Public Talk 1, Ojai, California, 21 May 1960

Ojai, California

Talk I

May 21, 1960

TALK IN OJAI

I think from the very first we should be very clear why we gather at these meetings. I feel that it would be utter waste of time if you treat these talks as a form of entertainment, as something to do of an afternoon or a morning when you have nothing better to do. I feel it would be a waste of time, yours and mine, if you merely listened as though you were trying to gather some information. Because these meetings, I feel, are not mere communication of ideas, but rather investigation into the very process of thinking, and therefore it requires, on your part, a great deal of attention. I do not mean by attention mere concentration, but an attentive mind which is willing to explore, to examine, and to discover. And, as these meetings are not a form of entertainment whatsoever, I think it would be very profitable if we could dispense with the idea that we are doing any kind of propaganda. We are not trying to convince you of anything, any way of thinking, a new way of living, a new pattern of action; because I do not believe in propaganda. Ideas do not fundamentally change the quality of the mind. And we are trying to discuss, to explore the quality of the mind, the nature of thinking; and to go beyond, if it possible, into spheres, into realms where thought cannot penetrate. Because, after all, thought is very limited. All reasoning has its own conditioning. One must reason, one must think clearly, definitely, positively; but thinking, however wide, however deep, however expansive, is still limited. Because all thinking begins with knowledge, or the accumulation of knowledge, from the background of knowledge; and knowledge, surely, is very limited. And so I feel that if we could explore together into our own minds, then I think these meetings would be very much worthwhile. But to investigate into oneself is very arduous, very difficult; for most of us are not used to it. Most of us are used to being told what to do, what to think: we are used to pursue a certain series of ideas, a rule of conduct; but it is quite another thing to explore into the whole process of consciousness, into the whole entity of what we call the mind. And

I think it would be very important if we could together, without any persuasion, without any direction or influence, investigate one’s own mind; and therefore these talks are not a form of entertainment. They are no a substitution for your own amusement of another kind.

Because (?)

First, most of cur lives are very shallow, however much progress we may make in this world, however far we may go into the skies, visit the moon, Venus, and all the rest of it, it is still very superficial, still outward; and it is much more difficult to go inward; there is no technique, there is no professor, no laboratory where you can learn to travel within. There is no teacher who can guide you; and, please believe me, there is no authority of any kind that can help you to investigate into the most complex thing called the mind. You have to do it yourself entirely, totally and wholly, not depending on a thing. And, as modern civilization is becoming more and more complex, more and more outward, more and more progressive, there is a tendency, is there not?, for all of us to live very superficially: to attend more concerts, to read more books, to go to the cinemas, to gather together to discuss intellectually, and to read clever books, and to investigate psychologically, with the help of analysts, and so on. Or, we turn, because we have such superficial lives, to churches, fill our minds with the dogmas, unreasonable and reasonable, with beliefs that are almost absurd, that have no basis for reason; or escape into some form of mysticism.

So, realising that most of our lives are shallow, we try to run away from it. We try to engage our minds in speculative philosophies, or in some form of meditation, contemplation, a form of self-hypnosis, till we create a world of cur own in which we live satisfied, content, and intellectually, if we are at all intellectual, create thoughts that satisfy us.

So, seeing all this, it seems to me that the problem is not what to do, or how to live, what is the immediate action when we are concerned with war, with the catastrophes that are going on in the world, but rather inquire into freedom. Because without freedom, there is no creation. I do not mean by freedom, freedom of what you like to do: to get into a car and zip along a road, or to think what you like, or to engage yourself in a particular activity. It seems to me those forms are not really freedom at all. Is there a freedom of the mind? And, as most of us do not live in a creative state, I think it is imperative for any thoughtful, serious man, to inquire very profoundly and very earnestly into the question of what is freedom. Because the margin of freedom is getting very, very narrow; politically, religiously, technologically our minds are being shaped, our everyday life is diminishing that quality of freedom. The margin is growing less and less, if you observe it. The more we are becoming civilized, the less there is freedom. I do not know if you have observed how civilization is making us into technicians; and a mind that is built round a technique, is not a free mind. A mind that is shaped by churches, by dogmas, by organized religions, is not a free mind. A mind that is darkened by knowledge, is not a free mind. And yet, if we observe, our minds are weighed down by knowledge; we know so much; our minds are bound by beliefs, dogmas which churches throughout the world have laid upon it. Our education is a form of acquiring more technique to earn a better livelihood, and everything about us is shaping our minds, every form of influence is directing us, controlling us, shaping us.

So the margin of freedom is getting narrower and narrower. The terrible weight of respectability, the acceptance of public opinion, fears, anxieties — all these things, if one is at all aware of them, is surely diminishing the quality of freedom. And that is what, perhaps, we can discuss and understand during these talks that are to follow. How to free the mind, and yet live in this world with all its technique, knowledge, experiences? I think that is the problem, that is the central problem. As, perhaps, I see it, not only in this country, but in India, in Europe, all over the world this is the central issue. Because we are not creative, we are becoming mechanical. I do not mean by creativeness merely writing a poem, or painting a picture, or inventing a new thing. Those are merely the capacities of a mind that is capable of inventing. But I mean a state where there is creation itself, which is creation itself. But we shall go into all that, if we may, if we understand the central issue: that our minds are becoming more and more conditioned, that the margin of freedom is getting less and less. You are either an American, with all the national, emotional quality behind the flag, or we are Russians, or Indians, separated by frontiers, by different ways of thinking, belonging to different categories of organized religious thought, dogmas; we are not only separated economically, but religiously, culturally. And if you examine it, all this thing that is taking place around us, as human beings we are very little, we are almost nothing. We have many problems, individually as well as collectively. Individually, perhaps, we shall be able to solve some of them; collectively we shall do what we can; but all these problems, surely, are not the main issue. It seems to me the main issue is to free the mind; and one cannot free the mind, or the mind cannot free itself until it understands itself. Therefore self-knowledge is essential, the knowing of oneself. That requires a certain quality of awareness. Because, if one doesn’t know oneself, there is no basis for reasoning, for thought.

So, knowing and knowledge are two different things. Knowing is constant; knowledge is always static. I do not know if I’m, if I will make it clear, perhaps not only now, as we go along I’ll make that point clear. But what I want to do this evening is merely to point out certain things, and later on, during the talks that are to follow, investigate these many points. And so we have to see the overall picture, not any particular point, not any particular problem or action, but comprehend the whole thing, get a picture of the whole existence, as it were. And then, after having seen this extraordinary picture of ourselves as we are, then take chapter by chapter, or a book by book of ourselves, and go into it.

So, to me the problem is freedom. Freedom is not from something; that’s only a reaction. I feel freedom is something entirely different. If I’m free from fear, that’s one thing. The freedom from fear is a reaction, which only develops a certain courage. But I’m talking of freedom which is not from something, which is not a reaction; and that requires a great deal of understanding.

So, I would like to suggest that those who are coming regularly should spend some time, not only at these meetings, but when they are away from these meetings, some time to think over what we have been discussing . We are not refuting or accepting; because I am not your authority in anything. I am not setting up as a teacher. To me there is no teacher, there is no follower; and please believe me, and I mean this very earnestly, I am not your teacher, so you are not my followers. Because the moment you follow, you are bound, you are not free. If you accept any theory, you are bound by that theory; if you practise any system, however ancient, however complicated, or modern it be, you are a slave to that system.

So, what we are trying to do together is to investigate, to try to find out, not what I point out, but in listening to discover for yourself, so that you are free. So, the person who is speaking is of no value; but what is said, what is uncovered, what one discovers for oneself, is of the highest importance. So all this personal cult, all this personal following, or the putting up of a person in authority, is utterly detrimental. What is of importance is what you discover in your investigation, how to free the mind, so that as a human being you are creative. Because, after all, reality, or that thing which is not expressible in words, cannot be found by a mind that is clogged, weighed down. There is, I think, a state, call it what you will, which is not the experience of any saint, of any seeker, of any person who is endeavouring to find it. Because all experience is really the perpetuation of the past: it only strengthens the past. Because experience is not the freeing element. It is the state of mind that is capable of experiencing without the entity which experiences. This again requires a certain explanation; but we shall go into that in the coming talks. But what I do want to say this evening is that not only individually but in the world there is a great deal of disturbance, a great deal of uncertainty; and because of this disturbance, of this uncertainty, there is every kind of philosophy: philosophy of despair, philosophy of living in the immediate, the accepting existence as it is. There is the breaking away from traditions, from acceptance, building a world of reaction, or leaving one religion and going to another. If you are a Catholic, dropping it and becoming a Hindu, or joining groups. Surely, all these forms will in no way help the mind to be free.

So, to bring about this freedom, there must be self-knowledge: the way you think, and to discover in that process the whole structure of the mind. You know, fact is one thing, and symbol is another. The word is one thing, and what the word represents, is another. For most of us, the symbol has become extraordinarily important: the symbol of the flag, the symbol of the cross; the symbol itself has become extraordinarily important. And we live by symbols. So words have become astonishingly important. But word is not important, the symbol is never important. And to go behind the word, behind the symbol, to break down the word, the symbol, is an extraordinarily difficult task. To free the mind from the word is very difficult: to free the mind from the word that you are an American, that you are a Catholic, that you are a Democratic, or a Russian, or a Hindu, is extraordinarily difficult. And yet, if we would investigate into what is freedom, we must break down the symbol.

So, the frontier of the mind is laid down by our education, by the acceptance of the culture in which we have been brought up, by the technology which is our heredity. And to penetrate through all these layers that condition the mind, requires an extraordinarily arduous, intense mind.

So, I think it is very important from the very beginning to understand that these talks are not meant in any way to direct or to control your thinking or to shape your thinking. Our problem is much greater than belonging to something or hearing somebody, accepting a new philosophy from the Orient, or getting lost in Zen Buddhism, or finding a new technique of meditation, or creating new visions through new mescaline. What we need is a very clear mind, a mind that is not afraid to investigate, a mind that is capable of being alone, a mind that can face its own loneliness, its own emptiness, a mind that is capable of destroying itself to find out.

So, I would suggest, all those of you who are really serious, to come and not just to come to these talks as a mere form of entertainment, as a curiosity, or because I happen to come back after five years. All that is a waste of your time. There is something much deeper, wider, which we have to discover for ourselves. To go beyond the limitations of our consciousness. Because all consciousness is a limitation. All change within consciousness is no change at all; and that it is possible, not only intellectually, but actually, to go beyond the frontiers which the mind has laid down — not mystically, not in a state of illusion, but actually. And you can only do that when we can investigate into the quality of ourselves and to have real profound knowledge of oneself. And without that, one cannot go far; without knowing yourself, you can’t go far because you’ll get lost in an illusion, and therefore you, we escape into fanciful ideas, into new forms of sectarianism.

So, seeing all this, that the more worldly we advance, the more progress there is, the more enslavement there is — which doesn’t mean that there must be no progress. The more we are so-called educated technologically, the more we are enslaved. The more we cripple our minds with knowledge which darkens, the narrower grows the freedom. Because the more there is knowledge, the more there is fear: there is not the lessening of fear. Because knowledge darkens the mind, as experience burdens the mind.

So, considering all these many aspects of our living, our main problem, as the speaker sees it, is this question of freedom. Because it is only in freedom we can discover; it’s only in freedom that there can be the creative mind; it’s only when the mind is free that there is the movement of endless energy. And it is this energy that is the movement of reality.

So, for the first talk I would suggest that, till we meet tomorrow morning, that you consider, observe, and be aware of your own enslavement of the mind. And perhaps we can, one of these talks, discuss, exchange ideas; and as I said, this first talk is merely the outline, the contents of the book, the headlines. And if you are merely content with the headlines, with a few ideas, then I’m afraid you will not go very far. It is not a matter of acceptance or denial, but rather investigation into ourselves, which does not demand any form of authority, which demands, on the contrary, that you should follow nobody, and that one should be a light to oneself. And one cannot be a light to oneself if you have committed yourself to any form of activity which is laid down as being respectable, as being religious, as the result of a particular mould of conduct. One must begin very near to go very far, and one cannot go very far if one does not know oneself. And the knowing of oneself is not dependent on any analyst.

One can observe oneself as one goes along in every form of relationship, every day; and without that understanding, the mind can never be free.