There is the fear of physical pain. You have had pain, years ago, or a few
days ago. We have all had physical pain, agonizing pain or superficial pain, and
that pain has left a mark on the brain. There is the memory of that pain which
you have had two days ago or two years ago, and you don’t want that pain to be
repeated. What takes place then? In the idea that the pain might come back, there
is fear. Thought, which is the response of memory, says, “I don’t want that pain
again.” So physically you cannot forget it. It is there. And as long as you think
about it, you intensify the memory of that pain, and therefore thinking about it
increases fear of that pain. Thinking about the past pain sustains that pain and the
fear that you may have that pain tomorrow, which is still the thinking about pain,
and so thought says, “I mustn’t have pain.”
So there is fear. So thought breeds fear. “I may lose my job”; “may” is in the
future. I think I may lose my job, so I get frightened. I think about death, and
thinking about it makes me afraid. So thought breeds fear. There is not only the
fear of the past, but also fear of the future. Unless you follow this very carefully,
you won’t be free of fear. Together we are going to work to see if you cannot
totally be free of it. Then you will be a free person, and you can then put away all
your gurus. You will then be able to think, see, live very clearly in an ecstatic
state. So we must, together, understand this issue basically.
Thought sustains, gives continuity to psychological pain as well as physical
pain. Now, hold that. Wait there. Leave it there. You have had great pleasure
yesterday: sensory pleasure, sexual pleasure, or the pleasure of seeing a lovely
sunset, or the shape, the beauty and the dignity and strength of a marvelous tree.
All that pleasure that you have had is recorded, isn’t it? When you see a sunset, it
is recorded on your brain, and seeing it at that moment, there is no sense of
wanting it to be repeated, there is just the experiencing of it. Then a second later
you say, “How beautiful that is; I want it repeated.” The desire to have it repeated
is the beginning of pleasure. The desire to have a repetition of an event that has
given delight and the pursuit of it, demanding further experiencing of it, is
pleasure, which again is thought. That is, seeing the sunset, then thinking about it
and wanting it to be repeated is pleasure, isn’t it? That is what you do when you
have sexual pleasure: the repetition, the image, the thinking about it, you know
all the rest of it, and wanting it again. So thought, thinking, breeds fear as well as
pleasure. Thought gives continuity to fear and continuity to pleasure. But if you
had physical pain yesterday or two years ago and finished with it, didn’t record
it, then there is no continuity brought about by thinking about it. I am going to go
into that.
Please listen to this, because you see, sirs, we are human beings, not merely
animals. We have to live intelligently. We have to live a marvelous, beautiful
life, not live in fear, which is anxiety, guilt, a sense of failure. You know fear:
fear of the dark, fear of death, fear of losing your money, fear of not becoming a
great person; there are dozens and dozens of forms of fear, but it is the same fear
expressed in different ways. Thought nourishes, sustains, gives continuity to fear
and pleasure. Thought, which has created such marvelous things in the world—
technology, all the marvelous medicines, science—that very thought sustains fear
and pleasure. So the question then is, Can thought end?
michael s
(Michael S)
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