this whole question of fear, look at it immediately and understand it instantly, not
through analysis but see it immediately. And when you have observed this you
find that you have a mind that is learning, and therefore it has become somewhat
intelligent, because it has become sensitive about the problem, which before it
has evaded. Now you are sensitive to the problem of fear and pleasure; therefore
you are learning about it. The mind that is learning about fear and pleasure has
not learned it before; it is learning now, not before.
Listen, listen. I want to convey this to you with my heart so that you leave as
a human being who is living, and not eternally frightened. You see, when you are
learning about something that you don’t know about, you come to it afresh. Your
mind is blank; you don’t know. You will only know a language as you
accumulate knowledge about it, but you start with not knowing. Now, you think
you know about fear, about pleasure, but you don’t really know, so you are
learning now. A mind that is learning is an intelligent mind, not the mind that
says, “I have learned; I know what fear is.” The mind that says, “Oh, you know;
tell me all about it. You are my guru; I’ll follow,” is a stupid mind. It cannot
learn; it’s a dead mind; it’s a neurotic mind. But a mind that is learning is a mind
that says, “I don’t know; I am going to look at fear for the first time; I am going
to look at attachment for the first time; I am going to find out for the first time
what real pleasure is.” I have accepted these as a habit, therefore I never learn.
On the contrary, I become more and more and more steeped in fear, getting more
and more dull, stupid.
When you are learning, your mind is awake. A mind that is awake is an
intelligent mind, and it is this intelligence that says when you should use
knowledge and when not. You have to find the truth of all this for yourself. Truth
isn’t secondhand; you can’t get it through a guru, through a book. You have to
learn about it. And the beauty of the learning is that you don’t know. You don’t
know what truth is. You really don’t know; therefore learn about it. And to learn
about it, one must come with a passion, an intensity to find out. A mind that is
learning is an intelligent mind, not the mind that repeats or is caught in a habit.
Learning brings intelligence, as you have intelligence when you are a first-class
engineer, or a first-class scientist. If you are really learning, not from me, then
you have this extraordinary quality of intelligence that you can’t buy in any
book.
Now we are going to learn together what love is—learn, because you don’t
know what it means. You have used that word; you have repeated that word and
loaded it with all kinds of formulas: love is godly, love is sacred, love is not
profane. You load it with a lot of words, and you think you have understood it.
Do you know what love is? Do you? If you are really honest, not hypocritical,
you will say, “Really, I don’t know. I know what jealousy is; I know what sexual
pleasure that I call love is; I know all the agony that one goes through that one
calls love.” But the nature of it, the beauty of it, the truth of it you really don’t
know, do you? Therefore let’s find out; let’s learn about it. When you are
learning you have a fresh mind, not an old, withered, decayed mind. When you
learn you have a fresh mind, it doesn’t matter what age you are. That’s why
tradition is such a deadly thing. It stops you from learning.
michael s
(Michael S)
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