capable of being hurt.
56:05 That is a chaste mind. Not all the thing that the religious things have built round that word.
56:16 How can a man who is tortured by sex, suppressing it, taking vows, how can he have a mind that is not distorted?
56:32 You need a mind that is never distorted to find out that which is timeless.
56:45 So, all this you learn about yourself and in yourself.
56:58 You don’t have to read a single book – as the speaker has not – about any of this, because if you know how to look at yourself, you have the all the history, not the warfare and the kings, but you have all the history and the troubles and the problems and the anxieties of all humanity.
57:35 So, you can live a life, if you know yourself completely, in which there is no control whatsoever, therefore no resistance.
57:57 And you will know what love is. That’s enough. I really wanted to talk about death too but there’s no time.
58:18 We perhaps will do it tomorrow when we shall also talk about meditation. That may be a good idea: death and meditation.
58:47 Shall we ask… do we need any questions?
59:09 Q: How can we achieve to know ourselves completely when part of us is hidden in the subconscious?
59:21 K: How can we know about ourselves completely if part of us is hidden, unconscious, deeply embedded in our consciousness.
59:35 That’s the question. How can we know ourselves or expose all the content of the unconscious?
59:55 Right. How do you know what you are doing consciously? Do you know it? Are you aware what you are doing when you do it consciously? Go on, sir, discuss with me.
1:00:12 Q: No.
1:00:13 K: Wait a minute, sir, wait. Don’t be so quick.
1:00:17 Q: No, because I am driven indeed by hidden...
1:00:22 K: I’m coming to that, sir, I’m coming to that.
1:00:33 You say you want to know all the content of the unconscious. But do you know the content of your consciousness, conscious, when you are conscious, awake?
1:00:49 Do you know what you are doing when you are awake – what you say, what you do, what you think, how you behave, your gestures, your motives, consciously?
1:01:07 And how will you know the content, hidden content of consciousness?
1:01:17 I’ll show it to you. We’ll go into that. You know, first of all, why have we divided conscious and the unconscious?
1:01:41 Is it not a total movement?
1:01:50 Not a divided movement, not a fragmentary movement.
1:02:00 Is not the total consciousness acting all the time, only we are aware of it partially, superficially?
1:02:24 One of the reasons why we are aware partially, superficially, is because we have divided it.
1:02:37 Can we observe the total movement of consciousness, not only the superficial but also the hidden, which is the total movement?
1:02:58 We’re going to go into that.
1:03:07 How are you aware of your conscious actions?
1:03:16 And who is aware of his action? You are following this? All right, I have to... I want to know, I want to be aware of my conscious activities.
1:03:38 And is there such definite division between the conscious and the hidden?
1:03:45 Or is it always an interrelated movement, only we are not aware of it?
1:03:59 And we are not aware of it because we function mostly at the mechanical, superficial level.
1:04:14 And the other part goes on functioning, only we are not aware of it.
1:04:23 And the hidden part also is mechanical. I must go into it, I see. Now, how do I… how does one enquire into the hidden, into the hidden conscious recesses of one’s mind?
1:04:53 Through dreams? Do you uncover the activities of the hidden through dreams?
1:05:05 And, as we said, dreams are the continuation of our daily life.
1:05:14 What we do during the waking hours goes on during the sleeping hours, only in symbols and so on.
1:05:23 So it is the same movement.
1:05:30 Right? So how do I, how does the mind enquire into the unconscious?
1:05:42 I don’t want to learn from others. [Laughs] That’s not learning, that’s merely acquiring knowledge about myself, which others have said is your knowledge.
1:05:59 I want to find out. I want to learn. So I am very inquisitive, I am intense, I am passionate, I want to find out.
1:06:14 So I see dreams, analysis, are not the way.
1:06:23 Then is there another way in which all the content of my consciousness...
1:06:43 My consciousness is your consciousness – mine is not separate.
1:06:51 I may have been born in a different culture but essentially it is the same, because I am the world and the world is me.
1:07:09 That’s not a theory but a fact. So, if it is not through dreams – because one must be very clear on that point – then how is the mind to receive all the content of the unconscious, hidden part?
1:07:43 Not through analysis – that would take all my life, and I’ll be dead by the time I’ve analysed half a dozen things – not through dreams – I’m very clear on that – not through dreams or through analysis, because in that is implied the observer, the analyser – I went into all that – it’s not that.
1:08:09 So how do I do it? Because that is hidden, consciously I cannot approach it. Right? If I say, ‘I will consciously, deliberately look into myself,’ it’s not possible.
1:08:28 I can watch myself, the content of my consciousness, in relationship with you – how I behave, what I say, what I do, what I don’t do, what are my motives, and so on, but that doesn’t reveal the totality of it.
1:08:44 We are following each other? Then what will? The totality – you understand? – not just fragments of it occasionally.
1:09:05 What will make the mind see something totally?
1:09:15 You understand? Totally, not partially.
1:09:23 It can see only totally when in itself it is not divided, when in itself it is not fragmented – when I am no longer a Hindu, or a Christian or Buddhist, whatever it is – therefore it is non-fragmented – then I can see the whole map of existence.
1:09:55 You are following? So, what is the quality of the mind that can see something totally, including my total behaviour, the total approach in relationship, and see totally this content?
1:10:30 Because the content makes consciousness. There is no consciousness without the content.
1:10:47 So what will make it? When do you hear totally?
1:11:02 I’m telling you something. When do you hear that completely? Not only the verbal statement but the non-verbal intention, the communication which is verbal, non-verbal – when do you hear that completely?
1:11:28 When you are listening with complete attention, aren’t you?
1:11:35 In attention, when there is complete attention, there is no centre, is there, from which you are attending?
1:11:51 There is attention only.
1:11:58 Now, attention means when the mind is completely quiet.
1:12:10 Then only you can attend. Then only you can hear completely.
1:12:19 Now, we are enquiring into the hidden parts of consciousness.
1:12:31 I want to understand it totally, look at it totally. Follow this carefully, please. Which means the mind is completely quiet and therefore completely attentive.
1:12:49 Have you ever been attentive completely?
1:12:57 Not that you must be attentive – then if there is an intention, if there is a motive, if there is a will to be attentive, then it is not attention – in that there is inattention because in that there is fragmentation.
1:13:21 Whereas when you are completely attentive there is no centre.
1:13:28 And when you are so completely attentive there is no content of consciousness, there is nothing to be discovered in consciousness.
1:13:39 Are you following this? Because, after all, what is in the hidden, in the unconsciousness, in the hidden recesses of the mind?
1:13:54 The racial inheritance, the mischief of the past parents, the prejudices, the hidden motives, the subtleties, and so on – it is as superficial, as trivial as the unconscious… as the conscious.
1:14:26 And what is there to be revealed?
1:14:33 When it can be observed totally, with all its absurdities and its superficialities, subtleties and cunning motives and all that, when there is complete attention.
1:14:50 In that attention, if you can give it so completely, with your heart, with your mind, without any motive, then the mind goes beyond the content of consciousness.
1:15:08 Right?
1:15:09 Q: How can we answer people who ask us questions about these matters without concerning that which will be theory for those people?
1:15:25 K: I’m sorry, I haven’t understood.
1:15:35 If somebody has heard that question, would they kindly repeat it?
1:15:47 Q: How can we answer those who ask us questions about these matters?
1:15:56 K: How can we answer other people. Madame, make it short. How can we answer other people who ask us questions about these things – is that right?
1:16:09 Q: Without resorting to theories.
1:16:13 K: Without resorting to theory. How can you answer other people about these things without resorting to theories.
1:16:27 You will not resort to theories if you live it. Right? If you are living it, you’ll answer it. If you don’t live it, you’ll enter into theories. It is as simple as that. You see, we all want to do propaganda, and propaganda generally is a lie.
1:17:01 Whereas if you... if what we are talking about is your life, the way you live, then you can talk authentically, there will be no hypocrisy.
1:17:20 It’s your life, and theories when you’re suffering, when you’re hungry, when you’re lonely, they have no value at all.
1:17:30 It’s no good somebody coming along and saying, ‘You’ll be perfectly happy in heaven if you believe in this.’ That becomes too neurotic.
1:17:43 But if you give your mind and your heart, your vigour, your intensity, your vitality, to find out how to live a life without sorrow, then it’ll be... you can talk about it with a beauty and a fullness, without resorting to theories.
1:18:11 Q: Do you think that discussing what you are talking, when you are not present, will make it more difficult to understand?
1:18:43 K: When you’re not here – I’m glad I’m not here because then I become the authority.
1:18:50 When you’re not here, in discussing these matters, will it bring about clarity or more confusion.
1:19:03 It all depends on you. If you discuss and it’s something real, to you, not try to translate what the speaker has said or try to adjust yourself according to the speaker, then it’s something that you yourself want to find out for yourself.
1:19:31 Q: Don’t you think that discussions bring confusion?
1:19:39 K: Don’t you think discussions bring confusion. Again, madame, ecoutez, again it depends on who does it. We are discussing now, just a minute. We are discussing. I don’t want... I never resort to theories because I don’t have any theories. Fortunately, the speaker has never read a book about any of these things [laughter], including the sacred books of the East or the West, or the psychologists – none of those.
1:20:17 I read occasionally detective books.
1:20:25 [Laughter] And as we are not discussing theories, we are dealing with ‘what is’, actually ‘what is’ – which is our suffering, our division, our brutality – these are not theories, these are actual facts – our sexual problems, if you have any sexual problems, our vanity – you know, life as it is.
1:21:00 It’s only when we have understood life as it is then we can go beyond it.
1:21:10 We must lay the foundation first, otherwise you can’t go beyond.
1:21:21 And meditation, when we are going to discuss it tomorrow, you cannot understand what meditation is unless you have laid the foundation.
1:21:35 You can escape through meditation, have some fun, but that’s not meditation.
1:21:45 Meditation is... begins when you wake up, eat, when you go to the office – everything is a movement in meditation.
1:21:58 Which we’ll discuss tomorrow if there is time. Yes, sir?
1:22:03 Q: Thinking is just one of the abilities of man to distinguish him from other living creatures.
1:22:23 K: Thinking is one of the – what is it? – one of the qualities of man.
1:22:32 And the scientists are finding out it is not quite so. Animals also think. The dolphins, other animals do think.
1:22:47 And because we have to think a little more cleverly, we have become much more mischievous.
1:22:56 And that’s why one has to go into this whole question of thought, which we did, whether thought can function when it is necessary and absolutely quiet when it is not.
1:23:17 That’s part of meditation. I think we’d better stop, don’t you?
1:23:31 Have you had your money’s worth?
1:23:38 [Laughter] [Applause] Sir, apart from all this, apart from all this, we are serious.
1:23:56 This is very, very serious, what we are talking about.
1:24:07 Not just for an hour of seriousness when you are sitting here discussing, talking over together our problems, but life demands that you be serious.
1:24:25 And it’s only the man that is serious that lives.
1:24:34 And we have such problems which we have to solve. And they cannot be solved outwardly; it must be solved from within. Right, sir.