Krishnamurti:

 

Most of us are caught in habits - physical and psychological habits. Some of us are aware of them and others are not. If one is aware of these habits then is it possible to stop a particular habit instantly and not carry it on over many months to put an end to it without any form of struggle,to drop it instantly - the habit of smoking the particular twitch of the head, the habitual smile or any one of the various peculiar habits one has? To become conscious of chattering endlessly about nothing, of the restlessness of the mind - can one do that without any form of resistance, or control, and thus end it easily without effort and immediately? In that are implied several things: first the understanding that struggle against something, like a particular habit, develops a form of resistance to that habit; and one learns that resistance in any form breeds more conflict. If one resists a habit, tries to suppress it, struggle against it, the very energy that is necessary to understand that habit is wasted in the struggle and control. In that is involved the second thing: one takes for granted that time is necessary, that any particular habit must be slowly worn out, must slowly be suppressed or got rid of.

ACerun: yes">     We are accustomed on the one hand to the idea that it is only possible to be free of any habit through resistance, through developing the opposite habit, and on the other hand to the idea that we can only do it gradually over a period of time. But if one really examines it one sees that any form of resistance develops further conflicts and also that time, taking many days, weeks, years, does not really end the habit; and we are asking whether it is possible to end a habit without resistance and without time, immediately.

     To be free of fear what is required is not resistance over a period of time but the energy that can meet this habit and dissolve it immediately: and that is attention. Attention is the very essence of all energy. To give one's attention means to give one's mind, one's heart, one's whole physical energy, to attend and with that energy to face, or to be aware of, the particular habit; then you will see that the habit has no longer any hold - it disappears instantly.

     One may think that one's various habits are not particularly important - one has them, what does it matter; or one finds excuses for one's habits. But if one could establish the quality of attention in the mind, the mind having seized the fact, the truth, that energy is attention and that attention is necessary to dissolve any particular habit, then becoming aware of a particular habit, or tradition, one will see that it comes to an end, completely.

     One has a way of talking or one indulges in endless chatter about nothing: if one becomes so attentively aware, then one has an extraordinary energy - energy that is not brought about through resistance, as most energies are. This energy of attention is freedom. If one understands this really very deeply, not as a theory but an actual fact with which one has experimented, a fact seen and of which one is fully aware, then one can proceed to inquire into the whole nature and structure of fear. And one must bear in mind, when talking about this rather complicated question, that verbal communication between you and the speaker becomes rather difficult; if one is not listening with sufficient care and attention then communication is not possible. If you are thinking about one thing and the speaker is talking about something else, then communication comes to an end, obviously. If you are concerned with your own particular fear and your whole attention is given to that particular fear, then verbal communication between you and the speaker also comes to an end. To communicate with one another, verbally, there must be a quality of attention in which there is care, in which there is an intensity, an urgency to understand this question of fear.

     More important than communication is communion. Communication is verbal and communion is nonverbal. Two people who know each other very well can, without saying any words, understand each other completely, immediately, because they have established a certain form of communication between themselves. When we are dealing with such a very complicated issue as fear, there must be communion as well as verbal communication; the two must go together all the time, or otherwise we shall not be working together. Having said all this - which is necessary - let us consider the question of fear.

     It is not that you must be free from fear. The moment you try to free yourself from fear, you create a resistance against fear. Resistance, in any form, does not end fear - it will always be there, though you may try to escape from it, resist it, control it, run away from it and so on, it will always be there. The running away, the controlling, the suppressing, all are forms of resistance; and the fear continues even though you develop greater strength to resist. So we are not talking about being free from fear. Being free from something is not freedom. Please do understand this, because in going into this question, if you have given your whole attention to what is being said, you must leave this hall without any sense of fear. That is the only thing that matters, not what the speaker says or does not say or whether you agree or disagree; what is important it that one should totally, right through one's being, psychologically, end fear.

     So, it is not that one must be free from or resist fear but that one must understand the whole nature and structure of fear, understand it; that means, learn about it, watch it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it, not how to resist it through courage and so on. We are to learn. What does that word mean, `to learn'? Surely it is not the accumulation of knowledge about fear. It will be rather useless going into this question unless you understand this completely. We think that learning implies the accumulation of knowledge about something; if one wants to learn Italian, one has to accumulate the words and their meaning, the grammar and how to put the sentences together and so on; having gathered knowledge then one is capable of speaking that particular language. That is, there is the accumulation of knowledge and then action; time is involved. Now, such accumulation we say is not learning. Learning is always in the active present, it is not the result of having accumulated knowledge; learning is a process, an action, which is always in the present. Most of us are accustomed to the idea of first of all accumulating knowledge, information, experience and from that acting. We are saying something entirely different. Knowledge is always in the past and when you act, the past is determining that acting. We are saying, learning is in the very action itself and therefore there is never an accumulation as knowledge.

     Learning about fear is in the present, is something fresh. If I come upon fear with past knowledge, with past memories and associations, I do not come face to face with fear and therefore I do not learn about it. I can do this only if my mind is fresh, new. And that is our difficulty, because we always approach fear with all the associations, memories, incidents and experiences, all of which prevent us from looking at it afresh and learning about it anew.

     There are many fears - fear of death, fear of darkness, fear of losing a job, fear of the husband or wife, insecurity, fear of not fulfilling, fear of not being loved, fear of loneliness, fear of not being a success. Are not these many fears the expression of one central fear? One asks, then: are we going to deal with a particular fear, or are we dealing with the fact of fear itself?

     We want to understand the nature of fear, not how fear expresses itself in a particular direction. If we can deal with the central fact of fear, then we shall be able to resolve, or do something about, a particular fear. So do not take your particular fear and say `I must resolve this,' but understand the nature and structure of fear; then you will be able to deal with the particular fear.

     See how important it is that the mind be in a state in which there is no fear whatsoever. Because when there is fear there is darkness and the mind becomes dull; then the mind seeks various escapes and stimulation through amusement - whether the amusement be in the Church or on the football field or on the radio. Such a mind is afraid, is incapable of clarity and does not know what it means to love-it may know pleasure but it certainly does not know what it means to love. Fear destroys and makes the mind ugly.

     There is physical fear and psychological fear. There is the physical fear of danger - like meeting a snake or coming upon a precipice. That fear, the physical fear of meeting danger, is it not intelligence? There is a precipice there - I see it and I immediately react, I do not go near it. Now is not that fear intelligence which says to me, `be careful, there is danger'? That intelligence has been accumulated through time, others have fallen over or my mother or my friend has said, be careful of that precipice. So in that physical expression of fear there is memory and intelligence operating at the same time. Then there is the psychological fear of the physical fear that one has had, of having had a disease which has given a great deal of pain; having known pain, purely a physical phenomenon, we do not want it to be repeated again and we have the psychological fear of it although it is no longer actual. Now can that psychological fear be understood so as not to bring it into being at all? I have had pain - most of us do - it happened last week or a year ago. The pain was excruciating, I do not want it repeated and I am afraid it might come back. What has taken place there? Please follow this carefully. There is the memory of that pain and thought says, `Don't let it occur again, be careful.' Thinking about the past pain brings fear of its repetition, thought brings fear upon itself. That is a particular form of fear, the fear of disease being repeated with its pain.

     There are all the various psychological fears which derive from thought - fear of what the neighbour might say, fear of not being highly bourgeois and respectable, fear of not following the social morality - which is immorality - fear of losing a job, fear of loneliness, fear of anxiety - anxiety in itself is fear and so on - all the product of a life which is based on thought.

     There are not only the conscious fears, but also the deep, hidden fears in the psyche, in the deeper layers of the mind. One may deal with the conscious fears, but the deep, hidden fears are more difficult. How is one to bring these unconscious, deep, hidden fears to the surface and expose them? Can the conscious mind do that? Can the conscious mind with its active thought uncover the unconscious, the hidden? (We are using the word `unconscious' non-technically: not being conscious of, or knowing, the hidden layers - that is all). Can the conscious mind - the mind that is trained to adjust itself to survive, to go on with things as they are - you know the conscious mind, how tricky it is - can that conscious mind uncover the whole content of the unconscious? I do not think it can. It may uncover a layer which it will translate according to its conditioning. But that very translation according to its conditioning will further prejudice the conscious mind, so that it is even less capable of examining the next layer completely.

     One sees that the mere conscious effort to examine the deeper content of the mind becomes extremely difficult unless the surface mind is completely free from all conditioning, from all prejudice, from all fear - otherwise it is incapable of looking. One sees that that may be extremely difficult, probably completely impossible. So one asks: is there another way, altogether different? Can the mind empty itself of all fear through analysis, self. analysis or professional analysis? In that is involved something else. When I analyze myself, look at myself, layer after layer, I examine, judge, evaluate; I say, `This is right,' `This is wrong,' `This I will keep,' `This I won't keep.' When I analyze, am I different from the thing I analyze? I have to answer it for myself, see what the truth of it is. The analyzer, is he different from the thing he is analyzing - say jealousy? He is not different, he is that jealousy, and he tries to divide himself off from the jealousy as the entity who says, `I am going to look at jealousy, get rid of it, or contact it.' But jealousy and the analyzer are part of each other.

     In the process of analysis time is involved, that is, I take many days or many years to analyze myself. At the end of many years I am still afraid. So, analysis is not the way. Analysis implies a great deal of time and when the house is burning you do not sit down and analyze, or go to the professional and say, `Please tell me all about myself' - you have to act. An analysis is a form of escape, laziness and inefficiency. (It may be all right for the neurotic to go to an analyst, but even then he is not completely at the end of his neuroses. But that is a different question.)

     Analysis by the conscious of the unconscious is not the way. The mind has seen this and said to itself"I will not analyze any more, I see the valuelessness of it; `I will not resist fear any more.' You follow what has happened to the mind? `When it has discarded the traditional approach, the approach of analysis, resistance, time, then what has happened to the mind itself? The mind has become extraordinarily sharp. The mind has become, through the necessity of observation, extraordinarily intense, sharp, alive. It is asking: is there another approach to this problem of uncovering its whole content, the past, the racial inheritance, the family, the weight of the cultural and religious tradition, the product of two thousand or ten thousand years? Can the mind be free of all that, can the mind put away all that and therefore put away all fear?

     So I have this problem, the problem which a sharpened mind - the mind having put aside every form of analysis which of necessity takes time and for which therefore there is no tomorrow - must resolve completely, now. Therefore there is no ideal; there is no question of a future, saying, `I will be free of it.' Therefore the mind is now in a state of complete attention. It is no longer escaping, no longer inventing time as a way of resolving the problem, no longer using analysis, or resistance. Therefore the mind itself has a quality entirely new.

     The psychologists say that you must dream, otherwise you will go mad. I ask myself, `Why should I dream at all?' Is there a way of living so that one does not dream at all? - for then, if one does not dream at all, the mind really has rest. It has been active all day, watching, listening, questioning, looking at the beauty of a cloud, the face of a beautiful person, the water, the movement of life, everything - it has been watching, watching; and when it goes to sleep it must have complete rest, otherwise on waking the next morning it is tired, it is still old.

     So one asks is there a way of not dreaming at all so that the mind during sleep has complete rest and can come upon certain qualities which it cannot during the waking hours? It is possible only - and this is a fact, not a supposition, not a theory, not an invention, or a hope - it is possible only when you are completely awake during the day, watching every activity of your thought, your feeling, awake to every motive, to every intimation, every hint of that which is deep down, when you chatter, when you walk, when you listen to somebody, when you are watching your ambition, your jealousy, watching your response to the `glory of France,' when you read a book which says `your religious beliefs are nonsense' - watching to see what is implied in belief. During the waking hours be completely awake, when you are sitting in the bus, when you are talking to your wife, to your children, to your friend, when you are smoking - why you are smoking - when you read a detective story - why you are reading it - when you go to a cinema - why - for excitement, for sex? When you see a beautiful tree or the movement of a cloud across the sky, be completely aware of what is happening within and without, then you will see, when you go to sleep, that you do not dream and when you wake the next morning the mind is fresh, intense and alive.

 

WIMBLEDON, LONDON 2ND PUBLIC TALK 16TH MARCH 1969 'THOUGHT BREEDS FEAR'

 

 

    For most of us freedom is an idea but not an actuality. When we talk about freedom or think about it, we want to be free outwardly, to do what we like, to travel, to be free to express ourselves in different ways, free to think what we like. The outward expression of freedom seems to be extraordinarily important, especially in countries where there is tyranny, dictatorship; and in those countries where outward freedom is possible one seeks more and more pleasure, more and more enjoyment, freedom to possess. And in the search for freedom, if one is at all serious, there is not only the outward expression of that freedom, which must, it seems to me, come from psychological freedom, inward freedom.

     And if we are to enquire deeply into what freedom implies, freedom to be inwardly, completely and totally free - which then expresses itself outwardly in society, in relationship - then we must ask, it seems to me, whether the human mind, heavily conditioned as it is, can ever be free at all. Or must it always live and function within the frontiers of its own conditioning, and therefore there is no freedom at all? One sees that the mind, verbally understanding that there is no freedom here on this earth, inwardly or outwardly, one then begins to invent freedom in another world, liberation, moksha, heaven and so on.

     So if we could put aside all theoretical, ideological, concepts of freedom and actually enquire whether our minds, yours and mine, can ever be free, freedom from dependence, psychologically, inwardly, freedom from fear, anxiety, the innumerable problems, both the conscious as well as the deeper layers of consciousness. Whether there can be complete psychological freedom, so that the human mind, being free from all problems can come upon something which is not of time, which is not put together by thought, or as an escape from the actual realities of daily existence?

     If we could this morning go into this question whether the human mind, yours and mine, can ever be inwardly, psychologically, totally free. Because without that freedom it is not possible to see what is truth, to see if there is a reality not invented by fear, not shaped by the society or the culture in which we live, not as an escape from the daily monotony, with its boredom, loneliness, despair and anxiety. Because unless one is free you can't explore, you can't investigate, you can't examine. To look into it, there needs not only freedom but the discipline that is necessary to observe. So freedom and discipline go together, not that one must be disciplined in order to be free. We are using the word discipline not in the accepted, traditional sense, which is to conform, imitate, suppress, follow a set pattern, but rather the root meaning of that word itself, which is to learn.

     So learning and freedom go together. Learning bringing its own discipline, not imposed by the mind in order to achieve a certain result. So those two things are necessary essentially. The act of learning and freedom. One cannot learn about oneself unless one is free. And to learn about oneself one must observe, not according to any pattern, formula, or concept but actually observe as one is. And that observation, that perception, that seeing, brings about its own discipline, its own learning in which there is no conformity, imitation, suppression, control whatsoever. So freedom and learning are always together. And there is a great deal of beauty in that.

     Our minds are conditioned - that is an obvious fact - conditioned by the culture or society, influenced by various impressions, strains, stresses, relationships, economic, social, climatic, educational, religious conformity, sanctions and so on. Our minds are trained to accept fear and escape, if we can, from that fear, never being able to resolve, totally and completely, the whole nature and structure of fear. So our first question is: whether the mind, so heavily burdened, can resolve completely, not only its conditioning, but also its fears? Because it is the fear that makes us accept conditioning.

     And if we may this morning - please do not merely hear a lot of words and ideas - which are really of no value at all - but through the act of listening, observing your own states of mind, then we can together both verbally and non-verbally, enquire whether the mind can ever be free from fear - not accepting fear, not escaping from it, not saying "I must develop courage, resistance", but actually be fully aware of the fear in which one is trapped. Because unless one is free from this quality of fear one cannot see very clearly, feel very clearly, deeply; and obviously, when there is fear there is no love.

     So, can the mind actually ever be free of fear? That seems to me to be one of the most primary, essential, questions which must be asked and which must be resolved, for any person who is at all serious. There are physical fears and psychological fears. The physical fears of pain, having had pain and the repetition of that pain in the future; the fears of old age, death, the fears of physical insecurity, the fears of the uncertainty of tomorrow, the fears of not being able to be a great success, achieve and so on, not being somebody in this rather ugly world; the fears of destruction, the fears of loneliness, not being able to love or be loved, and so on; the conscious fears as well as the unconscious fears. Can the mind be free, totally, of all this? And if it cannot, then such a mind is incapable, because it is distorted, it is incapable of perception, of understanding, of having a mind that is completely silent, quiet; it is like a blind man seeking light and never finding light, and therefore inventing a 'light' of words, concepts, theories.

     So how is a mind which is so heavily burdened with fear, and with all its conditioning, ever to be free of it? Or must we accept it as an inevitable thing of life? - and most of us do accept it, put up with it.

     Now what shall we do? How shall I, as a human being, and you as a human being, be rid of this fear, the total fear, not a particular fear, but the whole nature and structure of fear?

     What is fear? Don't accept, if I may suggest, what the speaker is saying; the speaker has no authority whatsoever, he is not a teacher, he is not a guru; because if he is a teacher then you are the follower and if you are the follower you destroy yourself as well as the teacher. What we are trying to do is to find out what is truth. We are trying to go into this question of fear so completely that your mind is never afraid, therefore you are free of all dependence on another, inwardly, psychologically. So we are taking a journey together, not being led, someone ahead of you and you following in his footsteps. The beauty of freedom is that you do not leave a mark. The eagle in its flight does not leave a mark, only the scientist does. And in enquiring into this question of freedom there must be not only the scientific observation, but also the flight of the eagle that does not leave a mark at all; both are required; which is, both the verbal explanation and the non-verbal perception, bearing in mind that the description is never the described, the explanation is never that thing which is explained, that is the word is never the thing.

     So if all this is very clear then we can proceed to find out for ourselves - not through the speaker, not through his words, not through his ideas or thoughts - to find out for ourselves whether the mind can be completely free from fear.

     All right? Shall we go on from there? Please this not an introduction; if you have not heard the first part clearly and understood it, you cannot go on to the next.

     To enquire there must be freedom, as we said, to look, freedom from prejudice, from conclusions, concepts, ideals, prejudices, so that you can observe actually for yourself what fear is. And when you observe very closely, intimately, is there fear at all? That is: you can only observe very, very, closely, intimately what fear is, when the observer is the observed. We are going to go into that. So what is fear? How does it come about? The obvious physical fears can be understood, like the physical dangers, in which there is instant response; that's fairly easy to understand, into which we need not go too much. But we are talking about psychological fears; how do these psychological fears arise? What is their origin? And whether they can end? That is the issue. What is fear, fear of something that happened yesterday; the fear of something that might happen later on today or tomorrow. Fear of the known and fear of the unknown, which is tomorrow - the unknown being death and all the rest of it, we won't go into that question this morning.

     So one can see for oneself very clearly that fear arises through the structure of thought. Thought thinking about what happened yesterday of which one is afraid, thinking about it, thinking about the future causes fear. Right? Thought breeds fear. No? Please, sirs, be quite sure; do not accept what the speaker is saying; be absolutely sure for yourself, that thought is the origin of fear. Thinking about the pain, psychological pain that one has had some time ago and not wanting to repeat it again, or have that thing recalled, or happen, and thought thinking about all this, breeds fear. Can we go on from there? Unless we see this very clearly we will not be able - please don't ask questions yet, it is quite complex, this, please for the moment just hold on to your question, no, don't hold on to your question, drop your question and go on with it, what we are talking about. Thought, thinking about an incident, an experience, a state in which there has been a disturbance, danger, grief, pain, brings about fear. Thought, having established a certain security, psychologically, does not want that security to be disturbed, any disturbance is a resistance and therefore fear.

     So thought is responsible for fear; as thought is responsible for pleasure. One has had a happy experience; thought thinks about it and wants it repeated, perpetuated; and when that is not possible there is a resistance, there is anger, despair and fear. So thought is both responsible for fear as well as pleasure. Right? This is not a verbal conclusion; this is not a formula for avoiding fear. That is, where there is fear there is pain and pleasure, pleasure goes with pain, the two are indivisible, and thought is responsible for both. If there were no tomorrow, or the next moment to think about either fear or pleasure, then neither would exist. Shall we go on from there? Please bear in mind, not as an idea, but an actuality, a thing that you yourself have discovered and therefore real, so you say "I've found out that thought breeds both these things." You have had sexual enjoyment, pleasure; then you think about it, the image, the pictures, you know the whole business of it, and the very thinking about it gives strength to that pleasure which you have had. And when that is thwarted there is pain, anxiety, fear, jealousy, annoyance, anger, brutality. So thought is the origin of both. And we are not saying that you must not have pleasure.

     Bliss is not pleasure; ecstasy is not brought about by thought; it is an entirely different thing. You can only come upon that when you understand the nature of thought - which breeds both pleasure and fear. And when a mind seeks bliss or ecstasy, and there is such a thing which is not pleasure, and to understand that there must be real enquiry and understanding of fear and pleasure which is brought about by thought.

     So, the question arises: can one stop thought? You are following all this? If thought breeds fear and pleasure - and where there is pleasure there must be pain, which is fairly obvious - then one asks oneself: can thought come to an end? Which does not mean the ending of the perception of beauty, the enjoyment of beauty. It is like seeing the beauty of a cloud or a tree and enjoying it totally, completely, fully; but when thought says, "I must have that same experience tomorrow, that same delight which I had yesterday when I saw that cloud, that tree, that flower, the face of that beautiful person", then it invites both disappointment, pain, fear and pleasure, tomorrow. Obvious, isn't it?

     So, can thought come to an end? Or is that a wrong question altogether? It is a wrong question because we want to experience an ecstasy, a bliss, which is not pleasure, therefore you hope by ending thought we hope we will come upon something immense, which is not the product of pleasure and fear.

     So our question then is: what place has thought in life? Not, how to end thought. What is the relationship of thought in action and in inaction? What is the relationship of thought, where action is necessary, and why does thought come into existence at all when there is complete enjoyment of beauty? So that it doesn't carry it over to tomorrow. I want to find out where thought is necessary, and it is necessary in action. And I also see that where there is complete enjoyment of beauty, of a mountain, of a beautiful face, a sheet of water - why thought should come there and give a twist to it and say, "I must have that pleasure again tomorrow"? I have to find out what is the relationship of thought in action; and thought must not interfere when there is no action of thought at all.

     Am I making myself clear? Look: I see a beautiful tree, without a single leaf, against the sky, it is extraordinarily beautiful and that is enough - finished. Why should thought come in and say 'I must have that same delight tomorrow'? And I also see that thought must operate in action. Skill in action is also skill in thought which is really yoga, not merely physical exercise; yoga also means skill in action - which we will not go into for the moment. So, what is the actual relationship between thought and action? Our action is now based on a concept, an idea. I have an idea or knowledge of what should be done, and what should be done is in approximation to the concept, to the idea, to the ideal. So there is a division between action and the concept, the ideal, the 'should be'. in this division there is conflict. Any division, psychological division, must breed conflict. I am asking myself, what is the relationship of thought in action? If action is separated from the idea, then action is incomplete. Because in that there is a separation, division, conflict, therefore action is incomplete. So is there an action of thought which sees something instantly and acts immediately? And therefore no division, no conflict, and therefore there is not an idea, an ideology, something to be acted on separately? Right? Is there an action in which the very seeing is the acting, and therefore the very thinking is the action?

     I see, there is the perception that thought breeds fear and pleasure; and where there is pleasure there must be pain and therefore resistance to pain. I see that very clearly; the seeing of it is the immediate action; and the seeing of it requires perception, a thought, logic, thinking very clearly; all that is involved. And the seeing of it is instantaneous, and therefore the action is instantaneous, therefore freedom from it. That means you are a free human being, a different human being, totally transformed, not tomorrow but now because you see very clearly that thought breeds both fear and pain and pleasure. And all our values are based on it, moral, ethical, social, religious, spiritual, all the values are based on that. And if you see the truth of it, and to see the truth of it you have to be astonishingly aware, logically, healthily, sanely, observe every movement of thought. Then that very perception is total action, therefore when you leave you are completely out of it. Otherwise you will say, how am I to be free of fear tomorrow.

     So thought must operate in action, and it does operate: to go to your house you must think, or catch a bus, train, and all the rest of it, or go to the office, more efficiently, more objectively, non-personally, non-emotionally, the more vital the thought is. But when thought carries on that experience that you have had as a delight, carries on through memory into the future, then such action is incomplete, therefore it is a form of resistance and so on. Right?

     Then we can go on to the next question. Let us put it this way: what is the origin of thought, and what is the thinker? One can see that thought is the response of memory, which is fairly simple to understand, accumulated memory, knowledge, experience, the background from which there is a response to any challenge; if you are asked where you live there is instant response, and so on. So memory, experience, knowledge is the background of thought. But thought which is always old can never be free, it may express itself freely but it is always old; and therefore thought can never see anything new. So when I understand that, very clearly, the mind becomes quiet. Because Life is a movement, a constant movement in relationship; and thought, trying to capture that movement in terms of the past, is afraid of life.

     And so, then the question is: seeing all this, seeing that freedom is necessary to examine - and to examine very clearly there must be the discipline of learning and not of suppression and imitation, seeing how the mind is conditioned by society, by the past, and the mind, the brain is the past, and all thought springing from that is old and therefore it cannot possibly understand anything new. And to understand, the mind must be completely quiet - not controlled, not shaped to be quiet. Now seeing all that - actually seeing it, not theoretically, then there is an action from that perception, or that very perception is the action of liberation from fear. So on the next occasion of any fear arising, there is immediate perception and the ending of it.

     Are we going along together? You see from this arises - perhaps we have no time to go into it this morning - what is love? For most of us it is fear, pleasure, which we call love. When there is no fear and the understanding of pleasure, then what is love? And who is going to answer this question? The speaker, the priest, the book, some outside agency to tell us you are doing marvellously well, carry on? Or, having examined, observed, seen non-analytically, this whole structure and nature of pleasure, fear, pain, and therefore understood that the observer, the thinker, is part of thought. Because if there is no thinking there is no observer, thinker, the two are inseparable. The thinker is the thought.

     So seeing all that and the beauty of all that, the subtlety of all that, then where is the mind that starts to enquire into this question of fear? You understand? What is the state of the mind now that has gone through all this? Is it the same as it was before it came here? Or has it seen this thing very intimately, seen the nature and the beauty of this thing called thought, fear and pleasure, seen all that, what is the actual state of the mind now? Obviously nobody can answer that except yourself; and if you have actually observed it, gone into it, you will see that it has become completely transformed.