Transcription
How do we distinguish between what you call observing ourselves and merely thinking about ourselves? How do we distinguish between what you call observing ourselves and merely thinking about ourselves? Have you found the answer? Thinking about ourselves and observing ourselves. From the question, they are two different things. Thinking about ourselves, we are all like that, —I am progressing, I am better than yesterday, I have my problems, which is thinking… I want better food, better clothes, a better house, or I want more sex —do you understand? —money —always thinking about oneself. Most of us are like that, even the ascetic, he also thinks about himself —right? Only he does it in the name of God —right? The questioner says, what is the difference between thinking about yourself and observing yourself, right? Yes, that's the question. Now we know what thinking about ourselves means —right? It's actually going in circles, over and over again. Either expanding the self, or contracting the self —right? I am the world, I am God, I must be kinder, I must love, I must be wiser, I must meditate to achieve something, whatever they want to achieve. So we are all stuck there. And observing oneself is completely different —right? So let's investigate what observation means. Do you understand the question? Are we exploring together? Come on, gentlemen! First, do we observe without any words? We observe the mountain without calling it a mountain, is that it? We observe the glow on the clouds at dusk, its astonishing colors, beauty, and something vast, can we look at those clouds and mountains without using a single word? Shall we do that? Do you understand my question? Don't be stunned. That is, can we look at anything objectively —trees, nature, flowing water, the sky and the evening stars, and the silence of the morning, this magical world we live in, the natural world —can we look at anything without saying a word? To clarify that question, we must delve into, investigate this question, why the brain is trapped in the net woven by words. Do you understand my question? Are we exploring together? We are asking, can we look at anything, including my wife, husband, daughter, politicians, all sorts of gurus and priests, and all the farces staged in the name of religion, first, can we look at all that without any reaction? Then, to clarify whether we can look at all that without the net woven by words interfering with our observation. Shall we do that? Have you ever tried? When you look at your wife or husband, can you look at her or him without any image, without everything you have accumulated about her or him, just look? Can you? When I talk about husbands, wives, girls, boys, you are unusually quiet. So, you must clarify why the brain is so bound by words. When you say he is a communist or a totalitarian, you have destroyed him, you have categorized him, put him in a cage, and that stops observation. Or he is British. Or he is French, or Indian, or he is this, that. Look at what happens to our brain. The brain is linguistically bound by words, either by the meaning and depth of that word, or by the word itself. This requires careful watching. Watching is observing. This morning a hot air balloon was ascending, you must have all seen it, you watched it slowly, slowly rising higher and higher. The basket was hanging below, you saw the whole thing. Then you might say: "My God, I wish I were up there." Or you say to yourself: "How dangerous." Thoughts like that. We never look at anything without words, without reaction —look. You are all sitting there now, you are looking at the speaker in a pathetic way. You have already categorized him. You have already formed an image of him. You have called him this, that, or he is some idiot, or whatever you want to call him. So, you never… he forgot to whistle! You never look at him as if for the first time. Do you understand? Have you ever done this? Not for a minute, an hour, or a day, but say, the mind, the brain is refreshed —do you understand? —not trapped by words, reactions, looking at everything, as if for the first time you are looking at this world. That observation is the contemplation of oneself, not a single thought escapes, it is observed and perceived, that one thought is noticed by you with full attention. Then another thought arises —continue to observe it. In this way, your brain has amazing attention. Do you understand? So, that observation is not a self-centered movement. But thinking about oneself is a selfish, self-centered action. This is clear, isn't it? Well, wait a minute. How do we go from this state to that state? Right? You naturally ask, you will surely ask that question. Or, is it I who asked the question, and you are accepting the question? Do you understand? Suppose you are a self-centered person, I am a self-centered, selfish person, all my views are for personal gain, —I have no love, I must have love— you know all sorts of confusion and absurd behavior now. I am like that, you are like that. So how do I… how can I become another state? Right? You are asking that question, aren't you? Is that the right question? To move from here to there. Obviously, that is the wrong question. Because if you move from here to there, there is the same as here. Do you understand? Hold on! Do you understand this? If I say I am selfish, now I must not be selfish, I must observe. This "must" still belongs to the same category as thinking about oneself, or the same movement. Right? Are we thinking about all this together? I hope at least some of you are. So the question is answered, the answer is not outside the question, but within the question. Right? That is to observe the question itself, to see what it reveals. It reveals an extremely rich content. Because, you see, observation, if I can put it another way, observation, awareness has no time. The other is trapped in time, I will achieve something one day, I have no foundation now, but I am ready to build a foundation at some point, I have no identity —do you understand? All those are characteristics bound by time. Characteristics bound by time are essentially the self. I don't know if you want to investigate all that. I discovered all this in the process of speaking —right? And observation, if you observe that bird, there is no time involved, it is just observation —right? So, words and thoughts create time. I don't want to discuss all that. Do you understand?