from
A Collection of Reference Materials
at
Rishi Valley Study Centre
Reference Materials on Krishnamurti's Teachings
available at : http://www.kfa.org/
Working Paper #2
Edited by Hans Herzberger
February 1996
Introduction
1. Background. Krishnamurti was a devastating critic of analysis; but he was also a master practitioner of the art. In certain contexts he recommended careful analysis of habits, relationships and institutions. In the very course of pointing out the dangers of the analytic process, he argued his position through detailed analyses of his own. These facts highlight a complex of questions along the way to grasping the full content of his teaching and its impact on action.
Can we see Krishnamurti’s remarks on analysis as a coherent whole? If not, which of those remarks belong to his teaching? Do we choose those we like and reject the rest? We do not seem to be on very secure ground here. Krishnamurti often said his teaching was simple and "needed no interpretation". But complexities very naturally reveal themselves when we survey his discourses in actual detail. And we have a striking example of this in the intricacies of his position on analysis.
Closer examination reveals unanswered questions on the most elementary points, some of which may carry definite practical consequences. We observe that analysis looms large in Krishnamurti’s own discourse. What then were his objections to the analytic process? This quandary may naturally lead us to re-examine for ourselves the whole functioning of a "pliable mind" and its various impediments.
2. The Documentary Record. Some of our texts mention analysis explicitly, some talk about related matters like awareness or "The Censor", and in some Krishnamurti puts forward striking analyses of various subjects. We have selected eighty passages of these several kinds from the large number available, and have sorted them into five sections: "For and Against Analysis", "The Analytic Process", "The Censor", "A Pliable Mind", and "Analysis Without the Analyser". Each part is arranged to help readers see for themselves how Krishnamurti engaged this topic at different times and in different contexts. Talks are cited by place and date, with journal references for early works
3. What is Analysis? Krishnamurti talked at length about a certain laborious process involving many steps of observation, verbal description, testing and so forth, which he roundly criticised as unsuited for dealing with the problems of life. He endorsed this process for certain kinds of problem solving, but considered it to be ineffective in dealing with problems of relationship and action. He took delight in the epigram: "analysis is paralysis".
The end result of this "analytic process" is "an analysis". Typically, an analysis exposes the structure of some subject through interconnections of its parts; traces causal relationships and lays bare the origins of its subject; describes the dynamics which sustain it; and sometimes diagnoses its pathology. Conceptual distinctions often enter into analyses which break down a complex subject into types or kinds: such as two kinds of Master, three stages of desire, several forms of tribalism and many forms of exploitation. To call something an analysis, then, does not necessarily imply it resulted from an "analytic process". We may seldom have occasion to focus on this difference between process and product in analysis; but when dealing with a master of analysis who is also a withering critic of the analytic process, it is a useful distinction to keep in mind.
4. For and Against Analysis. In the texts collected here, Krishnamurti expressed a notably positive attitude towards analysis at least until late 1931. After declaring truth to be a pathless land, he went on to say that analysis, combined with awareness could set man free (5Aug29), uproot sorrow (6Aug29) and guide him out of darkness (16Jul30). Later remarks tend to be rather critical of the analytic process. But there are crossovers on both sides of this chronological divide. In the early period he noted how it can "cover over" (6Mar32) and "has not freed the mind" (9Sep32); whereas in the later period he allowed it might help "open the door" (24Aug52). To see this as a coherent whole requires keen sensitivity to context, focus and subtle clues in the way texts praising analysis may carry positive restrictions ("impersonal analysis") while more critical texts may carry negative restrictions ("mere analysis" or "analysis by itself"). With these brief observations, the reader may be left to ponder the balance between "for" and "against" in this matter.
5. A Master of Analysis. In his psychological critique of organised religion, Krishnamurti produced a powerful example of analysis in the "product" sense. By exposing far-reaching interconnections between occult doctrines, access to knowledge, exploitation and self-deception, he assembled the basis for his revolution in this field. Part V samples the broad range of other subjects he analysed in his talks. Assuming that these analyses did not result from the analytic process he held in such suspicion, we now open the question of whether they might have their "source" in choiceless awareness.
6. Analysis Without The Analyser. One clue to Krishnamurti’s complex attitude towards analysis may be found in his many remarks on choiceless awareness—his favoured alternative to the analytic process. He explicitly left room for "observation without an observer" (30May70) and "awareness without a censor" (17Jan71). Although we haven’t found explicit mention of "analysis without an analyser", we have found very many examples of analysis as a product that might be regarded as issuing from a state of choiceless awareness.
To test this suggestion, one could review what Krishnamurti said about choiceless awareness to find whether it allows one to "see" structure, interconnections of parts, causal factors, origin, dynamics, pathology and other things which make up an analysis in the product sense. This is a large question worth a study of its own; but many positive indications may be found in the texts of Part V, which analyse a wide range of subjects. Some of these are presented as "analyses" and others are presented as things one can "see" when the mind is silent. But in each case we are given or promised insight into a subject in terms of its parts, interconnections, causal structure and pathology. In many cases, choiceless awareness seems to yield analyses almost as by-products of its central concern: to render the mind pliable by freeing it from hindrances whose workings Krishnamurti exposed by "examining", "discerning" and "observing" them in detail.
PART ONE: FOR AND AGAINST ANALYSIS
To Set Man Free (1929)
Truth is a pathless land + [Man] must set himself free. My business is to awaken him, to urge him to that freedom ... by careful analysis, by thoughtfulness, by awareness. (Ommen Q&A 5Aug29; ISB Sep29).
To Uproot Sorrow (1929)
Like an eagle that descends to the valley ... go out with determination ... [to] uproot those things that ... create sorrow + Do this by careful watchfulness, careful examination, [and] analysis. (Ommen Q&A 7Aug29; ISB Oct29)
To Help You Change (1929)
If you have not carefully examined and suffered in the process of experiment and analysis, your judgement will have no value + If you take what I say ... with an open mind which is capable of judging impersonally, then while I am talking you can alter yourself + The only thing which matters in life is to change (Benares 10Nov29; ISB Feb30)
To Rise Out of Darkness (1930)
When once you have [understood] it, through impersonal criticism [and] analysis, and are living it, then through your own efforts you are dissipating the darkness that surrounds the life of every human being + You must bring to it a really reflective mind ... that examines carefully and analyses impersonally. (Eerde 16Jul30; ISB Aug 1930)
Learning to Analyse Impersonally (1930)
The wise man ... examines, analyses, seeks out by criticism the fundamental principle; and through that criticism, through impersonal examination, becomes aware of the total reality. (Eerde 19Jul30; SB Aug30); Education can help him to that realisation, by carefully instructing him how to analyse, to be impersonal, to look at all questions from the point of view of the whole and not of the part. That is the true purpose of education (Ommen 31Jul30; ISB Sep30)
Test, Analyse, and Then Act (1930)
To test this living reality of which I speak you must put [it] into practice [after] analysis and criticism. (Ommen 1Aug30, ISB Sep30)
To Still the Mind (1930)
To arrive at that condition ... of a still mind ... all your energy must be reserved for that searching, analysing examination of every thought. (Ommen 2Aug30; ISB Sep30)
For True Action (1930)
The true kind of self-examination, of analysis, must lead to true action + The door to that reality ... lies within your own minds and hearts, through your own experience, your own analysis, your suffering and joy. (Ommen 4Aug30; ISB Oct30)
To Free Yourself and Grasp the Teaching (1930)
If you carefully and impersonally analyse yourself and the teaching ... then [it] may have value (Ommen 5Aug30; ISB Oct30)
To Nurture Intelligence (1931)
What gives you intelligence is to observe, analyse, understand, and put that understanding into practice. (Ommen 4Aug31; ISB Sep-Dec 30)
To Open the Door (1952)
Analysis may temporarily open the door ... but to free the mind so it is made new, is possible only ... when we see ... what is happening within [its] corridors [and] recesses. (Ojai 24Aug52)
+ + +
But It Can Cover Over (1932)
Through analysis, you imagine that you will conquer sorrow [but you] merely cover [it] over. (Ojai 6Mar32; SB Jul33)
But It Cannot Free You From Suffering (1933)
By analysing suffering you find ... only the cause of a particular act + You have learned to avoid the suffering [but] have not freed your mind from it. (Frognerseteren Norway 9Sep33)
But It Can Limit Action (1934)
Analysis limits action, as can be seen [from] cases where action has almost ceased. (Adyar, 2Jan34)
But The More You Analyse, The Less You Understand (1949)
See the difficulty of analysing ... unfolding, looking at ourselves page after page ... is incalculably difficult and long + The more you analyse, the less you understand. (Benares 23Jan49)
But It Postpones Action (1973)
You see [a spider] and you get terrified. You don’t know what to do with it, and that goes on year after year. How is that terror to be put away? You are terrified by darkness, a word, by something, by somebody. How will you meet this? To me analysis is not an answer; it is a postponement + Let’s move from there. (Brockwood 4Sep73).
PART TWO: THE ANALYTIC PROCESS
Merely Intellectual Analysis and Freedom (1933)
Understanding with the whole intensity of your being is a very different thing from understanding merely intellectually + The more you analyse your action, the less you act. Analysis of action does not free the mind. (Alpino 4Jul33)
Mere Analysis and Sorrow (1936)
Until we discover for ourselves [the cause of all action], and discern it comprehensively and integrally, mere analysis of reactions will not free the mind from ignorance and sorrow. (Ommen 4Aug36)
Mere Analysis and Bondage (1936)
Mere analysis of past action cannot yield its full significance + Conditioned thought cannot know itself as conditioned. The desire to escape from this limitation through analysis ... will not reveal to the mind its own ... bondage. (Madras 28Dec36)
The Process Wearies the Mind (1938)
There is only one fundamental problem, which expresses itself in many ways. Each one of us is conscious of a particular difficulty and desires to grapple with that by itself. One may eventually come upon the central problem, but during the process the mind becomes weary and has acquired knowledge [and] formulas which stand in the way of understanding the one central problem. (Ommen 10Aug38)
Is The Process Reliable? (1952)
Even when I have rejected all the outward expressions of authority: books, teachers, priests, churches, beliefs, I still have the feeling that at least I can rely on my own judgement, on my own experiences, on my own analysis. But can I rely on [them]? (Ojai 31Aug52)
It is Important But Limited (1959)
You must have the capacity to analyse; you must have a good, sharp mind + but reason and analysis [are limited] + You must look into your heart of hearts without [any] obstructions created by intellect (Madras 22Nov59)
The Process Can Be an Escape (1965)
[We] try to analyse it, or avoid it, or find [its] cause; or ... escape from it completely + Mere examination, analysis, seeing the cause ... does not free the mind from the fact. The search for a cause, the analysis, becomes an escape from the fact. (Paris 16May65)
Apart From Other Factors (1971)
Intellect [gives only partial understanding]; it is valueless as an instrument apart from other factors. (Madras 1Jan71)
That Process Can’t Wipe Away All Our Pain (1972)
Can all the ... unconscious hurts, which are deeply rooted, be wiped away ... through analysis? [That] is not going to expose the secret deep hurts—right? Then what will you do? (Saanen 3Jul72)
Meanwhile Your House is Burning (1973)
We are talking of the whole tree of fear, not one particular branch of that tree, or a particular tender leaf; but the whole structure of fear + Are you going to analyse, investigate each fear? + It may take a lifetime, and in the mean time the house is burning + It is part of our tradition to analyse + You have done that all your life ... sustaining fear, chewing the cud. (Madras 22Dec73)
Tearing Into Pieces a Delicate Flower (1981)
You may observe a lovely flower. The moment you tear it to pieces [it is destroyed]. That is what analysis is. (Amsterdam 19Sep81)
Why Can’t We Bypass The Process? (1945)
If I have a problem, must I not go into it, think it out fully, search it out, analyse it, dissect it, worry over it, and be free of it? Then, when the mind is quiet, the answer is found + Why go through that process? + To find an answer; [that] makes me do all these things + [But] the answer is in the problem + The searching, analysing, process [is an] escape + If I merely look at the problem, mathematical, political, religious, or any other, and not look for an answer, then the problem will begin to tell me. (Ojai 7Aug49)j
There Must be a More Direct Way (1949)
There must be a simpler, more direct way + You stop analysing + The mind is blank. With one blow, you have discarded the whole thing. Your mind is freed from yesterday, and is capable of looking directly + The analytical process is the only thing we have; and when that completely stops + Your mind can free itself from the past immediately. You are alert, passively receptive, and yet fully aware. In this state there is understanding. (Benares 23Jan49)
There is a More Direct Way (1981)
In pure observation, the whole thing is revealed + I can explain everything from observation without analysis. (New Delhi 5Nov81)
PART THREE: THE CENSOR
I Am All This Bundle (1971)
I am all this bundle, collected ... through environment, race, knowledge and time + When you are [greedy] ... the observer comes along and ... gives reasons why [you] should not be greedy. He separates himself [and] becomes the censor, [who tries to] control or suppress or go beyond the greed + That division is the source of all conflict. (Madras 17Jan71)
Formation of the Censor (1958)
This evaluating process becomes the censor, the watcher, experiencer, thinker, the ego + [That] comes into being ... when living is over and accumulation [begins] (Commentaries on Living II Ch.29)
A Censor Who Tries to Control (1962)
When you are choicelessly aware ... you will [see] ... [the] censor, which judges, evaluates ... [and tries] to dominate, change, control + This division ... creates conflict because the [censor] is ... conditioned. (New Delhi 4Feb62)
One Fragment Assumes the Authority of a Censor (1970)
The analyser is one of many fragments which make up ... a human being. That [fragment] assumes authority [and] becomes the censor. Using accumulated knowledge, he evaluates good and bad, right and wrong, what should be suppressed or [not] suppressed. He has assumed the authority of the censor. (Saanen 21Jul70)
The Censor is Greedy and Corrupt (1970)
You need knowledge when you go to the office. But that knowledge, tied to the censor who is ambitious and greedy, becomes corrupt; he uses knowledge for corruption. This is so simple! When we see very clearly how the ‘observer’ distorts everything—in that flash of perception the observer is not. (London 30May70)
The Censor Trying to Get Rid of Fear (1970)
You are still watching fear as an outsider ... with an intention to get rid of fear: [which] means censoring + That only strengthens fear. (Saanen 2Aug70)
The Censor Never Sees with Fresh Eyes (1970)
The observer is the reservoir of knowledge, the past, the censor ... [who] judges and evaluates. He is doing exactly the same with regard to himself + He doesn’t look at himself with fresh eyes; never discovers anything new about himself + He has sought and found security in knowledge + The censor ... [is] always watching as being different from the thing observed (Brockwood 12Sep70)
The Danger of Observing Through a Censor (1970)
You observe from a centre, a background, experience, knowledge + Can you observe ... without the censor ... without all the miseries, conflicts, brutalities, vanities ... memories, hopes, all the background + Can you look at yourself inwardly ... without any condemnation or explanation or justification? When you so observe there is no observer and no conflict + Be alive to the danger of [observing through a censor] (Saanen 21Jul70)
+ + +
Removing The Censor (1952)
When I do not condemn [or] justify ... have I not removed the censor? + I want to see the whole structure, to understand it ... [and] discover the ways of my own thinking. (London 8Apr52)
Without Correcting It (1967)
A mind always fresh, young, innocent, full of vigour and passion ... requires a great deal of awareness of what is going on within the skin—without correcting it. If you correct it you have already established an authority, the censor + When we know how to look at that which is, the analyser comes to an end, totally. (Saanen 9Jul67)
Just Observe, Without a Censor (1971)
Can you look at your wife, husband, the man who insulted you, without a censor, just observe, without [any] past records? (Madras 17Jan71)
A Daily Life With No Censor (1978)
Can I live a daily life in which there is ... no censor, saying ‘do this, do that’. From childhood, we are educated to control, suppress, [and] follow. A daily life ... without control, without direction ... is the beginning of meditation. (Madras 14Jan78)
PART FOUR: A PLIABLE MIND
With Both Heart and Mind (1933)
If you are aware with your heart and mind ... you know the source from which action springs + Become aware of fears and prejudices without analysing them ... [and they] disappear. (Alpino 9Jul33)
Emotional Intelligence (1933)
When you understand [this] ... emotionally ... while you are acting in everyday things, all the past memories, hindrances, will come into activity, and you will be free without analysing (Ommen 4Aug33)
Mind and Heart in Harmony (1933)
Why do you think you must analyse yourself? + Your mind [may] become full [through this process] but never free + When you are in a crisis ... you put all that aside, In that moment your mind and heart are in harmony. (Frognerseteren Norway 12Sep33)
Pliable Thought (1940)
One [who] is aware, understands ... the cause and effect of action, the imitative process of fear, its reactions, and so on ... [freeing] thought from those influences ... which limit and hold it, without creating further bondages; and so thought becomes deeply pliable ... [through] a constant process of liberation. (Sarobia 9Sep40)
A Keen, Pliable Mind-Heart (1945)
To follow the endless movement of the self a keen, pliable mind-heart is necessary +[It] must delve deeply and know when to be alertly passive + When the earth lies fallow, winds, rains, and sunshine bring productivity and it renews itself. So must the mind-heart be silent. alertly passive after travail, to renew itself. (Ojai 3Jun45)
The Creative Quickening of Silence (1945)
Silence has its own creative quickening. You do not transcend fear through ... the study of explanations + We consult, analyse, pray, exchange explanations; this incessant activity ...[is a hindrance]. Understanding comes when your whole being is deeply and silently aware. In this tranquility death yields to creation. (Ojai 29Jul45)
A Mind That is New Every Moment (1948)
One can analyse these memories, take each response, unravel it and dissolve it; but for that one would need infinite time, patience and care. There must be a different approach ... so the mind may be new every moment + We are accustomed to meeting life with old memories, traditions, habits; meeting today with yesterday. Can one meet today ... without the thought of yesterday? (Poona 3Oct48)
The Mind Must Be New (1950)
Understanding of the whole process of conditioning does not come to you through analysis + The analyser ... is himself part of the conditioned state. Whatever his ... understanding may be, it is part of the background. That way there is no escape + To meet the challenge of the new, the mind must be new. (Bombay 26Feb50)
Without Prejudice (1952)
The quiet mind is free: from accumulated prejudices, antagonisms, blind spots. These are all seen in moment when the mind is quiet, not a separate entity investigating, censoring, judging. (London 24Apr52)
What Is and What Should Be (1956)
Is there a still mind [if] one desire dominates all others or sets up resistance against them ... when the mind is disciplined, shaped, controlled? Does not all this imply a censor a so-called higher self who controls judges, chooses? And [if] there is such an entity is he not the product of thought ... dividing itself? + [Craving] the pleasure of silence, [thought] breeds conflict between what is and what should be. (Commentaries on Living I 1956, Ch.46)
Thought Playing a Deceptive Game
Thought is transient, changing, impermanent. Seeking permanency, [it] creates the thinker, who ... assumes the role of censor, guide, controller + This illusory permanent entity is the product of thought ... playing a deceptive game. (Commentaries on Living II 1958, Ch.15)
Observation By a Quiet Mind (1963)
When the mind is quiet [and] attentive, it has no thought, it is empty but aware. Then it can observe. This observation is not analytical or interpretative. (Rajghat 1Dec63)
Observation Without an Observer (1970)
Silence of the mind comes naturally, without any effort if you know how to observe + When [you] can look at a tree, a cloud, light on the water, without the observer, and also ... at yourself without an image ... opinion, judgement ... the mind becomes extraordinarily quiet. If you watch all the time: your gestures, words, feelings, the movements of your face and all the rest of it ... this brings about alteration by itself. (London 30May70)
Observation Without Analysis (1981)
Look at the world as it is ... pure observation of things as they are + [Look at] the beauty of a flower, light in a cloud, a tree by itself in a forest + Observation without analysis [gives] total attention to a problem: relationship, fear; pleasure. (Amsterdam 19Sep81)
PART FIVE: ANALYSIS "WITHOUT THE ANALYSER"
When Truth Comes Without Analysis (1932)
Truth comes spontaneously, naturally, sweetly, without the slightest effort, without discipline, analysis, introspection. It must come without toil, with ease, with quietness. (Adyar 28Dec32; SB Mar33)
Letting It Reveal Itself (1975)
You perceive that which is and let [it] reveal itself. [It] is quite a different thing: [seeing] instantly the whole of it, the division .. how [it] has been created [and so on] (Saanen 15Jul75)
Analysing The Stages of Desire (1930)
There are three stages in the evolution of desire. In the first stage a man thinks he will be happy if he has a house, a car, books or money. He is really seeking an [impersonal] beauty and happiness; but ... interprets it as a quest for personal possessions. The time comes when [he] discovers that happiness can never be attained [through possessions]. When he realises this, he usually enters the second stage ... transferring [his] longing into the realm of subtler things ... grasping at spiritual comforts [to] protect him against the conflicts of life ... [reaching] out for guides, gurus, authorities to save him ... at a higher level. This in turn proves illusory ... and he enters upon the third [stage] ... giving up all attempts to find happiness in anything outside + We are really seeking [this] all the time, but do not know it + When desire is thus freed, life itself is freed + A happy man is [one] who has found his own truth. (Ojai 25May30)
Analysing the Cause of Authority (1933)
Once you are aware of the cause of authority, you are free from it + Why do you create authority? It is the search for security. There is a state which is fulfilment, in which you act from life; but you attain that state only when you realise with your whole being that there is no such thing as security in life. You create authority in the shape of ideals, religious, social, economic systems, all based on the search for individual security. You are responsible for creating authority, to which you have become a slave. When you become aware with your whole being of its cause, you will be free from it. (Alpino 6Jul33)
Seeing How Prejudice Arises and Twists Experience (1935)
Through the flame of awareness ... one [can] discern the prejudices, escapes, the self-defensive values which twist experience + Intensely aware ... you will see how perversions, impediments, limitations, spring forth. (New York 15Mar35)
Analysing "The Masses" (1936)
There is mass psychology [and] mass action, [but] no such entity as the mass, apart from individuals. When you analyse the term ... you will see it is composed of many separate units: ourselves, with extraordinary beliefs, ideals, illusions, superstitions, hatreds, prejudices, ambitions and pursuits. These compose that nebulous and uncertain phenomenon we call the mass. (Ojai 12Apr36)
Analysing Layers of "The Background" (1936)
This background ... is the result of a process without a beginning, composed of many layers + You can take one or two layers and examine them + In analysing and experimenting with them, the mind begins to perceive its own make-up and the [way it] creates its own prison. This understanding not only brings into consciousness the many layers, but also [ceases] the creation of further limitations and barriers. (Ojai 12Apr36)
Seeing How Want Engenders Fear and Illusion (1936)
Freedom from want, from its fears and illusions, comes through silent perception ... you perceive how want engenders fear and illusion and breaks up consciousness into past, present and future, into higher and lower, into accumulated memories and those to be acquired. (Ommen 28Jul36)
Subtle Exploitation (1936)
There are two forms of exploitation, the obvious and the subtle + [In the obvious form], one class, which has the wealth, exploits the mass. A few who control industry exploit the many who work + The subtle form of exploitation is not easily perceived + It is the result of the search for certainty ... which has led to the creating of systems of exploitation which we call beliefs, ideals, dogmas, and to their perpetuation by priests, gurus and guides + You go to another to be enriched and comforted and thereby you engender the process of subtle exploitation. (Madras 6Dec36)
Many Forms of Exploitation (1936)
There is every conceivable form of exploitation in our social, religious and creative activities. We see man making others work for his own personal advantage, buying and selling for his own benefit and ruthlessly seeking his own personal security. There are class distinctions, with their antagonisms and hatreds. One kind is regarded as superior and another inferior, one type is despised and another is praised. It is a system of competition and ruthless elimination of those who are, perhaps, less cunning, less aggressive, and who have not had the fortunate opportunities of life. Racial pride and national prejudices often lead us to war, with all its horrors and cruelties. Even animals do not escape from the cruelties of man + We have exploitation by religions, competition between faiths, with their churches, gods and temples. Each system maintains its own divine right to lead man to the highest, and individuals lose true religious experience. There is systematised superstition, instilling and maintaining fear with assertions and doctrines + In every avenue of life there is confusion, misery, and every one is caught up in this machine of exploitation and cruelty. Some are conscious of this process, with its sorrow, and although they recognise its ugliness, they continue in [their] old habits ... saying to themselves that they must live in this world. Others are wholly unconscious of this system of misery + The various ideas that are put forth for the solution of man’s misery, divide themselves into two groups: one [emphasises] complete social reorganisation; the other emphasises actions of [individuals]. [Both are] erroneous. Social reorganisation is necessary, but [has] many grave dangers. Creation of a new system can again become a prison in which man will be held, only by different dogmas, ideas and creeds. [Some] maintain we must put bread first, and other vital things will rightly follow ... through control of environment. Exclusive emphasis on bread frustrates its own purpose, for we do not live by bread alone + Shall we begin from the outer, by controlling, directing, and dominating; or begin with the inner process of man? To emphasise [either] one destroys its own end. Dividing man into outer and inner prevents true comprehension of class distinction, exploitation, cruelties, hatreds, acquisitiveness. We must discern man as a whole, and from that point of view consider his activities, desires, and fulfilment + To regard man as merely the result of environment or heredity, to lay emphasis only on bread and discard the inner process, or [else] to concern oneself entirely with the inner and discard the outer: both are wholly erroneous, and both lead to confusion and misery. We have to comprehend man as an integral whole, not as an entity with separative functions, as those of a citizen worker or a spiritual being. And we must have the insight to know that ignorance of our own being is the condition of all sorrow and conflict. If we do not comprehend ourselves then whatever we may do, in whatever field of activity, inevitably creates sorrow + If you experiment, you will perceive that you can live without craving, integrally, completely, actually, and so comprehend reality, beauty and the fullness of life + To [do this] you must be free of all the masks which you have developed in the struggle for acquisition, born of craving. By experiment you will perceive that no system, no guide and no discipline can ever help you to ... bring ignorance to an end. You need an eager, pliable mind, capable of direct discernment in which there is no choice. As you are prejudiced you have to become aware of that fact before you can begin to discern what is actual + You must become aware of the movement of your thought and its activity. Do whatever you do with fullness of mind and many hidden and subtle thoughts and cravings [will be] revealed. (New York 4Jun36)
Seeing The Entire Past and Its Effects (1940)
[In awareness] I can perceive what has been and what are the forces at work which compel me [in action] ... the entire process of the past, its effect in the present and in the future, integrally, as a whole. (Ojai 7Jul40)
Analysing "The Masters" (1940)
There are two types of teachers: those with whom the pupil is directly in contact and those with whom [the contact is indirect]. The teacher [in direct contact] ... observes the pupil while helping and guiding him. This is exacting and difficult enough for the pupil. Now the "Masters" are not in contact with [us] except [through] intermediaries. In this relationship, which has its own rewards and anxieties, the mind can deceive itself limitlessly. Why do you seek a Master to love when you don’t know how to love human beings? To love an ideal ... is easier, is it not? For they can be created in our image, according to our hopes, fears and illusions + Such love is but an intellectual creation. Not being directly in contact with a Master one must depend on an intermediary or on one’s own so-called intuition. Dependence on an intermediary ... further conditions the mind; and so-called intuition ... may be only a self-deceiving wish. Is this not odd, complicated, and artificial? + So-called love of ideals, Masters, Gods, is romantic and false; I do not think one sees the brutality of this ... idolatry. (Ojai 23Aug40)
Analysing The Forms of Craving (1944)
There are three principal forms craving takes: sensuality, worldliness and personal immortality + In analysing the craving for gratification of the senses we realise its insatiability, its torments, its ever increasing demands; its end is misery and conflict. When we examine worldliness it too reveals incessant strife, confusion and sorrow. Craving for personal immortality is born of illusion + The way of craving is very complex and difficult to dissolve; it is the cause of our misery, of our confusion and conflict. (Ojai 11Jun44)
Seeing The Present as a Doorway to Past and Future (1945)
You are a complex living organism; understand yourself ... through perception, for the present is the doorway to the past and the future. (Ojai 3Jun45)
Seeing The Implications of Ambition (1945)
Most of us, if we are aware at all, are conscious of the cause and effect of ambition and we stop there + When we think-feel without judgement ... we are conscious of all [the] implications. Feeling is important, not mere intellectual analysis of cause and effect. When you are aware of ambition you are conscious of its assertiveness, competitive ruthlessness, pleasures and pain; you are conscious of its effect on society and relationship; its social and business "moralities"; its cunning and hidden ways ... [how it] breeds envy and ill will, the power to dominate and oppress + If you are silently aware, the thinker and his thought are indivisible; there is [a] complete transformation of ambition. (Ojai 10Jun45)
Three Stages of Awareness (1945)
There are three stages of awareness, in any human problem. First, being aware of causes and effects; second, being aware of the dual or contradictory process; third, being aware of self and experiencing the thinker and his thought as one. Take any problem that you have: for example, anger. Be aware of its causes. It may arise from nervous tiredness and tension; from fear, dependence or craving for security, and so on; [or] from pain. Many of us are aware of the conflict of opposites; but because of pain or disturbance, we are concerned with escaping from the struggle rather than with understanding it. This desire to be rid of the conflict gives strength to its continuation. In the conflict of duality, we condemn or justify, compare or identify. We choose sides and thus maintain the conflict. To be choicelessly aware is arduous but essential if you would transcend the problem. Modification of the outer is a self-protective device of the thinker, who sets his thought in a new frame which safeguards him from radical transformation. It is one of the many cunning ways of the self. Because the thinker sets himself apart from his thought, problems and conflicts continue. Integration of the thinker with his thought comes through [choiceless awareness] of the process of becoming and the conflict of opposites. (Ojai 24Jun45)
Analysing the Natural Occurrence of Silence
Self-probing, stillness and understanding are a single process in awareness and not three separate states. Let us take envy. Any resolution not to be envious is neither simple nor effective. It is even stupid [because it] builds walls of conclusions around oneself [which] prevent understanding. But if you are aware you will discover the ways of envy; you will find its ramifications at different levels of the self. With self-probing there come easily and naturally moments of passive alertness. One cannot continuously probe deeply, without exhaustion. Each probing brings with it ... spaces of alert inactivity, a watchful stillness. The more complex the problem, the more intense is the probing and the silence. No specially created occasion or opportunity is needed for silence; the very perception of the complexity of a problem brings in silence. (Ojai 5May46)
Analysing Acquisition (1947)
The more clothes, the more shelter, the more ideas, you are acquiring, the greater the exploitation. Let us analyse it. The moment you acquire, the moment you become important, the moment the emphasis is laid on you as an entity acquiring, there must be exploitation, which does not mean that we should not organise for the welfare of the whole. But if the organiser is concerned with acquisition, then organising is a means of exploitation, which we have seen happen over and over again. (Madras 2Nov47)
Analysing Belief (1947)
We all believe in a pattern because we feel it to be very safe, the leader as well as the follower. If you analyse belief very carefully you will find that it is a form of self-fulfilment, of mutual exploitation, and that it does not lead to any answer. That is what belief has done for us. (Madras 9Nov47)
Analysing Forms of Authority (1947)
Authority can be imposed either from outside like the Police, the Government, etc; or from inside as in the case of our beliefs, our learning through study or past experience + We have to follow out the element of authority as it makes it appearance; (i) By studying the behaviour of persons known to you who have been following authority. There are reference books on all kinds of subjects .. by experts [who] contradict one another. After reading all that they have said, you would feel confused. (ii) By studying yourself. If you analyse your own action you will find that you have followed some authority when you found it profitable to do so, and rejected equally good authority when following [it] was found to be unprofitable. From this it is clear that you generally get interested in what profits you, and you are not willing to get at the truth of authority. Thus, seeking of profit or craving creates authority. (iii) By analysing authority [which] exists outside you in the form of the State with all its departments, public bodies and institutions to which you belong. Inside it resides in what you have learned or experienced. In both cases - outside you as well as inside - you accept authority only if you find it agreeable to do so; otherwise you reject [it]. From the analysis of the above three standpoints, you arrive at the truth that craving, or desire for profit, creates authority + When this is seen you are released for ever from [it] (Madras 27Nov47)
Analysing Wants and Desires (1947)
If you analyse your thoughts, you will find that you do not really know what you are seeking because at one moment you want something and at another moment another thing. Your mind is a battlefield of various thoughts and desires. (Madras 29Nov47)
Analysing Love (1947)
When you fall in love ... you must think rightly. You realise how all frameworks imposed upon you by society ... by your relations and by your friends are all hindrances. When you understand them as such, [they] fall away. You are free now ... intelligence has begun to operate + You analyse your state carefully [and] find that ... while you are in love, there is ... complete giving over to another; and also seeking pleasure in the past or future. Self-forgetfulness is in operation with its contradiction, namely ‘clinging to the self’ + This [indicates] a lack of intelligence + You then realise that ... you have to be alone [to] seek Truth. (Madras 17Dec47)
The Nature and Implications of Nationalism (1947)
We tried to analyse what we mean by practical steps. Is it a matter of practice, or a matter of understanding? + If you understand and study the nature and implications of nationalism, not bringing your prejudice and your defence mechanism against it, that very understanding would dissolve the poison of nationalism. (Madras 25Dec47. The previous discussion referred to contains an extended analysis of nationalism: see Madras 20Dec47)
Analysing the Search for Security in Knowledge (1947)
You search for security in knowledge, and agree with what is pleasant to you + You read a number of books but don’t relate what you read to your action in daily life. If you analyse the question seriously, you will find that you can understand and face ‘what is’ without reading a single book. (Madras 31Dec47).
Suffering Unfolds Its Story (1948)
If you observe suffering + it begins to tell you extraordinary things, to reveal untold treasures + If you are simply aware of suffering without condemnation, [its] cause is revealed. Then suffering begins to unfold its story chapter by chapter, and you see all the implications. The more you read the book of suffering, the greater the wisdom. (Bombay 21Mar48)
Three Causes of Mental Dullness (1960)
One cause of dullness of the mind is cultivation of virtue. Dullness also comes about ... when one belongs to a particular group and must act within the framework of that commitment. The mind is likewise made dull by the desire to possess power and to dominate. I think these are three of the principal causes. (New Delhi 9Mar60)
Organised Religion and Totalitarian States (1952)
Organised religion, organised belief and totalitarian states are very similar, because they all want to destroy the individual through propaganda, various forms of coercion. The whole tendency both of the left and of the so-called spiritual organisations, is to mould the mind to a particular pattern of conduct, because the individual left to himself becomes a rebel. So, the individual is controlled by compulsion, propaganda, for the sake of society [or] the state. Organised religion does the same thing in a different way: you must accept, believe, repress, control and all the rest of it. You are conditioned, [only] a little more subtly. The whole process is to dominate the individual in one form or another, seeking collective action through compulsion. That is what most organisations want, whether they are economic or religious organisations. They want collective action, which means that ultimately the individual should be destroyed. You accept the Left, the Marxist theory or the Hindu, Buddhist or Christian doctrines; and thereby hope to bring about collective action. (Madras 20Jan52)
Observing Recesses of the Mind (1954-57)
I can observe the operation of my mind and see the extraordinary intricacies of motives ... [see] how the mind is tethered to a particular dogma [or] tradition ... [unable to] think about it afresh because your whole background, conscious as well as the deeper layers, is held in [the same tradition]. The thinker is always conditioned .. thought is limited by bias + Out of that observation, you will know ... how the mind deceives itself, twists in the knowing of it, in the way it reasons. (Madras 17Jan54).The mind [can] discover the ways of its own operation. You must be [choicelessly] aware of ... its subtleties, its recesses, its extraordinary depth ... its motives and causation. (Colombo 23Jan57)
Looking at The Nature, Cause and Structure of Fear (1977)
To look at that tree without analysis ... just to look at the mountain or your friend sitting beside you + We’re going to do the same with regard to fear. We’re not analysing, we are merely observing fear, [its] nature, [its] cause, [its] structure + We are going to observe fear at [its] very root. (Ojai 9Apr77)
Observing the Sorrow of Mankind and the Root of Fear (1979)
Can you observe not only your sorrow but the sorrow of mankind as a whole; the sorrow of a person who is physically ill, and the sorrow of a person who doesn’t believe in anything [and how that] is the same as the [sorrow of one] who believes? Can you observe not a particular fear but the root of fear? (13Jan79)
Observing Our Common Consciousness (1981-82)
Together [we] are going to observe ... consciousness .. with its beliefs, nationalism, fears, pleasures, sorrow, love and so on. What you think [and] feel, your anxiety, loneliness, pain, is the same as a person living [anywhere]. We go through the same problems ... standing on the same ground. Our consciousness is common to all of us. (Amsterdam 19Sep81), From the illusion [that we are individuals] each of us tries to become something + Behind the mask, like the rest of mankind you are aching, lonely, suffering, in despair + When you observe deeply, you are the rest of humanity ... confused, struggling, wanting to be happy, being unhappy; wanting peace, being violent ... miserable entities .. [hurt] from childhood ... building walls in order not to be hurt more. (1May82)
Seeing the Pathology of the Analytic Process (1975)
Analysis implies time, analyser and analysed, division and so on + [The analyser] is the past [assuming] he is separate from the thing he is going to analyse. It is a process of thinking ... [which] can go on indefinitely ... analysing layer after layer. (Saanen 15Jul75)
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