Quote of the Day

Feb 19, 2024
How does one perceive the whole of anything? The whole of fear, not the broken up of fear in different forms or the fear of the unconscious and the conscious - in the conscious and in the unconsciousness - but the whole of fear. You understand? How does one perceive the whole of fear? How do I perceive the whole of me - the 'me' constructed by thought, isolated by thought, fragmented by thought which in itself is fragmented? So it creates the 'me' and thinks that 'me' is independent of thought. The 'me' thinks it is independent of thought but it has created the 'me' - the 'me' with all its anxieties, fears, vanities, agonies, pleasures, pain, hopes - all that. That 'me' has been created by thought. And that 'me' becomes independent of thought, it thinks it has its own life - like a microphone which is created by thought, and yet it is independent of thought. The mountain is not created by thought but yet it is independent. The 'me' is created by thought and the 'me' says: "I am independent of thought". Now to see the totality - you understand - is this clear now?

So what is fear totally - not the various forms of fear, not the various leaves of this tree of fear but the total tree of fear? Right?

How does one see the totality of fear? To see something totally or to listen to something completely there must be freedom, mustn't there? Freedom from prejudice, freedom from your conclusion, freedom from your wanting to be free of fear, freedom from the rationalization of fear. Please follow all this. Freedom from the desire to control it - can the mind be free of all that? Otherwise it can't see the whole. I am afraid. I am afraid because of tomorrow, losing a job, afraid I may not succeed, afraid I might lose my position, afraid that there I will be challenged and I'll not be able to reply, afraid of losing my capacity - all the fears that one has. Can you look at it without - please listen - any movement of thought which is time, which causes fear? Have you understood something?
Public Talk 4 Saanen, Switzerland - 20 July 1975 Read full text