Quote of the Day
To discover what is true, all conclusions, every form of comparison and condemnation must be put aside, and that is a very difficult thing for most of us to do because we are educated, conditioned to condemn, to justify. When we have a problem, we try to find an answer instead of understanding the problem itself, and the answer is in the problem, not away from the problem. For most of us, change is merely a change of pattern, and if you consider it, you will see that a change of pattern is no change at all. Any change within the field of time is the same movement modified and continued.
Now, I am talking not about a change of pattern but about a deep psychological revolution - which means breaking away completely from the psychological structure of society. Change within the pattern of society is a movement from the known to the known, is it not? I am this and I want to become that, which is my ideal, so I struggle to change. But the ideal is a projection of the known, and the pursuit of the ideal is still no change at all.
Revolution implies, surely, a total awareness of the whole psychological structure of the 'me', conscious and unconscious, and being completely free of it without thinking of becoming something else. Whether we are aware of it or not, most of us have established a pattern of thought and activity, a patterned way of life. In trying to bring about a change in our life, consciously or unconsciously we accept a certain pattern, and we think we have changed, but actually there has been no change at all.
Now, I am talking not about a change of pattern but about a deep psychological revolution - which means breaking away completely from the psychological structure of society. Change within the pattern of society is a movement from the known to the known, is it not? I am this and I want to become that, which is my ideal, so I struggle to change. But the ideal is a projection of the known, and the pursuit of the ideal is still no change at all.
Revolution implies, surely, a total awareness of the whole psychological structure of the 'me', conscious and unconscious, and being completely free of it without thinking of becoming something else. Whether we are aware of it or not, most of us have established a pattern of thought and activity, a patterned way of life. In trying to bring about a change in our life, consciously or unconsciously we accept a certain pattern, and we think we have changed, but actually there has been no change at all.
Public Talk 7 London, England - 19 June 1962
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