yoga washington dc

may we continuewhere we left off yesterday? we were talking about fearand the ending of fear. and also we were talking aboutthe responsibility of each one of us facing what is happening in the world, the appalling,frightening mess we are in. and for that we are all responsible,individually, collectively, nationally, religiously, and all the affairsof the world we have made after millennia upon millennia,long evolution,

we have still remained barbarians,hurting each other, killing each other,destroying each other. we have had freedomto do exactly what we liked and that has createdhavoc in the world. freedom is not to do what one likes but rather to be free from allthe travail of life, from the problems which we went into yesterday morning, from our anxieties,from our psychological wounds, from all the conflict that we haveput up with for many many millennia.

and also to be free from fear. we talked about all these thingsyesterday afternoon. and also we said these gatherings,this meeting, is not a lecture on any particular subject,to inform, to instruct, to put into a certain pattern. but rather it is our responsibility,together to investigate, to exploreinto all the problems of our life, our daily life. not some speculativeconcepts or philosophies

but to understand the daily pain, the boredom, the loneliness,the despair, the depression, and the endless conflictwhich man has lived with. and this morning we haveto cover a great deal of ground. and also we pointed out yesterdaythis is not a meeting in which the speaker stimulatesyou intellectually, emotionally, or in any other way. we depend a great deal on stimulation;it’s a form of commercialism: drugs, alcohol, and allthe various means of sensation.

and we want also not only sensationbut excitement, stimulation. so this is not that kind of meeting. we are together to investigateour life, our daily life; that is, to understand oneself, what one is actually,not theoretically, not according to some philosopheror some psychiatrist, and so on. if you can put aside all that and lookat ourselves actually what we are, and not get depressed or elatedbut to observe, which is to understand the wholepsychological structure

of our being, of our existence. and we talked about it yesterdayas one of the things that human beings go through all their life,is a form of fear. and we went into it very carefully: that time and thoughtare the root of fear. we went into that,what time and thought is. time is not only the past,the present and the future, but in the now, in the present,all time is contained. because what we are nowwe will be tomorrow

unless there is a great, fundamentalmutation in the very psyche itself, in the very brain cells themselves.we talked about it. and we also should talk this morning,talk over this morning together – please, one may point out,you and the speaker are taking a journey together,a long, complicated journey. and to take that journeyone mustn’t be attached to any particular form of belief. then that journey is not possible. or to any faith, or to some conclusionor ideology, or concepts.

it’s like climbing the everest or some of the great, marvellousmountains of the world; one has to leave a great deal behind, not carry all your burdensup the steep hills, mountains. so in taking the journey together– and the speaker means together, not that he is merely talkingand you agreeing or disagreeing; if we could put those two wordsaside completely, then we cantake the journey together. some may want to walk very rapidlyor the others may lag behind

but it is a journeyall the same together. we ought also to talk over together why human beings have alwayspursued pleasure as opposed to fear. we’ve never investigatedwhat is pleasure, why we want everlasting pleasure in different ways:sexual, sensory, intellectual, the pleasure of possessions, thepleasure of acquiring a great skill, the pleasure that one derives from having a great dealof information, knowledge.

and the ultimate gratificationis what we call god. as we said, pleasedon’t get angry or irritated or want to throwsomething at the speaker. this is a violent world. if you don’t agree they’ll kill you. this is what is happening. and here we’re not tryingto kill each other, we’re not doing any kind of propagandaor convincing you of anything. but we are going to face the truthof things, not live in delusions.

and with delusionsit’s very difficult to observe. if you are deluding yourselfand not facing actualities, then it becomes impossibleto look at oneself as one is. but we like delusions, illusions,every form of deception because we are frightenedto look at ourselves. as we said, to look at ourselvesvery clearly, accurately, precisely it’s only possiblein a mirror of relationship; that’s the only mirror that we have. when you look at yourselfwhen you’re combing your hair

or shaving or doing whatever youare doing to your face – sorry. you look at your mirror– sorry – i’m sorry! i’m glad you approve. when you are shaving you lookat your face or comb your hair; that mirror reflects exactly whatyou are, your face is, how you look. and psychologicallyis there such a mirror in which you can see exactly,precisely, actually what you are? as we said, there is such a mirrorwhich is one’s relationship

however intimate it be,whether it’s man, woman; in that relationshipyou see what you are if you allow yourselfto see what you are. you see how you get angry,your possession, all the rest of it. so pleasure man has pursuedendlessly in the name of god, in the name of peace, and in the nameof ideology and the pleasure of power, having power over others,political power. have you noticedpower is an ugly thing, when one dominates another,in any form:

when a wife dominates the husbandor the husband dominates the woman. power is oneof the evil things in life. and pleasure is the other sideof the coin of fear. when one understandsdeeply, profoundly, seriously the nature of fear (as we went into it yesterdayand we won’t go into it again), then pleasure, that is delight,seeing something beautiful, seeing the sunsetor the morning light, the dawn, the marvellous colours,

the reflection of the sunon the waters, that’s a delight. but we make that as a memory andcultivate that memory as pleasure. and also, as we said – but just lookat it, not do something about it. i don’t know if you have goneinto that question of action. what is action? we’re all so active from morning’til night, not only physically but psychologically,the brain everlastingly chattering, going from one thingto another endlessly during the dayand during the night,

the dreams, the brain is neverat rest, it’s perpetually in motion. i do not know if you have goneinto that question of action. what is action, the doing? the very word ‘doing’ is the present,it’s not having done or will do. action means the doing now, correctly,accurately, completely, holistically – if i can use that word – actionthat is whole, complete, not partial. when action is based on some ideology,it’s not action, is it? it’s a conformity to a certain patternwhich you have established and thereforeit’s incomplete action,

or according to some memory,some conclusion. if you act according to certainideology, pattern or conclusion, it is still incomplete;there is a contradiction in all this. so one has to inquire into thisvery complex problem of action. is action relatedto disorder or to order? you understand? we live in disorder,our life is disorderly, confused; contradictory:saying one thing, doing another; thinking one thing andquite the opposite in our actions.

so what is order and disorder? perhaps you have not thoughtabout all these matters, so let us think togetherabout all this and look, please don’t let me talk to myself. it’s still early in the morning andyou have a whole day in front of you; so let us be aware togetherof this question: what is order and what is disorder and what is the relationshipof action to order and disorder? we more or less explainedwhat is action;

the very word ‘to act’means the present, acting: you are sitting there. and what is the relationshipto disorder? what is disorder? look at the world if you will;the world is in disorder. terrible things are happening. very few of us know actually what ishappening in the scientific world, in the world of the art of war and all the terrible thingsthat are happening in russia;

and the poverty in all countries,the rich and the terribly poor; always the threat of war, one political groupagainst another political group. so there is this tremendous disorder. that’s an actuality,it’s not an invention or an illusion. and we have created this disorder, because our very life,living, is disorderly. and we are trying sociallyto bring about order through all the social reformsand so on, so on.

without understanding and bringingabout the end of disorder, we try to find order. it’s like a confused mindtrying to find clarity. a confused mind is a confused mind,it can never find clarity. so can there be an end to disorderin our life, our daily life? not order in heavenor in another place, but in our daily lifecan there be order? the end of disorder, and when there is the end of disorderthere is naturally order.

that order is living, it’s not according to a certainpattern or a mould. so we are investigating, looking at ourselvesand learning about ourselves. learning is differentfrom acquiring knowledge. please this is rather – if you will kindly give yourattention to this a little bit – that learning is an infinite process,limitless process, whereas knowledge is always limited.

and learning implies not onlyobserving visually, optically but also observingwithout any distortion, seeing things exactly as they are. that requires that discipline– please, the word ‘discipline’ as we said yesterday, means – theword comes from the word ‘disciple’. ‘disciple’ is one who is learning, not the terrible disciplineof orthodoxy, tradition or following certain rules, dictates,and so on, it’s learning; learning through clear observationwithout distortion.

hearing things exactlywhat the other fellow is saying without any distortion. and learning is not accumulativebecause you’re moving. you understand all this? so in learning what isdisorder in ourselves then order comes about verynaturally, easily, unexpectedly. and when there is order,order is virtue. there is no other virtueexcept complete order that is complete morality, notsome imposed or dictated morality.

then we ought also talk over togetherthis whole question of sorrow. you don’t mind? because man and woman,children throughout the world, whether they livebehind the iron curtain (which is most unfortunate for them), whether they live in asiaor india or europe or here, every human being,whether rich or poor, intellectual or just ordinary layman like us, we all go throughevery form of suffering.

have you ever looked at peoplethat have cried through centuries? through thousands of wars? the husband, the wife, the children. there is immense sorrow in the world. not that there is not alsopleasure, joy, and so on, but in understandingand perhaps ending sorrow we’ll find something much greater. so we must go into thiscomplex question of sorrow. and whether it can ever endor man is doomed forever to suffer;

suffer not only physically, whichdepends how orderly a life one leads, whether your body is drugged,or tobacco, nicotine, alcohol and all that, whether the bodyhas been destroyed. psychologically, inwardlywe have suffered enormously without perhaps not sayinga word about it. or crying your heart out. and during all this long evolution, evolution of man fromthe beginning of time ’til now, every human beingon this earth has suffered.

suffering is not merely the lossof someone you think you like or love but also the sufferingof the very poor, the illiterate. if you go to india or otherparts of the world, you see people walking milesand miles to go to a school, little girls and little boys. they’ll never be rich,they will never ride in a car, probably never have a hot bath. they have one sari or one dress, whatever they wearand that’s all they have.

and that is sorrow. not for the man who goes by in a car,but the man in the car looks at this and he’s in sorrowif he’s at all sensitive, aware. and the sorrow of ignorance;not ignorance of writing, literature and all the rest of it, but the sorrow of a manwho doesn’t know himself. there are multiple ways of sorrow. and we are asking, can this sorrowend with each one? there is the sorrow of oneself, inoneself, and the sorrow of the world.

thousands of wars, people maimed,hurt, appalling cruelty: not a particular form of crueltyof which you are talking a great deal, a particular form, and you are rebellingagainst that particular form but you never ask:is there an end to cruelty? every nation on earth hascommitted cruelties, appalling. and we’re still perpetuatingthat cruelty. and cruelty brings enormous sorrow. seeing all this –not from a book, not from a traveller,

not from a tourist (touristsgo abroad just to amuse themselves, see sights and havinga good time, a holiday) – but if you are travellingas a human being, just observing, being aware sensitively to all this,sorrow is a terrible thing. and can that sorrow end? please, ask yourself that question. the speaker is notstimulating you to feel sorrow, the speaker is nottelling you what sorrow is; it’s right in front of us,right inside of you.

nobody needs to point it out,if you keep your eyes open, if you are sensitive, aware of whatis happening in this monstrous world. so please ask yourself this question:whether sorrow can ever end. because like hatred, whenthere is sorrow there is no love. when you are suffering,concerned with your own suffering, how can there be love? so one must ask this question however difficult it is to find – notthe answer, but the ending of sorrow. what is sorrow?

not only the physical painand the enduring pain, a person who is paralysedor maimed or diseased, but also the sorrowof losing someone: death. we’ll talk about death presently. is sorrow self-pity? please, investigate.we’re not saying it is or it is not, we’re asking is sorrow brought aboutby self-pity, one of the factors? sorrow brought about by loneliness? feeling desperately alone, lonely;

not alone: the word‘alone’ means ‘all one’. but feeling isolated, having in that lonelinessno relationship with anything. is sorrow merelyan intellectual affair? to be rationalized, explained away? or to live with itwithout any desire for comfort. to live with sorrow, not escapefrom it, not rationalize it, not find someillusive or exclusive comfort: religious or some illusoryromantic escapes

but to live with somethingthat has tremendous significance. sorrow is not only a physical shock when one loses one’s son or husband,wife or girl, whatever it is, it’s a tremendous biological shock. one is almost paralysed with it. don’t you know all this? there is also the senseof desperate loneliness. can one look at sorrowas it is actually in us and remain with it, hold it,and not move away from it.

sorrow is not differentfrom the one who suffers. the person who suffers wants torun away, escape, all kinds of things. but to look at it as you lookat a child, a beautiful child, to hold it, never escape from it. then you will see for yourself,if you really look deeply, that there is an end to sorrow. and when there is an end to sorrowthere is passion; not lust, not sensory stimulation,but passion. very few have this passion, because weare so consumed with our own griefs,

with our own pains, with our own pityand vanity and all the rest of it. we have a great deal of energy – look what is happeningin the world – tremendous energyto invent new things, new gadgets,new ways of killing others. to go to the moon needstremendous energy and concentration both intellectual and actual. we’ve got tremendous energy, but we dissipate itby conflict, through fear,

through endless chatteringabout nothing. and passion has tremendous energy. that passion is not stimulated,it doesn’t seek stimulation, it’s there, like a burning fire. it only comes whenthere is the end of sorrow. and when you have this sorrow,the ending of it, it’s not personal because you are the rest of humanity,as we said yesterday afternoon. we all suffer. we all go through loneliness,every human being on this earth,

rich or poor, learned or ignorant, everybody goes through tremendousanxieties, conscious or unconscious. our consciousness is not yours,it’s human consciousness. in the content of that consciousnessis all your beliefs, your sorrows, your pities,your vanities, your arrogance, your search for power,position, and all that. all that is your consciousness,which is shared by all human beings. therefore it’s not yourparticular consciousness. and when one really realizes that,not verbally or intellectually

or theoretically or as a concept,but as an actuality, then you’ll not onlynot kill another, hurt another, but you’ll have some other thingwhich is totally different, of a different dimension altogether. we ought to talk over together toowhat is love. i hope all this is not boring you. if you want to take a breather,it’s all right. as the speaker said, we ought to go into thisgreat question of what is love.

we use the word ‘love’ so loosely,it has become merely sensuous, sexual; love is identified with pleasure. and to find that perfume one mustgo into the question what is not love. through negationyou come to the positive, not the other way around.am i making myself clear? through negation of what is not love then you come to that which isimmensely true, which is love. so love is not hate: that’s obvious. love is not vanity, arrogance.

love is not in the hands of power. the people who are in power,wanting power; it doesn’t matter if it’s overa small child or wanting power over a whole groupof people or a nation, that surely is not love. love is not pleasure,love is not desire. i don’t know if you have timeto go into the question of desire. perhaps we may. love is certainly not thought.

so can you put aside all that:your vanity, the sense of power, however small, however little it is,it’s like a worm. and the more power you have,the more ugly – and therefore in thatthere is no love. when one is ambitious, aggressive,on which you are all brought up: to be aggressive, to be successful,to be famous, to be known which is all so utterly childish– from the speaker’s point of view. how can there be love? so love is something that cannotbe invited or cultivated.

it comes about naturally, easily,when the other things are not. and in learning about oneselfone comes upon this: where there is love,there is compassion; and compassionhas its own intelligence. that is the supremeform of intelligence, not the intelligence of thought, intelligence of cunning,deceptions and all the rest of it. it’s only when there iscomplete love and compassion there is that excellence ofintelligence which is not mechanical.

then we ought to talk about death.shall we? are you interested in finding outwhat death is? what’s the meaning of that word;the dying, death, the ending. not only the ending,what happens after death? does one carry the memoriesof one’s own life? the whole asiatic worldbelieves in reincarnation. that is, i die,i’ve led a miserable life, perhaps done a little goodhere and there, and next life i’ll be better,i’ll do more good.

it’s based on reward and punishment,like everything else in life. i will do good this life,and i will be better next life. it’s based on the word ‘karma’,probably you have heard of it. the word ‘karma’ means in sanskrit‘action’ – i won’t go into it. so there is this whole beliefthat when one has lived this life next life you have a better chance, depending what kind of lifeyou have led now: the reward and punishment. and in christianity there is thiswhole sense of resurrection and so on.

so if we can put asidefor the moment all that, really put aside,not cling to one thing or the other, then what is death? what does it mean to die? not only biologically, physically,but also psychologically: all the accumulation of memories,one’s tendencies, the skills, the idiosyncrasies, the things thatone has gathered, whether it be money, knowledge, friendship, whateveryou will; all that you have acquired. and death comes and says, ‘sorry,you can’t take anything with you’.

so what does it mean to die? can we go into this question?or are you frightened? so what is death? how do we inquire into it? you understand my question? i’m living– i’m taking myself as an example – i’m living, i go along every day, routine, mechanical, miserable, happy,unhappy, you know the whole business. and death comes, through accident,

through disease,through old age, senile – what is senility? is it only for the old? is it not senility when we’re justrepeating, repeating, repeating? when we act mechanically,thoughtlessly? isn’t that also a form of senility? so death – because we are frightened of it,we never see the greatness of it, the extraordinary thing,like a child, baby being born:

a new human beinghas come into being. that’s an extraordinary event. and that child grows and becomeswhatever you have all become. and then it dies. death is also something,most extraordinary it must be. and you won’t see the depth and thegreatness of it if one is frightened. i want to find out what it meansto die while i am living. i’m not senile, i’ve all my wits about me,i’m capable of thinking very clearly,

perhaps occasionally go off the beam, but i’m active, clear,all the rest of it. so i’m asking myself– i’m not asking you – i’m only observing; if you willobserve also what is death. death means surelythe ending of everything: the ending of my relationship, the ending of all the thingsi’ve put together in my life; all the knowledge, all the experience,the idiotic life i’ve led, a meaningless life, or trying to finda meaning intellectually to life;

i’ve lived that way (not personally,but i’m taking that example). and death comes and says,‘that’s the end’. but i am frightened. it can’t be the end. i’ve got so much, i’ve collectedso much, not only furniture or pictures – when i identifymyself with the furniture or the picturesor the bank account i am the bank account,i am the picture, i am the furniture. right? when you identify withsomething so completely, you are that.

perhaps you don’t like all this,but please kindly listen. so i’ve established roots, i’ve established a greatmany things round me, so death comes and makesa clean sweep of all that. so i ask myself, is it possibleto live with death all the time, not at the end of 90 years or 100years – the speaker is 90 – sorry. not at the end of one’s life butcan i, with all my energy, vitality and all the things that go on,can i live with death all the time? not commit suicide, don’t mean– that’s too silly.

but live with death which means ending every day of everything i’ve collected; the ending. i do not know if you havegone into the question of what is continuityand what is ending. that which continues cannever renew itself, reborn, clear. it can revive itself,that which is continuous, like you are doing in this country,the revival of religion. as we said the word ‘revive’ means something

that has withered, dyingand you revive it. which is happening in this country,religious revival, they are shouting about it. and, i don’t know if you have noticed,organized religions and the gurus and all the rest of themare tremendously rich people. great property. you can do – religious. there is a templein the south of india: every third day they haveone million dollars.

you understand?god is very profitable. this is not cynicism,this is actuality. we are facing actuality, and you can’t be cynicalor despairing, it is so; neither be optimistic or pessimistic. you have to look at these things. so can i live with death, which means every thing that i have done,collected – pain, sorrow – end. ending is more importantthan continuity.

the ending meansthe beginning of something new. if you merely continue, it is the same pattern beingrepeated in a different mould. have you noticedanother strange thing? we have made a greatdeal of mess in the world, tremendous mess,and we organize to clear up that mess politically, religiously,socially and economically. and when that organizationor institution doesn’t work we invent another organization.

and never clearing up the messbut bringing about new organizations, new institutions– and this is called progress. i don’t know if youhave not noticed all this. this is what we are doing– thousands of institutions. the other day we talkedat the united nations. war is going on, they’ve never stoppedit, but they are reorganizing it. you are also doing exactlythe same thing in this country. we never clear up the mess. and we depend on organizationsto clear that up;

or new leaders, new gurus,new priests, new faiths and all that rubbish that’s going on. so can i live with death – that means freedom, complete,total, holistic freedom. and therefore in that freedomthere is great love and compassion and that intelligence which hasnot an end, which has immense. and also we ought to talk overtogether what is religion. may we go on? you are not too tired?

the speaker is not tryingto convince you of anything, please believe me: nothing! he’s not trying to force youthrough stimulation, through some other means. we are both looking at the world, your personal worldand the world about you. you are the world, the worldis not different from you. you have created this world and you are responsible for it,completely, totally

whether you are a politician oran ordinary man in the street like us. we also ought to talk overtogether what is religion. man has always sought something beyond all this painand anxiety, sorrow. is there somethingthat is sacred, eternal, that’s beyond allthe reaches of thought. this has been one of the questionsfrom ancient of times. what is sacred? what is that which has no time,

that which is incorruptible,that which is nameless; that which has no quality, nolimitation, the timeless, the eternal? is there such a thing? man has asked this thousandsand thousands of years ago. so he has worshipped the sun, theearth, nature, the trees, the birds; everything that’s livingon this earth man has worshippedsince ancient times. if you have heard of the vedasand the upanishads and so on, they never mention god.

that which is supreme, they said,is not manifested and so on, i won’t go into all that. so are you asking that question too? are you asking the question,is there something sacred? is there something that isnot put together by thought as all religions are, organized, whether it’s christianity,hinduism, buddhism, and so on. in buddhism there is no god. among the hindus, as i said,there are about 300,000 gods.

it’s great fun to have so many. you can play with them all. and there are the gods of books,the god according to the bible, the gods accordingto the koran, the islamic world. i don’t know if you have noticedwhen religions are based on books like the bible or the koran,then you have fundamentalists, then you have people who arebigoted, narrow, intolerant, because the book says so. haven’t you noticed all this?

this country is having thefundamentalists, go back to the book. don’t get angry please,just look at it. so we are asking, what is religion? not only what is religion, butthe religious brain, religious mind. to inquire into that deeply,not superficially, there must be total freedom,complete freedom. not freedom from one thing or theother, but freedom as a whole, per se. then we have to ask also– sorry – the world ‘religion’ etymologically:they can’t explain that word.

it had different meanings at differenttimes and different ages. so we are asking, when there isthat freedom, is it possible living in this ugly world,is it possible to be so free from pain, sorrow, anxiety,loneliness and all the rest of it. then you have to find out alsowhat is meditation: contemplation in the christian sense,and meditation in the asiatic sense. probably meditation has beenbrought to this country by the yogis, gurusand all those superstitious people, traditional people;

and therefore they’re mechanical. so we’ll have to find outwhat is meditation. do you want to go into it? does it amuse you,or do you want to do it really? is it a form of entertainment,meditation? first let me learn meditation,find out, and then i’ll act properly. you understand the game one plays? or, if there is order in one’s life,real order, as we explained, then what is meditation?

is it followingcertain systems, methods: the zen method, the buddhistmeditation, the hindu meditation, and the latest guruwith his meditation? they’re always bearded, full of money,all the rest of that business. so what is meditation? if it is determined,if it is following a system, a method, practising day after day, day afterday, what happens to the human brain? it becomes more and more dull. haven’t you noticed this?

when you repeat, repeat, repeat – it may be the wrong note,but you’ll repeat it. like a pianist, if he repeats byhimself and he plays the wrong note, he’ll keep on playingthe wrong note all the time. so is meditation somethingentirely different? it’s nothing whatsoever to dowith method, system, practices; therefore it can never be mechanical. it can never be conscious meditation. you understand what i am saying?

do please understand this. it’s like a man consciouslywanting money and pursuing money; what’s the differencebetween the two? consciously you meditate, wanting toachieve peace, silence, and all that. therefore they are both the same, theman who pursues money, success, power and the man who pursuesso-called spiritually. so is there a meditationwhich is not determined, practised? there is, but that requiresenormous attention. that attention is a flame

and that attention is not somethingthat you come to much later, but attention now to everything, everyword, every gesture, every thought: to pay complete attention,not partial. if you are listening partially now,you are not giving complete attention. when you are so completely attentive there is no self,there is no limitation. and – briefly, i must stop –the brain now is full of information, cluttered up,there is no space in it; and one must have space,there must be space.

space means energy; when there is no spaceyour energy is very, very limited. and the brain – the speaker isnot a specialist on the brain, though he has talked about it a greatdeal with other scientists and so on; not that that’s a recommendation – they experiment on animals,on theories, on the accumulation of knowledge; but we are not scientists,we are laymen, ordinary people, humble,wanting to find out.

there is a meditation which isnot determined, put into a mould; i won’t go into it. so the brain, which is nowso heavily laden with knowledge, with theories,with power, position, everlastingly in conflict,cluttered up; it has no space. and freedom, complete freedom,is to have that limitless space. the brain is extraordinarilycapable, infinite capacity, but we have made itso small and petty. so when there is that space andemptiness and therefore immense energy

– energy is passion, love andcompassion and intelligence – then there is that truthwhich is most holy, most sacred; that which man has soughtfrom time immemorial. and that truth doesn’t lie in anytemple, any mosque, in any church. and it has no path to it except through one’s ownunderstanding of oneself, inquiring, studying, learning. then there is that which is eternal. may i get up? or will you get up?