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BR72DSS2.7 - Listening without resistance
Brockwood Park, UK - 13 October 1972
Discussion with Staff and Students 2.7



0:01 This is J. Krishnamurti’s seventh discussion with teachers and students at Brockwood Park, 1972.
0:14 Krishnamurti: We can see each other.
0:27 What shall we talk about? (Pause) No?
0:56 All right. Did you see last night on the television what they were doing in the North Sea, digging for oil?
1:11 Probably you haven’t. A boat that has got seven propellers, and doing the most fantastic things – technologically, tremendous activity and so-called progress.
1:34 And human beings are not progressing or moving so rapidly.
1:44 Right? Technically, human beings through their use of brain and thought and cunning, have created a world of amazing – what?
2:04 - amazing world to make human beings more comfortable, rapid transit, have more oil, exploit the earth, and so on and on and on.
2:26 And in relation to that, we human beings are not making such enormous strides.
2:36 We are more or less where we were five thousand years ago, psychologically speaking, inwardly speaking.
2:51 And without psychological advancement, revolution, there is a great deal of imbalance.
3:07 You know what that word ‘imbalance’ means?
3:14 Not balanced, not harmonious – there is technology in one direction, going rapidly, and human beings, in their character, in their attitudes, in their activity, in their violence, are more or less stationary.
3:33 So this causes disharmony, which is imbalance, that is not balanced.
3:43 Right? And you are going to enter into that world when you leave here, a world where technologically there is such rapid advancement, and you, unless there is real revolution psychologically, you’ll also become imbalanced.
4:16 Clear? So, as we were saying the other day, can we change as rapidly as in the technological world?
4:39 Can we transform ourselves in relation to the technological world so that we can live a totally different kind of life?
5:04 Bene, Nelson?
5:11 So I’m asking myself and asking you, whether as human beings can there be a psychological revolution, totally different from what you are now – self-centred, very cunning to get your own way, using people consciously or unconsciously, self-concerned, seeking one’s own security both psychologically as well as physically - angry, violent, jealous, greedy, and therefore totally uneducated, though you may have degrees and all the rest of it, but actually uneducated – can all that be changed, so that when you do leave this lovely place, that you are totally different human beings?
7:08 Shall we discuss that a little bit?
7:15 You know what conscious mind is and do you know what the unconscious mind is?
7:30 I can’t see you birds, come over there.
7:45 Come on. I want to be… There, that’s better. Target! (Laughter) I was asking: do you know what conscious thinking is?
7:59 That is, consciously planning, as we are, to go to Paris for a few days, then to Rome where I’ll be there for three weeks, and consciously planning to go to India, and go to different parts of India, and come back and go on to California – that is conscious thinking, conscious planning, conscious arrangement, that you are going to take consciously, mathematics, geography, if you wish to pass exams or not wish to pass exams - consciously do, act, think.
8:55 Right? Then there is the so-called unconscious, which is the deeper layers of the conscious.
9:10 Right? You are following all this?
9:20 So there is the conscious level at which one thinks, plans, arranges, suspicious, cunning, using people, exploiting, and so on – at that level – and also there is a deeper level, a deeper layer, which is also very active.
9:53 Have you noticed this? Have you? Right, Gregory? Questioner: Do you mean dreaming?
10:01 K: Not only dreaming – we’ll go into that – aren’t you aware that you’re doing something not actually thinking about it?
10:21 Suddenly you find yourself jealous, angry – you haven’t thought about it but you’ve got it.
10:28 You follow? The feeling arises. It might either be a very conscious thinking of which you are unconscious, or an unconscious thinking which you become conscious.
10:43 Do you understand what I’m talking?
10:51 Because this is a little bit important that you should understand this.
10:58 So most of us exercise our conscious mind, use the conscious mind to think, to plan, to hurt, to exploit people, to go to the office, work there, learn a technique - it’s all on that level - you understand? - and that’s all the time active.
11:28 And also there is a deeper layer which also is active, which is also in movement.
11:39 Are you aware of this? The deeper layer may express itself through dreams, through certain hints, intimations, to tell you: look, don’t do that but do this.
11:59 Don’t take that path but take this path. Don’t stand there but it’s safer there. You follow? There is an intimation, a hint which the unconscious is projecting into the conscious.
12:17 Are you following all this?
12:24 I say it’s important to understand this because one learns much quicker, not through the conscious mind, the upper layer of the mind, but at the deeper levels of the mind.
12:50 Am I explaining myself?
12:57 No, not quite – am I?
13:02 Q: Sir, what is the deeper layer?
13:04 K: I’m coming to that, old boy. Tunki, get the whole picture, not details. You understand? Get the picture of the whole house. After you get the picture of the whole house, then you can look at details. You follow? Don’t look for details first, but get the whole view of the house. Right? Have you got this? So don’t always pick on the details, which you are apt to do, if you don’t mind my correcting it.
13:45 So there is this mind which we have, the mind that is conscious, a certain conscious layer, and there is the unconscious layer, the deeper layer.
14:04 And you learn much quicker through the unconscious rather than the conscious.
14:14 Q: Why?
14:20 K: First see – is this right? Don’t say ‘why’ yet – we’ll come to that. Have you noticed this? Look, I tell you something. I tell you, nationalism – I’m taking that as an example – is poison.
14:48 You hear it, and you pay little attention to it.
14:56 The conscious mind hears it, doesn’t pay too much attention to it. The unconscious has heard it, holds it, and when you’re not thinking about it, suddenly you remember, suddenly you say, ‘By Jove, I heard that.’ You understand what I’m saying?
15:20 Q: Do you also see it at that moment?
15:28 K: Hasn’t this happened to you, first? Let’s go slowly. Hasn’t this happened to you? Not nationalism, about anything.
15:35 Q: You mean the recognition of what has been said, in the happening of daily life?
15:44 K: No, Tunki. You hear something and you don’t pay much attention to it.
15:55 Later on you suddenly say, ‘Yes, I heard that, it’s very important, very interesting.’ Don’t you?
16:07 Don’t you do this? It happens very often. No? Now what does that mean?
16:19 The unconscious is much more alert to its danger than the conscious mind.
16:31 You know, they experimented, I believe in America, with what they called subliminal advertising.
16:42 You have heard that?
16:44 Q: Yes.
16:45 K: At last we’re meeting. (Laughter) Gosh you need examples. I don’t, you see. You think through examples. Well, anyhow, that is, they flash what kind of toothbrush you should buy, or the car or toothpaste you should buy, or soap.
17:14 You looked at it, didn’t pay much… but it has entered into your – and that keeps on - you follow?
17:21 When that thing is repeated over and over and over again, you instinctively go and buy that soap.
17:30 Right? So the unconscious receives information or a statement much more quickly than the conscious, because the conscious mind is so occupied - going to the office, cooking, washing dishes – it’s there, all the time active, whereas the unconscious is a little more quiet, watching, listening, taking in very quickly.
18:11 You have noticed this, haven’t you? That’s all I’m saying, but I’m explaining it so that you’ll become aware of it.
18:22 So, one can learn much quicker through the unconscious rather than through the conscious.
18:31 Are you getting this?
18:41 I say to you: don’t be an American or don’t be an Englishman, be a human being.
18:49 I say to you: don’t bother about your ancestors, whatever they were, a good family or bad family – forget all that.
19:00 What is important is what you are now. You listen to that but your conscious mind is prejudiced much more – you follow? – that you are an American, Englishman or a Hindu, whatever it is.
19:19 So that which you have heard remains in the unconscious much more.
19:30 And that operates much more quickly than the other. You are getting this? So, can you – listen to this, listen to this – can you hear, listen, not only with the conscious mind but at a deeper level?
20:02 You have understood what I said?
20:05 Q: But can you consciously listen with your unconscious?
20:11 K: That’s what I’m suggesting.
20:13 Q: Oh. (Laughs) Because if you force it then it becomes the conscious.
20:18 K: Of course, of course, of course. That’s why - don’t… Now I am going to show you something. Do it now as I am talking, you will see the fun of it. You see, I can’t think of examples, that’s why I have difficulty.
20:42 It doesn’t matter? Say you smoke – by the way, did you hear what they said about smoking on the television?
20:55 They were talking about cancer yesterday or the day before, and they said those people who smoke have lung cancer, inevitably.
21:11 If you smoke twenty cigarettes a day you have seven years less to live.
21:18 And there are thousands and thousands of doctors who have given it up, because they know.
21:27 Now just listen to this. Suppose you smoke. You have established a habit, haven’t you? Nicotine - you’ve established a habit of say ten years or ten days or ten months.
21:46 Consciously you resist breaking down that habit, because you say, ‘My goodness, it’s going to take a long time, I must…’ – you follow?
21:59 But if you can put aside for the time being this mind that resists, but listen without resistance – you follow? - then the unconscious is active.
22:18 I wonder if you get this. Take another thing. If you want...
22:28 Q: Are you saying that the conscious mind doesn’t have to have it?
22:38 K: Not so… it’s much more sensitive than the conscious mind.
22:46 It may have its own habits, like, unconsciously living in India and brought up in India there is a tremendous sense of caste system, you know, class.
23:13 Unconsciously that may be deep inside you. That’s a deep habit – you follow? I may say, ‘Oh, class doesn’t matter,’ superficially because I think that’s good not to have class differences and all the rest of it, but deep down I have this feeling that I’m a Brahmin – you follow?
23:37 - superior to everybody, three thousand years old, all that kind of stuff.
23:46 That is much more deeply rooted than in the conscious mind. That becomes the habit, doesn’t it, and I slip it out when I am not conscious of it.
24:00 I praise the Brahmins, I say they are marvellous people. You are following all this? So, the conscious mind is not so sensitive as the deeper layers of the mind.
24:25 And the deeper layers of the mind, being sensitive, learns quicker, whereas the conscious mind puts up a resistance all the time: ‘Oh, I don’t like it, I can’t give it up, it’s very difficult to learn a language, I think this is…’ – you follow?
24:49 – keeps on chattering, which is a form of resistance. Do you get it? Now take another thing. If you want to learn a language – I’ve done this, that’s why I’m talking about it – you listen to gramophone record.
25:09 I learnt Spanish in three and a half months, to talk, to write and – you follow? – I applied every day an hour, and I did it.
25:22 But you see, I did it unconsciously, listening to it.
25:33 You follow? I didn’t say, ‘I must learn, I must force myself, I will study every day an hour, I will look at it’ You follow?
25:45 Exercising will is part of the conscious. You get it? You get this? Whereas if you know how to listen without the resistance of the conscious mind, you learn much quicker.
26:04 Are you getting all this?
26:08 Q: You say put aside the conscious mind and let the unconscious...
26:22 K: Yes, put aside if you can.
26:23 Q: (Inaudible) K: Ah, that’s the whole trick of it. (Laughter) All right, if you like, if you want to go into it, I’ll show it to you.
26:39 The conscious mind is the mind of will and resistance.
26:49 Right? I have a habit and I say, ‘I must break it.’ That is the action of will, trying to break a particular habit.
27:05 Are you following this? And in that there is struggle, conflict, say, ‘I’m going to do this every day,’ I watch it every day – you follow? – and fight, fight, fight.
27:22 Which is, build up a resistance to a particular habit.
27:29 I wonder, are you following this? You know what that word ‘resistance’ is? To resist, to put a wall against, to build a wall against something, both psychologically and physically.
27:50 I build a wall round my garden, which is, I resist the encroaches of the next garden.
28:00 I resist. When I say, ‘Don’t be an Englishman,’ you being an Englishman resist it.
28:08 You follow? So, conscious mind is used to resistance and will.
28:17 Will is a form of resistance. You are following all this? Will is a form of resistance. When you say, ‘I will do that,’ you have resisted, you have built a wall against something which you don’t want to do, or you want to do.
28:44 Do you get it? So the conscious mind is in the habit of resistance and acting according to will or an idea.
29:03 Oh, you don’t get that. Right. Have you got it? Good. How did you get it? Articulate it, put it into words, because it’s good for you to put it into words – how did you get it so quickly?
29:25 Q: It just came to me.
29:27 K: Yes, it came to you. How did it come to you?
29:35 Q: (Laughs) All of a sudden.
29:39 K: Yes, my dear lady. How did it come to you?
29:41 Q: I don’t know. Through my mind, I guess.
29:46 K: You see, you heard – listen – you heard what the conscious mind does - resist, will and idea – and you didn’t quite understand what idea was, so you say, ‘Please explain it.’ You were listening.
30:06 Your mind, active mind, wasn’t active – right? – and suddenly you got it.
30:11 Q: Right.
30:12 K: You see this?
30:14 Q: Because it wasn’t in the way.
30:17 K: That’s right. It was not in the way. You get the point? Now can you put the conscious… not allow it to come in the way?
30:28 Q: It is unconscious. (Laughs) K: Wait. You understand my question? You are following?
30:37 Q: Yes, slowly.
30:40 K: My mind is used to resistance, superficial criticism, action according to a pattern, which is, ‘I will do this,’ or functioning according to concepts, which is idea.
31:04 My mind is used to that, because that’s how I’ve been brought up, educated. But also I have been brought up, deeply, to watch, because I want to survive much more.
31:23 You follow? I must be much more careful. That’s why I say, ‘I’m an Indian.’ Though I logically say, ‘How absurd it is,’ I’m still an Indian because I daren’t let that idea go because I shall be lost.
31:43 That is, being an Indian gives me a certain sense of identification, pride, security.
31:51 So, though the conscious mind, the conscious says, ‘How absurd it is,’ unconsciously I am.
32:01 You follow? So can my mind put aside resistance and listen?
32:12 Are you following this?
32:21 I say to Tunki, or you: don’t look at details first, don’t take up one little point and beat it to death.
32:37 And you are used to looking at one detail, your mind works in detail, and I say don’t do that.
32:46 And you resist it because you are used to that – ‘Why not?
32:53 Who are you to tell me?’ So can you listen without resistance?
33:03 Say you want to learn a language and you listen. Don’t say, ‘Oh, what a bore it is,’ or, ‘I don’t know how to learn a language.’ All the conscious mind that says, ‘I don’t like it, it is not… you know, what’s the point of it, I am lazy, I don’t…
33:28 adding some more trouble’ – you follow? – can you put all that aside and listen to the record, so that the words penetrate naturally into you.
33:42 That is, when you are having breakfast, to play the gramophone or the record, learning, say French – you’re eating, talking, but that’s going on, and you unconsciously listen to the sound of it, how it is pronounced.
34:09 I don’t know if you’ve watched it. Right? You get what I am talking about now, do you? Now can you do it?
34:19 Q: Sometimes we all do do it and we don’t mean to. Sometimes we do it.
34:30 K: Ah, no. No, not ‘sometimes’.
34:37 Q: All the time.
34:45 K: That means never resisting.
34:52 You understand? If I tell you, ‘Oh, do wear your hair differently, don’t cover all your face. I like to look at your face, whether it’s ugly, beautiful, it doesn’t matter – don’t cover it all up, I can’t look at you.
35:05 You’re not Miss Hair – I want to look at your face’ – and the fashion is to, you know, cover it all up, and you resist it.
35:16 Don’t you? So I say, ‘Don’t resist but listen. Don’t cover your face.’ Then you’ve learnt - it’s much quicker.
35:30 You have understood this? Can you do this? I’ll tell you a story, an old Indian story, I believe, I was told.
35:45 There was a well-known robber. He robbed everybody and grew very rich.
35:58 And he had four sons. So he was dying and he called his sons. He said, ‘Our God has protected us. We’ve grown rich in robbing. Please always pray to that God who made us rich, who made us wealthy, happy, a good house, a good family, always remember the God who has given us these riches through robbing.’ And he dies and they take him to the place where they burned bodies.
36:35 And they were returning, and as they passed the local village, a preacher in the square was talking about goodness, and he said, ‘Don’t rob anybody, don’t steal, be kind, be gentle.’ And all the brothers shut their ears so that they never heard a word of what the preacher was saying.
37:03 And the fourth, the youngest, had kept his ears, fingers on his ears so that he couldn’t hear, and as he crossed, as he was barefooted, he felt pain, a thorn, and he removed his finger to remove the thorn.
37:21 And then the preacher said, ‘Don’t kill, don’t rob, be kind.’ And ever after that, for many years that voice kept on repeating: don’t rob, don’t kill.
37:36 (Laughs) You understand? So the other three brothers robbed but he couldn’t. You understand? Now, in the same way, can you listen without any resistance?
37:56 When Mrs Simmons comes and says to you, ‘We all agreed to go to bed at nine thirty, ten, whatever it is, and she tells you, or a week later, ‘Look, you are so late, go to bed,’ can you listen without any resistance?
38:24 Q: That means you always have to be ready, if I may say ‘ready’, when somebody comes to you, you just always have to be able to listen to him.
38:45 K: Of course, sir. That means to have no resistance – you follow? – that’s the root of it.
38:53 Q: But what if someone’s telling you something that’s not true?
38:57 K: Wait. Then what happens? Wait. Somebody comes along and says, ‘Be an Englishman, for God’s sake.’ You have lived in this country for - etc. – an island which has its own culture, its own politics, the Mother of all Parliaments - you know, the noise of it – and somebody comes along.
39:20 What will you do? You have heard two statements: don’t be an Englishman – or an American or a Hindu - and somebody comes along and says the other, quite the opposite.
39:31 You listen to both without resistance. Right? What happens? Go on, tell me.
39:42 Q: You decide which one’s true.
39:50 K: The moment you decide, you’re resisting.
39:59 Get that point. Right? You resist one. You follow?
40:05 Q: I can’t answer it.
40:07 K: Wait. Think it out. What will you do? I say to you, ‘Don’t be an American, with all the implications,’ and Gregory comes along and says, ‘Be an Englishman, for God’s sake, it’s much better - Empire’ – not Empire now – whatever it is.
40:33 What will you do? Go on, Tunki, what will you do?
40:48 Q: Well, listening for reasons...
40:56 K: Ah, he gives you a lot of reasons why you should be an Englishman, marvellous reasons, historical, logical, illogical, every kind of reason he gives you.
41:15 And the other man also gives you marvellous reasons why you should not, logical, illogical and so on, so on.
41:24 You listen to both without resistance. Right? What takes place?
41:34 Q: If you see without resistance you can see the real significance of the…
41:39 K: You see the significance of both. You see to be an Englishman means - you know, all that – you see what it means not to be. And you see the significance of both.
41:53 Q: But do you have to be anything?
42:10 K: I’m asking you. What will you do? Are you going to be an Englishman or an American?
42:15 Q: Why should I be either?
42:20 K: Which means what?
42:22 Q: French. (Laughter) Q: No, why should I be either American or English?
42:28 K: Therefore what has happened?
42:30 Q: You don’t chose, I mean you just leave them both.
42:35 K: I’m asking you. Go further, deeper.
42:37 Q: The truth is obvious.
42:40 Q: You’re learning about – when you say, ‘Why must I be an Englishman or an American?’ – you’re questioning.
42:53 It can lead to an understanding of why, maybe, I or somebody else is an Englishman or an American.
43:03 K: You remember what I said? I said the active mind resists. You or I have been brought up, you in America and I in Jamaica or Fiji, and I have my culture and you have your culture.
43:29 Somebody comes along and says, ‘Don’t be either.’ I resist him because that’s my…
43:41 I am the result of my culture, I resist what he says. And you don’t, or you do. Now how am I to act or function inwardly or outwardly when I have no resistance to what he’s saying?
44:03 Go on, exercise your brain. Come on!
44:10 Q: I keep it in my mind and see, during the course of learning, which one is correct. I mean, sometimes when somebody says by the consequence of living you will see the two...
44:31 K: Look, Tunki, you haven’t quite understood. I am a Catholic, organised… I am the result of organised propaganda and belief, calling myself Catholic.
44:46 Right? You are a Buddhist, coming from the East, your whole culture and thinking is the result of Buddhist concept and life.
45:03 Right? A Catholic I am – yes, I forgot – and you, somebody comes along and says to me, ‘Don’t be a Catholic,’ and gives me excellent reasons - how it divides people, what it does, superstition, authority, dogma, living in the past, worshipping an idea, an ideology, an image, Jesus, and so on, so on – he tells me all that.
45:34 I resist it, as you resist if they say anything against Buddhism. Now, I’m asking you: what is your response when you have no resistance at all to what he is saying?
45:51 Q: But if I told you to behave like an Indian teacher, you wouldn’t listen without resistance, you’d...
45:58 K: Oh, yes, I would listen to you. I’d listen to you.
46:02 Q: You’ve already decided that that isn’t right. You’ve already decided.
46:04 K: I haven’t decided it.
46:06 Q: That you don’t want to live by... (inaudible) K: I haven’t decided.
46:15 If I decided, it would be a resistance. You don’t see this. This is the whole point. I’m going to get this clear to you.
46:26 Q: That means that one is open for examining.
46:32 K: What do you mean by being open?
46:35 Q: Without resistance.
46:39 K: Now, I said to you: if you don’t resist to what he’s saying - I’m a Catholic - and what takes place?
46:52 Q: You just...
46:54 K: I have no resistance. I listen to him. Therefore what has happened to my mind?
47:03 Q: It’s free of opinions.
47:08 Q: It’s just quiet.
47:12 K: No, go on, Gregory, go into it. When I say… when you listen without resistance, what is the act of listening in which there is no form of saying ‘I will’ or ‘I won’t’?
47:36 Q: It’s watching what’s there. It’s watching and hearing what’s there.
47:45 Q: I think it’s just taking the whole at the same time. When you say, ‘Do not be a Catholic,’ ‘Be a Catholic,’ it just take it all.
47:52 K: No, go further. I’m asking: what is the quality of your mind that has no resistance?
47:59 Q: It’s not distorted by opinions and prejudices.
48:06 K: Yes, so what is the quality of that mind?
48:09 Q: It’s observing. Well, not quite but it’s…
48:11 K: No.
48:13 Q: It’s open and receptive.
48:16 K: Perceptive?
48:17 Q: Receptive.
48:18 K: Receptive? Don’t guess. Don’t guess. (Laughs) Q: Okay.
48:26 K: Be factual, don’t guess.
48:27 Q: Because you’re able to take things in without putting opinions...
48:33 K: You don’t put up a resistance. Right? Then what happened to the mind? I want you to tell me. I’m not going to tell you. Work at it.
48:50 Q: Are you able to learn?
48:53 K: What happens to your mind, old boy, if you don’t resist?
49:02 Q: Well you were talking about the conscious...
49:05 K: Anything. No, I tell you, ‘Don’t wear glasses.’ Q: I’m going to the eye doctor in a week.
49:14 (Laughter) K: Wait. I say to you, ‘Don’t wear glasses, it’s very bad for your eyes.’ It may be a foolish statement or an intelligent statement.
49:26 You listen to me because I force you to listen to me, I make you listen to me, and I say, ‘Look, listen without resistance.’ Right?
49:42 What do you do?
49:43 Q: I think I see what you mean. You are asking what you’re going to do then?
49:56 K: Then – are you going to keep your glasses?
50:00 Q: I’d investigate it.
50:01 K: What does that mean?
50:02 Q: Well I’ve been trying, personally…
50:03 K: Bates System, exercise. I’ll show you some exercises, if you want it.
50:05 Q: Yes.
50:06 K: Go on.
50:07 Q: But I mean I tried it.
50:09 K: Don’t wear glasses.
50:10 Q: But I just tried it, you know, like I’ve been wearing glasses for ten years or something like that, and I’d just tried it, just for… (inaudible) K: Listen to what I’m saying. I say to you, ‘Don’t wear glasses.’ And also I say, ‘Don’t resist what I’m saying.’ What has happened to your mind?
50:29 (Pause) Q: It’s hard to explain, hard to put it into words.
50:31 K: You will put it into words, you will.
50:33 Q: It seems to me, just for a flash, you know, see itself resisting. I mean, if you tell me, ‘Don’t wear glasses,’ and I just keep on saying, ‘No, but it’s good,’ and so on, then...
51:21 K: Therefore what do you do? Will you remove your glasses? Or do you say, ‘Now…’ I don’t want to say a thing to you, because then you’ll accept my word.
51:30 Q: That would be taking it without seeing it yourself.
51:34 K: That means what?
51:35 Q: If you were to just take off your glasses because you are told...
51:44 K: That would be silly, wouldn’t it?
51:46 Q: Right.
51:47 K: Therefore what will you do? Go on. Go on, please. Go on. Go slowly into it.
51:59 Q: I’m trying it, I’m investigating.
52:06 K: What is the state of your mind that says, ‘Yes, I’m listening to you, I’ve no resistance’?
52:16 Q: Somehow your mind is blank, but then again everything is working.
52:28 K: Will you take your glasses off?
52:35 Or what do you say? Say, ‘Yes, I won’t resist but I’ll find out,’ wouldn’t you?
52:43 Q: It’s questioning.
52:45 K: You’re saying, ‘I’ll find out if I can do without glasses.’ Which means what?
52:53 Q: It means you haven’t yet accepted it.
52:56 K: Go on.
52:59 Q: You have a conclusion about if you should wear them.
53:02 K: Conclusion is a resistance.
53:03 Q: You’re going to learn.
53:06 K: Which means what?
53:15 When you don’t resist, your mind is inquiring, isn’t it?
53:21 Q: Investigating.
53:23 K: Investigating, inquiring. Now what is the quality of mind that is investigating?
53:30 Q: It’s open.
53:32 K: That word is too loose for me. You understand? You have followed this? You wear glasses and I say to you, ‘Don’t wear glasses. I’ll explain why. As you grow older it’ll get worse and worse and more difficult and so on and so on.’ And you listen without resistance.
53:56 Then when you listen without resistance, you then are inquiring, aren’t you?
54:03 Can I look without glasses? So you take them off. Right? So you’re experimenting, you’re inquiring, you’re learning. Right? You will go to Bates, you’ll do this or that. So you have broken the habit, inwardly, of wearing glasses, and resisting. You’ve followed this? No?
54:30 Q: Yes.
54:31 Q: I’d like you to go over it again.
54:32 Q: Sir, I’ve done just that – if I may say so. I’ve been wearing glasses since about third grade, and about six months ago I decided to just try without glasses, and I haven’t gone back to them yet, I don’t see any need for them.
55:02 K: Now wait. I understand that. Stick to this till you understand this, because it’s very important while you’re young. That is, as I explained, where there is the activity of the conscious mind there is resistance, the action of will, acceptance, and the forming of habit.
55:34 Right? You saw that. If you can not resist then this deeper mind is being more sensitive, is beginning to inquire, question, ask, find out.
55:56 Right? Now, that state of mind is entirely different from the mind that resists.
56:10 Right? That mind is going to say, ‘Inquire and act rightly.’ Which is, that mind being intelligent will do the right, intelligent thing.
56:22 You get it?
56:25 Q: Yes.
56:27 K: A mind that is resisting is an unintelligent mind.
56:35 Right? But a mind that has understood the meaning of resistance, the significance of it, putting it aside, inquires.
56:48 Q: Can you also say the mind that accepts is equally unintelligent?
56:55 K: Of course - acceptance is a form of resistance, too.
57:00 Q: Or rejection.
57:04 K: Resistance, acceptance is a form of resistance.
57:12 Acceptance is, because I accept very quickly because it is convenient.
57:15 Q: Or rejects.
57:16 K: Or rejects very quickly.
57:17 Q: Because it could be nonsense, the thing that has been suggested. It could be nonsense.
57:23 K: Of course, it could be nonsense too. I accept nonsense, as most people do. When I say ‘I’m a Brahmin,’ Catholic, Protestant, it is nonsense. I accept it, and then I resist it.
57:41 Q: But any conscious thinking – is any conscious thinking a form of resistance?
57:57 K: I told you, too: unconscious may have its own forms of resistance.
58:06 So when you – listen to this, Tunki, listen quietly, listen, not with your verbal mind or a mind that’s resisting, listen actually.
58:19 I said any form of resistance, consciously or unconsciously, superficially or deeply, any form of resistance is an unintelligent act.
58:39 Right? Now listen to that and let the seed of that take root in you.
58:50 You understand? As being a Catholic has taken a root. You understand what I am saying?
59:14 Oh my!
59:15 Q: Well, that means you do not understand it, but you...
59:16 K: Tunki, I said to you, ‘Listen without resistance,’ which doesn’t mean you’re just open and swallow everything everybody pours in.
59:26 It means listening without resistance, which means a mind that is inquiring.
59:36 Therefore it’s a free mind, therefore it’s an intelligent mind that says, ‘I will…’ – it will act intelligently.
59:45 Therefore you might say, ‘Well, I’ll inquire and find out if I can do without glasses.’ I’ll go into this question - you follow?
1:00:01 - I’ll see whether by doing the right kind of exercises and so on, so on, so on, I may not need glasses at all.
1:00:14 Which is an intelligent action, without resistance. You follow? Look, I’ll show you.
1:00:30 I’m not boasting about myself, I’m just stating a fact.
1:00:37 As a boy, I was the head of a tremendous organisation with lots of property - 5,000 acres, castles, everything.
1:00:50 I was supposed to be a great spiritual teacher.
1:00:57 And I said, ‘All organised religious beliefs are stupid, they divide people.’ Right?
1:01:10 So I dissolved the organisation over which I was the head, gave away the property – you follow? - because I said, ‘This is an unintelligent thing to do.’ I didn’t resist anybody telling me, ‘Oh, you must keep that, marvellous,’ as people do, ‘You must hold onto that, because you can help lots of people.’ Others said, do this or don’t do that.
1:01:38 But I said, ‘What is…’ I saw all around me, organised beliefs - Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, and the divisions of each – so I said, ‘This is too stupid, it’s unintelligent, unspiritual.’ You follow?
1:01:59 That means I listened both to the outer and the inner.
1:02:09 So I said, ‘Out!’ And the Indian guru – you know what a guru is? - leader, spiritual and so on - I won’t go into the meaning of that word – they assume certain authority, they say, ‘I know, you don’t know.
1:02:32 I will teach you and therefore accept,’ and so on, so on. I said, ‘I won’t be that kind of guru, it’s too stupid, because then you become a leader, authority, and you’re really not helping anybody, you’re only fattening on other people’s worship.’ So I said, ‘Out.’ Did I resist the idea of the guru – you follow? – did I resist the idea of organisation, or did I say, ‘Look, let’s look at it’?
1:03:18 You understand? Therefore by looking I was free to observe – you understand?
1:03:26 - I was free to inquire. And the more – not ‘more’ – when there is freedom you instinctively feel the right thing.
1:03:41 You understand? I won’t go into it. You get the picture, more or less? So, now proceed from there. You’re going to learn a language - German or French or English.
1:04:01 Carlos is going to learn English, and he’s going to spend an hour a day and learn it.
1:04:08 We are going to force him to learn it. (Laughter) ‘Force’ - you know, it’s a joke. Now, to learn English or German or French, listen to it not with effort which is concentration – you understand? - but listen to it happily, easily.
1:04:32 Forget it, that you’re listening. Then the words, the pronunciation, seep in.
1:04:43 But if you say, ‘I must listen very carefully to the French word’ – what? – ‘Champs-Elysees’, and I pay tremendous attention to it, I can’t do it properly. You follow? But if I say, ‘Yes, I’ll listen, looking out of the window’ – you’re following all this? – it comes in much quicker.
1:05:07 So we come back. You are all conditioned - right? – American culture, American affluence, American way of looking, or English way, or Indian way, whatever it is – you are the product of your environment, of your culture.
1:05:35 Right? Now can you listen to your conditioning without resistance and so break it?
1:05:48 Because if you have your conditioning and I have my conditioning, we are separate, there is a division, and hence the division means conflict, conflict either psychologically or physically - physically war; psychologically, I hate you, I don’t like you because you’re a Catholic, Protestant – you follow? - all the rest of it.
1:06:16 Or I tolerate you – ‘We all love Jesus, therefore we must be brotherly.’ You follow?
1:06:25 So can you listen without resistance to your conditioning?
1:06:37 Right? And see, as you listen without resistance, what is the outcome of that?
1:06:54 Do you get it? So it means, first, listening implies freedom.
1:07:09 Doesn’t it? You can’t listen if you’re not free to listen. Right? You cannot listen if you’re resisting.
1:07:26 So find out if you’re resisting. If you’re resisting, see the absurdity of it. It goes – you follow? The moment you say, ‘How silly it is,’ it’s gone.
1:07:43 So, there is the world of technology and there is the psychological human world.
1:07:52 The two are not keeping pace together. Are you following? There is a vast difference – one is far ahead, the other is far behind.
1:08:09 And therefore there is great imbalance in human beings. Imbalance being disharmony. And the revolution is to bring harmony, not only between the technological world and the psychological world, but in yourself, so that you can use technology and yet be above technology.
1:08:36 You follow? You understand all this? So that you are never caught in petty little anxieties – I don’t know if you follow all this - worries, jealousies, greed, so that you’re out of all that.
1:09:09 So if you have a habit, physical or psychological, don’t resist it; watch it.
1:09:16 You can’t watch it or observe it with the conscious mind, but the unconscious can look at it.
1:09:27 You’re getting now the meaning of all this? Now do it and you will see you become extraordinarily sensitive – you understand?
1:09:45 – so that your mind, being a sensitive mind, is an intelligent mind.
1:09:53 Got it?
1:09:56 Q: But what is that that does it, I mean that puts away the resistance?
1:10:04 I don’t understand totally the energy behind putting away the resistance.
1:10:09 K: All right, now I’ll show it to you.
1:10:19 Your culture, which is the result of a great deal of expenditure of energy – you understand?
1:10:30 - has created your conditioning. Right? Your energy as three hundred and fifty or five hundred years old, American, old American culture, has shaped you.
1:10:47 You are following this? And I say to you: listen to that conditioning without resistance. Right? That means don’t expend your energy in resistance.
1:11:07 Right? Are you following this? As an American, brought up in an American culture, a great deal of energy has gone in to conditioning you.
1:11:27 That same energy now resists. You understand? So I say to you: don’t expend, waste your energy in resistance. Right? So you have more energy, haven’t you?
1:11:47 More energy which is not wasted can function or expend itself or act to find out if I can do without glasses.
1:12:08 You understand? The mind can learn a language quicker, because you’ve no resistance, so you have energy.
1:12:25 The energy has been wasted, been conditioned, held.
1:12:33 Now you’ve broken that resistance and you have more energy.
1:12:40 Having more energy you can learn more, quicker. You follow? You’ve watched, learnt? You have got it? Look, sir, suppose I have a habit of scratching my head or frowning at you.
1:13:18 I won’t resist it, I won’t say, ‘I must get rid of it,’ because I listen to you say, ‘Don’t frown.’ I listen to you, because I’ve no resistance.
1:13:32 The listening is operating. You follow? I’m listening, all the time listening to, ‘don’t frown.’ You get what I am talking?
1:13:51 I’m listening: don’t frown. So I won’t frown then for three days, if I’m listening.
1:13:58 Q: That you can do with your unconscious habit but not to unconscious.
1:14:06 K: Ah, it is not an unconscious habit. Look Tunki, somebody comes along and tells me, ‘You’re terribly greedy, old boy.
1:14:23 You’re very greedy.’ I like being greedy, I like to have lots of things.
1:14:30 I am greedy. So when you come and tell me, ‘Don’t be greedy,’ I resist you. I say, ‘Why not? It’s good for the economy.’ You follow? The more you buy the more – you follow? I give you a thousand and one good explanations why I should be greedy.
1:14:56 Which means I’m resisting your statement: ‘Don’t be greedy.’ Right?
1:15:03 Now can I listen to what you say - don’t be greedy - without any resistance? Then what takes place? Then I say to myself, ‘Am I really greedy?’ You follow? I am, or I am not. I am greedy. I say then, ‘What’s wrong? Why should I be greedy?’ You follow?
1:15:28 My mind is inquiring – you follow? - my mind is active. Not consciously active, but it’s digging, digging, digging, digging, it won’t leave that word alone - ‘don’t be greedy’ - I want to go in to it.
1:15:44 You are following all this? Your statement which I receive without resistance, it is like a seed that has vitality and it will put out shoots, it will become vital, without any operation of the conscious mind, by saying I must or must not be greedy.
1:16:10 That’s enough. If you haven’t got it, go and jump in the lake! (Laughter) You’ve got it? Good. Can you operate that way? Every day, all the time. That is intelligence. You understand? You eat in a certain way, you’re used to it, putting your fork in there and cutting it.
1:16:51 And I look at you and I say, ‘That’s an American way of eating, they haven’t thought about it, they haven’t watched themselves eating.’ So I say to you, ‘Sit properly and hold the knife properly and the fork properly, don’t jam it with one hand – you follow? – it looks ugly.’ And you resist it.
1:17:16 You say, ‘Why, it’s as good as yours.’ I say, ‘No, look, don’t resist, find out.’ Which doesn’t mean you’re going to imitate.
1:17:32 You see the difference? Find out. Which means you watch. And I know, if you watch, you will see there is reason behind eating rightly.
1:17:48 If you put your elbows out you’re knocking – you follow? – on a small table you hit each other.
1:17:55 So keep your elbows in. Right? And when you keep your elbows in, you can’t jab. (Laughs) So when you keep your elbows in – sorry, you don’t mind my telling you all this?
1:18:17 Many: No.
1:18:18 K: When you keep your elbows in, you have to eat properly, that is, you have to move your wrist and put it in.
1:18:26 You follow? Only the wrist, nothing else, not the whole... (laughter) So when you…
1:18:36 (laughs) – I’ll tell you why, it’s rather amusing – I’m very careful about all this.
1:18:52 Once a king came to see me – a king, you know, one of the big so-called rulers – and we had lunch together.
1:19:03 He had been trained very, very, very carefully never to move his elbows.
1:19:12 I watched him, how he moved only his wrist when cutting - you know?
1:19:21 – nothing else. And I said, ‘By Jove, that’s rather interesting.’ So I watched him.
1:19:31 I wasn’t imitating him – I watched him – and I was doing the same, but it was more refined.
1:19:40 (Laughs) So I said, ‘By Jove, so much the better. I am learning.’ You follow what I am saying?
1:19:50 Once some years ago I used to know an Italian captain of a regiment called the Alpinisti, the Alpine people.
1:20:05 They walked with their rucksack about - I’ve forgotten the exact kilometres - for an hour, at a certain speed, up or down – you know, going up the valley or flat, a regular speed all the time.
1:20:26 So this friend, Italian, he said, come and walk with me sometime, I’ll show you how to walk.
1:20:38 He showed me how to walk – never to move the upper part of your body, only from there, so that you kept the upper part absolutely still and walked only the legs.
1:20:54 Not just slop along – you understand? – you can’t. (Laughter) And I used to know some dancers and they said, ‘Look, to walk means keep everything here, tight, so that you are – you understand?
1:21:16 – your body becomes alive, not a lump of flesh. That’s enough about all that. Am I helping you?
1:21:25 Q: Yes. Can you elucidate on that, that last point, sir? Walking with the body tight.
1:21:34 K: (Laughs) You know yoga?
1:21:44 You know the meaning of it? It was invented, as I showed to you, many thousands of years ago, to keep the glands and therefore the body very healthy.
1:21:57 When you do, say, for instance, sarvangasana, stand on your shoulder, you know, going up that way, it stimulates the thyroid.
1:22:05 You know the thyroid? It’s there. It stimulates it and it’s very good for the whole system and so on, so on.
1:22:22 Now, if you do it all properly, with care, with real… without resistance, then your body becomes more and more supple, clear.
1:22:40 Then you will know how to walk, in combination with what you have heard me… – you follow?
1:22:48 – the whole body becomes harmonious. You are following all this?
1:22:59 Now, to go from that: have you ever sat very quietly, absolutely quietly?
1:23:11 Have you? With your eyes shut and seeing that the eyes don’t move at all.
1:23:24 And when you breathe, if he has taught you breathing, that’s the whole point, is to have the body extraordinarily quiet and breathe.
1:23:42 Behind all that is the idea that a mind that is very quiet can listen to infinity. You follow? You have understood? No, I won’t go all this, it’s too difficult.
1:23:58 Q: What do you mean?
1:24:01 K: That’s part of meditation. But you see, meditation is not control, meditation is not concentration, meditation is not developing resistance - which is what people generally do.
1:24:21 You understand all this? It is this… meditation means tremendous freedom of movement. I won’t go in to all that.
1:24:39 So when you leave this place - I hope you won’t till I come back in February for a few days – before you leave, you must have this extraordinary vitality of the mind and the heart.
1:24:55 You understand? Free, intelligent, really psychologically totally different.
1:25:06 Right? That’s enough for this morning. What is the time?
1:25:11 Q: Five to one.
1:25:13 K: Just right!