Then there is the question, What is beauty? A religious mind must find out
what beauty is, because if there is no beauty, there is no love. Please, we are
sharing this together. You are asking yourself the question, What is beauty?
When you perceive what beauty is, then you will know what love is. And the
religious mind has this quality of beauty and love. Otherwise it’s not a religious
mind at all. So what is beauty? You know most religions have denied beauty.
The monks, the sannyasis, are afraid of beauty. Beauty is associated with sensual
desire. And they believe that if you are seeking, as they are, reality, God, you
must deny all sense of desire, all sense of perception of the beautiful. Therefore
they take vows of various kinds. When you take a vow, what happens to you?
You are everlastingly, inwardly in conflict. Therefore your mind is distorted,
becomes neurotic, incapable of perceiving what is true. So what is beauty? Do
ask this question passionately to find out. Don’t just sit there waiting to be told.
What is beauty? Is it something in the architecture of a building, something
that is in a museum, or in a book, in a poem, something carved by the hand or by
the mind? Does beauty demand expression? Must it be put into words, into stone,
into a building? Or is it something entirely different? To find out what beauty is,
and therefore what love is, there must be the understanding of oneself, the
knowing of oneself, learning about oneself, not according to any pattern, not
according to any system, but just learning about oneself as one actually is;
knowing yourself, not what your self is, but knowing what it is. Let me explain.
One thinks there is a permanent self about which one is going to learn. Right?
That is an assumption. Is there a permanent self at all about which you are going
to learn, or is the self, the “me,” a living thing, constantly changing, constantly
moving? To inquire into that, study it, learn about it, is quite a different thing
from learning about something that is there as a fixed thing. So there must be the
understanding of oneself, not according to any system, not according to any
philosopher or any analyst, but by watching oneself. Because where there is this
self, then there is division from another self; and where there is division, there
must be conflict. And where there is conflict, there is no beauty, and therefore no
love. Which does not mean that you identify yourself with the other.
So, a mind that is inquiring into this question of what a religious mind is must
be aware of, must know the extraordinary state of beauty. It can only see what
beauty is when there is total abandonment of the “me,” and in that abandonment
there is intensity, there is passion; otherwise love doesn’t exist at all. Love is not
pleasure, desire, lust. It is not merely associated with sex. A religious mind is a
mind that knows the movement of virtue and discipline.
We are going to inquire into the problem of discipline. The word discipline
means to learn. Please listen to this, just listen. You know if you can just listen
completely, not battle with me, not argue, not agree or disagree, you can see the
truth of it. But when you are arguing, discussing, comparing, judging, you are
off. If you can really listen, then you will see the truth of it and you will see that
out of that you have the most extraordinary perception of reality, which doesn’t
mean the speaker is hypnotizing you. The word discipline means to learn, not to
conform, imitate, suppress, obey, but to learn. And you cannot possibly learn if
you are accumulating. Accumulation of knowledge is necessary; otherwise you
michael s
(Michael S)
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