Change is either a complete psychological revolution in the nature of the whole human being, or it is a mere attempt at the reformation of the social structure. The real crisis in the life of man, you and I, is whether such a complete psychological revolution can be brought about, independent of nationality and of all religious divisions.
We have built this society; our parents and their parents before them, have produced this corrupt structure and we are the product of that. We are society, we are the world, and if we do not change ourselves radically, really very, very deeply, then there is no possibility of changing the social order. Most of us do not realize this. Everyone, generally the younger generation, says, ‘We must change society.’ We talk a great deal but we do nothing about it. It is we ourselves that have to change, not society. Do please realize this. We have to bring about in ourselves, at the highest and at the deepest levels, a change in our whole way of thinking, living, feeling; then only is the social change possible. Mere social revolution, the change of the structure of society outwardly by physical revolution, inevitably brings about, as has been seen, dictatorship or the totalitarian State, which deny all freedom.
To bring about such a change in ourselves is a lifetime’s work, not just something for a few days then to be forgotten; it is a constant application, a constant awareness of what is going on, within and without.
We have to live in relationship, without it we cannot possibly exist. To be relate means to live totally, wholly, for this there must be in ourselves a radical transformation. How shall we radically transform ourselves? If this seriously interests you then we shall have communication with each other; we shall think together, fell and understand together. So how can man, you and I, totally change? That is the question and nothing else is relevant; it is a question not only for the young but also for the old.
In this world there is tremendous agony, immense sorrow, war, brutality and violence; there is starvation of which you know nothing. One realizes that there is so much that can be done for the vast fragmentation that there is, in the political world with its many parties and in the many religions; they all talk about peace but deny it, for there can only be peace, reality and love, where there is no division.
So again, seeing this vast fragmentation both inwardly and outwardly, the only issue is that a human being must radically, profoundly, bring about in him—self a revolution. This is very serious problem, it is an issue tat affects one’s whole life; in it is involved meditation, truth, beauty, love. These are not just words. One has to find a way of living where they come into reality.
One of the most important things in life is love. But what is called love is associated with sex, which has become so tremendously important; everything seems to revolve around sex. Why human beings right through the world, whatever their cultures be, whatever religious sanctions say, find sex so extraordinarily important? And with it is associated the word ‘love’. Why?
When you look at your own life, you see how it has become mechanical; our education is mechanical; we acquire knowledge, information, which gradually becomes mechanical. We are machines, second-hand people. We repeat what others have said. We read enormously. W are the results of thousands of years of propaganda. We have become psychologically and intellectually mechanical. In a machine there is no freedom. Sex offers freedom; there for a few seconds is freedom, you have completely forgotten yourselves and your mechanical life. So sex has become enormously significant; its pleasure you call love. But is love pleasure? Or is love something entirely different, something in which there is no jealousy, no dependencies, no possessiveness?
One has to give one's life to find out what love means, just as one has to give one's whole life to find what meditation is and what truth is. Truth has nothing whatsoever to do with belief.
Belief comes into being when there is fear. One believes in God because in oneself one is so completely uncertain. One sees the transient things of life; there is no certainty, there is no security, there is no comfort, but immense sorrow. So thought projects something with the attribute permanency, called God, in which the human mind takes the comfort. But that is not truth.
Truth is something that is to be found when there is no fear. Again, one has to give a great deal of attention to understand what fear is, both physical and psychological fear. One has these problems in life which one has not understood, which one has not transcended. Thereby one continues a corrupt society, whose morality is immoral and in virtue, goodness, beauty, love, of which we talk so much, soon become corrupt.
Will the understandings of these problems take time? Is change immediate? Or is it to be brought about through the evolution of time? If time is taken—that is to say, at the end of your life you have reached enlightenment—then in that time you continue to sow seeds of corruption, war, hatred. So can this radical inward revolution happen instantly? It can happen instantly when you see the danger of all this. It is like seeing the danger of a precipice, of a wild animal, of a snake; then there is instant action. But we do not see the danger of all this fragmentation which takes place when the ‘self’, the ‘me’, becomes important—and the fragmentation of the ‘me’ and the ‘not me’. The moment there is that fragmentation is yourself there must be conflict; and conflict is the very root of corruption. So it behooves one to find out for oneself the beauty of meditation, for then the mind, being free and unconditioned, perceives what is true.
To ask questions is important; it is not only that one exposes oneself, but in asking questions one will find for oneself the answer. If one puts the right question the right answer is in the question. One must question everything in life, one's short hair or long hair, one's dress, the way one walks, the way one eats, what one thinks, how one feels—everything must be questioned. Then the mind becomes extraordinarily sensitive, alive and intelligent. Such a mind can love; such a mind alone knows what a religious mind is.
Questioner: What is the meditation of which you speak?
EDITOR : Do you know anything of what meditation means even?
Questioner: I know there are various forms of meditation, but I do not know which one you speak of.
EDITOR : A system of meditation is not meditation. A system implies a method, which you practice in order to achieve something at the end. Something practiced over and over again becomes mechanical, does it not? How can a mechanical mind, which has been trained and twisted, tortured to comply to the pattern of what it calls meditation—hoping to achieve a reward at the end—be free to observe, to learn?
There are various schools, in India
So when we use the word ‘meditation’ we do not mean something that is practiced. We have no method. Meditation means awareness: to be aware of what you are doing, what you are thinking, what you feeling, aware without any choice, to observe, to learn. Meditation is to be aware of one’s conditioning, how one is conditioned by the society in which one life, in which one has been brought up, by the religious propaganda—aware without any choice, without distortion, without wishing it were different. Out of this awareness comes attention, the capacity to be completely attentive. Then there is freedom to see things as they actually are, without distortion. The mind becomes unconfused, clear, sensitive; such meditation brings about a quality of the mind that is completely silent—of which quality one can go on talking, but it will have no meaning
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