Inward Revolution Bringing About Radical Change in the World

yours, it is not original; it is secondhand and therefore utterly valueless. To find
out what truth is, to come upon it, the mind must be totally free of all imitation,
conformity; the mind must be entirely free from all fear. Then only can it see,
perceive what is.
So to understand what meditation is, we must find out what it is not. We are
going to examine together what it is not, because by negating that which is false,
you find out for yourself what is true. But if you merely accept what others have
said—it doesn’t matter who it is, including the speaker—then you are merely
conforming. And you conform because you hope that through conformity,
through obedience, through certain practices, you will experience some fantastic
thing, have some vision, great powers, and so on. If you are really serious, then
we can share together our examination, our investigation to come upon a state of
mind, a quality of mind, that is utterly free, that is non-mechanical, that is non-
repetitive, that is completely quiet without any form of suppression, without any
effort, without any practice.
First, there must be an understanding or learning about the self, the “me” with
all its memories, anxieties, fears, ambitions, corruption, and with its joys, sexual
pleasures; the “me” that separates itself from the “you,” and the “you” with your
“me” that separates itself from another. There must be an understanding of
oneself not according to any philosophy, any teacher, any psychologist, but
understanding by oneself. And you cannot possibly understand yourself if there
is any form of condemnation, any form of justification. To learn about yourself,
there must be the perception to see yourself as you are, not as you would like to
be, without trying to change what you are. Therefore any authority that tells you
what to do or how to investigate yourself, understand yourself, has no validity at
all.
It is absolutely necessary that you should understand yourself, because
without that understanding of yourself, there is no foundation. The understanding
of yourself is not the understanding of a self that is permanent, the so-called soul,
the Atman, the super-self. The understanding of yourself means the
understanding of your daily life—the way you talk, the motives, the ambitions,
the fears, the anxieties, the desire for power and position, the various conflicts.
All that is the “you.” You have to understand it because out of that understanding
comes righteous action. And without that righteous, true foundation, meditation
becomes a form of self-hypnosis. So, that understanding is absolutely necessary,
and not because the speaker says so. You can see logically why it is necessary. If
there is any form of contradiction in yourself, any form of fear, any quality of
ambition, competitiveness, envy, how can the mind find, discover, or come upon
something that is not of itself?
You see, reason, logic, tells you that you must understand yourself first and
not escape from yourself. You must know yourself; and therein lies one of our
difficulties, which is that when one is learning about oneself, observing oneself
and one’s thoughts, not controlling them, not suppressing them, the question
arises, Who is the observer? If you are to go into this question of meditation and
the question of how to live without sorrow, without conflict, how to live a life