We have been talking about whether we can in our daily life end conflict within ourselves, be free of any shadow of fear, end suffering, and move away entirely from the self-centred activity that is, or is one of the major causes of, conflict, not only outwardly but also inwardly. Very few seem to be serious enough to go into this deeply and perhaps realize that there is a totally different way of living. Why has humanity become what it is? Is it our inevitable lot to live this way? Has something gone wrong with the whole human evolution? Is there something outside, beyond human measure, that if one can understand, go into it deeply, may perhaps open the door, open our eyes and perhaps our hearts too, so that we may naturally, easily, live a happy, serene life?
We must understand the word experience. Experience is a process of acquiring knowledge, becoming familiar with something. And knowledge may be one of the fundamental reasons for our conflict, our ignorance. Not technological, scientific, and medical knowledge, and so on, but the accumulated knowledge of humanity, which is the whole burden of the past, may be one of the basic causes of conflict.
Is there is an outside agency, beyond the measure of man, beyond man himself, that we can appeal to, pray to, ask for guidance, or be with so basically that we are that, so that there is no outside agency? Or, is a human being the measure of all things? A human being is our consciousness, reactions, memories. Is that the measure, or is there something outside of us that, if we can come into contact with it, may help us? This has been the activity of religion. Throughout the world, from ancient days, people have sought something outside. Or we have said there is something divine in the human, but it is covered over with greed, with envy, with ambitions and cruelty, bestiality, and, if that can be stripped away, then there will be the abiding factor of righteous behaviour. To strip away all the layers of our ugly, brutal, anxious, ambitious, aggressive life, there have been many, many systems, many incantations, many forms of rituals, magic. We have tried every form of physical torture-fasting, denying every sensory response-to come to the point where we can understand and live a different way of life. Scientists are also trying, through genetic engineering, through chemistry, drugs, to change man. People have looked in every direction outwardly, and perhaps never inwardly. We may have superficially scratched the surface of our existence, but have not, except for a few, been deeply concerned and gone into ourselves. We are both matter and the movement of thought, which is also matter. The instrument of investigation to go into ourselves has been thought-and thought is not the right instrument, because thought itself is limited.
Religions throughout the world, organized and not organized, individuals and groups, have made every form of attempt to become enlightened-to use that word that has been so corrupted by the gurus. Can we put aside all the religious dogmas, faiths, systems, symbols, figures, rituals, and not belong to any group, to any spiritual authority. Those two words spiritual authority are the denial of spirituality. Could we slough off all that to stand completely free, unafraid, so that we can inquire into the actual, to see if there is a dimension that is not the invention of thought?
What is the origin, the beginning of all existence, from the most minute cell to the most complex brain? Was there a beginning at all, and is there an end to all this? We are going to inquire together into what creation is. To find all this, to uncover all this, what kind of brain does one need? What kind of capacity, what kind of energy, what kind of passion is needed to really probe into all of this? To probe into something totally unknown, not preconceived, not caught in any sentimental, romantic illusion, there must be a quality of brain that is completely free-free from all its conditioning, from all its programming, from every kind of influence, and therefore highly sensitive and tremendously active. Is that possible? Do you have such a brain? Or is it very sluggish, lazy and living in its own self-conceit? Which is it? To inquire into this demands a mind, a brain, that is extraordinarily alive, not caught in any form of mechanical routine. Is that possible?
Do we have a brain in which there is no fear, no self-interest, no self-centred activity? Otherwise it is living in its own shadow all the time. It is living in its own tribal, limited environment, field. It is like an animal tied to a stake; the tether may be very long or very short, but it is tied to a post so its movement is limited. You may give it a very long rope, but the very length is an indication of limitation.
A brain must have space. So what is space? Not only the space between here and there, but space without a centre. If you have a centre, and you move away from the centre to the periphery, however far away the periphery is, it is still limited. Space where there is no centre has no periphery; there is no boundary. Have we such a brain so that we do not belong to anything, are not attached to anything, are not attached to our experiences, conclusions, hopes, ideals, and so on, so that the brain is really, completely free? If it is burdened, you cannot go very far. If it is crude, vulgar, self-centred, it cannot have measureless space. And space indicates-one is using the word very, very carefully-emptiness.
We are trying to find out if it is possible to live in this world without any fear, without any conflict, with a tremendous sense of compassion, which demands a great deal of intelligence. You cannot have compassion without intelligence. And that intelligence is not the activity of thought. One cannot be compassionate if one is attached to a particular ideology, to a particular narrow tribalism, or to any religious concept, because that limits. Compassion can come, or be there, only when there is the ending of sorrow, which is the ending of self-centred movement.
Space indicates emptiness, nothingness. And because there is not a thing put there by thought, that space has tremendous energy. The brain must have the quality of complete freedom and space. That is, one must be nothing. Whereas we are all something; we are analysts, psychotherapists, doctors. That is all right, but when we are therapists, when we are biologists, technicians, that very identification limits the wholeness of the brain.
Only then can we ask what meditation is. There are many forms of meditation, systems of meditation; they are all based on making thought silent, making thought quiet, not having thought rampant. That is, there is a controller who is going to control through a system, through practice, through a daily allotted time for quietness, and so on. There is always the controller watching. And the controller itself is the activity of thought. So they are going round and round in a circle like a cat chasing its own tail. And that is called meditation.
Now, meditation is something entirely different. If the house is not in order, meditation has very little meaning: there cannot be order if there is fear; there cannot be order if there is any kind of conflict. You can invent any kind of illusion, any kind of enlightenment, any kind of daily discipline; it will still be limited, illusory, because it is born out of disorder. Only when our inward house is in complete order, so there is great stability with great strength in that very stability, that one can ask what true meditation is. Unless there is this kind of undisciplined order, meditation becomes very shallow and meaningless.
So then, what is order? Thought cannot create order, because thought itself is disorder, because thought is based on knowledge, which is based on experience. All knowledge is limited, and so thought is also limited. And when thought tries to create order, it brings about disorder. This is actual fact, not theory. Thought has created disorder through conflict between what is and what should be, the actual and the theoretical. But there is only the actual and not the theoretical. Thought looks at the actual from a limited point of view, and therefore its action must inevitably create disorder.
Suppose I am greedy, envious. That is what is; the opposite is not. But the opposite has been created by human beings, by thought as a means of understanding what is, and also as a means of escaping from what is. There is only what is; and when you perceive what is without its opposite, then that very perception brings order.
As we were saying, our house must be in order, and this order cannot be brought about by thought. Thought creates its own discipline–do this, don’t do that, follow this, don’t follow that, be traditional or not traditional, and so on. Thought is the guide. One hopes to bring about order, but thought itself is limited, therefore it is bound to create disorder. If I keep repeating, “I am British or French, or a Hindu or a Buddhist,” that tribalism is very limited. And that tribalism is causing great havoc in the world. We don’t go to the root of it to end tribalism, instead of seeing how to create better wars. Order can come into being only when thought, which is necessary in certain areas, has no place in the psychological world. That world itself is in order when thought is absent.
The word ‘meditation’ means to measure-to measure between what is and what should be, between what I am and what I will be through meditation. Meditation, in Sanskrit and Latin, means quality of measurement, which is comparison. And comparison is disorder. When I am comparing myself with you, which is competing with you, I am trying to be better than you; then that is a constant conflict, isn’t it? So is it possible to live without any comparison, not only biologically, physically, but much more psychologically, inwardly, never comparing oneself with anything, with anybody, so that the mind, the brain, is free from this conflict of arrogance?
What is meditation? It is necessary to have a brain that is absolutely quiet. The brain has its own rhythm. One has watched all this in oneself; which doesn’t mean that the speaker is extraordinary. Don’t let’s become sentimental and personal. The brain is endlessly active, chattering from one subject to another, from one thought to another, from one association to another, from one state to another. It is constantly occupied.
One is not aware of it generally; but when one is aware without any choice, choicelessly aware of this movement, then that very awareness, that very attention, ends the chattering. Please do it, and you will see how simple it all is.
So the quality of the brain must be free, must have space and silence psychologically. You and I talk to each other. There, thought is being employed because we are speaking English. But to speak out of silence….
This brings the question of language. Does language condition the brain? Have you ever thought about all this? Or is it all something totally new? Does English or French or whatever, Russian or Chinese, does the very usage of language shape the brain so that it becomes conditioned? Language does condition the brain. If you talk to a Russian or to a Frenchman, someone British or American, their whole outlook is limited by the language they use. Can we be free of the network of words, use a language like English and not allow it to shape our outlook on the whole of existence?
If you have not done any of these things, it is all something fanciful. Not to be caught in the network of words is also quite complex. When you say, “I am a communist,” your whole reaction is different; the label is more important than the person. So there must be freedom from the word. Then the brain .is utterly quiet, though it has its own rhythm.
Now, then, what is creation, what is the beginning of all this? We are inquiring into the origin, the beginning of all life; not only our life, but the life of every living thing – the whales in the deep, the dolphins, the little fish, the vast nature, the beauty of a tiger, and the living of human beings, from the most minute cells to the most complex person, with all our inventions, with all our illusions, with our superstitions, with our quarrels, with our wars, with our arrogance, vulgarity, with our tremendous aspirations and our great depressions. What is the origin of all this?
Now, meditation is to come upon this-not you come upon it. In that silence, in that quietness, in that absolute tranquillity, is there a beginning? And if there is a beginning, there must be an ending. That which has a cause must end. Wherever there is a cause, there must be an end. That is a law, that is natural. So is there a causation at all for the creation of humanity, the creation of all the way of life? Is there a beginning of all this? How are we going to find out?
Religions have said there is God, that God is the beginning and the end of all things. That is a very easy way of solving the problem. The Hindus have said it in one way, perhaps the Buddhists, too, and Christianity said, “God.” The fundamentalists believe that man was created 4,500 years ago. It seems rather absurd because 4,500 years ago, the Egyptians invented the calendar, which means they must have been extraordinarily advanced. If you are a fundamentalist, then you’ll get angry with what is being said. I hope none of us is any kind of fundamentalist.
So what is creation? Not the painter who creates the picture, not the poet, not the man who makes something out of marble? Those are all things manifested. Is there something which is not manifested? Is there something, because it is not manifested, that has no beginning and no end? That which is manifested has a beginning, has an end. We are the manifestations, aren’t we? Not of divine something or other; we are the result of thousands of years of so-called evolution, growth, development; and we also come to an end. That which is manifested can always be destroyed-but that which is not has no time.
Now we are asking if there is something beyond all time. This has been the inquiry of philosophers, scientists, and religious people, to find that which is beyond the measure of man, which is beyond time. Because if one can find, come upon, discover that, or see that, that is immortality. That is beyond death. Human beings have sought this in various ways, in different parts of the world, through different beliefs. Because when one discovers that, or realizes that, life then has no beginning and no end. Therefore it is beyond all concepts, beyond all hope. It is something immense.
Now, to come back to earth. You see, we never look at our own life as a tremendous wide movement with a great depth, a vastness. We have reduced our life to such a shoddy little affair. And life is really the most sacred thing in existence. To kill somebody is the most irreligious horror. To get angry, to be violent with somebody … the speaker has been angry only once and the person with whom he was angry has been reminding him, still carrying on with the anger.
You see, we never see the world as a whole because we are so fragmented, we are so terribly limited, so petty. We never have the feeling of wholeness, where the things of the sea, things of the earth, nature and the sky, the universe, are part of us. This is not imagined. You can go off into some kind of fanciful imagination and imagine that you are the universe, then you become cuckoo! But, to break down this small, self-centred interest, to have nothing of that, then from there you can move infinitely.
And meditation is this. Not sitting cross-legged, or standing on your head, or doing whatever one does, but to have this feeling of complete wholeness and unity of life. And that can come only when there is love and compassion.
You know, one of our difficulties is that we have associated love with pleasure, with sex. And love also, for most of us, means jealousy, anxiety, possessiveness, attachment. That is what we call love. So is love attachment? Is love pleasure? Is love desire? Is love the opposite of hate? If it is the opposite of hate, then it is not love. All opposites contain their own opposites. When I try to become courageous, that courage is born out of fear. So love cannot have its opposite. Love cannot be where there is jealousy, ambition, aggressiveness.
And where there is that quality, then from that arises compassion. Where there is that compassion, there is intelligence. Not the intelligence of self-interest, not the intelligence of thought, not the intelligence of a great deal of knowledge. Compassion has nothing to do with knowledge. Only compassion is that intelligence which gives humanity security, stability, a vast sense of strength.