THE TRANSFORMATION OF MAN No. 1: Are We Aware that We Are Fragmented? Q: How can one be aware of the wholeness of life if one is fragmented? Thought creates the centre. When there are two opposing desires there is conflict and then you become conscious. Can we be aware of the various fragments? I am a fragment and therefore am creating more fragments, more conflict, more confusion, more sorrow. Is the centre the very cause of fragmentation? Does the beginning of fragmentation take place when I am seeking security? Is security in knowledge used wrongly one of the factors of fragmentation? Can I be free of the desire to be psychologically secure? |
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF MAN No. 2: A Mechanical Way of Living Leads to Disorder Q: Is there really psychological security at all? Is there psychological security a sense of well-founded, deep-rooted existence? My security lies in some image, in a picture, a symbol, a conclusion, an ideal. I meet you with the past. Is it that I refuse to see things as they are? If there is no real, basic, deep security is there a tomorrow, psychologically? The brain needs order in order to function. It finds order in mechanical process because it is trained from childhood to do so. When the past meets the present and continues it is one of the factors of time, bondage, fear. But when the past meets the present and I am completely aware of this moment then it stops. Then I meet you as though for the first time. |
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF MAN No. 3: Can I Completely Change at the Very Root? Q: Why do human beings live this way? Why do human beings live in such appalling misery accepting it for millennia? Is it possible for a human being to change at the very root of his being? Who is going to tell me? Is it Marx, Lenin, Mao, the Pope, or the local priest? Authority exists because human beings are in disorder. In the rejection of authority I become very sane. When I reject authority I have more energy. What is correct action in life? I can only find that out if there is no disorder in me. "Me" is the disorder. However "real" the "me" is the source of disorder. It separates, divides me and you, we and they my nation, my god, and me. How am I not to be I? |
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF MAN No. 4: In Aloneness You Can Be Completely Secure Q: Why do human beings live the way they do? Do human beings not radically transform themselves because they are really frightened not to belong to a group, to something definite? Are they afraid to stand completely alone? Alone is all one when there is no fragmentation. That is total order. Can we step out of the stream of this utter confusion, disorder, sorrow, hope, travail, and despair? Our whole society, all religion, all culture is based on thought. Does thought realize it has made this mess, this chaos? Is thought aware of itself as a movement, which brings about a fragmentary action? When the movement of thought comes to an end there is total action. When you are faced with fact there is no fear. |
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF MAN No. 5: Your Image of Yourself Prevents Relationship with Others Q: Is there such a thing as the unconscious? The process of fragmentation is a state of mind that divides that says there is the unconscious, the conscious. Every human being has an image of himself of which he is unconscious, not aware. What is the origin of making images about oneself? As long as we have images there is not going to be peace in the world. There will be no love in the world. If one remains with the fact, there is a transformation. Our consciousness is our images, conclusions, ideas. If there is no image-making then what is consciousness? |
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF MAN No. 6: Any Form of Image Prevents the Beauty of Relationship Q: What will bring about a radical transformation in the total consciousness of human beings? My consciousness is the consciousness of the world because it is filled with the things of thought, sorrow, fear, pleasure, despair, attachment. Right relationship begins with the realization of the responsibility I have for myself. A major part of consciousness is the self-image. The maker of the image is the past, is the observer, the "me" which is in essence the image. The moment you see that, it is finished. When there is no movement of thought which is the image-making what then takes place? When there are none of the things that create division what comes into being? |
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THE TRANSFORMATION OF MAN No. 7: Life is Sacred Q: Do you know what it means to love somebody? Do you understand what compassion is? Do you have the sense of astonishing energy which is compassion, the end of sorrow? Without compassion human beings are destroying themselves. Have an insight into sorrow not the sorrow of thought, but the universal sorrow of mankind. and out of that insight is compassion. Is compassion the end of all life, end of all death? Is there something sacred, untouched by man which is beyond compassion? That may be the origin of everything. A real, penetrating meditation which brings insight. |
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