Public Talk 7, Madras, 12 November 1958

PUBLIC TALK — VII Madras, 12th Nov., ’58.

I think almost all serious people must have thought a great deal about bringing about a radical change in the quality of the mind. We see in the world, as things are, that there is no fundamental alteration or change in the human mind. We change through pressure, economic, social, through various forms of religious fears, by new inventions, and so on. This change is always peripheral, on the outside and obviously such a change does not, or is not conducive to deep radical change in the quality of the mind. Because, society always follows patterns, formulas, as every individual follows certain concepts, ideals, and moves always within the pattern. We must have noticed that not only in ourselves but in society, in all our relationships and we must have wondered how to bring about a real, deep, lasting, integrated change so that the interaction between the inner and the outer does not corrupt the inner. I do not mean anything mysterious about the inner. The inner quality of the mind I am talking about, not something mysterious, inward things which the mind imagines and speculates about. Because, all society, all human existence is this inter-relation between the outer and inner, fluctuating, constant, and always modifying. So we must have wondered how it is possible to bring a change of that nature. And if I may, I would like to talk about this, this evening, because I think it is very important because, we are social entities and we must live by action. Life is action. You cannot just sit and speculate on the one hand and carry on the corruption and all the rest of it, which only breeds contradiction within ourselves and everlasting torture and struggle.

So how is the mind to change? The total consciousness, not the upper levels of the mind but also the deeper levels, deeper consciousness. How is this total consciousness to change radically; not along a set pattern? Then following a pattern is not a change at all. It is merely a modified continuity of what has been. How am I or you, to really change the quality, the substance, of our consciousness totally? I don’t know if you have thought about it or are we merely concerned with the outward changes which every form of social and economic revolution brings about or new invention brings about? If we are concerned with the total change of consciousness of the mind, the quality of the mind, I think we must think negatively, because negative thinking is the highest form of thinking, not the positive. The positive as we call it, is merely the pursuit of a formula or conclusion or a definite experience and so all thinking becomes limited, conditioned. I hope you are listening rather than hearing. Because I want to go into something rather difficult this evening, if I can, and I hope together we shall be able to proceed into it, but if you are merely hearing and not listening, then you will stop at the verbal level and words then become very significant. As I was saying, words are means of mere communication but if you merely understand on the verbal level, then there is no communication at all. So I hope you are going to listen, not with the desire to understand my ideas because I have no ideas; ideas are the most stupid things. They have no substance, they have no reality, they are just words. But I hope you are going to listen or are listening, not at the verbal level but trying to see the problem, just to see the problem, not try to understand it, resolve it but to see the extraordinary complex problem we have — the problem of total change in consciousness, in the mind; not in the mere outward levels of the mind but in the totality of the mind.

As I was saying negative thinking is the highest form of thinking. We never think negatively. We think positively. That is, we think from a conclusion to a conclusion, from a pattern to pattern, from a system to a system. That is our way of thinking. That I must be this, I must have this virtue, and this is the path I must follow, I must do certain disciplines. The positive thinking is always in the grooves of our own conditioned thinking. I hope you are watching your own mind, your own thoughts. And that way of thinking only leads to the limitation of the mind, to narrowness of the mind, to the pettiness of action, which always strengthens the self-centred activity. Negative thinking is something entirely different. It is not the opposite of the positive thinking. If I understand the limitations of the positive way of thinking, which invariably leads to self-centred activity, if I understand that, not only verbally, intellectually but as a whole process of human thinking, if I understand this, then there is a new awakening in negative thinking. Most of are attached to something, to property, to a person, to an idea, to a belief or to an experience, are we not? Property, the family, attached to your good name, attached to your profession, attached to your belief, to your guru, to this and that. Now that attachment invariably breeds suffering, conflict, because the thing that to which you are attached is constantly changing obviously; but you refuse to change; you want to hold on to it permanently. So being aware that attachment breeds sorrow, grief, pain, then you begin to cultivate detachment. So the cultivation of detachment and attachment are both positive way of thinking. It is not negation of the positive, which is attachment. It is merely attachment continued under different verbal garb which you call non-attachment. But the mental process is exactly the same. I don’t know if you have noticed it. I am attached to my wife. In that there is pain, there is struggle, there is jealousy, frustration and to escape from that frustration, I say I must be detached, I must love in a impersonal manner, whatever that may mean, I must love with no limitation and so on, which is to cultivate detachment. But the centre of my activity which I call detachment and attachment are exactly the same thing. Because one has given me pain and to escape from that pain, I hope to cultivate detachment. So thinking which we call positive for most of us is in this category — a conflict of the opposites and escape to a synthesis, which again creates an opposite. Am I explaining? Look sir, Communism is the antithesis of Capitalism and eventually through this struggle they hope to create a synthesis and that synthesis, because it is born of the conflict of the opposites is going to produce another opposite, antithesis to a synthesis. And this what we call positive thinking, not only outwardly, socially but also inwardly.

Now if one understands the total process of this, not only intellectually but actually understand it, then you will see a new way of thinking comes into being, which is a negative process altogether; which is not the opposite of the positive. I am only using the word negative to convey a state of thinking which is not related to the positive. Because, all opposites have the seed of its own opposite. So that way of positive thinking leads to immaturity, leads to a mind that is conditioned, shaped and that is exactly what is happening with all of us. When you say I want to be happy, I want Truth, I want God, to create a different world, it is always in terms of the positive, which is to follow a system which will produce a result and the result is always the known cause, the cause which conditions the result. Because cause and effect are not two different things. What is the effect of today will be the cause of tomorrow. So it is not a cause isolated which produces an effect. They are inter-related. There is no such thing as cause and effect, which means really there is no such thing as what we call karma. Because to us karma means a result with a previous cause, but in the interval between the effect and the cause there has been a time. In that time there has been tremendous lot of change. So the effect is never the same. So that effect is going to produce a cause which will never be the result of the effect. Don’t say I do not believe in karma, that is not the point at all. Karma means very simply — action and the result of its action with its cause. Put a mango deed and it is bound to produce a mango tree but human mind is not like that. The human mind is so capable of such transformation within itself, immediate comprehension and therefore breaking from the cause always.

So negative thinking is not thinking in terms of patterns, because patterns imply a cause which produce a result which the mind can manipulate, control, change and that process, with that process we are all very familiar. What I am trying to convey is a negative thinking which has no causation. Is this all too absurd? I will go into it, you will see in a minute. We will approach it differently.

Most of us are discontented, are we not? Discontented with our job, children, with our wife, neighbours, with our husbands, with our society, discontented with something. I want to be a Chief Minister and I cannot; so I am discontented. I want more money, I have not; I want love, I want to be loved, I am not loved. We know this. This discontent with something. Now discontent with something is positive. But discontent in itself not with something is negative. You will see it in a minute. I will explain. Now when we are discontented, what is actually taking place? Positively what is taking place? I am discontented with my job, discontented with my self; what is taking place there? I want to find contentment in a job, in my family, in my knowledge, I am discontented, I hope to find contentment through the job, through the family, through this or through that. So discontent is canalised till it finds something that will be satisfactory and there discontent fades away and I am completely satisfied. This is the lot with all of us. We start with tremendous discontent with society, with this and with that; as we grow little bit, the pressures of life come in and that discontent gradually gets crystallised in something and I am no longer discontent. That is what we call a positive action. Find something and you will be happy in it but without discontent, with this flame of real discontent, not with something, life has no meaning. Though you may have a marvellous job, extraordinary clever brain, have degrees and are able to discuss, talk, quote this and that, your discontent has taken the shape of cleverness and there you are completely sterile. You started with discontent, at school you are very good and as you grow, that discontent becomes stratified into cleverness or into some form of technique and there you are satisfied; I have capacity and I can function. That again is positive thinking. Negative thinking is to be in a state of discontent, not with something; and such a mind is a very disturbing mind. Such a mind is not satisfied, it is not seeking satisfaction because satisfaction leads to the positive and that is what all of us are doing. To find a way to be satisfied everlastingly, which means to die. That is what you want, peace of mind, the mind which is so disturbed says for God’s sake, give me some corner in this universe where I can die peacefully. So the positive action leads always to this death. So if I understand that, then you will see a negative way of thinking is taking place. Therefore negative way of thinking never starts with a conclusion, because I see what conclusions do.

So the negative way of thinking is the maintenance, the sustenance, the quality that is content, which is in itself discontent, not with something. Sir, do not get the verbal meaning but get the significance of this. Because you will see from that, something comes out of it, which I am going to next. You understand? Positive thinking is conditioned thinking and in that there is no change. There is modification but no radical transformation. It is only in the negative thinking as I showed in attachment, as I pointed out in discontent. They lead, this positive thinking leads to a dull mind, to an insensitive mind, to a mind that is not capable of reception, to a mind that only thinks in terms of its own security, either security of the individual or the family or the race or the group and so and so on, which you can observe very clearly in world politics, After all this earth is ours, yours and mind. You understand? This earth which is a marvellous thing, a beautiful thing, a rich thing, it is ours, yours and mine to live on happily, without all this fragmentation, broken up into different fields called England, Germany, Russia, India, and Mylapore and we are battling over this, to keep the separation. Nobody thinks that this is our world, let us do something together about that world and so this fragmentation and the fragmentary way of thinking which we call positive, because we say I don’t know anything else, therefore I must pursue this or pursue internationalism which is equally silly. So that again leads to fragmentary way of thinking which we call positive thinking and if I see that, there is a different approach, a different feeling about the mind, whether Russian, German, whatever it is. There is a different quality. There is no such thing, such nonsense as patriotism; there is the love of the earth. Not your earth and my earth, you cultivating your little field and I cultivating my little field and quarrelling over it but it is our earth. Now when we understand this process of positive way of thinking is destructive, then the negative way comes into being. Now, to think negatively there must be sensitivity, sensitivity to both to the beautiful and to the ugly. The man who is pursuing what he calls the beautiful and avoids the ugly, he is not sensitive. The man who says I must be virtuous and pursues virtue without understanding what is not virtue, and therefore avoiding that which is not virtuous but merely following what he calls virtuous, such a mind invariably leads to insensitivity. Sir, do think this out with me; don’t just shake your heads; feel it, you will see. Because, as I was saying if one is sensitive, one becomes an extraordinary, the mind becomes extraordinarily acute. You watch everything, not in terms of changing to a pattern.

So sensitivity to beauty, to a tree, to a leaf, to the recollection on the still waters is not sensitivity if you are not aware of the what squalor, the dirt, the way you eat, the way you talk, the way you think, the way of your behaviour. You understand sir? Under this tree it is very beautiful, very quiet; there is a sense of beauty, shade and light and go just outside there is that filthy little village. You are not aware of it but you hope to be aware of this. You are not aware of that village with all the squalor, dirt, the unfortunate human beings that live there. So we are always wanting beauty, God, Truth and avoiding the other; pursuing of beauty becomes positive and therefore leads to insensitivity if you are not aware of the other. And positive way of creating buildings, dances, having special schools for dancing, all the business of it, becomes a personal racket, because they are all satisfying the mind, which is thinking positively. So creation is not positive ever. Creation is the state of mind in which there is no positive action, as positive as we know.

So radical transformation takes place in the mind only when there is this negative thinking. As I said the other day, the thinking that we know is always in words or symbols. I don’t know if you have noticed it but there is thinking without words but that thinking is still the result of the positive word. I will explain. Sir, you look, you always think in words, in symbols. Don’t you? So word, the symbol, become very important to thought. That is the basis of all our thinking, association, with memory, of memory and the memory is a picture, a word, an experience and from that we proceed to think. Again in words, in symbols. That is all we know and also if you are very alert, if you are aware, you can see that thinking there is without word, without symbol. I am not going to give you an example. That is not the point, because then you will get lost. Please capture the significance, rather than ask for an example. Because, negative thinking is not related to thought with the word. Unless you see this, what I am going to say, I am thinking aloud, I have not thought it out at a home and coming here and saying it out; therefore if you do not see this, you won’t see the next, see it in the sense you may see it verbally, logically or illogically or speculatively, but actually to experience the thing that thought functions in words, in symbols and also thought functions without word and without symbol. Both these are positive way of thinking, because they are still in the realm of the opposites. Now let me put it differently.

You must have watched your mind, how vagrant it is, wanders all over the place; one thought pursues another thought. When you examine one thought, new thought comes in. So mind is full of this movement of agitation of thought. You know that; which is, the mind is occupied with thought. Thought or thoughts is the instrument of the mind. So the mind is never still. Don’t say how am I to make the mind still. That is all too immature, stupid way of thinking. Which means again a positive, following a pattern. I am just describing what is taking place. Please follow this. You will see. Realising the activity of the mind, the incessant producing thought mechanism through memories and association, being aware of that, the mind can empty itself of this mechanism. Don’t ask me how. Please listen, understand, because understanding is instantaneous, not a process which will ultimately get you a mind is emptied of thought. If you see the positive destructive way of the mind, activity of producing and being controlled by thought and wanting to be free of thought and trying to empty the mind, if you see the falseness or the truth of it, then you will see that the mind can empty itself of itself, of its limitation, of its ego-centricism, of its ego-centric activities. Please go with me little bit. You understand?

The mind is perpetually active, producing, controlling thought; it realises that and says I must be quiet but when we say we must be quiet, we generally mean quiet through control, which is again the positive and therefore destructive, therefore limiting. But you can see if you go little further that the mind can be emptied from thought. The mind can free itself from the past, not be burdened by the past. It does not mean that memories are not there but they don’t shape, control the mind. Now all that is positive thinking. Now if you go further and if you see the falseness of it, the mind will invariably go further, which is, the mind is then not the slave of thought but the mind then can think what it wants. I do not know how to put this. Sirs, as I said I am thinking aloud with you. You will have to excuse me if I use different words, different ways of putting it.

I don’t know if you have ever tried, if the mind has ever tried not to be slave to thought but being free, think. You understand sirs? For most of us, most of our minds is a slave to thought, pursue thought, contradictory thought and all the rest of it. If you perceive that, then emptying the mind, the mind can think, not in terms of thoughts associated with memory and if you go further into it, you will see the mind which is a slave to thought and is free not in the sense of opposite of slavery but being free, then that mind emptied of memory can think in a negative way. Then you will see that the mind, being completely empty of systems, formulas, speculations, thoughts associated with memories, experiences and so on, then you will see, then the mind will perceive that there is a state in which there is action in this world from emptiness, not from fullness. You understand sir? We are acting with full minds, over-crowded minds, minds that are incessantly active, in contradiction, struggling, adjusting, ambitious, envious, jealous, brutal, gentle, you follow? We are acting on that level. So the mind being full, acts. That is all we know. That action can never produce a new mind, a new quality of mind, a fresh mind, an innocent mind; because, it is only the innocent, the fresh, the young mind that can create, is in a state of creation.

I see that. The mind sees that, the falseness, the absurdity, the lack of vitality the immaturity of all this and the mind can empty of this and the action that is born out of emptiness is the positive action, not the other. That is the only positive, creative action, because, it is born out of emptiness. After all, if you have done any painting, written any poem, a song, a feeling, a deep feeling, you will find the deep feeling comes out of nothingness. But a mind that is crowded, can never feel the nothingness and therefore can never be sensitive. So one sees that there can be a radical change in the quality of the mind which is absolutely necessary now, because the present society is a dead society, reforming itself through various forms of anaesthesia and pumping life into it. If that society of which you as an individual are to change radically, deeply, fundamentally, then this must take place, this whole thing that I have described. Then beauty has quite a different significance, as ugly, because beauty is not the opposite of the ugly. An ugly face can be beautiful. But that beauty is not conceived by the mind that has tasted ugliness. So if you have listened, really listened, and not do anything about it, don’t do anything, just listen; because whatever you do will be positive and therefore destructive. To see something lovely and leave it, not to capture it and take it home and smother it by your thought. So in the same way, if you have seen for yourself, not through my description, not through my persuasiveness, not through my words, influence, if you have seen it for yourself, felt it, the enormity, the beauty, the extraordinary quality of the mind that is empty, then from that emptiness there is a new birth and it is this new birth that is needed; not your going back to Mahabharata, Ramayana, Marx or Engel, revivalism. A mind that is really creative is the empty mind, not the blank mind or the mind wishes to be creative. It is only the empty mind that has understood this whole thing, this extraordinary process of thought and thought emptying itself of its own impetus, then you will see that there is a radical change, a deep change which is not brought about by influence, by circumstances, by culture, by society. It is that mind that will create a new society. The moment it creates a new society, that society is already in corruption. All societies are in corruption because that which is created is dying; Therefore recognising that, no society is permanent, therefore no tradition, no knowledge but the mind which is empty, that mind is creative, is in a state of creation.