So we are together going to investigate these two issues upon which all our
actions are based. They may be superficial actions, hidden actions, conscious or
unconscious actions. All our motives are based on these two fundamental
principles of pleasure and fear. When you say you are seeking truth, what you are
seeking is the permanent establishment of the thing you call pleasure. Observe it
in your own life. And when the mind is frightened, fearful, it divides people. It
makes people violent, disorderly. They may discipline themselves endlessly, but
if there is fear, there is distortion, there is corruption, there is violence, there is
mischief. Please do see it in yourself. You must, if you are at all serious—and I
hope you are for your own sake—because the house is burning, not your
particular little house but the fire is in the world. There is destruction in the
world, there is murder, chaos, and that house is burning; although you may have
a little life with a bank account and spin a lot of theories, the house is burning.
Anyone who is really profoundly serious must understand these two principles.
So we are together going to investigate what pleasure is and what fear is—not
how to avoid fear, how to run away from fear, how to suppress fear or overcome
fear, but to understand it; not how to further pleasure, expand pleasure, but to
understand it. To understand, you need a sensitive, delicate, observing mind that
is capable of looking without coming to any conclusions, because a mind that has
conclusions cannot function sanely.
Learn from yourself, through observing yourself, through observing these two
factors of human existence: fear and pleasure. What is fear and what is pleasure?
Why has pleasure become so extraordinarily important? It expresses itself in so
many subtle ways: self-importance, prestige, fame, success, knowledge, erudition
all lie along the path of pleasure. Though you may go to temples and hear all the
temple bells ringing, what you really worship is pleasure and money. A person
who is really deeply, profoundly serious has to understand this, as well as fear.
Fear doesn’t exist by itself. It exists in relation to something, to public
opinion, what people might say about you. There is the fear of death; there is the
fear of the unknown; there is the fear of the known, the fear of insecurity, the fear
of losing a job, fear of your wife who may do something that you oppose, or of
the husband doing something stupid. Fear breeds violence. Haven’t you noticed
in a country that is becoming overpopulated, every year more and more millions
arriving, there naturally must be the growth of fear because of unemployment,
lack of food, the insoluble poverty, the corrupt government? When you see all
this, you are bound to be afraid, not only for your own security but also for the
security of the coming generation, for your sons and your daughters. There is fear
of death. Aren’t you all afraid of something or other? You had a physical pain a
week ago, and you don’t want that pain repeated. Somebody has hurt you and
there is fear of that hurt. Fear breeds violence. So unless you really are free of
fear, you are bound to create chaos in the world. And fear cannot be suppressed
by an ideal, like the ideal of courage. See what happens. You are afraid, and you
have an idea that by developing courage you can get rid of fear, which is
avoiding what is and hoping through courage to get rid of fear. If you have an
ideal, it acts as an impediment to the understanding of what is.
michael s
(Michael S)
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