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Transcript follows:
Guilt, I don’t need to ask the question. It is all rather mixed up here. Why do we feel guilt? You know what that word means. Culpability. Culpa. Why do we feel guilty? Many people do. It tortures their life. Then it becomes an enormous problem.
And that is the background of guilt, with many, many people.
Guilt, in not believing; in guilt not being the rest of the group.
Guilt, you know that feeling, not the word but the feeling behind the word? That we have done something wrong and we feel guilty about remorse, anxious, therefore frightened, uncertain. And this guilt, it is a very distorting factor in our life, this is obvious.
So why do we have this feeling? (Train goes by)
At Brockword (U.K.), there are no trains, no airplanes, we can talk quietly together. But you will miss these mountains. Probably that is why you are set. (laughter)
So,why do we have this feeling of remorse?
Is it that we have not done something which is correct, which is not pragmatic, which is not put together by an environment, against which we have to go? The guilt of a man who feels, or a woman who feels, he hasn’t supported the war of his own country?
You know the various forms of guilt and the causes of it? We are asking why does this feeling exist?
Is it because we are not responsible, demanding the excellence of ourselves?
The speaker is asking: Is it that we are all lazy, indolent, and therefore slightly irresponsible, and facing that irresponsibility, we feel guilty?
I’ve followed somebody, suppose I have followed somebody, my guru, who has indulged in all kinds of things, sex and so on, and I too have, as he does, but he changes his mind, he has become old, and he says: “No more.” And his disciples say: “No more.” You understand, one has done all these things to follow that guru, and the guru has gotten rather old, and says no more. And I feel, I shouldn’t have done this, I have been wrong, You see,
The whole issue of guilt, why, and how do we deal with it? That is more important. How do we know, or feel, have the remorse, of being not what we are?
And therefore doing things which would cause us damage. And thererfore, . . . .
(Airplanes going by, “the mountains echo, more noise, they create more noise,
So let us find out how to deal with it, let us find out what to do about it, shall we,
Not investigate the causes of it–we know.
I have not done something, which is not proper. which is not correct, which is not true. And I realize later the action which has produced that is rather regrettable, unfortunate, causing unhappiness to others and I feel guilty. And various forms of the same thing having different causes. Right?
So, what shall we do when we have guilt and how to deal with it?
How would you deal with it?
What’s your approach to it?
How do you come near the problem? Is it that you want it resolved, wiped away? So that your brain is no longer caught in that?
So how do you approach it, with a desire to resolve it?
To be free of guilt?
How do you come to it?
That’s very important, isn’t it?
How you approach a problem.
If you have a direction for that problem, it must be solved that way or that way, as long as there is a direction, you “follow”, or a motive, then that motive or direction directs the issue.
So do we approach this problem like guilt without any motive? Or always approach any problem with a motive?
Right? Are we meeting this thing together?
How you approach a problem motive or direction, approach this way or that way. Can we approach the problem without a motive or always approach with a motive?
Without any background knowledge, which is motive and look at it as if for the first time… Can we do that?
2 things
How we approach and what is a problem?
We have many problems, but why?
What is a problem? Questioning the problem itself—the word and the content of that word at issue. Something that we have to answer.
Why do we have problems?
The meaning of the word problem:
Something thrown at you. Propelled at you.
The brain has been trained to problems. Conditioned in problems. Everything is a problem. Conditioned and educated to live with problems. This is a fact. Can we look at this as a fact, not as an idea or theory? And see what we can do. Whether the brain can be free to solve problems.
Not approach it with a mind that is already crowded with problems.
Is it possible to be free of problems and then attack problems? There are problems, but I cannot resolve them until the brain is free.
If the brain is not free the solution to one problem other problems are created, like in politics. I don’t know if you are aware of it. The poor chaps solve one problem, and there are a dozen problems involved in it. And they can’t deal with a dozen problems–they move away from that and tackle something else. And keep on this. . . . right? So, the speaker is asking: “Can we be free of problems first?” Uncondition the brain, which has been educated to live with problems. Right, is it clear? At last. . . .
Uncondition the brain. Is it possible? Is it possible to be free and then tackle problems? (Planes go by) “Good lord what a noisy place?
How do you answer that question? Do you say it is possible, or do you say, no, it is impossible? If you say yes it’s possible or no it’s not possible you’ve already blocked yourself. You have already closed the door. You have prevented yourself from investigating and going into the question. Right? So, we are saying to free the brain, from its educated world of problems, it’s condition, can that brain be unconditioned?
First, I must understand the question – what the question involves. Investigate that. Then come to the point, can it be free from its condition? Don’t go to sleep, please. What do you do or not do?
(Train goes by) That is, how do you listen to the noise of that train, directly, how do you listen to it? It is there. How do you listen to it? Do you resist it? Or, I won’t tell you further. Do you resist it? Or do you say it is part of life, let it through. Do you understand? This noise is going on, the rattle, the vulgarity, all the music the so-called music is pouring, right, do you resist all that? Or let it flow, flow away? Do you understand?
So, here is a question:
Is it possible to free the brain from the condition of this education which has brought about a state in which the brain is conditioned? And to be free of that conditioning? May I go into it. Right? I am going it, the speaker is going into it. Not to convince you of anything. Just to show. You pass by a window, and you look at the window, the shop, and you look at all the dresses, and all the things are in it, and you go away from it and look at another shop. You are window shopping. You are not to do anything. Just find out what he is saying. Listen to what he is saying. Not accepting or denying. Just listen.
The brain is conditioned to this whole culture of problems. It is conditioned to that. That is a nice word: “Culture of problems.” And is the conditioned brain different from the observer? You understand my question?: “Is the brain, my brain, different from me? Who is analyzing, looking, tearing, examining, accepting or not? Is that observer, the person that says I am looking at it, is he different from the brain? You understand my question, it is a very simple question, don’t complicate it.
Is anger, envy or greed different from me? Or I am anger, anger is me. Greed is me. The quality is me. There is no difference but culture and education has made us separate the two.
There is Envy, I am different from it, I must control it or indulge in it. And thereby there is conflict.
Or is violence me? Violence is not something different from me. I am violence. Me is violent. Do we see this? Once one realizes this fact, there’s no difference from the quality and me, then there is a totally different movement taking place. Right? There is no conflict. Is there? You understand? There is no conflict. As long as there is separation, there’s conflict. In me. Right?
Now, I’ve realized this. I am the quality, I am violence, the me is greed, jealous and all the rest of it. So I’ve abolished all together this division in me. I am that. Not, I am the Supreme, Sanskrit, I won’t go into it. I am that quality.
Can my brain remain with that fact–stay with that fact? You understand my question? Can I stay, can my Brain (which is so active, so alive, thinking, watching, listening, trying, effort) Can that Brain stay with the fact that I am that? Is there a conflict? Stay with it. Not run away, not try to control, because the moment you control, there’s a controller and a controlled. Therefore they become separate. Right? Please, very simple, if you really grasp this truth, this fact, you eliminate all together effort. Effort means contradiction, effort means I am different from that. You know, all that business. So, once you see the actual fact, not the idea, but the actuality that you are your quality, your anger, your envy, your jealousy, your hate, your uncertainty, your confusion, you are that; not verbally acknowledge or verbally agree, then we don’t meet each other, but if you actually see this fact and stay with it. Can you?
When you stay with it, what is implied in that?- Attention. No movement away from it. Just stay with it; not, if you have acute pain you can’t stay with it, but if you, psychologically, stay with it, inwardly, say yes it is so. That means no movement, right? I don’t know if you follow this. No movement away from the fact.
So, when there is no movement away from the fact, the essence is no conflict. Then you have broken the pattern of the brain. Right? Because, I must do something, what is the right thing to do, who will tell me the right thing to do, you follow, I must go to a psychiatrist, all that stuff takes place.
Train wheels squeak. . . .
It’s like holding a jewel marvelously put together, carved and you are holding it, you are looking at it, seeing all the Inside, Outside. How it’s put together, the platinum, gold, the diamonds all that you watch it, because you are the jewel, you are the center of all this, the most intricate subtle Jewel of which you are. The moment one sees that fact, the whole thing is different, right?
So guilt, you thought we went away from it we had to. Guilt. It’s not a problem, you understand that now, it’s a fact. It’s not a something to be resolved, something to be got over. You have done something, which is a fact and you feel guilty, that’s a fact and you stay with it, like a jewel you stay with it; like a jewel you stay with it; a rather unpleasant jewel, but it is still your jewel. So you stay with it.
When you stay with it, it begins to, please listen, it begins to flower and whither away. Like a flower if you continue to pull at it to see if the roots are working properly, the flower will never bloom; but once you see the fact, which is the seed, and then stay with it, then it shows itself fully.
All the implications of guilt, all the implications of its subtlety, where it hides, it’s like a flower, blooming, and if you let it bloom, not say actually I must do or not do, then it begins to wither away and die.
Please understand this, with every issue you can do that; about God, about anything, then you have an insight into all that. That is insight, not merely remembering.
If you discover it it is something, psychologically, enormously effective; it frees you all the past struggles and present struggles.
Saanen, Switzerland July 1985