Truth

Only a profound inward revolution which alters all our values can create a different environment, an intelligent social structure, and such a revolution can be brought about only by you and me. No new order will arise until we individually break down our psychological barriers and are free.

What we can and must do if we are in earnest, is to tackle our problems now, and not postpone them to future. Eternity is not in future; eternity is now. Our problems exist in the present, and it is only in the present that they can be solved.

Human problems are not simple, they are very complex. To understand them requires patience and insight, and it is of the highest importance that we as individuals understand and resolve them for ourselves.

To understand ourselves, we must be aware of our relationship, not only with people, but also with property, with ideas and with nature.

Awareness of the whole process, both the conscious and the hidden, is ‘meditation’;

and through this meditation, the self, with its desires and conflicts, is transcended. Self-knowledge is necessary if one is to be free of the influences and values that give shelter to the self: and in this freedom alone is there creation, truth, God, or what you will.

Conscious and unconscious fear has many different causes, and it needs alert watchfulness to be rid of them all. Fear cannot be eliminated through discipline, sublimation, or through any other act of will: its causes have to be searched out and understood. This needs patience and an awareness in which there is no judgment of any kind.

We crave to be certain, to be right, to be successful, to know; and this desire for certainty, for performance, builds up within ourselves the authority of personal experience, while outwardly it creates the authority of society, of the family, of religion, and so on.

In moments of sorrow, we turn to what we call God, which is but an image of our own mind; or we find gratifying explanations, and that gives us temporary comfort. The religions that we follow are created by our hopes and fears, by our desire for inward security and reassurance; and with the worship of authority, whether it is that of a savior, a master, or a priest, there comes submission, acceptance and imitation. So, we are exploited in the name of God, as we are exploited in the name of parties and ideologies – and we go on suffering.

Intelligence is the capacity to understand the ways of life; it is the perception of right values.

There is a distinction between intellect and intelligence. Intellect is thought functioning independently of emotion, whereas, intelligence is the capacity to feel as well as to reason.

What is essential for man, whether young or old, is to live fully, integrally, and that is why our major problem is the cultivation of that intelligence which brings integration.

Only love and right thinking will bring about true revolution, the revolution within us. Without love and right thinking, oppression and cruelty will be on increase. The problem of man’s antagonism to man can be solved, not by pursuing the ideal of peace, but by understanding the causes of war which lie in our attitude towards life, towards our fellow beings; and this understanding can come about only through the right kind of education. Without a change of heart, without goodwill, without the inward transformation which is born of self-awareness, there can be no peace, no happiness for men.

Art, Beauty & Creation

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Many of us are regularly trying to exit from ourselves; and as art offers a respectable and easy means of doing so, it plays a significant role the lives of many people.


"Art divorced from life has no great significance. When art is separated from our daily living, when there is a gap between our natural life and our efforts on the canvas, in marble or in words, then art becomes merely an expression of our superficial desire to escape from the reality of what it is"




Praise and adulation, when taken to heart, inflate the ego and destroy receptivity and the worship of success in any field is obviously detrimental to intelligence. Sensitivity to beauty and to ugliness does not come about through attachment; it comes with love, when there are no self-created conflicts. When we are inwardly poor, we indulge in every form of outward show, in wealth, power and possessions. When our hearts are empty, we collect things. If we can afford it, we surround ourselves with objects that we consider beautiful, and because we attach enormous importance to them, we are responsible for much misery and destruction.

Since our hearts are withered and we have forgotten how to be kindly, how to look at the stars, at the trees, at the reflections in the water, we require the stimulation of pictures and jewels, of books and endless amusements. We are constantly seeking new excitements, new thrills; we crave an increasing variety of sensations. Sensations can be bought, but not the love of beauty. When there is love in our hearts, we do not search for a way of putting words together.
Creativeness comes into being when there is constant awareness of the ways of the mind, and of the hindrances it has built for itself. Creativeness is a state of being in which the conflicts and sorrows of the self are absent, a state in which the mind is not caught up in the demands and pursuits of desires. When the mind is utterly still without being forced or trained into quiescence, when it is silent because the self is inactive, then there is creation.

The love of beauty may express itself in a song, in a smile, or in silence; but most of us have no inclination to be silent. We have not the time to observe the birds, the passing clouds, because we are too busy with our pursuits and pleasures. When there is no beauty in our hearts, how can we help the children to be alert and sensitive? We try to be sensitive to beauty while avoiding the ugly; but avoidance of the ugly makes for insensitivity. If we would develop sensitivity in the young, we ourselves must be sensitive to beauty and to ugliness, and must take every opportunity to awaken in them the joy there is in seeing, not only the beauty that man has created, but also the beauty of nature.