In a world that is rapidly deteriorating into many forms of destruction, one feels it is necessary in this darkness to have places like Rajghat, Rishi Valley, Bangalore, and Madras, where there are a few people who are totally free from all national, political, and religious organizations with their absurdities. These
groups are totally dedicated to being the centres of a new way of living. They are not concerned with their own personal salvation, but as they are the rest of humanity, they have to become both teachers and disciples of the teachings. They have to learn, understand, not intellectually but at great depth, what the teachings imply in daily life, be thoroughly soaked in it, and also become teachers of it.
This implies great responsibility. Where there is responsibility, there is no sense of egotistic fulfilment or expression, for that very responsibility wipes away self-centred activities. Responsibility implies cooperation, not for a cause or a person or an ideal, but the spirit of cooperation, and this is specially,
urgently needed in this country. When one knows how to cooperate in the deepest sense of the word, one will also know when not to cooperate.
In essence, these groups understand the nature of freedom, which is a very
complex affair. Freedom is not what one wants to do or desires to do, but they
being actually the whole of mankind, their own particular, limited comprehension of what is freedom has no place. Freedom means responsibility, and a free
man lives in complete order, not only outwardly but first inwardly. It is not a
monastic group taking vows and all that kind of thing, but they have come
together voluntarily because to them these teachings are all-important. If they
understand all this, these places will be the centres of light in a world of
darkness. This is not a mere rhetorical phrase; this is the function of these groups
who are a light to themselves and so a light to mankind.
What is a problem? I am showing you how to – please apply it. Test it in your life and you will see it will work. What is a problem? A problem is something that you haven’t resolved. There are mathematical problems, scientific problems, biological. We are not talking of those. We are talking about psychological problems between human beings, the problems that exist in our relationship with another, husband, wife – you know, all the rest of it. A problem means, implies the non-resolution of it. Now, can you resolve that problem as it arises and end it, not carry it over even for a day? Because, see what happens – a problem continued makes the brain dull, actually. You can test it out for yourself. The brain’s activity is made slower because it is burdened, it makes itself incapacitated. It has no capacity of elasticity when you carry a problem for many, many, many years, or even for a week. So the question is: can you end the problem as it arises? You understand? Are you interested in all this? Sir, do it. Don’t accept the words but actually test it. Then it is worth it. But if you say: ‘Yes, nice idea, nice thing, but I can’t do it.’ Or say ‘Tell me how to do it,’ there is no how, because the how implies a method, a system, somebody will tell you what to do. If somebody tells you what to do, you are back in the old game of tradition. Right? So, a mind that is clear has no tradition. So, one has a problem; problem implies that which hasn’t been thought out, investigated, resolved. Our problems exist in the field of relationship. Right? And between man and woman, sexual, non-sexual, friendly, non-friendly – you follow? – the whole communication between man and man and woman and man, the whole field of it, not just one particular problem, either sexual or this or that. We are dealing with the whole human problem in relationship, not a particular problem. Because, if we were examining only a particular problem, then we are dealing with a part and not with the whole. Is that clear? Oh, come on sirs!
So we are dealing with the whole problem of human relationship, with the boss, in the factory, when you come home, your wife, your husband, sex, non-sex, domination, wanting to possess, attachment – all that implies a problem. Right? First of all, why do we have problems? Why do we live with problems? You understand? Is it we are lazy, is it that we have accepted as the norm of life to have problems, or is it, for millennia we have had problems, and why not now, carry on? Which means, the mind, the brain has accepted problems as part of life. Right? So, refuse to accept problems. You understand? Challenge the brain and the mind to have no problems. No, don’t agree sir, you have to do it! Which means if a problem arises, as it inevitably will, unless you have real love in your heart – right? – not sexual love, not love of power, position and all that nonsense but – I won’t go into that, that goes off somewhere else – but how to deal with a problem without allowing a single second of interval. Right?
We will go into it. A problem arises as long as there is a centre. Right? As long as there is a centre, there must be circumference, diameter – you follow? The whole circle. The whole circle is our problem. Right? To have no centre is to have no problem. Please sir see what is involved in it, not just shake your head and say ‘Yes, I agree with you.’ It has no meaning, but see what is implied in it. First of all, the depth of it, the beauty of it, the rationality of it, the sanity of it, that as long as there is a ‘me’ with the centre, I must have problems. Right? It may be very dangerous problems, destructive problems or superficial problems. And as long as there is a problem, there is no love. But of course that does not exist, so we can skip that. We will come back to it later.
So, is it possible to live in the world, in the modern world, having a wife, husband, children, going to a job and all the rest of it, without having a centre? You understand sir? See the fact, the fact that as long as you have a centre, there must be problems, and if you say ‘Well, that’s my life, to have problems’, perfectly right, carry on. But if you say problems are most destructive, not only to the brain but the wholeness of the mind, the mind that is fit, alive, active, because every problem is like a blanket that smothers. So if you see the fact that the centre is to have problems – right? No. Not only hear it but see the truth of it. Then what takes place? You understand? A mind, a being that has no centre and has to live with a wife and a husband, and the whole culture – a whole… not culture, I won’t call it culture – the whole world, which means you are acting every minute. Life is action. Right? But when you act from a centre, you are introducing the whole problem. I wonder if you see it. See the cadre of it, the framework of it, the wholeness of it. That is, the mind that has functioned with a centre has created innumerable problems – politically, economically, socially, and in intimate or not intimate relationship. And having a problem is the most destructive way of living. That destroys the youth of the brain – you understand? – the youth of the mind. If you listen to it and see the truth of it, it is over. There is no how. There is only the act of listening.
Tradition means – the word – to hand down from generation to generation values, rituals, dogmas, beliefs, gods, pujas – the whole thing that man is caught in, and in that tradition nothing can flourish. It is like a steamroller going over human beings, and if you accept that, all right, live with it, and be happy with it. But you are not going to answer the challenge of the world, the global challenge which is that man must free himself from everything to flower. And the flowering can only take place in the soil of human relationship. Right sir? Not somewhere else in the Himalayas or in some monastery – even there, he is in relationship with his fellow being. And culture, which is to grow, to develop, to have the highest excellence ethically, is not possible when you are merely, your mind has become merely a machine, which tradition does. And tradition has said, accept time. And somebody comes along like me, and says ‘Don’t, you won’t find light, enlightenment, at the end of time, you will find it where you are now.’
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