K: Is there security in thought? Thought has created all this. Is there security
here?
SW: It is thought which has produced all this.
K: I have assumed that there is security, but is there security? I have said that I
must have knowledge, but is that security? I see divisions—between your family
and my family, between what is yours and what is mine. Is there security in all
this?
See what I have found: There is security in knowledge, but not in this
divisiveness which is a result of knowledge. So thought says to itself: Is there
security in the very structure of thinking itself? Is there security in the past? Is
there security in tradition? Is there security in knowledge? The brain has sought
security in all these, but is that security? The brain has to see for itself that there
is no security there. So what happens? (pause)
I see that there is no security there. It is a tremendous discovery for me. So
thought says: What next? I must destroy myself because I am the greatest danger.
But now, who is the ‘I’ who is going to destroy itself? So thought again says: I
must not divide.
SW: Slay the slayer.
K: The prison and the prisoner, the slayer and the slain—is there an ending of the
self without this division? For division means a contradiction. Is there an ending
without effort? In the ending is the quality of sensitivity. To come through all this
to this point requires a tremendous subtlety, which is sensitivity.
So, can thought end itself? This investigation has required great attention,
great awareness, a moving step by step—never missing a thing—which has its
own discipline, its own order. Following its own functioning step by step, seeing
its own attitudes, searching in areas which bring no real security, observing that it
has sought security in division, the brain is now orderly. It sees now that in
division there is no security, therefore every step it takes is a step in order. And
that order is its own security.
Order is the perception of things as they are; it is the perception of what one
is—not a conclusion. I cannot see things as they are if I have conclusions, for in
conclusions there is disorder. Thought has sought security in conclusions, which
has spread disorder. Therefore, it now rejects conclusions immediately. It
functions in knowledge only when it is necessary, but nowhere else. For
everywhere else the function of thought is to create conclusions and images.
Therefore thought comes to an end.
Rishi Valley
24 January, 1971