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OJ77T3 - Can man radically transform himself psychologically?
Ojai, California - 9 April 1977
Public Talk 3



0:35 The last two times that we met here, last Saturday and Sunday, we were talking over, together, the question of security, both physiological, as well as psychological security. We went into that, quite considerably, in detail, and, last Sunday, we were talking about conflict. And those of you who have come here for the first time, I hope you will not mind if we don’t go over that again.
1:40 We were saying how important it is in a world that is becoming so utterly chaotic, that there should be, and there must be, human transformation, a great, deep psychological revolution. A revolution is not the bloody kind, the physical kind, which man has experimented with centuries upon centuries, trying to change the environment through conflict, bloodshed, violence of every kind. And, apparently, he has not succeeded at all. Though he has environmentally brought about certain destructive change, he has not radically, psychologically, brought about deep transformation of man. And we are concerned in these gatherings, with that, whether man can radically transform himself, psychologically. Because if he does not bring about that transformation, that revolution, psychologically, inevitably, we’ll have more and more conflicts, more and more wars, and conflict in all relationship, whether intimate or superficial.
3:37 And also, we were saying – I hope you don’t mind, those of you who have heard it before – that wherever you go in the world, whether in the East or in Europe or here, one finds man, which includes the woman, and I hope you don’t mind if I don’t say each time, ‘woman’ – the man or woman, is about the same throughout the world, psychologically – they suffer, they are in great turmoil, uncertainty, anxious, great deal of sorrow and great many tears, loneliness, despair, and eventually facing death. And so, as one observes this fact, one sees that man – you or the woman – is the whole world, he is the world, and the world is him. If one realises that, very deeply, not intellectually or merely verbally, then that brings about an extraordinary quality of vitality, to face things, to face the world as it is. And that’s what we have been saying during the last two talks, here. Now, this morning, if we may, we’ll go into the question of what is consciousness, the content of consciousness, and whether that consciousness can be radically transformed. We left off there last Saturday… last Sunday, and we’ll go on with that, if we may.
6:34 One often wonders whether human beings, you and I and others, are aware of themselves. Most people are aware rather superficially: their petty desires, superficial conflicts, their physical demands, sexual appetites and all the rest of it. They’re superficially cognisant, know, what they are going through. But there is also far deeper layers of one’s being, which is consciousness, to be conscious of oneself. That is, to know or to be aware of the whole nature and the structure of consciousness, of what one is – that is consciousness. To be aware implies watchfulness, to observe. To observe what is going on within oneself, not biologically but psychologically – the thoughts, the motives, the conflicts, the desires, the opposing purposes, ideals and facts, saying one thing, doing another, thinking one thing and contradicting in daily life. The whole process of this is consciousness, which is fairly obvious. We are using the word ‘consciousness’ which means to be conscious of oneself, and all the turmoil that is going on within oneself.
9:08 To observe it implies – or to be aware of it – if there is any choice in that observation that the factor of that choice distorts observation. I think that’s fairly clear. That is, if one is to observe one’s own deep layers of consciousness with all the struggles, the pains, the anxieties, the laughter, the tears and the ambitions and the mischief that’s going on within oneself. To observe it, to be aware of it, and if one chooses, then the observation is distorted. That’s fairly simple. Right? Can we proceed from there?
10:11 So, observation implies no choice. And, when you observe this whole process of oneself, the whole content of oneself, the various factors, influences that bring about this consciousness, is that consciousness - please listen, give a little attention to this – is that consciousness different from the observer? You understand my question? One observes the mountain, the shadows, the movement of the clouds and so on, one observes. When you observe, there is a ‘you,’ the observer and the thing observed. The observer, as we said, is the past, all the memories, experiences, knowledge, stored up in the brain as memory, which is the past. And, when you observe through memory, there is a division between the observer and the observed. Right? So, to observe without the observer is a real problem, which we’ll go into, presently, if we’ve not done it already, in the previous two talks, because this is really quite important because it is the factor of conflict. Where there is division there must be conflict, as in nations, when you have various types of beliefs, in religious beliefs, there is always division, always conflict. So, to live in complete, deep peace, the observer is the observed and therefore no conflict. So, we are going to examine, together, this question of… go into this consciousness, together.
12:58 Please, if I may point out again, this is a very serious talk. One has to give considerable attention, in which is implied care, affection. And we’re taking a journey together. I’m not taking a journey and you’re following me, we are together exploring this. Therefore, it is your responsibility, if you’re at all serious, to go into this. And, as we said, the other day, too, the speaker, in exploring together with you, has no authority. Right? Though he sits on a platform, which is for convenience only, don’t make him into an authority, then you’re not capable of exploring. Because your consciousness is the consciousness of mankind. I think that is the basic thing one has to understand: what you are, the world is. Your consciousness is in conflict, disarray, confused, disordered, and in your relationship, in all the things you do, there is disorder. And in the world there is disorder. So, what you are, the world is. So, we are together going to explore this question of what is consciousness and what are its contents, and are the contents different from consciousness, and is the content consciousness, and whether it’s possible to go beyond this small, little, conditioned consciousness. That’s what we’re going to explore during the next three, four talks. So, please, be a little serious.
15:57 I’m afraid most Americans – forgive me, for saying so – are not very serious people. They’d rather be amused, entertained, acquire a lot of superficial knowledge from books, or go to classes, be told about psychology and other matters. And they think they’re terribly learned. They know all the facts in the world. But they know very little about themselves, actually. They know about themselves according to Freud, Jung and all the rest of it, but when you put all those authorities out, and when you look at yourself, you hardly know yourself. So, if you don’t mind our pointing out, be a little serious, if you can. Don’t hold to your particular theory or to your particular conclusion, or add what we are saying to that which you already know, or what we’re saying, adapt it to your particular guru, or, you know, all that business. So, just… we are as friends looking into this. We’re not doing propaganda for you, or trying to convince you of anything. So, if you’re a little serious and are willing to pay a little attention for some time, a duration, because you cannot give half a minute attention and then think about something else. This requires very considerable, deep enquiry, which demands your care, your affection, your sense of responsibility.
18:24 So, we said we’re going to observe, be aware of our consciousness. And we said, also, where there is a choice in observation, saying, ‘I prefer this, I don’t like this’ or ‘this is what I… this is right and that’s wrong,’ so choice, psychologically, distorts clarity, observation. So, please, observe without choice.
19:00 In our consciousness there are certain factors, which is the desire for power, position, and there are many hurts that we have received from childhood, wounds, deep psychological hurts. And, also, in that consciousness, there is the everlasting search for pleasure. Please, we are looking together, I am not saying it is. We are enquiring, learning together the whole content of our consciousness. And there is the pursuit of pleasure, and there is this enormous sense of fear. Right? Then, also, there is suffering, not only personal suffering but the suffering of mankind. Man and woman have been through a million, thousands of years, with wars every other year, destruction, and enormous sense of sorrow. And in that consciousness, also, there is that thing which is called love, with all its jealousies, hurts, wounds, anger, violence, and so on. And, also, in that consciousness there are innumerable beliefs, dogmas, ideas, conclusions. And, also, there is death, the fear of the unknown, fear of dying, coming to an end. So, this is the content of our consciousness – right? The knowledge that we have acquired from books, the knowledge that we have acquired from experience, stored up in memory, in the brain as memory, which is the whole movement of thought. Right?
21:47 So, the whole content of our consciousness are these things. So, we’re going to examine the major factors, not all the details because that is endless, the major factors, like power, the demand for power, which most of us want, a position. Power implies success, domination, power over others, or power over oneself, and so on. And, also, there is in that, hurt, being hurt. From childhood, we are hurt, and being hurt, we have become violent. We’ll go into that slowly, step by step. So, we’re going to examine first the desire for power. Right? The desire to dominate, the desire to assert, the aggressiveness, all that is sense of power. The dictators throughout the world are, they’re representatives of that power. And, as long as they’ve not solved the problem of power, there’s going to be conflict, not only in the world of dictatorship, totalitarianism, but also in the world of so-called democracy, individual voting and all that, there is also the desire for power, possession, domination. This is an important factor to understand and, if it at all possible, to be free of it. Is it possible to be free of this desire for power? Which is to possess another, to dominate another, to carry out your particular ideals, and assert those ideals. You follow? All that, which is the expression of will.
24:21 You understand this? Are you following all this? I hope you are, because it’s your life, not my life. And if one observes how you waste your life. You understand? So, in talking over together, amicably, with friendship, with affection, with compassion, together, don’t waste your life. And not to waste it, implies the understanding of one’s consciousness and going beyond it. So, it’s a very, very serious matter.
25:12 So, in one’s life, in one’s daily life, is it possible to be free of the desire for power? Power includes domination, possession, assertion, aggressiveness, all that. So, to understand power, one must understand the whole movement of desire. Right? You’re following all this? Some of you, at least? Because most of us want to fulfil our desires, and when those desires are not fulfilled, we feel frustrated and, from that frustration, there comes all kinds of neurotic activity. So, it’s very important, it seems to me, to understand the nature and the structure of desire, which eventually is will, and will is the essence of power. You’re following all this?
26:36 So, you must go into this question of desire. We’re not saying that you must not have desire, but to understand it, to go into it, see the results of desire, how desire arises, what is its nature. Not, as the monks throughout the world, religious monks have said, suppress desire. We’re not saying that, on the contrary. When you suppress desire, it must explode in other directions, but to understand, to go into it, to see the whole nature of it, then it becomes something else. So, we’re going to go together in the understanding of desire. You know what desire is, don’t you? Most of you, don’t you? Desire for clothes, desire for cars, desire for man or woman, desire for position, knowledge, desire saying, ‘I wish I was as clever as that man,’ and so on, so on. So, what is this desire, and how does it arise?
28:19 Please, if I may ask you, or suggest, don’t repeat something that you don’t know, that you have not directly seen, because we are all second-hand human beings. We repeat slogans, what people have said, what you have learnt from books. You have never discovered anything for yourself. And that’s what we’re going to do, find out for yourself, and then it is irrevocable, it cannot be destroyed. It is inviolable, it can never be damaged, if something that you find for yourself.
29:18 So, we’re asking what is desire? How does it come? Because it’s one of the major factors in our life – the want, the want of so many things. Not because you’re lonely you want something, or that you are in bad health, therefore you want something, to be in health – we are not talking… we’re asking, what is desire itself? It is really very simple, if you look at it, if you observe it, very closely. Desire arises, doesn’t it, through perception, through contact, through sensation, and thought. And thought then creates the image. Right? Are you following all this? Seeing, contact, sensation, then desire, and the creation of the image out of that desire, and wanting that. Do you get this? No, see it in yourself, please, not because I point it out. You look at a car, you look at a woman, you look at a house, there’s the visual perception, sensation, then there’s the contact and the desire, desire then creates the image of having that car or that house or that woman or that man. Right? Do you see this? Actually, not because I tell you. And, thought then pursues the fulfilment of that desire. Right? And out of that comes conflict, not being able to fulfil and being able to fulfil. Right.
32:33 So, desire with its will, is the search for power. Right? You get it? That is, to dominate people, in the name of God, in the name of peace, in the name of ideal revolution, and so on. So, is it possible to live – please listen to it – is it possible to live without will? Right? That means to live without direction. Which doesn’t mean living chaotically. We’ll leave it at that, for the moment. We’ll come back to it, later.
33:44 And, also, one of the factors in our consciousness is the many hurts that one has received. Right? The wounds. Are you aware of…? Are we following each other? Right. The wounds, the psychological wounds that one has received from childhood, in the schools, colleges, universities, and as we grow up, in business, in family, the hurts that one has accumulated. Right? Are you aware of it? And the result of those hurts, what takes place when you’re hurt? Either you resist, build a wall around yourself and not to be hurt any more, and, therefore, withdraw from life. Right? And the more you withdraw, the more neurotic you become. Are you following all this? And isolate yourself, not to be hurt. And then one asks, is it possible not to be hurt at all in life? We are aware that we are hurt. That is, when in school an educator compares one boy with another boy, that boy is hurt. Right? You see this, don’t you? When the parents say, ‘You’re not as clever as your brother,’ that’s a hurt. And, when somebody calls you an idiot, that’s a hurt. And so on, there are a great many psychological, deep wounds. And, when there are wounds of such kind, the action from those wounds is to protect oneself, withdraw oneself, to resist. And, out of that resistance, there is violence. You are following all this?
36:28 Now I am… we are asking, is it possible not to be hurt at all? And to totally wipe out the past hurts? You understand the question? The past hurts to be wiped away and never again to be hurt. Right? I wonder if you see this. You have understood my question? And it’s very important to understand this because if we don’t understand this, we have no proper relationship with another. Now, we’re going to go into this question whether it’s possible never to be hurt again and to wipe out the hurts that one has received from childhood. Are you following this, carefully? I hope you’re interested, because it’s your life.
37:53 What is hurt? You understand my question? When you say, ‘I am hurt,’ what is it that is hurt? Is it not, we’re asking the question so that we two enquire into this. I am not, the speaker is not asserting but we’re enquiring, is it not that you have an image about yourself and it is that image that is hurt? Right? You are following? You see this? You have an image about being clever or not clever, being beautiful or not beautiful, you have an image or a picture or an idea about yourself. Right? And it is that image, that picture is hurt. Right? I wonder if you see this. It’s fairly simple, isn’t it? So, we’re asking, seeing the consequences of being hurt, which is violence, withdrawal, resistance, isolation and all the neurotic behaviour that comes from that isolation, seeing all that, it becomes very important to find out, and urgently, whether such hurts can be wiped away, altogether, and therefore never in life to be hurt. Do you understand what it means? To have an innocent mind, a mind that is untouched, which has never been hurt. The word ‘innocence’ comes from the word, the root of it means ‘a mind that has never been hurt.’ Right? See the beauty of it, first.
40:20 So, the image which you call the ‘I’ – ‘I am hurt’ – as long as that image exists, there must be hurt. Right? You see that? As long as I have an image about myself: that I’m clever, that I’m this, I’m that, or that I have a certain reputation, that I’m a great man, that I am this, a dozen images about oneself – as long as you have an image about yourself, you’re going to be hurt.
40:59 So, is it possible not to have an image? Which doesn’t mean that you become vacuous, live in a dreamy world, or become a vegetable. We’re asking the question, as long as you’re hurt, the consequences of being hurt are great, ugly. And, when there is no hurt, your actions are extraordinarily clear. So, is it possible not to have an image about yourself, both professionally – you understand? – that is, like a man who is capable, experts, specialists, and when you question them, they all get hurt, also. Like an ordinary man, he gets hurt when you say he’s a fool, because he’s got an image of himself, and so on. So, is it possible not to have an image? You understand, sir? If you say, ‘How am I to get rid of the image?’ the ‘how,’ which is the method, the system, when you say ‘how,’ that’s implied. Then that system, that method brings about another image – you follow? – and that image will also be hurt. I wonder if you see this. Right? Is this clear? Can we go on? But to see the fact, the actual, that as long as you have an image, you’re going to be hurt, terribly. And, if you want to live a sane life, which means no hurt, and you see the importance of living a sane, clear life without any hurt, naturally, the image disappears. You understand? Bene? If you see the necessity, the importance and the urgency that as long as you have an image you’re going to be hurt, and the consequences of hurt are enormous, if you see that, then you never create an image. Is it clear? Are you doing it now? Or, will you say, ‘I’ll think about it when I go home, when I have a little time.’ You have the time, the leisure, the peace now. If you don’t do it now, because you’re being forced to see it, – you understand? – forced, in the sense, together we are investigating, therefore, together we are seeing the fact. And because you see the fact of being hurt and the consequences, the image-making stops.
45:03 So, one asks – please go into this carefully – the image is built by thought. Right? Right? You are following this? Thought has put together the image that I should be something, that I am something. And what is thought? – which we went into the other day. We’ll go into it again. What is thought? What is thinking, upon which all our social, moral, ethical, religious structure is based on – thinking? All the gods and all the churches, all the symbols, the saviours, the – you know, Christ, the Buddha, all that, the whole religious structure, the popes, the priests and the bishops, the archbishops, you know, it’s all based, is brought about by thought, thought of centuries. So, we have to enquire, together, what is thinking. It’s very important, because we’re going to talk over together, fear. After we’ve gone into this question of what is thinking, we’re going to go together into this whole nature of fear, which holds us, so strongly.
46:59 Thought is the response of memory. You understand this? Thought, memory, is the accumulated facts, knowledge, experience. If you’re an engineer, you have learnt a great deal about engineering, pressures, structure, mathematics, from childhood, and that is stored up in your brain, as knowledge, and, according to that knowledge, you act skilfully or not skilfully. Right? Professionals and the amateurs.
47:46 So, thinking is the response of memory, memory being experience – not only your experience, but man’s total experience, and the accumulated knowledge of centuries of which you are the representative as man or woman. Right? So, thinking is the response of memory. Memory is the past. Right? Of course. I remember something. You can’t remember the future, except, perhaps, astrologically and all that kind of stuff. We can leave all that aside.
48:41 You know, one must doubt a great deal. You understand? Have doubt. But, if you begin with certainties, you end up in doubt. Right? Do you see that? But if you begin with doubt, doubting everything, not accepting, doubt, then you end up with certainties. But we, unfortunately, begin with certainties and end up with uncertainty, and die.
49:37 So, we are saying, thought is a response of memory, stored up in the brain cells and we are not experts in brain, but it is a fact, you can observe this in yourself, every day. So, there is the image of yourself that gets hurt. And is it possible to be free of that image? And that image has been created by thought, successive incidents, accidents, assertions, all that bring about the hurt to the image. And thought in relationship, in human relationship, is a distorting factor. May we go into that? We’re going to discuss, together, human relationship: the wife and the husband, the boy and the girl. We are saying that thought in relationship – right? – destroys relationship. We’re going to go into that. Because is thought love? Is thought compassion? And, in relationship between two human beings, intimate or otherwise, the movement of thought is the separating factor. Are you following this? By Jove, such a large crowd. I wonder if any of you understand all this.
52:10 So, we’re going to talk over together the problem of relationship. And it’s one of the most important things in life. If you’re not related properly to nature, the trees, birds, to nature, then you are not properly related to man or woman. And life is relationship, and it becomes very, very important to find out what is right relationship. We’ll start with facts, and we’re only dealing with facts, not with ideas what relations should be, should not be, what it must be – those are all… those are not facts. What actually is the relationship between you and your wife or your girl or your boy, actually? Is there any relationship at all? And what does the word ‘relationship’ mean? To be related, to be in contact, to be in touch, both physically as well as psychologically. Right? Not to be separate. Right? The word means that. I am related to you. That word implies tremendous significance. And, we’re going to look at it, factually. What is actually, in daily life, taking place?
54:37 Whether you’re married or not married, every incident, every word, every assertion in that relationship, which is very delicate, an image is formed, isn’t it? Right? You are following this? You have an image about your wife or your girl, and the girl has an image about you. That’s simple. Right? Are you aware of this? Are you? Be simple, sir. Know it yourself. You don’t have to say ‘yes’ or ‘no,’ but know it for yourself. As long as you have an image, there must be division. Right? When you say, ‘I know my wife,’ or my girlfriend, or the boyfriend, when you say, ‘I know,’ in that very assertion you find security. Right? You are following all this? And that security is the result of having… is the factor that there is the image you have about her or him. And that image gives you great sense of security. Doesn’t it? Do you actually know your girlfriend or wife or husband, actually? Of course, not. You know all the reactions, all the superficial things because you have an image about her and she has an image about you, and these two images have a relationship which is words, memories, ideas. Right? I wonder if you see all this. Are you unwilling to see all this? Because you have already settled in your own mind you have a marvellous relationship.
57:14 Look, sirs, if you’re a man, you go off to your office or the factory or some work and there you’re ambitious, greedy, envious, wanting success, position. Right? And you come home and she also wants… goes out to work, in America, she has her ambitions, desire for success, position. Right? Where is your relationship? In bed? And is that all the relations you have? And what is your relationship to your children? None at all. Are you following all this? See what we are producing in the world. For God’s sake, it’s your world. And thought is the factor in your relationship, not love. And thought is memory. You understand? Remembrance. So, is it possible to live a life with another, intimately or otherwise, without any sense of image? That requires great attention, care. But you’re not willing to give that care and attention because you’re concerned about yourself – right? – and she is concerned about herself. The concerns are both the same, both are ambitious, both are – all the rest of it. You understand? I wonder if you capture all this. Yes?
59:27 So, one asks at the end of it: what is love? You follow? Are we going along together? Is love desire? Is love sex? Is love attachment? Is love being concerned about oneself, eternally? Is love jealousy? And can there be love when there is fear? Can there be love when there is only the search for pleasure? You understand all this? So, we’re going to go into this question of what is pleasure. No, let’s deal with first, what is fear. Shall we? Shall we go into that? Are you getting tired? Are you quite sure? Can you sustain a long time, give your attention? I hope so. Now, we are going to talk about fear.
1:01:18 You know, as long as you have fear, one lives in darkness. Right? All our actions are distorted. Fear is like a terrible disease, and we put up with it, we live with it, we accept it, because we don’t know what to do with it, how to be free of it. So, we’re going to enquire into the whole problem of fear. And, first of all, to go into it, we are not analysing, because an analyser is the analysed. Are you following this? Is this something new to you? We are saying, the analyser is the analysed. The analyser is not different from the thing which he’s analysing, he is part of that analysis. Right? Analysis implies division. Right? Are you following this? Analysis implies time. You go to a psychologist, if you have the money and the time and the trouble, and all that business, he will analyse you. That means you are different from the analyser. Right? And the analyser is his own analysis. I wonder if you see all this. No? Do you understand this or not at all? Because we are saying analysis does not solve any problem. On the contrary, it perpetuates the problem, prolongs it. Because, see, I analyse myself. Right? If I don’t go to a professional, I analyse myself. What is implied in that? I analyse myself: I am different from the thing which I am going to analyse. Right? But is that a fact? That which I analyse is me, who is analysing. You’re following this? No?
1:04:42 Don’t you ever think about all these things? Is this all utterly new and fantastic? And you are all very educated people, aren’t you? Doesn’t matter. Let’s go on with this.
1:05:08 So, analysis implies time, division. It is like, analysis is analysing himself, all the time, it has no meaning. So, we’re not analysing, but we’re only observing. To look at that tree without analysis. You understand? Just to look at the mountain, or your friend sitting beside you, or the girl. Just to look, not to analyse. So, we’re going to do the same with regard to fear. We’re not analysing, we are merely observing fear, the nature of fear, the cause of fear, the structure of fear.
1:06:09 You know what you are, you know your fears: fear of loneliness, fear of old age, fear of not fulfilling, fear of losing, fear of being attached, and you might lose that which you are attached to, fear of not having success in life – dozens of fears. Right? Are you aware of one fear, at least? Here, now, sitting there, are you aware of your fear? What do you say, sirs? Yes? May I go on? We are not analysing, we are observing. Will you examine, observe the many branches of fear, or fear itself? You understand? You understand, one may be afraid of loneliness, one may be afraid of one’s wife or husband, girl or boyfriend, one may be afraid of losing what you have, one may be afraid of a job, losing a job and not having a job, and so on. And, psychologically, one may be afraid of this extraordinary sense of loneliness. Right? One may be afraid of being attached, and losing. Or one may be afraid of death, of a disease, pain that you have had, and you don’t want that pain tomorrow and therefore afraid. There are many, many fears. Do we – please listen, please carefully listen – do you take one fear after the other or do you observe the central fact of fear? You understand my question? Do you look at the fragments of fear, fragments of fear or the whole, total fear? Which is it that you want to do? Right.
1:09:38 Will you take one fear at a time: fear of loneliness, fear of death, fear of not having a job, fear that your wife or girlfriend may turn away from you, one by one, or the root of fear? You understand my question? Which is it that you want to do? The whole fear or the varying expressions of fear? Well, sirs? If you tackle the root of fear – right? – then the whole, the tree of fear disappears. You understand my question? If you tackle the root of it, the various fragments lose their meaning. Understood? So, we’re going to do that. Either you want to tackle, to grasp, understand the fragmentary fears, or the very root of it. If you understand, go into the very root of it, the fragmentary fears disappear. You get it? So, we’re going to go into this question of fear, radically, at the very root of it, whether it’s possible to be free of the total fear, of all fear, both superficial fears and the deep-rooted fears, the unconscious, unknown fears.
1:11:56 What time is it, sirs? Questioner: Twelve seventeen.
1:12:03 Q: Twelve fifteen.

Q: Twelve twenty.
1:12:11 K: You mean to say we have been talking over, together for an hour and twenty minutes? Aren’t you tired?

Q: No.
1:12:21 K: No, no, just a minute. Just a minute, sir, because this is… I can go into it. Will you go into it, very carefully, with me, even though you have spent an hour?

Q: Yes.
1:12:35 K: Will you honestly? Right!

Q: Yes. We are now going to observe fear, fear at the very root, the root of it. And, we are saying, it is not analysis, because analysis will not eradicate fear. Analysis, as we pointed out, takes time, the analyser thinking different from that which is analysed, when they are both essentially the same, and so on. So, we’re going to observe, together. You are not going to listen to me and then accept it, but together. And, we have to also understand, in going into this question of fear, what is freedom? Freedom, apparently for most people, is freedom of choice. They think they are free when they can choose: choose to go to a different town, different country, travel – freedom. Choice is the very denial of freedom. There are two types of freedom: freedom from something, freedom from fear – and freedom. You understand? It is only when you are caught in a prison that you want to be free from prison. But when you are free, there is no question of being free from something. You understand? I wonder if you have even done that.
1:14:49 So, we are going to look into this. Freedom, not from something, the demand, the necessity, the fullness and the depth of this sense of freedom, not from anything. So, we are going to look into fear. What is the root of fear? The root of fear is time. Do look at it, carefully. Don’t accept what I am saying. The root of fear, we are saying, is time. Look: one has had pain last week, physical pain, and you don’t want it to occur again and you are afraid it might happen. Right? So, the remembrance of pain which you had a week ago and not wanting it again. So, there is time. You understand? Fear is essentially, basically, fundamentally a question of time. Go into it, I’m going to go slowly into it.
1:16:36 What is time? This is an immense question, but we will have to make it very brief. We’ll continue it, tomorrow, if you are willing, and if you are here. Time is movement – right? – from here to there, it’s a movement, by the clock, as well as psychologically. Right? Moving from ‘what is’ to ‘what should be,’ that demands time. And you might not achieve what you want to be, and therefore there is fear. So, time is the factor of fear. Look: I am afraid, suppose one is afraid of death. That is in the future. Right? If death happened instantly, there is no fear. You are following this? So, time is the factor of fear. And what is time, apart from the chronological fact, by the watch, when you have to take a bus, car and all that, what is the factor of time? What is time? I will see you tomorrow – right? – that is a fact of time. Right? And I hope to change from what I am to what I should be. That requires time. And time is – I don’t think you’ll understand. I’ll go on.
1:18:49 Time ceases when there is only ‘what is.’ You understand? You understand, when I… when one is violent, time is necessary to become non-violent. Right? But when there is only violence and not its opposite, there is no time. I wonder if you get this. It’s up to you.
1:19:39 So, time is a movement. Movement implies not only time but thought – right? – going from here to there. All movement of thought is time. Right? All movement of thought is measure and time. Are we moving? No, this is too difficult for you. So, time is the factor of fear. Time is brought about by thought – right? – that I will die in two years’ time, therefore I’m frightened – right? – and I think about it. So, thought and time, which are both the same, is the basic factor of fear. And there is no fear when there is only the absolute fact, instantly. Do you understand all this? That is, can you observe the movement of time as thought which breeds fear? Right? You understand? I am afraid of tomorrow. The fear comes into being when I think what might happen tomorrow. Right? Or I’ve had pain yesterday and I don’t want it to happen again. I don’t want to have that pain again and it might happen, and there is fear. Right? So fear is the movement of time and thought. And then arises a fundamental question, which we will go into, perhaps, tomorrow and the three other meetings: can thought come to an end? Can thought have a stop? Which means, can the brain, with all its conditioning – you follow? – can the brain stop the activity of memory? Only where it is necessary, and where it is not necessary. You understand? So, we will continue with fear and the rest of it, tomorrow. And I hope you have understood some of all this.
1:23:28 Please, it’s so unnecessary to clap. When you clap, what are you clapping for? For understanding yourself?