K: It is a mind without any bearing, without order, completely unstable. Because
there is no order in the whole movement, it becomes neurotic, unbalanced,
without proportion, inharmonious, destructive.
A: It is restless.
K: Therefore such a mind has no stability: it invents external goals or it
withdraws. But the mind needs order. Order means stability. The mind tries to
find stability in relationships in the external world and, not finding it out there,
withdraws, trying to find it within, and is again caught in the same process. Is
this a fact? (pause)
The mind tries to find stability in cooperative action; it tries to find stability in
the family; it tries to find stability in commitments, in relationship with nature.
And not finding stability in any of these, it becomes romantic, which breeds
further instability. It withdraws into a world of infinite conclusions, utopias,
hopes, dreams, and invents an order in that. The mind which is unstable, narrow,
not rooted in anything, gets lost. Is that what is happening to you?
R: That explains the cult of the beautiful—
K: The cult of the beautiful, the cult of the ugly, the hippies’ cult. Is that what is
happening to your mind? Beware. Do not accept what I am saying.
So, a mind which is not stable, that is not firm, not deeply rooted in order (not
an invented order, for an invented order is death), is destructive. It goes from
communism to the guru, from Yoga-Vaśiṣṭha to Ramana Maharṣi; it is caught in
the cult of the beautiful, the cult of the ugly, the cult of devotion, of meditation,
and so on.
How is the mind to be still? Action which flows from that stillness is entirely
different. See the beauty of it, sir.
A: That is the dead end of the mind.
K: No, sir. I am asking myself: How is the mind to be completely stable?—not
the stability of hardness, but a flexible stability. The mind that is completely
stable, firm, deep, has its roots in infinity. How is this possible? I realize that my
mind is unstable, and I understand what that means: I know for myself that the
mind is born of instability; I know that and, so, I negate it; and I ask: What is
stability? I know instability, with all its destructive activity, and when I put all
that away, what is stability? I sought stability in the family, in work, and I have
sought stability inwardly, in withdrawal, in experience, in knowledge, in my own
capacities, and in God. I see that I do not know what stability is. The not-knowing
is the stability.
The man who says: I know, therefore, I am stable, has led us to this chaos, as
have the people who say: We are the chosen ones. And all the vast numbers of
teachers and gurus have said: We know. Rejecting all that, rely on yourself, have
confidence in yourself. When the mind puts away all this, when it has understood