Public Talk 3, Eddington, Pennsylvania, 16 June 1936

I am going to try and sum up what I have been saying during the last few talks here and also during the discussions that we have had in the afternoons. Naturally, I haven’t the time to go into details, but I will only concern myself with the principal ideas with which I have dealt.

Each one of us is trying to live with the intelligent comprehension of life without sorrow, without confusion, without this constant and almost ceaseless struggle, the struggle not only with one’s own neighbours, families, and friends, but especially with one’s self, with those conceptions, ideas, of what is right, wrong, what is false and true, what is good and evil. There is not only the conflict of relationship with environment, but also the conflict within yourself which reflects, which has a bearing on the conflict with the environment.

Of course, there are those who are brutal and, if I may call them stupid, exceptions, who are wholly at ease, live without consideration, their minds so well padded, they refuse to be jostled, to allow themselves to think. Naturally, such people have their own rewards, and we do not bother with them, because we are concerned with people who are really trying to comprehend, live this struggle, this apparently ceaseless conflict with the outer and the inner, for those who are thinking and deeply feeling this struggle, this conflict, must have some meaning, some explanation. They are inquiring for some adequate cause to our existence, to our whole being. So, in inquiring for the adequate cause, the true explanation of our suffering, of our existence, of the hereafter, which are not idle inquiries, but through suffering, through wanting to know the right explanation, we begin the search after truth, after reality, and during this search, one gets entangled, either in the mechanistic explanation of life, or in the explanations of faith based on belief. In these opposite, explanations, mind gets involved and entrammeled. The mechanistic view of life which maintains that man is a series of reactions, rejecting all that is not perceptible to sense, the mechanism of man’s being is kept going, as it were, by reaction, by no force or energy which, in itself, is creating the action, but is merely kept going by outward reactions and all his development, love, his ideas and conceptions are merely the result of outward impacts. And the explanations given for these, for our existence, is the adequate cause of each happening, is simply honour the series of happenings. So, we are nothing else but a series of happenings which have their adequate cause, their true cause another set of happenings, merely reactions, and reject that force, that energy, which may be real or false, which is not perceptible to sense.

So, they maintain that, by controlling the happenings, the purely social, political attitude, by regimenting fault and action, through propaganda and so-called education, which is but imitation, trying to fit into a mode, into a patent and follow it, and training the mind to adjust itself and to copy that patent, we will bring about that right social, and political organization which will create right reaction and so bring about the right happenings so as to give man happiness. That is the mechanistic attitude without going too much into detail. Opposite to this stands faith. There the adequate cause, the true cause of man’s existence is a universal force in itself, a force in itself imperceptible to sense, divine force, guiding, watching, which decrees that nothing shell take place without that force, that entity, that intelligence, being cognizant or taking part in it. From this, there arises naturally, the whole question of predestination. Thus, if there is super-intelligence watching over our acts, guiding our fulfilment, with all its subtle implications, then do we, as individuals, have no part to play. Everything is destiny, pre-destiny, and there is no free will; and if there is no free will, that cannot be so in reality. If there is no reality, there is no god. So, faith by faith destroys itself, if you really, consistently think it out. So you will have the mechanistic attitude and the attitude of faith or belief. If you closely examine them, they contain many similarities of discipline, of control, of guidance, of adjusting one’s self to an ideal, patent, to a system.

Now, between these two opposites, one is caught and one vacillates from one to the other, according to what suits us for the moment, depending on faith and the opposite has led to our present chaos and confusion.

Now, there is another way, I feel, of looking without existence, actuality being that which one experiences one’s self, which has nothing to do with opposites, either with faith or the rejection of all that think all those things which are imperceptible to sense. All existence is energy which is conditioned and conditioning itself.

There are many energies. Each energy is unique to each process. So, there are in the world, many energies that work, and each energy is unique in its process. This energy in its self-acting, self-sustaining development, creates its own substance, material, as sensation, perception, choice, and ultimately consciousness, from which arises individuality. So, this energy of force is unique to each individual, and that individuality has no beginning.

So, individuality is the process, is the result of the process of energy which is unique to each consciousness, and during its process, it develops its own materials till there is the identification in consciousness with individuality or personality. With this consciousness, as compounded from the very beginning, ignorance, craving, as the flame is kept burning by oil, as the heat of a flame of the candle is self-sustaining, so this consciousness is self-maintaining through its own volitional activities, activities born of ignorance, peculiarities, and tendencies. From this arises the whole process of the “I,” the echo, the individuality. It is self-maintaining as explained. So please see the distinction of the self-maintaining process of individuality, which is unique, which has no beginning, which is not propelled, pushed forward, as it were, by another series of forces, but which is self-sustained from the very beginning, and that process is self-active through its own volitional demands, cravings, activities. Now, if you think that out very carefully and really deeply, you will see that it has a wholly, totally different significance from the mechanistic, or the attitude of faith. Now, you have these three things, not three actually, these three theoretical causes. Now, you, as an individual, have to discover what is the true adequate cause of our existence, and, as I said, actuality is only that which you experience, and you cannot experience a theory. Please see that point very carefully. You cannot experience faith, nor can you experience the merely mechanistic attitude, the god. Faith is a presupposition, a conception, and you can train your mind to a result which may convince you that you have an actual experience, but it is not experience as actuality. It is a presupposition, a wish fulfilment, that makes you through training, discipline, to receive that experience which is not actuality. The same thing with regard to mechanistic attitude.

So, to comprehend actuality then, or to experience reality, this must be discernment. Now, discernment, to me, is that state of integrated thought and emotion in which all craving has ceased, all want, because if you want to comprehend, if you desire to possess a reality, then you are conditioning your own being and therefore incapable of seeing directly. That is, if a mind is prejudiced, if a mind is caught in any background, in the background of Christianity, Hinduism, Buddhism, or any “ism,” or any philosophy, the mind is incapable of discernment—that is obvious.

So, to discern and to have the experience of actuality, one’s whole being, that is, the integrated thought end emotion, must have no want. By considering what are cravings, and their results, and their processes, then you will find out what are the true, natural, spontaneous wants. That is, you have to consider first, what are those cravings and wants that create the “I” process, which destroys discernment, and by carefully considering, which means liberating your being from that process, then there is a possibility of your understanding what is — not till then, because all wish must act as an impediment, and all craving must distort clarity of thought.

So, as I cannot naturally go into many details and explain in detail the whole process of the “I” and its cravings, I will take one or two examples to indicate those cravings to which we have become so accustomed, which have become such reality that we cannot free ourselves from them.

So, all want, all craving, and any experience born from that craving and want, is the experience of “I” process, and, therefore, it is self-maintaining, self-sustaining.

And so in the “I” process there are all those wants which create fear, from which arises the conception of authority. So there is the authority of the outer, the authority of an ideal, and the authority of experience or memory, the authority of the outer being mere adjustment, through fear, to compulsion, to opinion, to propaganda, to what your neighbour says, to what your leaders say, what sets of systems declare and maintain, what religious organizations assert. All those have become integrated into your being, the expression of authority of the outer to which you are automatically, thoughtlessly adjusting.

Then there is the fear, the authority, of an ideal, that is, being afraid to stand by yourself, to be self-reliant, to understand, to comprehend. You look to an ideal, to a leader, to a concept, to lead you, to guide you across this sea of chaos, sea of suffering, so you say there must be an ideal, a conception, which shall guide you across this suffering, which, if you carefully examine, is but an escape from actuality, from the conflict of the present. And in order to escape from that you have the authority of an ideal, which has become sacred through tradition, through age. And so the authority of an ideal merely acts as an escape from reality, from actuality, which shall be only comprehended — the actual — when the ideal has ceased, that is, when the mind is no longer in any form or shape or subtle ways, escaping.

Then there is the authority of experience and memory. Now this is a little more difficult to understand. Our whole being is of the past. And each one of us draws inspiration, guidance, and comprehension from the past, that is, the past acts as a background, the store house of experience, and our mind is nothing else at the present time, nothing else but the recording machine of the various lessons of experience. These experiences have become memories, and these memories are based on self-protective reactions, because if you examine all experiences and what you consider you have gained from them, you will see that it is nothing else but self-protecting reactions, cunning guidance, to guide yourself not to get hurt, not to suffer.

So memory has become experience, has merely become the storehouse of self-protective reactions, which we call memories, which we call wisdom, knowledge. But if you examine that so-called wisdom or knowledge, you will see it is nothing else but the reactions stored up as self-protection. So that has become another authority, in other words, through craving, through want, which you must necessarily fear, we have developed subtly these avenues of authority, which are constantly guiding us, controlling us, shaping us.

So this authority, these various forms of expression, of self-protection, as the authority of the outer — the ideal, the authority of experience and memory — is maintaining the “I” process, because all that is based on fear.

You consider your own activities, your own thought, and the way you think, and your morality, and activities — these are based on this thing, these authorities of the past. And so, action born out of fear must limit itself, and therefore the “I” process is self-sustaining, is self-maintaining through its own volitional activities.

Again, take the will of desire, as effort, and the will of comprehension, which is discernment. The will of desire is a search for reward, for gain, which has created moral reactions based on self-protective necessities, so in each one then is the epitome of the will of desire, which is making tremendous effort to understand, and in the process of understanding, it is creating its own conflict, and in order to escape from that conflict, it escapes into idealism, into illusions, into fancies. And there is, as I said, the will of comprehension, which is discernment. That is, as long as the mind is caught in the will of want with its experiences, there cannot be discernment.

If you really comprehended that, if you saw the significance of that — there cannot be right discernment as long as there is will of desire creating its own volitional activities. That very comprehension brings this process to an end.

There is no “I” to bring that process to an end; there is no higher self to bring that process to an end; there is no divinity to bring that process to an end. But seeing the very poison it is, seeing the absurdity, the foolishness, the stupidity of the will of want, it ceases, comes to an end.

It is like the candle and the flame. As long as you feed the lamp with oil, it is going on maintaining itself, but when you do not add oil, the flame consumes the oil, and so dies of its own accord. So in the same way, when we recognize that this whole process, that this whole “I” process is maintaining itself through its own will, through its want, that very comprehension brings it to an end. Then begins true living. Then begins the real adjustment to circumstances, or rather, there is no adjustment to circumstances at all — would be truer to say — because then you are acting truly, clearly, simply, sanely, and not adjusting to an environment, which necessitates your acting in a particular way.

So, if there is this conception, if you really understood the significance of this conception, then you would see that you are entirely responsible to yourself, not to any environment — completely self-reliant. Therefore, you can create your own destiny, either to be caught, crippled, harmed, or, through your own comprehension, free the mind so that there is perception of that reality that brings to you what every one of us is striving for.

There are so many questions that it is impossible to answer them all, so I am going to choose some of those which will be representative, and I think by answering them your particular question will be answered.

Question: You said the other day, that to comprehend the process of the “I” in creating ignorance and illusion, strenuous effort is required. If this is the process of awareness, how are we to understand your repeated statement to the effect that effort defeats awareness.

Answer: Where there is the effort of will, there is choice, and choice must be based on a prejudice, on a want, and that effort creates further series of struggles and efforts, and to that there is no end. If you comprehend that right, awareness comes into being. That is, to bring about right awareness, you must do everything that you do with full depth of the mind and heart, so that you are beginning to realize, beginning to be conscious of the false effort that is creating these limitations. And that very perception brings about, without your making the effort, the true, right kind of effort.

That is, if you are an artist, and you have that creative impulse released, you are not making an effort to paint a picture; that very creative energy impels you to compose, to write. So, in the same way, where there is the will of desire, effort must produce chaos, limitations, further suffering. Whereas, awareness is the constant discernment of what is true, and you will do that naturally, easily, spontaneously, when suffering brings you to it. If you do not suffer, if you are perfectly happy, go your way. But there is no such person in the world who does not suffer, and his effort is to escape from suffering in discerning the adequate cause of suffering. Therefore, if he perceives that he is escaping, then the adequate cause of suffering comes into completion.

You experiment with this, and you will see for yourself how actual it is.

Question: Similar questions to this have been asked in many different ways. Are you still so uncompromising in your attitude toward Theosophy, the Theosophical Society, ceremonies, and so forth?

Answer: Once you see something is foolish, you can’t go back to it and do it again. If you see really, deeply, profoundly, the whole significance of ceremony, it is over; there is no changing your attitude towards it later on. But if you do not see its significance completely, then there is a constant recurring to ceremony. The same way with regard to the Theosophical Society and its teachings. There are certain things with which I fundamentally disagree, but that doesn’t matter. What is important is that you shall find out what is true, what is really actual, not what you want to be actual; and to know what is the actual, the real, the true, without any equivocation or doubt, you must come to that teaching or to that idea completely denuded of all want; that means, not seeking any comfort. Then there is a possibility of your true discernment of its significant value. But as we are conditioned by want, by the desire for security, by comfort, here and in the hereafter, we are incapable of judgment. So before you judge what is true, whether the Theosophical Society, the Roman Catholic Church, or any other religious party is true, do not inquire what their teachings are. Then you will be merely lost in opinions, in explanations. But begin to understand for yourself that all want, all craving, distorts perception, and maintains the “I” process, which engenders fear, which is in the very essence, fear, and in disentangling itself, the mind is clear, unprejudiced, not wanting. Then you can discern. Then these systems, organizations, ceremonials, have very little significance, or no significance at all.

But we do not want to begin. We think systems, organizations, are going to deprive us of our prejudices. We think that they will free us of our limitations, and so, through them, we shall understand reality. It has never been done. It is only when you realize that through your own integral comprehension of life, that is, through your energy, that energy focused in you as an individual, then you will see what little significance these religious, social organizations, that control man have. And you are the very embodiment of that reality, not to be conditioned, not to be held through fear.

Question: What do you think will become of your soul after your body dies?

Answer: I would like to ask the person who presented that question this question before I answer. What is the motive that made him put in this question? I am not evading the question.

If you examine the motive of the question you will see that you are asking it because you want to know through fear if there is a greater opportunity, greater fulfillment, if there is a further life. That is, the “I” is asking itself whether it will continue. Please see the implication in that question. The “I” is asking whether it shall continue. So to understand if it shall continue, you must understand what the “I” is.

As I tried to explain, faith logically carried out destroys your idea of soul. Banish the idea of soul. As faith maintains that there is a supreme entity, directing, controlling, dominating, adjusting your existence, therefore, determining your future, that conception, if you think it out, fully negates the idea of soul. So, when you are taking about the soul, whether the soul will have a future life, you are really caught in the opposites. You admit the mechanistic view of life, and later on you accept the attitude of faith. But if you really comprehended their full significance, then you would see what the “I” is. It is nothing else but a process of limitation, and whether limitation will have a future is the question. And whether limitation can perfect itself and become reality, that is the implication in the question. The limitation, the “I,” the ego can become perfect, whether selfishness can ever become perfect through time, through experience — how can selfishness, limitation become perfect? It can become bigger, more expanded, more full, more rich in selfishness, in limitation, including other limitations, other selfishness, other units of selfishness, of limitation, but it can never become perfect.

So, whether it continues or not depends on your own comprehension. It is not a law. There is only the law which is that you create your own limitations, that the “I” process is maintaining itself through its own limitations. When you perceive that, really comprehend that, your action, your morality, your whole attitude towards life changes. There is real sympathy, affection, and that releases the question from the future and the past.

There is a question here about immorality. Again, the same answer applies to it. We want the “I” to continue. We want — I want Mr. Krishnamurti to continue. That is the only real living thing I have. That is the only real thing that I know. And if you say that thing cannot continue, has no foundation, is a reality, you will then say: “Well, he is a materialistic person, atheistic. And as you want the “I” to continue, to be immortal, you must understand what the “I” is before you want that to continue. And then, whether there is immortality or not, you will find out for yourself, because if I tell you there is, or if there is not, it will be merely a theory, and to a theory you cannot respond. And to make a theory, and to discern its true significance, you must experiment with real doubt —- that means without any wish—and then you will find out the significance of immortality.

One can give many explanations of life, how it has come into being, what life beyond is, the significance, and so on. But a man who seeks explanation is not dealing with actuality. They act merely as so much dust in the eyes — theories, explanations.

Now I have given you a theory of the whole process of the “I.” Now to discern its actuality you must experience it. To know if it has any significance, you must experience it, and make it actual, which means that there cannot be a gap between what you want and actuality, and actuality is not going to change, because of your want. So you have to be free of want. That means you have to free the mind from all the systems, conceptions that want has created. That means that you must free yourself from the superstitions, the immoralities of the world with its prejudices, egotisms, dogmas, beliefs, and bridge the gap through action, through our every-day conduct, and the morality of our every-day existence. When you have bridged that gap, that is, when there is no sense of want, craving, then there is the perception of that which is, that reality which is bliss, which is real consumption of all comprehension.