London 1962, Public Talk 1: Psychological Freedom from the Structure of Society

this is J Krishna M's first public talk in London 1962 as we are going live going to have four talks here I'm afraid I won't have time or the occasion to go in detail with regard what what I want to say it's always difficult to communicate especially in matters that are not easily explainable and one has to use words and words can be twisted in so many ways but if one leaves what one has has to communicate to another to his inclination to his temperament to his prejudices then there is no understanding what we are going to talk about this evening and the other evenings need a clear mind a mind that is capable of direct perception direct understanding understanding is not something very mysterious it requires I think a mind that is capable of looking at things directly without prejudice without personal inclination without opinion unfortunately most of us are so heavily conditioned that we have find it very difficult to understand directly to see something what is true immediately and as I want to talk about something which is not easily explainable but one has to use words and words are difficult things cuz the word is not the thing word is never the thing itself word is only a means it's like looking through the door but if if we merely stick to words then we never can proceed further and especially in matters which are not technical that is very easy to explain certain technical ideas use certain set of technical words but here we need a mind that is fairly free to examine a mind that is capable of seeing things as they are without all our conditioning and what I want to say this evening concerns an inward Revolution a psych ological destruction of the society which we are we are the psychological structure of society Society with its Ambitions and ways Pursuits of success all the psychological structure which we call Society Society isn't merely the outward show of things Society is much more inward much more deeply embedded in each one of us Society holds us the psychological structure which we call Society holds each one of us it shapes our mind our thought our feelings and without completely destroying that psychological structure we cannot possibly be free all to discover what is true and the destru of that psychological structure of society which is you and me is not do not come about through effort and I think that's one of the most difficult things to understand I'm using the word understand not in any in any mysterious sense you know one understands things very easily when you are fairly relaxed when you listen when you give your mind to something totally you understand it very easily very quickly but when I talk about effort it's very difficult to understand to live a life without effort and that's what I'm going to talk about this evening because I feel that the social structure of which we are what we we think what we feel the Envy the ambition the Everlasting struggle of contradiction conscious and unconscious we are CAU in that and to break through we think we we need make a great deal of effort effort implies always conflict doesn't it conflict implies contradiction and when there is no contradiction there's no effort you live and this contradiction is brought about by the society in which we live this conflict this contradiction this dual battle that's going on within each one of us all the time consciously or unconsciously I feel unless that is completely understood and broken through we cannot possibly live a full life or understand something which is beyond the mind cuz you see the world is becoming more and more superficial there greater greater greater prosperity throughout the world Ware State progress and inwardly we are more or less more or less static pursuing the same patterns same beliefs altering our dogmas to suit circumstances but we are more or less living all our lives very superficially we're always scratching on the surface and never going below deep down until we Al completely deep down the psychological structure of our being I don't see how we can however superficially we are clever how much knowledge we may have or information about so many things how we can be free and so be creative so I would like to talk about this evening how to bring about that Revolution the psychological Revolution without effort I am using the word effort in the sense of striving in the sense of trying to become something in the sense of a mind C in contradiction trying to overcome trying to discipline trying to conform trying to adjust trying to bring about a change within itself I am using that word in that sense to cover all that now is it possible to bring about a radical revolution not only consciously but deep down unconsciously without effort because effort implies pressure influence a motive a direction and all our Direction all our motive is conditioned and so when we make effort to bring about a psychological Revolution within ourselves it is it is brought about through a motive which is the result of conditioning you know one can listen in many ways but there is only one way of listening you can listen trying to interpret what another is saying you can listen when you are trying to compare what is said with what you already know you are trying to listen when all the responses of your memory are acting and there are so many other ways of listening but there is only one way of listening which is to listen without thought I don't know if you have ever tried to listen to something pleasant or unpleasant without projecting your own process of thinking just to [Music] listen and that's quite an it's quite difficult to do that because we're always comparing judging evaluating condemning comparing but never listening we never see anything because because we're always saying it is beautiful or ugly it is in it is this color or that color so we are never actually seeing anything nor listening and I think if we could perhaps this evening just listen without projecting or agreeing or disagreeing projecting your own ideas your own interpretations or agreeing with what is being said or disagree just to listen which doesn't mean that you're being mized on the contr to listen demands complete attention and that's very difficult to do because we never attend attention is not concentration cuz when you concentrate naturally you focus you exclude and and therefore this exclusion creates a barrier therefore you don't listen I'm not saying anything extraordinary you can find this out for yourself very easily but when you listen with ease when you listen not merely to the words what words are it means to open the door through which you look at yourself so if we could listen this evening I feel that very Act of listening brings about a deep fundamental Revolution the very Act of listening CU in that act in that attention you have already broken through the conditioning our conditioning as a human being is so deep so heavy they are either Christians English French German Indian Russian with all its dogmas we belong to this or that church to this or that race with all its history with all its story and so our minds as deeply consciously and unconsciously are conditioned superficially our minds are educated conscious mind is educated in the society in the culture we live in that perhaps you can easily disentangle one can easily put aside being an Englishman or an Indian or Russian whatever one is or perhaps leave one particular form of church or belonging to a particular religion that's very easy but what is much more difficult is to uncondition the unconscious CU that plays much greater part in our life than the conscious mind conscious mind is useful as a means of live earning a livelihood to do a certain function which cons which is mostly our education you are trained to do certain things to act in certain ways to function mechanically that is our education but inwardly unconsciously deep down we are the result of many centuries thousands of years of man's Endeavor of his struggles his hopes his despairs his Everlasting search for something Beyond and that's still going on with all of us and to be aware of that and to be free of that Demands a great deal of attention it is not a matter of analysis cuz you can't analyze the unconscious I know the psychologist attempt to do that the analysts do that but I don't believe it is possible I'll show you why the unconscious cannot be approached by the conscious the unconscious gives various forms of hints through dream through dreams through various intimations that those need interpretation and the conscious mind interprets them and interprets them according to its conditioning to his pecul idiosyncrasies influences so there is never complete contact complete understanding of the unconscious it is something that we don't quite know its entirety we don't know it in its complete fullness and yet without being free of the unconscious with all the history with all the story that is involved in it there always be a contradiction and therefore always a conflict an effort an adjustment a a battle raging within now to understand that unconscious as I said is not the way of analysis cuz analysis implies an observer the analyzer and the analyzed so there is a contradiction there is a division and where there is a division there is no understanding so one of our difficulties perhaps the major difficulty is to be free of all the content of the unconscious whether it is possible I do not know if you ever tried to analyze yourself just to analyze what you think what you feel what are the motives behind that analysis what is the intention behind that thought and feeling if you have analyzed you will have I'm sure you'll have found that it can't go very deeply it goes to a certain depth and there it is but to go much deeper one must end this process of of the analyzer analyzing which is to listen to see to observe every thought and every feeling to observe to listen to see without Discerning without discrimination to say this is right this is wrong without condemnation justification just to observe and when we do so observe you will find that there is no contradiction and therefore there is no effort and therefore there is an understanding of the thing immediate but to go very deeply into oneself one must obviously be free of ambition of competition of envy gried and that's very very difficult thing to do to be free of Envy greed an ambition because that is the social structure the psychological structure which we are built we are that to live in a world that is made up of acquisitiveness ambition competition and be entirely free of it and yet be not destroyed by the world that is really the problem the more one observes the more one is aware of the things that are going on in the world there is greater and greater information knowledge can go to the Moon computers are taking over they more and more becoming almost automatic we go to the office every day of all life thoroughly Bor with what we're doing and so we seek various forms of escape from that bordom and religion is a marvelous Escape of various forms of Sensations taking drugs to get more to see more all this is going on throughout the world and inwardly we are in Perpetual conflict not only within ourselves but with everybody all our relationship is based on conflict on possession acquisitiveness and un force and I don't see how when the mind is caught in such conflict conflict such despair such anxiety as most of us are how you how one can go very far but one has to go very far one has to destroy all the structure psychological structure of society is in completely destroyed and that is really the the Crux of the whole existence cuz we do lead a most superficial life and we try to go very deeply by know by reading by acquiring knowledge by getting more and more information always on the surface all knowledge all information is on the surface so the question really is how to live in this world without conflict without those things that bring about conflict not only outwardly but inwardly especially inwardly because the inward conflict dictates the outward conflicts only a mind that is really free from all conflict which means from all psychological problems of any kind it's only such a mind that can be free and to find out if there is something beyond beyond all thought beyond all feeling so our problem essentially as far as one can see not how to acquire more money not how to stop the atom bomb or to join the common market or not those are not real deep problems those will be shaped and controlled by historical events by innumerable pressures of various Sovereign governments and societies and religions but if one is capable of abstracting oneself from all that not withdrawing not becoming a monk or a nun but actually understanding its whole significance and to find out for oneself if it is at all possible to be completely free from the psychological structure of society to be free of of ambition and it's very difficult thing to be free from ambition ambition implies the more the more implies time time means arriving achieving to deny time is to be free of ambition not the chronological time that you can't deny then you will lose your bus but the psychological tribe which we have created for ourselves in order to become something inwardly to deny that which means really to die to tomorrow without dispair you know the clever people the intellectuals have examined all this the outut processes they examined the churches the beliefs the dogmas the saviors and after examining they in Despair and out of Despair they have a philosophy to accept the immediate and to live as completely in the immediate possible in the now I don't mean that at all that any materialistic any shallow person can do that's very easy not to think about tomorrow but live completely today but which most of us do unfortunately we don't have to be very clever we live for today that today is extended into many tomorrows I don't mean that at all I mean to to die to deny ambition totally completely and immediately that is to die psychologically to the social structure so that your mind is never CAU in time in ambition to be something or not to be you know death is a marvelous thing and to understand death requires a great deal of insight which will discuss perhaps in one of these talks but to die naturally to ambition without effort to deny eny enway which implies comparison in which there is Success the more you have more and I have less you have more knowledge and I no I'm ignorant to end this comparison totally completely and one can only die totally to that kind of enway ambition competition only when you are capable of looking at it completely without any distortion and there is Distortion if there is [Music] motive when you want to deny ambition in order to be something else you still ambitious that's not denial at all when you renounce with a motive it is notation and most enunciations have behind them this motive to be to achieve to arrive to find so it seems to me we are becoming more and more clever becoming more and more informative words I ideas theories knowledge fill of Minds we are brought upon them and there is very little empty space which can from which they can be something can be seen clearly because it's only the empty mind not the mind not the mind that's crammed with lot of informational knowledge not the mind that's incessantly active seeking grouping asking demanding but a mind that is empty it doesn't mean blank that's an extraordinary difficult thing to be to have to to be aware of an empty mind only in that emptiness there's understanding it's only in that emptiness there is creation but to come to that one has to deny the whole social structure the psychological social structure of power position Prestige Fame it's comparatively easy for older people at least superficially to deny power position or not to be ambitious but still it's very superficial those denials that's why it's very important to understand the unconscious to understand it not to examine it you can't examine with a positive mind with an educated mind with a mind that is analyzing something of which you don't know which is hidden if you examine that which is hidden the unconscious by the conscious process of analysis then you are bound to create conflict do please understand this is not very difficult all our approach approach to any deep problem is a positive approach that is we want to get at it we want to control it we want to acquire it we analyze it or we pursue a particular system in order to understand it you can't understand something of which you don't know with what you already know you must approach it with empty hands not dictate what it should [Music] be and to have empty hands is one of the most difficult things cuz our minds are so full of things that we have already known we are so burdened with our memories and every thought is response of those memories and we thought we approach that which is not positive which is hidden the unconscious now if you if you could merely listen what is being said not how to approach the unconscious with empty hands but to approach but if you could listen do what is being said without any idea then you will see that you can approach the unconscious which has such power such extraordinary Drive compulsion without creating contradiction and therefore effort that is say there must be and there is you have you don't have to accept my word for it and I hope you don't then I become your Authority which will be most ugly thing you can do there is the unknowable something much far beyond all thought all mind there is but you cannot possibly approach it with all the knowledge with all the me memory the scratches of Life the experiences the weight of fear anxiety guilt and you cannot get rid of all that by any effort whatsoever you can be only be free of it by listening to every thought and to every feeling listen not trying to interpret what your thought is what you're listening to what your feeling is just to listen just to observe to be attentive out of emptiness then one can live in this world with all its travail with all its ugliness with all its brutality and terrible things that are happening untouched you can function in this world without being called in status to function as a clerk as a bus driver bank manager what you will merely to function but the moment you bring on all the psychological factors involved in that functioning with its Ambitions with its Authority with with its position power then you can't live in this world without Everlasting sorrow so most of us know all this really one doesn't need to listen to a talk at all of this kind we all know this that's a terrible brutal ugly world but everybody every church every religion is trying to shape for where the welfare states are making us more and more comfortable dull stupid cuz we have used conflict as a means of becoming bright we know all this but inwardly we are not changed at all we are carrying on as we have been for centuries inwardly we are just the same afraid anxious guilty seeking power seeking sex everything is what we are animalistic things we still carrying on which is functioning psychologically in the structure of society the question is how to break it totally how to destroy it completely and be out of it without becoming insane without becoming a monk or a nun or a hermit and that's can only be done immediately there is no time in which to do it in you either do it immediately or never I'm using the word never in the not in the religious sense of hell that if you can't understand it now that is if you cannot pay complete attention now will you be able to pay attention to tomorrow even there if you do pay attention to tomorrow you have still to pay attention then completely so attention is not matter of time understanding is not a matter of gradual growth till you arrive to understand at understanding so that's why it's very important to know how to listen or how to see things as they are to see a fact without opinion without judgment without condemnation just to see a fact to see the fact that one is ambitious not whether it's right or wrong what will happen to you if you not and so on so on so on just to see the fact then you will say that if you can so look at the fact without distorting the fact you will find that very observation of that fact not only removes The Observer and observed who who which creates conflict but the seeing of the fat releases a great deal of energy and you need energy not the energy derived through conflict that that is a destructive energy but the energy that comes into being when you see something totally completely when you see a fact that you are sexual that you are ambitious that you are envious that you are afraid just to see that fact and you cannot see the fact if you are called in words and words are ideas ideas are thought so to look at a fact there must be that empty space in the mind that looks pleas don't misunderstand the word empty you know our minds are never Qui they're always chattering they're always theorizing building and destroying and picking up again there's never moment when it's quiet and when it is quiet there is no space there is no time when the mind is very still all time and space disappear there is no tomorrow or the next second and that Stillness of mind is total ATT and that attention is all virt that is virtue there no other virt morality every other form of virtue and morality is the structure is brought about by the Mind by by psychological ambition envy and all the rest of it so to see the fact as it is is the beginning and the ending of every problem and it's only when the mind is really completely empty of every problem and it can be so empty when is denied every problem when it doesn't give when the mind no longer gives soil to any problem then you will find if one has gone so deeply that there is something far beyond something which mind cannot measure which no religion can capture and it is a cental living in this world in this chaotic confused world to have such mind such a mind that is capable of looking at everything clearly sely seeing every fact as it is and it's is only such a mind that has that is Qui that is still only to such a mind the immense can come into being okay 7:00 [Music] [Applause]