Transcription
So, you don’t see the danger of your conditioning. You see the danger of a snake because of your condition, because thousands of generations have said, ‘Be careful of snakes, they are dangerous.’ And thousands of generations have said the ‘me’ is very important. But you don’t see the danger of this conditioning as the ‘me’ that’s important. You get it?
In one direction, the conditioning warns you against danger, and another conditioning says, 'Continue though it is dangerous'. Is this clear and simple? Now, do you see it? Or do you see it merely as an intellectual theory, as an idea to be accepted, or do you translate what you see according to your fancy, agreeing or disagreeing, or do you see it actually, as a tremendous danger?
If you see it as a danger, life becomes extraordinarily simple. Because all our conditioning is based on this, that the mind must be conditioned in order to function in human behaviour properly. And for generations, mind has been conditioned in the idea that the ‘me’ is all-important. And the mind, being so conditioned, does not see how dangerous it is. You’ve got this?
Because, as we said, where there is division, there must be conflict. You may tolerate this conflict, you may say, ‘Well, that is human nature to be in conflict.’ And through conflict, through tension, you will produce various forms of literature. And through this tension, this contradiction, what you produce is called creative. And is it creative? Or is it the result of a destructive mind?
So it becomes all-important to find out for yourself, if you are at all serious, how you observe, whether you observe the ‘me’ as an outsider looking in, observing the ‘me’ as from a superior self – you are following all this? – and therefore accepting division, or do you see this whole phenomenon as a whole movement, non-verbally?
Therefore, when you see it non-verbally, non-ideologically, then you are in direct contact with that which is dangerous, therefore you act immediately, not in a future date. And that's one of our conditionings: we accept a gradual process of action. That is, we say to ourselves, ‘I will change later, gradually. It’s impossible to change instantly.’ The churches, the religions, the psychologists, the analysts accept this: you can’t change instantly, you must have time. You must have time to go to heaven, but in the meantime sow the seeds of mischief. So you accept that as part of your culture, which induces laziness, wastage of energy, and destructive activity all the time.
So the question becomes extraordinarily important to ask, whether you can bring about a change instantly in yourself, psychologically. And as you see, it can be done instantly: when you see danger, the danger of this division between man and man, created by thought, which is the ‘me’. So one asks, can one live in this world without the ‘me’? You understand my question?
The ‘me’ that is ambitious, the ‘me’ that's competitive, the ‘me’ that's pursuing everlastingly pleasure, through power, status, money, sex. We are not saying that you mustn’t seek pleasure. To observe the phenomenon of pleasure, what is involved in it. You know, there is a great difference between pleasure, enjoyment and joy.
When you see a beautiful thing, there is complete enjoyment of that beauty. When you see the mountains in the evening light, there is great delight, there is great, full enjoyment of the beauty of that light on that hill. But when that enjoyment is pursued by thought, wanting it to be repeated tomorrow, then it becomes pleasure – as you do sexually. And pleasure has nothing whatsoever to do with joy. It comes naturally, unexpectedly, fully. But when it comes, and gone, thought picks it up and says, ‘I must pursue that, I must have joy’ and therefore it becomes pleasure.
So when you see all this clearly, without any choice, for choice exists only when there is confusion, when you see clearly that the beauty of this valley must be kept as beautiful, there is no choice. You do everything to keep it, elect the right person and so on. It is only when you are confused, not clear, then you choose, and out of that choice you create conflict. So it is of great importance to see clearly, without any distortion. And there is distortion when there is the ‘me’ which divides. Right.