Don’t you? Thinking about a past event that has caused physical pain results in
not wanting it now or tomorrow. Therefore thought, thinking about something
that was painful, is afraid that it might occur again. Right? So thought is
responsible for the continuity of fear. Do you see this? I have done something
wrong. It happened, let us say, yesterday or two weeks ago, and I am afraid that
you might know it. I don’t want you to know it, and I am afraid that you might
get to know it. So thought, thinking about something it has done that it doesn’t
want discovered, hides it and is afraid that it might be discovered. There is a
physical incident of pain and there is a psychological happening that mustn’t be
revealed, mustn’t be shown, mustn’t occur again. So thought, thinking about the
pain, thinking about what has happened, gives continuity to fear. Is that clear?
Now please watch in yourself, not how to end fear, but what gives continuity to
fear.
I have had pain last week. It’s over. It’s finished, but my mind thinks about it
and is afraid. If thought doesn’t interfere, it can end immediately; it’s over. Pain
happened two weeks ago and is over, but the brain has recorded that pain. The
brain is a recording machine, and that memory, which is part of the structure of
the brain, thinking about it, is afraid that it might happen again. Now, the speaker
has not read any books, religious, psychological, biological, or any other books.
The speaker is not saying this out of vanity, but to show you that you can learn
all about yourself completely without a book, because in you is the totality of
mankind, in you all history is buried, not the dates of kings and wars, but the
historical movement of growth. So when we are talking of the brain, it is not the
result of instructions by a professor about the brain cells. You can observe it
yourself, and therefore it is authentic, real. And in that lies great beauty and
independence, freedom.
So thought, which is the response of memory of a physical or psychological
incident, is recorded in the brain cells. The brain cells hold this memory and the
brain cells say to be careful not to have pain any more, to watch it. Thought
doesn’t want it, and therefore thought breeds fear.
Now, what is pleasure? Please do understand this thing. It is really
extraordinarily simple once you understand it. The complicated, intellectual mind
wants a complicated thing and misses the very simplicity of it. What is pleasure?
You see a beautiful tree or a lovely sunset with marvelous colors. You see a pond
in the light of an evening or in the morning, see the beauty of it, the stillness of it,
the extraordinary depth of light and shade. It happens. You are there, and you see
it and say, “How marvelous that is.” The brain cells have recorded it, and thought
says, “I wish I could have that experience again tomorrow; it was so lovely, so
beautiful, so enchanting.” Thought gives continuity to the incident of the sunset
and wants it repeated. Yesterday you had sexual pleasure—don’t be shy, observe
it. You had sexual pleasure; that has been recorded, and thought goes over it,
thinks about it, chews the cud, builds images, and thought says, “I must have it
again.” So thought breeds fear, and thought gives continuity to pleasure—not
detachment from pleasure, not desirelessness at all. It is a shoddy way of looking
at life to seek desirelessness as a way to truth, because then you have a mind that
is tortured, fighting your own instincts, your own demands, your own longings.
michael s
(Michael S)
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