Inward Revolution Bringing About Radical Change in the World

you call me a fool, and I say you are another, it is the response of the old
memory. Now, the machinery operates when the wife or the husband nags, when
at the moment of nagging there is no attention. When there is attention at the
moment of nagging, there is no operation of the machine. You call me an idiot,
and if I am completely aware at that moment, then the machinery has no fuel to
act. Do you see this?
At the moment of inattention, when there is no attention, the machinery is in
operation. At the moment of attention, you can say what you like, but the
machinery doesn’t function. You can see this for yourself. When you call
yourself a Hindu and do all the tricks of Hinduism, at that moment when you are
completely aware, when you call yourself a Hindu, you see all the significance,
all the meaning of it: division, conflict, battle, separation. You see all that, and
that perception takes place only when you are completely attentive. At that
moment the machinery of Hinduism, which is the conditioning, comes to an end.
Got it? Have you learned this by observing yourself?
Then the next question arises: how can the mind keep so attentive all the
time? Right? Is that the question you are asking? You see, at the moment of
attention all the conditioning disappears; all the image-building comes to an end.
It is only when you are not attentive that the whole thing begins—that you are a
Hindu, Muslim, Christian, communist, all those absurdities. So the next question
is, Can this attention be sustained? Which means, can this attention continue?
Please follow this carefully. Can this attention continue all the time, which
means, can this attention endure? That involves time, doesn’t it? See that.
Therefore you are putting a wrong question. When you ask, “Can this attention
endure? Can I keep this attention all the time? Tell me how to keep this attention
going all the time. What is the method? What is the system to sustain this
attention?” you are inviting time. Therefore time is inattention. Got it? Time is
inattention. When you are completely attentive, there is no time.
When there is this attention, and you have perceived and acted, forget it, it is
over. Don’t say, “I must carry it with me.” At that moment of attention you have
seen and acted—perception/action—but thought says, “How extraordinary! I
wish I could continue that attention all the time as I see a way of acting without
all this conflict.” And so thought wants to cultivate attention. Any form of
cultivation implies time, right? So attention cannot be cultivated through time.
Therefore perceive, act, and end there; forget it; begin again, so that the mind, the
brain cells, are fresh each time, not burdened with yesterday’s perception.
The mind then is always fresh and young and innocent, not carrying all the
burdens of yesterday. Most of us are hurt; we are beaten; we are crippled; we are
tortured; we have scars on the brain, and we are struggling through these scars to
find some state of mind in which there is no hurt. An innocent mind means a
mind that never carries the hurt over to the next day. So there is no forgiveness or
remembrance.