Look, one has lived in the same old pattern, in a small corner of this vast field
of life, and in that corner there is extraordinary division. That very corner creates
division, right? And we are living in that state. One observes this not through
books or through newspapers or through what somebody else says, but one
actually observes this fact, and one asks, Can this be radically changed? We think
of change in terms of time: “I will be different tomorrow.” We are caught in the
verb to be—“I have been. I am. I shall be.” The word to be is time. And one sees,
if one is serious, meditative, deeply inquiring, that time doesn’t seem to bring
about radical change. I will be tomorrow what I have been, modified, slightly
different, but it is the same movement of what has been. That is a process in time,
and in that there is no mutation, there is no transformation. Can a mutation take
place from which there will be a different way of living, a different culture, a
different creation altogether? Can there be perception and action—not perception
with action later on, which is the function of thought?
I see in myself—which is yourself—a great deal of suffering, a great deal of
confusion, ambition, anger, brutality, violence. All the things that man has put
together are in me, are in you—the sexual pleasures, the ideological pleasures,
the fears, the agonies, the competitive drive, aggression. You know all that; that
is what you are, what we are. Can that be changed instantly? We think that there
is a way of bringing about a radical change in that through time: “Gradually I
will evolve. Gradually I will get rid of my anger.” That means time. And one
sees that time doesn’t bring about a change at all. It may modify, but it doesn’t
bring about a change radically. Because you perceive yourself as you are and say,
“I will be that. I should be that.” There is an interval between what is and what
should be. That interval is space, time. When you are moving from what is to
what you should be, there are other factors coming in, and therefore you will
never come to what should be.
I am violent, and I say to myself that I must not be violent. The “must not be
violent” implies time, doesn’t it? “I will be nonviolent in a week’s time”—that
involves time, and between now and the next week I am sowing the seeds of
violence. Therefore I haven’t stopped being violent. Therefore I ask myself if
there is a perception that is free from time and therefore is instant action. Is there
a perception of violence which will end that violence, not in a week’s time but
instantly? That is, I want to see if violence can end instantly and not gradually
because when I say “gradually,” it will never end. Do you see that?
Therefore is it possible to perceive so that that very perception is action?
Now, what prevents that perception? Perception is action, as when you see a
snake and you act instantly. There is no saying, “I will act next week.” There is
immediate response because there is danger. Now, what prevents the mind and
therefore the brain from this instant action of perception?
Let’s talk about it a little. What do you think prevents it? Why don’t you see
that time is a barrier? Time doesn’t bring freedom because time is thought, right?
Time is putting things together horizontally or vertically, and time will not bring
about a different perception of life at a different dimension. So what is it that
prevents perception? Why don’t you see things clearly and act instantly? Why
don’t you see that psychological division as a Parsi, a Hindu, a communist, a
michael s
(Michael S)
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