NEED OF MONKS ?

The question is whether a guru is necessary or not. Can truth be found through another ? Some say it can and some say it cannot. We want to know the truth of this,not my opinion as against the opinion of another. I have no opinion in this matter. Either it is so or it is not. Whether it is essential that you should or should not have a guru is not a question on opinion, however profound , erudite, popular, universal. The truth of the matter is to be found out, in fact.
First of all, why do we want a guru ? We say we need a guru because we are confused and the guru is helpful; he will point out what truth is, he will help us to understand , he knows much more about life than we do, he will act as a father, as a teacher to instruct us in life; he was vast experience and we have but little; he will help us through his greater experience and so on and on. That is , basically you go to a teacher because you are confused.
If you were clear you would not go near a guru. Obviously if you were profoundly happy, if there were no problems , if you understood life completely , you would not go to any guru. I hope you see the significance of this.

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POLITICAL CHAOS – IMPENDING WAR

War is the spectacular and bloody projection of our everyday life, is it not ? War is merely an outward expression of our state, an enlargement of our daily action. It is more spectacular , more bloody , more destructive, but it is the collective result of individual activities. Therefore you and I are responsible for war and what can we do to stop it ? Obviously the ever - impending war cannot be stopped by you and me, because it is already in movement ; it is already taking place, though at present chiefly on the psychological level. As it is already in movement, it cannot be stopped – the issues are too many, too great, and are already committed. But you and I , seeing that the house is on fire, can understand the causes of that fire, can go away from it and build in a new place with different materials that are not combustible, that will not produce other wars. That is all that we can do. You and I can see what creates wars , and if we are interested in stopping wars, then we can begin to transform ourselves , who are the causes of war.
Circumstances can be controlled by us, because we have created the circumstances. Society is the product of relationship of yours and mine together. If we change in our relationship, society changes ; merely to rely on legislation, on compulsion , for the transformation of outward society, while remaining inwardly corrupt, while continuing inwardly to seek power , position, domination, is to destroy the outward, however carefully and scientifically built. That which is inward is always overcoming the outward.
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CONSCIOUS VS UNCONSCIOUS

We are aware that there is the conscious and the unconscious mind but most of us function only on the conscious level, in the layer of the mind, and our whole life is practically limited to that . We live in the so - called conscious mind we never pay attention to the deeper unconscious mind from which there is occasionally an intimation, a hint, that hint is disregarded, perverted or translated according to our particular conscious demand at the movement.
First let us see what we mean by the conscious mind. Is the conscious mind different from the unconscious mind ? We have divided the conscious from the unconscious ; is this justified ? Is this true ? Is there such a division between the conscious and unconscious ? Is there a definite barrier , a line where the conscious ends that and the unconscious begins ?
We are aware that the upper layer, the conscious mind is active but is that the only instrument that is active throughout the day ? If I were addressing merely the upper layer of mind, then surely what I am saying would be valueless, it would have no meaning. Yet most of us cling to what the conscious mind finds it convenient to adjust to certain obvious facts; but the unconscious may rebel, and often does, and so there is conflict between the so – called conscious and the unconscious.
Therefore our problem is this, is it not ? There is in fact only one state, not two states such as the conscious and the unconscious ; there is only a state of being , which is consciousness, though you may divide it as the conscious and the unconscious. But that consciousness is always of the past, never of the present ; you are conscious only of things that are over. You are conscious of what I am trying to convey the second afterwards, are you not ?
You understand it a movement later. You are never conscious or aware of now. Watch your own hearts and minds and you will see that consciousness is functioning between the past and the future and that the present is merely a passage of the past to the future. Consciousness is therefore a movement of the past to the future…

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