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BR78DSS2.1 - Is there an awakening of intelligence in you?
Brockwood Park, UK - 1 October 1978
Discussion with Staff and Students 2.1



0:19 Krishnamurti: For some of you who are newcomers, I don't know how you consider this Brockwood school to be.
0:36 What is your idea? What do you feel about this place? If you really honestly could answer that question, what do you feel about it?
0:53 Apart from the beauty of the countryside and the lovely trees and so on, does this place mean anything to you?
1:13 Not the place itself, apart from the buildings, how do you consider it?
1:24 A place where you are going to learn mathematics, physics abd biology and all the rest of it, or has it something more than the usual swotting up a lot of knowledge and information?
1:53 What does it mean to you?
2:00 Could you tell me? Or perhaps you are too shy.
2:10 Does it mean, if I may ask, does it mean a home to you?
2:23 A place where you feel safe, where you feel people are looking after you, like your father, mother, a place where the older members of this community – do you feel that they will look after you?
2:59 Not only physically but also psychologically, inwardly?
3:13 Do you feel that you have come to a new home, or you say, oh my God, what an awful bore this is?
3:25 Homesick and rather frightened, nervous, adjusting yourself to a new environment, and so you haven't quite made up your minds what this place is, or what this place should be or must be?
3:54 Some of you have been here perhaps eight or nine years, when we started this place.
4:07 I wonder what they feel about it.
4:19 It would be very interesting, if you could ask them and say, look, tell me what you feel about it.
4:30 Do they feel – the older generation, the older inhabitants of this small community – do they feel responsible?
4:49 Do they feel total responsibility for you?
4:57 Not only that you should have good intellectual, academic training, excellent capacity of the mind, but also, are they concerned with your behaviour, with your inward strength?
5:47 Are they concerned that you will become just like the rest of humanity, go through all the suffering, the pain, the anxiety, the fear that everybody goes through?
6:05 Are they concerned to help you not to go through that, be caught in that trap, or are they merely concerned over themselves – their happiness, their little affairs, their vanity, their emotional jazz, etc.
6:43 If you can answer that question, whether they are really, totally, completely responsible, not only towards you, but you also towards them – total responsibility.
7:10 Do you feel, if I may ask – and if you won't talk, unfortunately, I wish you could, perhaps you will – do you feel like a stranger, entering into a quasi-intellectual, emotional, rather cranky place?
7:54 And will you, as students and the staff, if I may ask, will you make this your home?
8:04 Because you are going to be here from now, for another year perhaps, with a little holiday in between, so will this be your home?
8:22 And when you are at home, neither the staff nor you can say, I don't like it, I will leave.
8:29 You can't leave your home. You can run away, that is a different matter. But if it is really your home, a home implies all the difficulties involved in living together.
8:56 Will the older people say, well, I am sorry, you are not acting as I think you should and therefore I am leaving?
9:08 You follow what I am saying, all this? I am trying to find out or trying to ask you, so that you will find out for yourself whether you consider this place as your home, not merely a school, but much more, where you are looked after, your clothes, the way you eat, the way you talk, the way you walk, the way you play.
10:03 Does this mean anything to you, what I am saying? Or is it a lot of nonsense.
10:20 If I can put the question differently, will you make this place your home?
10:31 With all its responsibility. Of course, at home you can always divorce each other, father and mother can divorce, but they stick it out as long as they can, quarrelling, biting, frightened, but they stick together as long as possible.
11:01 That is the kind of home the majority of people perhaps come from. I hope you don't come from such a home. It isn't a home at all then. But here, when you come here, and I hope you come because you want to be here, not because your parents or your neighbours or some people urging you to go there but you have come voluntarily, I hope.
11:34 And if you have, will you make this place your real home?
11:46 This is really a very important question, don't just brush it aside.
12:02 You know, there is a tendency in the world, where people don't agree or have the same point of view or believe in the same thing, they generally break apart, they never meet.
12:26 But here, I hope that will not be so. Here, if you criticise me – and I hope you will, and I mean it – I am willing to listen very carefully, and if I criticise you, will you also listen carefully, or will you say, oh, rot!
12:55 And build a wall against me, or against each other? You know what I am talking about?
13:08 So, if I may ask again, what do you expect from this place?
13:25 What is it you want? Not only the people who have been here for a number of years, but also, who have recently come or been here for two or three years – what is it you want?
13:45 Please, I am not only asking the older people, older staff, but you also, the new students and the older students – what is it you want?
14:04 Do you want freedom? To do what you like? Is that possible, to do what you like?
14:20 To get up when you like, go to bed when you like, come to meals when you like, play when you like, study when you like, – one can't live that way.
14:38 In a community like this, a small community one has to be considerate for other people, one must be sensitive to others and also to one's own desires, to find out if one's own desires, thoughts, are accurate truth.
15:14 Are you all going to sleep?
15:22 You are all dreadfully silent.
15:37 You see, one expects, as one does in your own homes, for the parents to do everything – to buy your clothes, to pay for you, for your education, for your food, for your transportation and so on.
16:07 That is natural, because it is their responsibility.
16:17 You come here, willy-nilly, and you might feel that here, perhaps, there is a certain sense of freedom, a certain sense of having no authority to push you in any direction.
16:49 You may come here expecting a lot of freedom to do what you want.
16:57 And it is one of the most difficult things to have freedom.
17:04 With freedom goes a great deal of intelligence.
17:11 If you haven't the intelligence then freedom becomes a nightmare, then freedom becomes a disorder.
17:29 But if you understand the nature of freedom, the absolute necessity of it for every human being, then with that demand for freedom, there also comes intelligence.
17:52 Now, will that intelligence be cultivated here?
17:59 Apart from ordinary daily subjects, examinations, etc., will that intelligence be cultivated here by the staff and you demanding that intelligence.
18:33 Does intelligence belong to a particular human being?
18:43 You might say, I have my intelligence and you have your intelligence. My intelligence says do this and your intelligence says the opposite. Is that intelligence? You understand what I am asking? Capito? Bene.
19:10 So, we have to find out, if you are living together in this community, happily, with a sense of excitement, a sense of the extraordinary beauty of this place, we must also ask whether it is possible to have this quality of intelligence.
19:43 The word – I won't go into the meaning of it, the Latin and so on – the meaning of the word is to have the capacity to listen to the word of another, and the silence between the words.
20:13 You understand what I am saying? Is this all Greek to you? You know Greek and Latin, sir. To the others it may completely be Greek and Latin.
20:31 Have you ever listened to what another has to say?
20:39 Have you? If you have listened to find out what the other person has to say, you will not only listen to the words but also to the meaning of the words, the tone of the voice, the silence between the two words.
21:05 All that indicates the person who is talking – his nature, his character, his being – and out of that listening, you become very sensitive, you become extraordinarily alive, you are quick in grasping.
21:39 That is part of intelligence, so that you don't block with your own prejudice, with your own opinions – those you know very well.
21:51 But those opinions, conclusions, your own particular emotional responses, interfere with listening.
22:03 So can you listen in your class, to your friend when you are having a conversation at the table, to listen that way – can you?
22:20 Are you listening that way now?
22:31 Or you say, what is he talking about?
22:43 Would you kindly tell me, are you listening that way now? Try to listen to the word, the meaning of the word, the content of the word, the voice that speaks the word, the gesture, the whole feeling that the man is trying to express.
23:08 Are you listening that way, when he says, is this your home? Will you make this your home? Will you be responsible for this place? Not only say, I will leave it to the older people, I don't care, I won't look after it – but the total feeling of living in a community, working together, all that.
24:02 So, freedom comes with intelligence.
24:13 Don't say, I must be free, without being intelligent – that has no meaning.
24:22 But can you and the staff help each other to be intelligent?
24:31 You know, knowledge is different from intelligence.
24:38 You see that? I can have a lot of knowledge, I can read a lot of books – science, all about music – I can be very, very erudite, scholarly, but I may be the most silly arse in the world.
25:08 Because I live not the world of knowledge, I live in daily life.
25:15 So, I make a mess of my daily life.
25:23 So, knowledge is not applicable in one's daily life.
25:40 I may be able to teach mathematics excellently, show you how extraordinarily interesting it is, the sequence of mathematics, the order that is involved in that sequence and so on, but I may have a shoddy little mind, very prejudiced, narrow, without any affection, without any care.
26:18 I teach mathematics like a machine, because I know all about mathematics, or some of it at least, and in my daily life, I am jealous, anxious, nervous, brutal, inconsiderate, and so on.
26:44 So, knowledge is one thing and intelligence is another.
26:54 Now, can that intelligence be cultivated here?
27:04 Say, for instance – we are as a community living together – suppose I have a certain – suppose – I have a certain point of view that certain things should be done in a certain way.
27:26 Are you listening to this? I feel very strongly – if I do – that certain things must be carried out in a particular way, and you may have quite the opposite view.
27:50 So there they are: you think one thing and I think another. I think you are doing wrong and you think I am doing wrong, and so we never meet.
28:05 Intelligence means: look, let's talk about it, let's find out whether what you are saying and what I feel, what I also think, whether they are correct, or am I being merely emotional, sentimental, holding on to my particular opinion.
28:27 Whereas intelligence is to talk over my prejudice and your prejudice and see if we can be free of prejudices, so that we can look together at the same thing.
28:42 You understand what I am saying? That is part of intelligence. It is the most stupid thing to say, I stick to my opinion and my conclusion, this is what I think, and never budge from there.
29:00 That is really, absolutely silly. Whereas to say, this is what I think, I really believe it very strongly. Show me where I am wrong. I am willing to change. I am willing to scrap it. But show me, let's talk it over. That is part of intelligence. It is stupid to say: well, if you don't do this, I will leave.
29:38 So, intelligence also implies tremendous consideration for others.
29:47 Right? If you don't care for others, you can't have intelligence.
29:58 So, may I ask, or is it too early in the beginning of school, do you care for anybody?
30:26 I mean by that word care, there must be a certain sense of affection, a certain sense of attention, able to accept and observe or investigate criticism.
31:06 If I care for you, then I am concerned about you, I want to say why you look that way, what do you think, why you think so many things, why you dress that way, why you don't walk correctly, the manner of your eating – I am concerned.
31:45 Actually, I am. So we talk a great deal about it, with Mrs Simmons and others.
32:01 And all this is because it is important to bring about a different society in the world.
32:16 You understand? Or is this too much, one morning?
32:26 Do you realise what our society is? How corrupt it is, how immoral it is?
32:40 Everyone fighting each other, each one being so terribly selfish, each one wanting his way, my nation and your nation, killing each other – it is a dreadful world.
33:02 And here, in a school of this kind, it is the responsibility of the older people, staff, that they bring about a new generation of people.
33:20 You understand what I am talking about?
33:37 Because otherwise, when you go back, when you pass you exams and all the rest of that ugly business, frightening business, you will be caught in the trap, you will be like everybody else, quarrelling, ambitious, greedy, fighting.
34:13 So, I think that teaching, a teacher or an educator, is the highest profession in the world.
34:22 The least paid, the least respected.
34:31 I don't think there is any teacher who is made an Earl, is there any teacher of a school made into Sir somebody or other?
34:48 But the teacher is the highest person, both professionally and inwardly, because he is actually bringing about – if he is worthy as a teacher – a new generation who will not be caught in this trap – what is going on in the world.
35:22 Well? Is that your responsibility as a teacher?
35:34 Nobody answers. You know, if you throw a pebble in the pond, it makes waves.
35:49 That is what we are doing – I am throwing pebbles in the pond and hope some of you will catch that, because I feel, personally, a school is worth it only – apart from the academics – when they are bringing about a totally different type of generation of people who are happy throughout life, not miserable, unhappy, who are not everlastingly pursuing greed – all that.
36:50 So, I am asking, is this your home where you are being educated to be supremely intelligent?
37:07 So that when you do go out into the world, the trap never closes on you, you are never caught in it.
37:18 You may have to earn a livelihood, but the livelihood isn't living.
37:33 So is this enough for this morning? Will you ask questions? Questioner: I think I would like for the new students to talk about our responsibility here to this place, and the freedom this place – how do you say?
38:02 We have a lot of freedom here but to be free you have to also be responsible and intelligent.
38:09 K: Do you have a lot of freedom here?
38:11 Q: Yes.

K: What do you mean by that?
38:19 K: Please tell me. You say you have a lot of freedom. I don't understand what you mean by that.
38:26 Q: I mean, we have the freedom to go where we want. We have the freedom to go where we want and to do what we want to.
38:36 K: Is it to go to the pub?
38:40 Q: I suppose so.
38:43 K: Not attend classes? Climb a tree when you want to? Go out and play? Is that freedom?
38:53 Q: That is freedom without responsibility.
38:56 K: I am asking you, is that freedom, to do what you want to do? And can you ever do what you want to do?
39:11 Or there is always the father, the mother, the teacher, the social environment, the rules – you can't drive any old way in England, you have to keep to the left.
39:37 So I would like to understand, if I may ask, what you mean by freedom? That you have freedom here – freedom here – so what does that mean to you?
39:56 Q: That there is no ideal.
39:59 K: Is it an ideal?
40:02 Q: I think as long as there is an ideal of what the place should be like, there is no freedom.
40:07 K: Quite right. So is there an ideal about this place?
40:14 Q: I feel there is, yes.

K: There is?
40:16 Q: I feel so.
40:18 K: What is that, would you kindly tell me?
40:20 K: I am not opposing you.

Q: Yes.
40:23 K: Tell me what the ideal of this place is.
40:31 I haven't got it, personally, but others may have. Perhaps they will also listen to this and contribute to this dialogue.
40:41 You say there is an ideal here – what do you mean by that?
40:48 The ideal way of eating? The ideal way of behaving? Behaving? Ah, bene, andiamo, let's go.
41:07 Behaving. What is the ideal that you have here about behaviour?
41:19 That you mustn't get angry with another?
41:29 The ideal – I am not saying the actual. The actual is entirely different from the ideal – agree?
41:42 So we must be very clear when we are talking about ideals that we are not talking about facts.
41:50 Facts being that which is actually happening, which may have nothing whatever to do with ideals.
42:04 So, is there an ideal about behaviour, that you must come to the dining room with clean hands and clean feet?
42:18 That you mustn't have your hair all over your face, so nobody can see you?
42:29 That you must get up at 8 o'clock, or whatever time you get up?
42:37 That you must exercise in a certain way? When you talk about ideals, I would like to know what they are. Or if you don't like the word 'ideal', standards, principles, pattern, routine.
43:04 Those of you who have lived here many years, do you feel there are ideals here?
43:12 What the school must be?
43:24 Say, for instance, I would like it very much, that when you leave here you are the most beautiful person – not physically, I don't mean that way. I hope that way, too – but inwardly, most extraordinarily good, sensitive, highly intelligent, demanding excellence of yourself.
43:56 You understand what I am saying? Demanding the highest of yourself, not the most comfortable, the most easy, but the highest.
44:07 If I had a son here, I would say, for God's sake, educate him that way.
44:14 Don't let him become a shoddy little human being. That is not an ideal, is it? I want to help him to be that. If he says, go to hell, go away, all right, I will go away, but that is what I would like. That is not an ideal, is it?
44:39 Ideal implies making you conform to a certain pattern. If you go to a Catholic school, and if your parents are Catholic, they urge you, they do propaganda to believe in Christ, Saviour, Virgin Mary – all that circus.
45:06 Is there any propaganda here to make you do certain things?
45:14 Or do we point out to you, say, look, be considerate, don't be late, etc.
45:27 Is that an ideal? Well, Shankar? Somebody help me out, will you?
45:34 Q: I think what happens is that there is ample of both. People point things out to you and people also, out of their own lack of clarity, say things which may even be what you are calling propaganda.
45:58 And it takes a certain amount of response from you to be able to see the quality of both and respond to them accurately.
46:10 K: Would you consider this? Consider it – I am not telling you you should accept it. Do you think clearly? Not emotionally – think clearly, objectively, non-personally.
46:35 Do you?
46:42 Do any of you? Me first and you second. To me, this is so important. I must have this person next to me always.
47:04 So, are you thinking clearly or thinking emotionally?
47:12 You see the difference? Which is it you are doing?
47:20 Thinking objectively, factually, non-personally – which becomes emotional, then you are not thinking at all, it is just a bundle of nerves and emotions and reactions.
47:46 If you think clearly – just a minute, listen to it, please – if you think clearly – you understand what I mean by clearly – if you think clearly, why should you have principles?
48:01 I mean, why should you have ideals?
48:08 Look, suppose I am jealous or greedy.
48:29 Society has taught me and education has taught me and religion has taught me that to be non-greedy is the most respectable, most worthwhile spiritual stuff.
48:46 That is ideal – you understand? That is, sometime later on you will be that. You follow? But the fact is I am greedy. So the ideal has no meaning, whatsoever. I can only deal with the fact. And to deal with the fact, I must think clearly, not ideologically. You are following all this?
49:30 I am not frank. Suppose I am not frank. I think a lot of things about people and I don't like or like – you follow?
49:43 And the ideal is to be open. But the fact is I am not open, I am secretive. So the ideal has nothing whatsoever to do with the fact. I can deal with the fact but not with the ideal. Do you understand this question?
50:13 You have your ideal, I have my ideal, everybody has their ideals. Those are just words, but the fact is you are jealous and I am jealous – let's deal with that fact.
50:27 That is to think very clearly. From that clarity of thinking comes intelligence.
50:52 So, has this place ideals?
51:01 Or if someone says to you, look, come with your hair combed, and come not half-naked to the dining room, is that an ideal?
51:18 Wash your hands and face and comb your hair, wash your feet, then it is common sense.
51:31 Q: What about the ideal to be intelligent?
51:40 K: Is that an ideal? Great Scott, no! That is not an ideal. Look, you see this mess around you, don't you, in society?
51:55 The wars, the violence, the hatreds, the disease of politics – all that is going on.
52:05 Is that way you all want to live?
52:08 Q: I may not see it that way, Krishnaji.
52:13 K: Just see it. Why don't you see it that way when there is everybody killing?
52:23 Q: Because I am comfortable here and I have three meals a day.
52:27 K: I am pointing it out to you. All right, you may not see it that way but suppose I point it out to you. Do you refuse to see it that way? You say, no, society is the most perfect, organised world?
52:46 The refusal to see what is actually going on in oneself and outwardly, is the most stupid thing to do.
52:58 And if you say, well, I like to be stupid, all right, that is a different matter.
53:11 Q: On this question of intelligence, for me, it boils down to, in a school like this, the relationship between the people here and how we treat each other, how we get along.
53:30 When there is some form of conflict between people here, I may, for example, feel I would like to speak to that person and tell him how I feel about this problem, but I think that first of all, one's first reaction is that this fellow is not going to listen to you, and secondly, he is not going to understand what you are talking about.
53:57 Because you feel he has done something which has upset you, but he will deny any knowledge of it or there won't be any communication.
54:07 Also, I think that if you mention a conflict lke that then the can turn around and say, oh, this guy is a bit crazy.
54:15 And so this fellow has this view of you from then on and you have got to deal with this person in this school, he has got this vew of you and you have to live with it for a year, so it is better to be quiet in the first place.
54:27 And then when you are quiet, the problem hasn't been solved.
54:34 K: At the beginning of your question you asked: what is it to be intelligent?
54:38 Q: I am saying that I think I know how it would express itself for me, but there is a feeling that perhaps other people don't feel it that way and therefore...
54:50 K: No, it doesn't matter, let's examine it. I may be wrong. I don't say I am the Delphic Oracle, I am perpetually right. It would be stupid of me to say that. But I say, look, the way we are living in the world is chaotic, is stupid – to fight each other, to kill each other, to talk about peace and all the time preparing for war, is madness.
55:22 And if you say, that is the way society should be, I think it is natural, then it is all right.
55:30 But, let's examine it.
55:39 You see, like a very devout Catholic – I have talked to a great many of them, the monks, and some of the high dignitaries of the Catholic world – they refuse to discuss – it is so.
55:57 It is so – that is the end of the conversation.
56:07 Whereas, a fairly alert man, fairly intelligent, says, let's talk about, let's find out what is true and what is false.
56:19 But if you say, sorry, what I think is right, what I do is right, this is divine providence that is telling me what to do, then you are up a gum tree.
56:35 Q: Then we hope that everyone here has got the...
56:38 K: I said I hope. I didn't say everyone is. Hope – I won't even say hope. I say, a school of this kind which started with the intention that here is a place for young people and the older people to grow and flower in intelligence.
57:12 That is all. That is not an ideal.
57:16 Q: Krishnaji, but is that what is happening? Is that the fact that we can deal with?
57:22 Q: Is that what is happening?

K: I am asking you. Is that what is happening?
57:29 Q: But it is an ideal because the moment somebody doesn't do that, he is rejected.
57:34 K: No. You make everything into an ideal. It isn't so. Look, I would like you to be extraordinarily intelligent.
57:56 I would like you to be – if you are my daughter or if I am responsible for you as an educator – I would like you to have a very, very good mind and an excellent heart, with affection, with care.
58:16 Q: Isn't that already an ideal?
58:18 K: No!

Q: I don't see that, I am sorry.
58:25 K: I would like you to be that way. You may say, please, I don't want to be that way – it is all right – it is my wish.
58:35 That is not an ideal, is it? All right, what do you mean by ideals? You define it for me. You tell me what you think an ideal is.
58:52 Q: Something I am not and you want me to be.
58:56 K: Something you are not, and I would like you to do something else, which you are not.
59:07 All right. What are you? Factually, not spin words. What are you, actually?
59:30 May I point out?
59:38 We can generalise it, not say particularise and say, you are that way. Generally, people, including all of us, are very self-centred and selfish.
59:54 Right? I must have my way, otherwise I will go. I can't work with that person because I don't like him, etc. We are self-centred, selfish human beings. That is a fact – occasionally, we throw that away and be very affectionate and so on – that is a fact.
1:00:18 Now, someone comes along and says, look, if you live that way, you are going to create chaos around you.
1:00:27 Right? Which is what is happening in the world. Each man, each woman wants his way. No? Contradict me, please.
1:00:50 No? Absolute silence. Don't you want your way? Don't you want to dominate people? Or be subservient? Don't you want to assert yourself? Fulfil yourself, whatever that may mean? Try to identify yourself, be yourself?
1:01:30 Don't you? Those are facts. Somebody like me comes along and says, if you live that way, look what you are doing, what chaos you are creating around yourself, how miserable you are going to be.
1:01:44 That is not an ideal: break down, change that which is – that is not an ideal.
1:01:56 If I say, no, do this – and I will not allow you to discuss it, talk it over – this is right.
1:02:14 Take for instance, people are violent, including us.
1:02:26 People are violent. The ideal is non-violence.
1:02:34 That is it. You have got it? That is, not facing the fact but inventing an ideal, which is non-violence.
1:02:50 So, by trying to live non-violently I am still carrying on with my violence.
1:02:57 No?
1:03:01 Q: But by trying to live intelligently you still aren't intelligent.
1:03:05 K: Intelligence is to say, I am violent. That is a fact. As long as I live that way, it creates such havoc in one's life.
1:03:22 No? I hate people, I resist people, I want to hurt people, so I am building a wall around myself, I am isolating myself.
1:03:42 Those are facts. And if you say, that is the way I want to live, that is perfectly right.
1:03:51 It is rather silly to live that way but if you want to live that way, it is all right. But to say, let's face the fact, let us see if we can't change the fact – that is intelligence.
1:04:06 In that, there is no ideal. Agree? By Jove!
1:04:26 May I ask you a question in return?
1:04:33 Are you being helped, or pointing out: are you growing here in intelligence?
1:04:55 Not her, you. Don't look at her. Are you, Shakuntalaji, growing in intelligence here?
1:05:21 You understand what I am saying? Are you?
1:05:25 Q: Krishnaji, can I ask something?
1:05:27 K: Delighted. Go ahead, sir. I said, delighted.
1:05:36 Q: Suppose there is a teacher – you were talking about teachers earlier – there is a teacher say, who is self-centred, who thinks emotionally and does not have this intelligence.
1:05:56 And you have a student who is self-centred, who also thinks in a fuzzy way, who is also disorderly, and...

K: What are they to do?
1:06:06 Q: What do they do when they come together?
1:06:08 K: So what happens. Wait a minute. You have put a question, let's go into it. You are selfish and suppose I am too. I am your teacher. What shall we do?
1:06:25 I am your teacher, I am your educator. Without introducing the word 'ideal', what shall I do? Do I realise I am selfish, self-centred, thinking emotionally?
1:06:46 If I realise it – if – you are following, Shankar? If I realise it, I will help you to realise it. Right? By talking it over with you, and pointing out to myself that I am self-centred, I am thinking emotionally, because I am quite open to it and I will help you to be open also, so that we can both talk about it.
1:07:27 That is part of intelligence, isn't it? Shankar, may I ask you a question? Don't take it personally.
1:07:40 You have been here for a number of years, is there an awakening of intelligence in you?
1:07:55 I am asking you, which means all of us.
1:08:02 To think clearly, factually, unemotionally, not resisting others criticism, others whatever it is, inviting, looking, demanding the highest possible excellence of yourself.
1:08:31 No, please don't wobble your head. Everybody, answer me.
1:08:35 Q: I think I am beginning to see that I don't do these things.
1:08:41 K: Then what prevents you? When you see the importance of it. Don't you? Do you?
1:08:52 Q: Yes.
1:08:53 K: That to be self-centred, emotional thinking, etc., is very detrimental. You see it.
1:09:05 Then why can't you live differently?
1:09:12 Do you see if you live that way, it is the most dangerous thing?
1:09:20 Do you see the danger of it? Or do you merely see the danger intellectually, not factually?
1:09:30 Q: It manifests itself every day when this happens, so I think I see it when it happens.
1:09:39 K: All right. If you see when it happens, what will you do to prevent it from happening?
1:09:52 You follow what I am saying? What will you do? If you say, I mustn't, that becomes the ideal. But if you say, this is a fact, what shall I do with it? How shall I change it?
1:10:19 Are you interested in this?
1:10:27 Are there any of you interested sufficiently to give your energy to say, this is what I am, actually, help me to change it?
1:10:46 Do you want such help? Be careful, now. You can't, after asking for help, kick him in the face.
1:10:58 If you say, this is the way I live, this is a wrong way to live, I realise that, but I don't know what to do, how to change it.
1:11:15 Do you want me to tell you what to do? I will, but it must be a tremendous demand, not just say, yes, tell me all about it.
1:11:42 Which means, are you demanding? Which means you want the excellence out of yourself.
1:12:11 Or you want to be comfortable, easy going, accept things as they are, much simpler.
1:12:21 I don't know if it is any simpler, it is more blinding.
1:12:28 It is a way of living in a blind alley.
1:12:35 And if you say, I prefer my blind alley – what is that poem, Sally of the Alley?
1:12:44 I mustn't go into it – then you live that way.
1:12:53 But after all a school is a place where you are learning – you are learning not about mathematics, geography, but learning about yourself.
1:13:13 We had better stop, unless you want to ask something else.
1:13:22 Sorry we can't have this kind of discussion at the beginning of the school but I am going away to France until the 12th.
1:13:32 I will be back on the 12th, I will be back on that day, and then we can have a lot of meetings before I leave for India.
1:13:40 Not a lot of meetings – some meetings. That is, if you want it.