Quote of the Day

Aug 30, 2023
Now, what is it that makes the mind superficial? Please don't merely listen to me, but observe, be aware of your own thinking when a question like that is put to you. What makes the mind superficial? Why cannot the mind experience something that is true, beyond its own projections? Is it not primarily the gratification that each one is seeking that makes the mind superficial? We want at any price to be gratified, to find a satisfaction, so we seek methods to achieve that end. And is there such a thing as gratification, ever? Though we may be temporarily satisfied, and change the object of our satisfaction depending on our age, is there satisfaction at any time? Desire is constantly seeking to fulfill itself, so we go from one satisfaction to another, and getting caught in each new satisfaction, with all its complications, we again become dissatisfied and try to disentangle ourselves. We cling to persons, pursue teachers, join groups, read books, take up one philosophy after another, but the central desire is always the same: to be satisfied, to be secure, to become somebody, to achieve a result, to gain an end. Is not that whole process one of the primary causes of the mind's superficiality?
Ojai, California | Fifth Talk in The Oak Grove, July 4, 1953 Read full text