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So before you come into the room look at everything clearly and with attention, with care. And when you come in and somebody reads something, you sit quietly. Do you see what happens?
Because you have looked extensively at everything, then when you sit quietly, that quietness becomes natural and easy because you have given your attention to everything that you have looked at. You carry that attention over when you sit quietly, there is no wandering off, no wanting to look at something else. So with that attention you sit and that attention is quietness.
You can't look if you are not attentive, which means being quiet. I don't know if you see the importance of this? That quietness is necessary because a mind that is really very quiet, not distorted, understands something which is not distorted, which is really beyond the measure of thought.
And that is the origin of everything. You see, you can do this not only when you are sitting in the room but all the time, whilst you are eating, talking, playing games; there is always this sense of attention you have gathered at the beginning of the day. And as you do it, it penetrates more and more.
Do it. Sir, isn't the attention that one gives more important than sitting down and being quiet? I said, there is the attention that you have given to watching the birds, the trees, the clouds.
And then when you go into the room you are gathering that attention, intensifying it - you follow? And that goes on during the day even though you don't pay attention to it. Try it tomorrow morning, I am going to question you about it.
An examination! (Laughter.) Because when you leave this place you must have captured something - neither Hindu nor Christian - then your life will be sacred.
(Pause.) What do you say, Sophia? I am going to make her talk!
At times we forget and in that time thought reforms us all again. What you are saying I watched the birds, the trees, the leaf, the movement of the branch in the wind, I watched the light on the grass, the dew - I paid attention. And when I come into this room I am still attentive.
Not attentive to anything - you follow? There I have been attentive to the bird, to the leaf. Here, when I come in, I am not attentive to anything - I am just attentive.
Then in that state of attention thought comes in - doesn't it? "I haven't done my bed", "I must clean my shoes" or whatever it is and you pursue that thought. Go to the very end of that thought, don't say, "I mustn't think that".
Finish it. In the process of finishing that thought a new thought arises. So pursue every thought to the very end, therefore there is no control, no restraint.
It doesn't matter if I have a hundred thoughts. I am going after one thought at a time so that the mind becomes very orderly. I don't know if you are following all this?
Where does silence come in then? You don't bother about silence because if thought is coming in you are not silent. Then don't force yourself to be quiet, pursue that thought.
Is there any end to that? Yes, if you finish it; but if you don't go to the very end of it, it will come back because you haven't finished one thing. You have understood?
Look, I come out of the house, go round the lawn and watch, pay attention to the beauty, the tenderness, the move of the leaf. I watch everything and I come into the room and sit. You read something and I sit quietly.
I am trying to sit quietly and my body jerks because I have a habit of twitching, so I have to watch that, I pay attention to it, I don't correct it. You can't correct the movement of the leaf can you? So in the same way I don't want to correct the movement of my hands, I watch it, I pay attention to it.
When you pay attention to it, it becomes quiet - try it. I sit quietly, one second, two seconds, ten seconds, then suddenly up pops a "I have to go to some place this afternoon. I didn't do my exercises, I didn't clean the bath."
Or sometimes the thought is much more I am envious of that man. Now I feel that envy. So go to the very end of that and look at it.
Envy implies comparison, competition, imitation. Do I want to imitate? - you follow?
Go to the very end of that thought and finish it, don't carry it over. And when another thought pops up, you say, "Wait, I'll come back to that." If you want to play this game very carefully, you write every thought you have on a piece of paper and you will soon find out how thought can be orderly because you are finishing every thought, one after the other.
And when you sit quietly the next day you are really quiet. No thought pops up because you have finished with it; which means you have polished your shoes, you have cleaned your bath tub, you have put the towel in its right place at the right moment. You don't say when you sit down, "I didn't put the towel back."
So the thing that you are doing is finished each time, and when you sit quietly you are marvellously quiet, you bring an extraordinary sense of orderliness into your life. If you haven't that orderliness you cannot be silent, and when you have it, when the mind is really quiet, then there is real beauty and the mystery of things begins. That is real religion.
There is something I'd like to discuss. I see that like and dislike are a matter of opinion - as what is ugly and what is beautiful - everyone has their own ideas. If I have no image about things, is there anything beautiful or ugly?
To has that anything to do with affection, with love? No. Don't say, no or yes, go into it.
And the feeling of beauty, does it come out of an image? Look at it - don't answer. I see a building created in space, and I say, 'How beautiful that is.'
Now that expression, "How beautiful", is it born of an image? Or is there no image, but the perception of something which has proportion, depth, quality, workmanship. You have an image of what is beautiful or of what you you are comparing it with something else.
Your conditioning comes in. That's right. Watch it, it is much more complex than that.
You see that tree - do you say it is beautiful? Why do you say it is beautiful, who has told you? Or, apart from the images, do you feel from everything a sense of beauty?
- not related to trees, buildings, people. You understand? - the sense of beauty - not looking at anything particular.
If you really look, it doesn't only happen with trees. You see a building and you say, "How beautiful that is." Is it because you have compared it with other buildings?
- or because it is a famous building by Wren or the Ancient Greeks and so you say, "What a marvellous thing that is." Because you have been told about it and there is the image you have made about the man who built it; and so you comply because the popular thing to say is, "How beautiful!" Or do you have a sense of beauty irrespective of anything created or not created?
Have you understood my question? The sense of beauty has nothing to do with what you see. That's just it.
The sense of beauty has nothing to do with what you see outside. Now what is that sense of beauty? A state of harmony.
You are too quick in answering, go into it. What is that sense of beauty? It's vitality.
It is a little more complex, go into it. As we said just now, if you have an image either about yourself, or an artist, or a great man, then that image is going to dictate what is beautiful, depending on the culture, on the popularity of the artist, or the statue, or the painting, this or that. So the image you have prevents the sense of beauty, in which there is no image.
It prevents the very seeing. Of course. So, not to have images at all!
You follow? - the image is the 'me'. When there is no 'me', there is the sense of beauty.
Have you the sense of the 'me'? Then, when you say, "That is beautiful", you are just reacting to the image you have about what is beautiful, which is based on your literature, on your culture, the pictures, the museums to which you have been exposed. You can't ever say, "How ugly!"
when looking at a painting by Leonardo da Vinci; or when you are listening to Mozart, "What a noise!" It is really quite to have no image about oneself is to have this sense of extraordinary beauty. If you listen to some music for the first time and you don't like it, through repetition you suddenly, or gradually, come to like it.
Yes, what happens? You don't like Indian music, and you listen to it three or four times; then you begin to see something in it - not because you have been told - you listen. That means you are paying attention.
You were paying attention the first time. The first time it was noise. You already have a notion what Western music is.
You are used to Western music and you are suddenly faced with Chinese music. The first time you couldn't listen to it very carefully, there was a reaction - you follow? That is why any image, outer or inner, is the emphasis of the 'me', 'the ego', the personality, all that; and that absolutely prevents the quality and the sense of beauty.
Which means, passion is not dependent nor the cause of something. If my sense of beauty makes me feel there is no difference between the beauty of the sun or the beauty of a tree..? Wait, I have no image, therefore I have the sense of beauty, the feeling of beauty.
And I see squalor, dirt, filth. I see a piece of paper on the road. What happens?
I pick it up. When I see filth on the road I do something; socially, I act. I don't say, "I have a sense of beauty, I don't see that."
I understand that. My sense of beauty is not destroyed by whatever goes on. Even if I close my eyes, it is not dependent on seeing.
Absolutely right. But the sense of that beauty which is yours is mine also. It is not my sense of beauty or your sense of beauty, or the collective sense.
It is beauty, the sense of beauty. To go into this is something passionate. It beats all books!
But I mustn't say that, because you must pass exams! Am I always self-centred, Sir? - it is a question that I find difficult to answer for myself.
Here we are, in a beautiful countryside, living in a small community where relationship matters enormously. Can we live here with that quality of mind and feeling that is not wholly self-centred? Then, when we do leave this place - as we must - perhaps we shall be able to live in the world at a different level, with a different feeling and affection and with a different action.
And to live like that, not just occasionally, but with a deeper sense of significance and worthwhileness and a feeling of sacredness, I think one has to be free of fear, or understand what fear is. Most of us are afraid of something, aren't we? Do you know what you are afraid of?
Not at the moment. Agreed, because you are sitting here safely. But what is it that one is generally afraid of?
Do you know what you are afraid of? The unknown. The unknown?
What do you mean by the unknown? The tomorrow? What is going to happen to you, what the world will be like when you grow up and you have to face all the noise and the racket and absurdity of it?
Is that what you are frightened of? Well, that is what I mean by the unknown. And how will you be free of that fear so that you can face it without darkness, without withdrawal, without a neurotic reaction to what the world is?
How will you meet that? If you are afraid of it you can't meet it, can you? Discuss it with me!
If you have any kind of belief as to how you should behave in the world, which is so chaotic, of which one is afraid, if you have already set a pattern of your behaviour with regard to that, won't that idea, won't that conclusion make it much more difficult? Sophia, Laurence - do you know what you are afraid of? Are you afraid of your parents?
Are you afraid of not being like the others? - having long hair, smoking, drinking, having a good time? Are you afraid of being rather odd, cranky, different?
Are you afraid of being alone, standing alone? Are you afraid of what people might say? Of not making a good life in the sense of having money, property, house, husband or wife and all that - is that what you are afraid of?
I feel if I don't smoke it is odd socially and I can't fit in; therefore I must force myself to smoke and do the things they do; I am a little frightened that I don't conform. Is that what you are afraid not conforming, not imitating, not fitting into the pattern, being square? So what are you afraid of?
And throughout life are you going to carry any kind of fear with you? Do you know what fear does? It makes you aggressive, violent.
Or, you withdraw and become slightly neurotic, odd, peculiar; you five in a darkness of your own, resisting any kind of relationship with anybody, building a wall around yourself, with this nagging fear always going on. So if you don't solve these fears now, when you are young, fresh, have plenty of vitality and energy, later on you won't be able to, it will become much more difficult. So shouldn't we consider what our fears are and see if we can't get rid of them now, while we are protected, while we are here, where we feel at home, meeting each other all the time?
Shall we go into this? Yes. How do you go into this problem of fear?
For instance, you are afraid of the unknown, the unknown being the tomorrow, having to face the world which is so chaotic, mad, vulgar and violent. Not being able to meet it you are frightened of the future. How do you know what the future will be?
And why are you afraid of it? Aren't we projecting an image of ourselves into the future? And then we are afraid of not being able to live up to that image.
You have an image of yourself and if you don't live according to that image you are frightened. That is one of the fears, isn't it? He said just now he is afraid of the unknown - the unknown being the tomorrow, the world, his position in the world, of what is going to happen to him in the future, whether he will become a businessman or a gardener.
How will you meet that? How will you understand the fear of the unknown? Because if you are going to be afraid now, as you grow older it will get worse and worse, won't it?
Why do you think about the future? Why do you look at the future in terms of what you are now? You are young, fifteen, seventeen, whatever it is, and how do you know what you will be in twenty years' time?
Is there a fear because you have an image of yourself or of the world in twenty years' time? We have been conditioned to have such an image. Who conditions you?
The society, the culture? The whole environment. Now why do you submit to it?
It's fear again. That means what? Go into it.
You feel you have to conform and you don't want to conform. You say, "I don't want to conform", and yet you are conforming. You have the image of yourself, which has been created by the culture in which you live, and you say, "That image must conform to the pattern."
But it may not conform, and you are frightened. Is that it? Why do you have an image about yourself or the world?
The world is cruel, brutal, harsh, violent, full of competition and hate; everybody is trying to get a job, struggle, struggle, struggle. That is a fact, isn't it? Why do you have an image about it?
Why don't you say, "That is a fact"? The sun is that is a fact. Or it is a cloudy that is a fact.
You don't fight the fact. That is what it is. Do you want to fit into that?
Do you want to accept the world as it is? Do you accept it and join it and become like that, do you want to be that? Well, one doesn't.
First see, just look. The world is like that, isn't it? The world has created the culture in which you were born.
That culture has conditioned you and that conditioning you must conform, whether it is a Communist or Catholic or Hindu background. And now you are here being educated, not merely with books but also deeply to understand yourself. So you must ask yourself, do you want to fit into all that?
Do you want to conform to the pattern to which culture has conditioned you, do you want to fit into that? Obviously not. Don t say, "Obviously not."
I think most people do. You - leave the others out. We don't.
Don t say, "Most people do; they don't even think about it. They just run along with the rest. Here we are thinking about it, we are looking at it, we are questioning it.
Do you know what it means not to conform to something? It means going against the whole structure of society. Morally, in business, in religion you are going against the whole culture; which means you have to stand alone.
You may starve, you may have no money, you may have no job - you have to stand alone. Can you? Will you?
You don't know, do you? - you may or may not. That is one of our fears, isn't it?
One of the great fears in our life is about conforming. If you conform, then you become like the rest - and that is much easier. But if you don't conform then the whole world is against you.
And this is very serious, unless you have the intelligence to withstand the world; otherwise you will be destroyed. If you have fear you cannot have that intelligence. Or you will probably get married and your wife will want to conform and you won't.
Then you are stuck! You have children before you know where you are and it's much worse - because then you have to earn money to support the children. Then you are back again.
Then you are caught in a trap. So from now on you have to look at the whole problem, understand it, go into it. Don't just say, "I am frightened."
You see the culture in which we are born makes us conform, doesn't it? It makes you conform and it makes you envious not to be like somebody else. So conformity and comparison make you afraid - do you follow?
At home, in school, in college, and when you are out in the world, life is based on it. So if you are frightened, then you are caught for ever. But you can say, "I am not going to be frightened, let's examine it, let's find out how to live in the world which demands acceptance, conformity and comparison."
How can you live in this world without being frightened, without conforming, without always comparing yourself with somebody? Then, if you know how to live that way, you will never be frightened. You understand?
Begin here, don't look at the time when you will be fifty years old. Begin here, now, when you are very young, to find out how to live a really intelligent life in which there is no imitation, conformity and comparison, which is without fear. Your brain cells, while you are young are much more active, much more pliable, more inquisitive.
Later on, when you are older, you will get conditioned, you will have a family, a "I can't think of anything except business, it is dangerous to think more." Now, how will you live a life in which you don't compare and conform, because you are not afraid. Which means what?
Fear is engendered, is bred, when you have an image about yourself; and you have that image to conform. You, that image, wants conformity. Now we have to examine very carefully what conformity is.
What do you mean by con forming? You have long hair; are you doing it because other boys and girls and older people have long hair? All the pop singers have long hair - have you seen their faces?
Do you want to be like that? Having long and sloppy hair - which you have - do you consider that conforming? Are you doing it because others are doing it?
If you have short hair you are also conforming. Are you conforming? You have long hair; are you conforming, wearing sandals because others are doing it?
- walking in Piccadilly or Fifth Avenue with naked feet. Do you also walk around with naked feet? Usually I think it is the conditioning in which you are living.