We have many, many fears. Fear of darkness, fear of living, fear of public opinion,
fear what my neighbour might say, fear of my wife or husband
or the girl or the man, fear of insecurity, fear when you have security
economically, fear that you might lose it, fear - we have got so many fears. Why haven't we solved these fears? You have solved the problem of war
that is to continue war, and you have applied your brain
to prepare for war. All the vast generals on both sides,
or a thousand sides, they are all preparing for war,
plans, submarines, airplanes, all the rest of it. They have exercised their brain
to produce all that. And why hasn't that
same brain applied, apply to this
enormous sense of fear man has from the beginning of days. Why? Which means
why have you and the speaker not gone into this question
seriously, as you do go very seriously
when you are hungry, when you are ambitious,
when you want more money, you work at it. Why have we not gone
into this question of fear? The psychologists,
the therapeutists, have explained the causes of it, in different ways. If we could put aside
all that they have said, because after all it is all
what they have said, it may be merely verbal. They might be as scared as you
- probably they are! I met several of them,
I know they are scared like you, about something or other. And why have we not
solved this question? And is it possible to end the fear?
We are going to go into that. Apply not only your feelings,
your emotions and your brain to work at this, not escape from it,
not try to rationalise it but to see why we are incapable, or allowed ourselves
to become incapable. What is fear? And you know when there is fear,
the nature of it, how it throbs, how your physical organism shrinks, how your brain becomes addled,
almost paralysed. Don't you know all this? Am I describing something abnormal? It is a fact. It affects your sleep,
it affects your daily life, it brings suspicion,
anxiety, depression and you cling to something and hope that won't change,
and that won't bring fear. Either we deal
with the root of fear, or we trim the branches of fear.
Right? Right, sir?
Which do you want to do? Trim the branches of fear - please one is asking
this seriously, don't neglect
what the speaker is asking. Do you want to deal
with the branches of fear? There are a thousand fears. Like a lovely tree - a tree which is
the most beautiful thing, one of the most beautiful
things on earth, it has got many branches,
many leaves; likewise fear, which is so ugly, it has also got many branches,
many leaves, many expressions. Do you want to deal with that, the expressions,
the surface, outside? Or do we go together
into the root of it? Personally, the speaker
doesn't want to trim the branches, which is so futile. So let's together find out
what is the cause of fear. We know all the expressions of fear. So if we can find the root of it,
the expressions can wither away. So what is the cause,
or causation of fear. If one asks you that question:
what is the cause? would you answer it? The cause? Or do you expect someone
to explain the cause of it? The explanation is not the fact.
Right? You may paint a marvellous
picture of the mountain, hung in all the museums
of the world, but that picture
is not the mountain. The word 'fear' is not fear
- right? But the word 'fear' may evoke fear. So we are not dealing
with the description, with the word, but the depth
and the strength of fear. And we are trying
to find out together, not I explain, you accept but together find out for ourselves so that it is you discover it, therefore it is your truth
not somebody else's truth. You can't live
with someone else's truth, you can only live with truth. So what is the cause of it? The cause of it
- I will go into it. Is it thought? Is it time? Is it thought? Let's look at it. I am living - one is living now. And thought says,
'I might die tomorrow', or 'I might lose my job', 'I have my money in the bank,
but the bank may fail', 'I am all right with my wife but she may turn
to somebody tomorrow', 'I have printed a book and I hope
it will be a great success', which means fear. 'I want to be known' which is the most
childish thing in the world. 'I want to be known and somebody is known
already much more than I am'. So there is this thinking, that is, thinking I might lose, I might gain, I might be lonely. So thinking is one
of the factors of fear - right? I am all right with my friends,
with my wife and my children but I also know, I have experienced this sense
of desperate loneliness. Don't you know it? A sense of deep
frightening loneliness. And I am frightened. Have you ever examined what
loneliness is? Why it has its cause? Don't you know, don't you have
this feeling of loneliness? Am I talking something,
saying something abnormal? Eh? You must all be saints. Sir, what is this loneliness
which causes - you understand, sir? which causes attachment,
holding on to something however illusory, however false,
however meaningless. I hold on to my wife. I hold on to my club,
to my god, to my ritual, to my friends, because if I let go,
I am utterly lonely. Have you ever gone
into that question: why human beings are
so frightened of loneliness? They may live with a group, they may follow some guru
and all the rest of that nonsense but strip them
of all their decoration and they are what they are, lonely. Why?
Why are they, what is loneliness? Not to have any relationship
with anything, with nature, with another, with the friend or woman or the man
with whom I have lived, all that somehow has withdrawn, I am left utterly empty,
lonely - why? What is this feeling
of utter despair? I will explain but the explanation
is not the fact. The word is not the thing. If that becomes very clear, that the word is not the thing, you Mr. Smith is not Mr. Smith, the word is not you, when you say,
'My wife', or 'My husband', that is - you understand? I am glad
you understand that at least. So explanation is
not the reality, the truth. So look at it, let's look at it
without the word, without the word 'loneliness'. Can you do it? To look at that feeling without using the word 'lonely',
or 'despair'. Loneliness comes when all our days
are spent in self-centredness. The very activity
of self-centredness is producing loneliness - right? Because it is narrowing my whole, or the vast extraordinary
existence of life into a small little me. And when one realises that
there is that feeling, 'My god, how lonely I am'. And to face it, to be with it completely,
not move away from it, then there is a radical change. So we must come back
to this question of fear. We said thought is
one of the causes of fear, obviously. I am thinking about death because I am an old man, or young,
or you see some hearse going by with all the flowers, horses, cars. What a civilised country this is, with all the noise of death. And I see thought
is one of the causes of death, one of the causes of fear - right? Do you see this?
An obvious fact, right? Right, sirs? And also time is
a factor of fear - right? I am afraid what might happen. I am afraid of something
I have done which others are using
as a blackmail, you follow? I am afraid of that. So time and thought
are the root of fear. Time and thought. There is no division
between thought and time, thought is time - right? Now the problem is - I am sorry,
I won't use the word 'problem'. The question is:
thought is necessary, time is necessary - right? To go from here to there
time is necessary. And thought is necessary
to drive a car, to take a bus, take the train. Thought is necessary,
time is necessary at that level. Right? Now I am saying as thought and time
are the root of fear, is thought and time necessary? Vous avez compris?
There it is necessary. But psychologically
is thought and time necessary? Right? Is it? As long as time and thought,
if you think are necessary, in the psychological world,
in the world of the self, in the world of psyche,
in the world of inside the skin, then you will be
perpetually in fear - right? If you perceive that, if there is perception that thought is
the root of fear and time, perception, not acceptance, then thought and time are necessary
at the physical level, inwardly it is not necessary, therefore you are watching then. You are watching, the brain is actively
watching itself every minute to see that thought and time
do not enter into its realm. This requires - you understand? - this requires great attention,
awareness, so that the brain, which has accumulated
fear for centuries, or for one day, that brain sees
where it is necessary, where it is not necessary, therefore it is watching
like a hawk so that thought and time doesn't enter
into the whole process of living. You understand? This is real discipline,
this is learning. As we explained the other day, discipline means, the root meaning
of that word is disciple, the disciple is one who learns, who is learning all the time, he never says,
'I have learnt' and stays. The brain is watching itself
all the time so that it is active, so there is no time for it
to move or to change. You have understood something? It is now quarter to twelve, we must stop. You see, sirs and ladies, our difficulty is,
we listen to a lot of things, we know a great deal, we have searched, asked, read, we have sought the advice of others, we have wandered the earth
to find out, to find out what it is all about, but we never ask of ourselves, we never demand of ourselves
serious, deep questions. We always ask
superficial questions. And so we make our life
very superficial. But if you asked questions, questions that demand
answers from yourself so that you exercise
your brain, your feelings, your whole attention
is given to that question, then you begin
to discover for yourself without being told by anybody,
including the speaker. And so when there is
freedom from fear you don't want gods, you don't want anything
from anybody in the world, then you are really a free man.
Love me some Krishnamurti! Great wisdom here, thanks for posting these!