Awakening of Intelligence, The

So, that's one part of this structure of fear. The other is: I have known security, certainty, and tomorrow is uncertain and I'm afraid of that - that is psychological time, isn't it. I have known and lived a life of semi-quasi-certainty, security, but tomorrow is so dreadfully uncertain, and I'm frightened of that. Then arises my problem, how am I not to be afraid. All that is involved, surely is it not, in psychological time. Right? And the knowledge of yesterday, our many thousand yesterdays, has given me, has given to the brain a certain sense of security. Right? Are we following this? No, sir? knowledge has given security to the mind - knowledge being experience, remembrance, memories. That is, the past has... in the past there has been security for the brain. Tomorrow there may be no security at all, I might be killed.

So knowledge as time gives to the brain a sense of security. No? Got it? So knowledge is time. And I am afraid, I have no knowledge of tomorrow therefore I am afraid. So if I had knowledge of tomorrow I wouldn't be afraid. So knowledge breeds fear. And yet I must have knowledge. Is it getting too much? Am I... You are following? I must have knowledge to go from here to the station, I must have knowledge to speak English, or French or Italian or whatever it is, I must have knowledge to do any kind of function, and that knowledge which I have accumulated about myself as an experiencer, and that experiencer is frightened of tomorrow because he doesn't know tomorrow. Right?

K: What about repetition - it is the same thing, mechanical. After all, knowledge is repetitive. I add to it or take away from it but its a machinery of accumulation. Come on, sirs.

Q: It's only difficult when you say, you say that knowledge is yesterday and gives you security - there I find it difficult because I find the knowledge of yesterday has given insecurity.

K: Wait, wait, wait. knowledge also gives insecurity, doesn't it. And also knowledge gives security. I have been hurt by human beings in the past - that's knowledge. That remains deep, deeply rooted, and I loathe human beings, and I am frightened of them, which is knowledge.

Q: One isn't speaking of psychological knowledge but physical torture.

Now let's come back. All right, Sarah? Now, I am afraid what human beings have done to me or to another human being, and that knowledge is in the brain, a scar. That is, knowledge of the past not only gives uncertainty but also the certainty that I may be hurt tomorrow - the same - therefore I am afraid.

Now, why does the brain retain the memory of that hurt of yesterday? In order to protect itself from the future hurts? Let's think it out, sir. That means I am always facing the world with that hurt - right? - and therefore I have no relationship with another human being because this hurt is so deep. Right? And I resist every human relationship because I might get hurt again. Therefore there is fear. knowledge of the past hurt and the fear of future hurt brings fear. So knowledge... But yet I must have knowledge.

So, knowledge has been accumulated through time - scientific knowledge, technological knowledge, knowledge of a language and so on. To learn a language I need time. To learn any technological... I must have time, and so on and on. knowledge, which is the product of time, must exist, otherwise I can't do anything, I can't talk to you, I can't communicate with you. But also I see that knowledge of the past, as being hurt, that very knowledge says be careful not to be hurt in the future. So I'm afraid of the future. You follow, sir?

So, how am I who have been hurt very deeply, scarred, how am I to be free of that and not project that knowledge into the future and say, 'I am afraid of the future'. There are two problems involved, aren't there. There is the scar of pain, hurt, and the knowledge of it makes me afraid of tomorrow. Right? I have the scar, can the mind be free of that scar? Right? Now let's examine that.

K: Right, right. The knowledge of being hurt, not only physically but psychologically, inwardly, has left a mark on the brain as memory. Memory is knowledge. Right? And why should I be free of that knowledge? If I am free, you're going to hurt me again. Therefore that knowledge acts as a resistance, as a wall. Right? And what happens in relationship between human beings when there is this wall between you and me?

K: No, sir. No, sir. Look, I come to you quite innocently - you know, the word 'innocency' means the incapacity of being hurt. That word, the root meaning of that word 'innocent' is that you cannot be hurt. You look up in the dictionary you will see it. You know, in Italian it says... (inaudible) But let's go on with it. So I come to you open, friendly, and you say something to me, it hurts me. Doesn't this happen to all of you? And what takes place? That left a mark, that's knowledge. What is wrong with that knowledge? That knowledge acts as a wall between you and me. Right? Of course. You're doubtful of that? Therefore what shall I do? You have hurt me many times.

K: Wait, wait - look at it first. First look at it, sir. Don't say break through or - just look at it. You've hurt me and the knowledge of that remains. If I have no knowledge of it, you will hurt me again. And if I have that knowledge strengthened, it acts as a wall between you and me. Therefore between you and me there is no relationship. So knowledge of the past prevents you having a relationship between you and me. Right? So what shall I do? Go on, sirs, what shall I do?

K: I don't know. That's just a supposition. I have taken ten minutes to see why I'm hurt, to examine the hurt, see the necessity of keeping that hurt as knowledge. And I've asked myself can that... if I remove that hurt, won't you be hurt again... won't you hurt me again? And I see as long as that hurt remains there is no relationship between you and me. All that has taken more then a quarter of an hour. And I see, by Jove, what have I achieved at the end of it? Nothing. So - right? - so I've found analysis is no value at all. I mustn't go into that - you'll get lost. So, what shall I do? Having hurt, having been hurt, and remembering that hurt prevents all relationship.

Q: The knowledge of what is being hurt of.

Q: It's the knowledge of being a fool is there.

K: The knowledge... No, madame, Êcoutez, it is not that - please look at it - not only that, much deeper than that.

So, image is built by thought and thought is seeking security, and so thought has invented an image in which it finds security, but it is still thought. Right? And thought is the response of memory, yesterday. So what has happened? knowledge of yesterday has created this image. Come on, sir. So how am I not to be hurt? Not to be hurt implies not having any kind of image, obviously. Now how am I to prevent images? - image of the future - right? - of which I'm going to be frightened. Right? Thought is time, thought is fear of the image of tomorrow, in which there is no certainty. Right? So how am I, how is the mind or the brain not to have images at all, and yet not be hurt?

I see, one observes - observation - one observes that one is hurt. One is hurt because basically one has an image about oneself. And that image has been built through the various forms of culture, education, civilisation, tradition, nationality, economic condition, social injustice. That image is the past and therefore knowledge. Thought, whether it is my thought or the collective thought, has imprinted on this brain this sense of comparing image with another image. Obviously. The mother does it, the school teacher does it, the politician does it, the politburo does it - right? - Mao does it, the Red Book, the mythology of the Christians with their - you follow? - the whole civilisation is built on building this image. And there it is and that image is in the brain, which is thought. Now, as long as one discovers, one understands, as long as one has an image, there must be hurt.

K: Of course, the image is the hurt. All right. Now can the brain be free of all images and therefore never hurt? That means free of knowledge of the past as image. knowledge of the past is essential to speak a language, but knowledge as the past, as an image put together by thought which is the 'me', which is the greatest image, and as long as I have the greatest image in me, you are perfectly right to put pins into it. And you do.

K: Not 'because'. Find out if your image has gone, not because you ask me a question and I answer it, find out if your images that you have, have gone, then you will find out what your relationship is with another. But if I say, look, it is love then it's just a theory, throw it out, that has no meaning. But if you say, look, I know I'm hurt - all my life I've been hurt, a series of hurts - don't you know this? - a series of inward tears, series of anxieties, and these images exist. Our question is, can the brain be not ever be hurt at all? And that you have to apply, not just talk about it. Go after it, say, well have I got an image? Obviously you have, otherwise you and I wouldn't be sitting here. And if you have an image, examine it, go into it and see the futility of analysis. Because that prevents you from action. Whereas if you say, now, I move with the image. You follow, sir? That is, move with the image means the thought that is building this. And thought is knowledge. So can the mind be... can the brain be full of knowledge in one direction and have no knowledge in the other? Right? That means, silence in one direction, completely - not direction, you understand - completely silent and out of that silence use knowledge. No? You won't see this.

K: Is there such a state. Is there such a state as established relationship. Go to the registrar and get married. That establishes legally a relationship. And what goes on, my god! And what goes on also, not legally. So it's your torture. So what - now, we come back - what is the relationship of thought to fear. Right, sir? We said, thought springs from knowledge of the past, knowledge is the past, knowledge is past, is the past. In that knowledge, thought has found security: I know my house, I know you, I am this, I am conditioned, not conditioned - you follow? - I have asserted what I am in knowledge. Now, tomorrow I don't know. I am afraid of tomorrow. And also I'm afraid of the knowledge which I have of the past, because in that knowledge I see there is tremendous insecurity also. Because if I live in the past as most of us do, I am already dead. And that feeling of living in the past is suffocating and I don't know how to get rid of it and I'm frightened of that, as I am frightened of tomorrow. So I'm frightened of living and I'm frightened of dying.