The Observer and the Observed

The following is an excerpt from his book "On Conflict" and is one of our favorites for its completeness on this subject...

Bombay, 31 January 1981

  

What is it each of you wants? I can't give you money, a job, lead you to heaven, to salvation, so what can the speaker do? All he can do is point out certain factors, incidents, experiences that are

detrimental to human existence; he can point out that nationalism is a great danger, communalism is a great danger, a small community opposed to global existence is a great danger, that any religion that does not liberate man is an extraordinary danger--- your books, so-called sacred books, are worthless if they don't help you to be free. So can we together help each other to be free--- free from fear, sorrow, anxiety so that we have some kind of peace, of love in the world? Can we do this together? or is this impossible? Would you like the speaker to convey to you a way of living that is totally different from the way we are living now? Is it possible that we can together bring about a totally different society? That will be possible only if our relationships are correct, if our actions are right.

Shall we go into the question of what is right action? Action that will be right under all circumstances, wherever you live, whatever the environment, however limited your activity--- can we find out together what right action is? This is very important. So let's find out together the meaning of those two words, right and action. When we use the word right, it means whole, not fragmented, not broken up, an action that is complete, in which there are no regrets, that does not bring with  it any kind of disturbance. Right means a movement that is constantly whole, precise, accurate under all circumstances. And action means doing--- doing--- not having done or will do. So right action means doing, means action that is whole, immediate. What is our actual action now? It is based on an ideal, a memory or an action that you should do, so our action is always building, always becoming. If we have a motive for an action, that action is essentially inaction, because in that action you are continually becoming, and you are therefore concerned only with becoming, not with action. So we are going to find out now for ourselves what right action is.

If you can really understand this for yourselves, you will have solved numerous problems. Our whole life is becoming. If you are a clerk, you want to become a manager, if a manager; a top manager; and so on. You want to climb the ladder, whether in business or politics, and it is the same thing in the religious world. In the world if you are practicing, following certain dicta, certain concepts, ideas, you are again becoming, constantly achieving. So our life is actually, if you observe it, a constant process of becoming. In that becoming time is involved. I am this, I will be that, which means a movement from here to there, a psychological distance. You need time to go from here to your home. There it is necessary because you live far away or near, that involves time. Psychologically, inwardly, you say to yourself, I am this, but I will become that. There is distance between what you are and what you want to be, which is time in which you are becoming something. So our life is always becoming and in that becoming there is action. Right? So action is never complete. I wonder if you see this? When you are allowing time in action, that time indicates that you are moving from one point to another point. So your action will inevitably be limited, and therefore any action that is limited will bring about greater conflict.

So, is there an action that does not involve time? Please see the importance of this. There is biological time, growth from the infant, there is psychological time, and there is time by the watch, which is day and night. So there are three types of time: Biological time, you can't do anything about that, but time is involved in the very genes. In order to grow from childhood to manhood, old age, time is necessary there. And time is necessary to go from here to your house. But we also think time is necessary  for bringing about right action: I will learn what right action is, and that learning implies time. So is there and action that does not involve time, which means, is there an action that is not controlled by the  idea of becoming? Is that all right? Please see the importance of what is involved  in time, psychological time. That is; I am angry; I will take time to get over my anger. That is how our brain functions; it has been trained through the millennia to function that way. You also think that illumination or enlightenment needs time, life after life, following a system of meditation, obeying, that all involves time.

We are saying time is danger. Psychological time is danger because it prevents you from acting. If you are violent, if you say, "I will be non-violent", you have taken time. In that time you are not free from violence; you are being violent. So if you understand the nature of time, there will be immediate action. That is, there is the ending of violence immediately. Let us understand the question of time. It is very important because we think we need time to change; we think we need time to grow, to evolve---that time means that, that is, what we are and what we should be. This is our constant, continuous tradition, our conditioning. Now we are pointing out the danger  of psychological time, not biological time, or time by the watch, but psychological time, that is, admitting tomorrow, a tomorrow may be  a hundred days away, but the idea that time is necessary to change from 'what is' to 'what should be'. So we are saying that is one of the most dangerous factors of life, to admit time in action. Now wait a minute. I need time to learn a language; I need time to take an engineering degree. If I want to become a computer expert, I have to study, go into it, take time; it takes time to go from here to your house. We need time physically to go from here to there. We need time to learn a language; we need time to become an expert in anything; to be a good carpenter, you need time for all that.

So our whole brain is working with the concept of time. Our whole way of life is to become something. And this becoming is the most dangerous factor in action. You see, we have never

inquired whether it is possible not to have tomorrow, not to have a future; the  future is the becoming. Also, we have never inquired into what is being. We have accepted the tradition, the conditioning that all life is becoming. You plant a seed; it becomes a plant, a tree; that takes time. So that same movement is accepted in the psychological world. We are questioning that. We are saying any form of psychological becoming not only prevents actual action, but is an illusion. There is no psychological tomorrow, but thought has created the idea of becoming, and thought has projected the tomorrow--- not that there is no tomorrow, there is, you have to get up tomorrow--- the idea that psychologically, inwardly, I will become something; I will ultimately find heaven; I will find enlightenment; life after life, if I live rightly, I will have my reward. Time is necessary for a plant to grow, and we think time is necessary to become something.

Now, in that becoming lie all our problems: I must be better, more loving, or I am greedy for money, and I keep pursuing money, money, money. So you see what is happening? The brain is the result of time; it has evolved from the ape to the present time; it has grown through experience, knowledge, memory, thought and action. Now, see what is happening? Experience, knowledge, memory, action--- to acquire knowledge requires time.

So we are asking, what is right action? It cannot be in the field of time. I cant' learn about right action. If I learn about right action, that learning takes time. If you catch the full of this immediately, then out of that immediate perception is action that is not involved in time. I will go into this more deeply.

As the speaker said, time is danger. Either you perceive directly and act directly now, or you say, "I will think over what you have said and see if you are right or wrong". Then you are taking time, whereas if you say, "Let me listen very carefully to what he is saying." this means you are paying attention, and that attention has no time. You attend, you listen, not you will listen or you listen and interpret what is being said, which takes time, or you translate what you hear into what you already know, which also takes time. So can you listen so completely that you catch immediately the significance of time? I will go into it again. Scientists, especially the computer experts, have realized that what thought can do or has done, the computer can do. That is a fact. What thought can do the computer can do much faster, much more accurately; it can do extraordinary things. They are asking, what then, is intelligence? If the computer can do what thought can do, what is man?  Now the computer is programmed by a human being, and the computer can never be free of knowledge; it is based on knowledge. Human beings can be free from knowledge. That is the only difference. The freeing from knowledge is not time.

Man is the only one who can free himself form the known. The computer can't. The known is time; to acquire knowledge needs time. Wait, to know oneself, you think you need time. To know myself is to read the book of mankind. I am mankind, and I think I need time to read that book. I have to understand why I have reactions, why I have accumulated memory, why this and that.  So, to read that book, which is self knowledge, we think we need time. That is, I need to know myself, which is the whole structure of knowledge. To know myself, I think I need time. We are applying the same principle for learning a language to learning about myself or about you. So we think time is necessary. And I don't need time there. We think we need time to become.

So we are asking, does right action imply time? I am going to show you something. Our actions are

based on experience, knowledge memory, thought. That is the chain in which we live, from which we act. That process is a movement in time. Now we are pointing out something else, which is that this movement of knowledge, experience, memory, action, and then repeating that same pattern is time, and as we have lived in that process we are caught, conditioned by it. Now, to act means doing, the doing now, not tomorrow, not to have acted. Action means doing, the doing without time, That is action. so if you have a problem, not to carry that problem overnight, not to allow time to solve it: time will never solve it. Not to burden your mind with psychological problems. If you are a technician, you have been trained to solve problems. That is simple. But now you are being conditioned by time, that is, acquiring knowledge and acting from knowledge, acting from that which you have learned. We are saying see this movement--- experience, knowledge, memory, thought, action---see that fact. That is a fact; see it in the sense, be aware of it, and if you see that very clearly, your perception then is without time and therefore action in which time is not involved at all. I will show you.

Most people are hurt psychologically  from childhood. In school, you are compared with somebody else who is brighter, and you get hurt. This hurt is carried through school, college, university, or you get hurt psychologically, inwardly, in some other way by somebody, by a word, a gesture, a look. We are all of us, most human beings, psychologically hurt. What is hurt is the image that you have built about yourself. That is clear. That image is hurt. As long as you have an image, you are going to be hurt, or flattered--- its the same thing, two sides of the same coin. That's a fact. Most human beings are hurt--- they carry it throughout life--- and that hurt results in more and more withdrawal, fear, resistance, avoidance, isolation. You see all that. That is, you have listened; you see the reasons, see the logic of it; you have comprehended it intellectually, which means you have understood only the verbal meaning but don't actually see the truth of it. The truth is that as long as you are hurt, that hurt is the image you have about yourself created by your society, family, education, and so on. You have built an image like the politician who builds an image about himself, wanting power, position, and when somebody comes along ands puts a pin in your image, you get hurt. Now, do you see that fact, or is it merely an idea? You understand the difference?

You hear verbally what is being said. You listen to it and then make an abstraction of it that becomes an idea that you then pursue and not the actuality. Do you see the actual fact that you have an image of yourself? If you do, and that is a fact, that image is going to be hurt. You can't escape from it. It is there. Now do you completely realize that as long as you have an image about yourself, you are going to be hurt? Do you see that as a fact? If you see that as a fact, then you can inquire who created it. Thought, experience, education, family, tradition, all that goes to create the image. And you see the truth that as long as you have an image, you are going to be hurt with all its consequences. If you see that, perceive the actual fact, then the image disappears instantly. If you say," How am I to get rid of the image? Show me the method and I will practice it", in all that you are allowing time, and therefore perpetuating the image. Whereas if you see the fact, the truth that as long as you have an image about anything, you are going to be hurt, the seeing of the truth is the ending of the image. That is, seeing the fact is all important. Perception and immediate action.

So we human beings have problems. As I said, one of these problems is conflict, conflict between 'what is' and 'what should be'. That is conflict. And belief in any form, which gives a certain kind of psychological security, is detrimental to man. If you see conflict is a danger, look at it, see all the consequences of it, see it as a fact, and don't move way from the fact, then the very perception of it is the ending of it. That is why one has to understand the enormous complexity of time. If you understand it intellectually, it has no value; it's just verbal communication. But if you really understand, that is, see actually that you are greedy--- and do not say, I must not be greedy, then you are wandering away from it-- if you stay with greed, see it instantly, that very perception is the action that ends it. Are you doing it, or are you just verbally accepting all this?

As we said, we have been exploring together our human brain, our human life, everyday life with all its conflicts, illusions, and so on. And we think time, the next life, will solve all these problems. Time is the greatest enemy you can possibly have, because time prevents action, action as a whole, complete, undivided so that it does not leave a mark as regret. So if you have listened very carefully, seen it for yourself, you will understand that freedom from time is the greatest enlightenment.