The meaning of Religion. - JKOnline Daily Quotes |
- The meaning of Religion.
- Doubt is an extraordinarily important thing, not scepticism.
- Are you free of authority
- Images and Relationship
| Posted: The word 'religion', the root of it, has not been established. I think from observing and looking into various dictionaries, it really means gathering together all energy to find out the truth. I think that is what it means, after looking at various French, English, Italian dictionaries. It implies also diligence and negligence. A mind must be utterly diligent to find out what is truth. And if there is any kind of negligence it is a distraction and a wastage of energy. We are not stating this, it is a fact. Where the mind is dissipating itself in all the trivialities, in gossip, in getting hurt and wounding others, violence, caught up in its own self-centred activity, all that is negligence. Whereas a religious mind demands diligence to be precise, to be accurate, objectively and inwardly, so that there is no illusion, no deception, total integrity. That is what can be called a mind that is religious. But religion as it exists is not religion at all. All the propaganda, the images in the West, and the images in the East, you know, the whole rituals, the whole dressing up and all that business, has nothing whatsoever to do with religion. You may disagree with this. If you are a devout Christian, a practising Catholic, probably you will even not listen. And when the speaker goes to India he tells them the same thing, that their religion, their superstitions, their images, all the nonsensical meaningless rituals have nothing to do whatsoever with truth. And many of them have said, "You should be burnt"! Or sent to a concentration camp. Probably, if you were living in the Middle Ages you would be: tortured, called a heretic, burnt in the name of god, peace and all the rest of it. In India they are a little more absorbing, they see a part of all this, but it is not meant for you, for us, you go away. - Brockwood Park 4th Public Talk 7th September 1980 |
| Doubt is an extraordinarily important thing, not scepticism. Posted: Doubt is an extraordinarily important thing, not scepticism. To observe every experience that one has, doubt that very experience, doubt that very thought, doubt that very feeling, so the brain becomes extraordinarily cleansed of all our accumulated experiences, tradition and so on. This is what we are going to do during all these talks. This is no personal, or personality cult. Please understand this. We all want to cling or worship, or feel near some one person. We are accustomed to that. And we are saying this is not a personality cult at all. So please don't build an image about him, the speaker. The speaker is not very valuable. What is valuable, what has significance, is what he is saying. And to understand what he is saying you must question, not accept a thing. Which means you have to observe, one has to observe one's own reactions, one's own attitudes, justifications, defences and so on. Then it is possible for both of us to communicate with each other, not theoretically, not in abstraction but actually, because we are going to take a very long journey together, no detours at all. We are going together to watch this whole phenomenon of life, of which you are. And also please bear in mind that this is not an entertainment. Because we are used to being entertained, it is our habit; cinema, television, books, novels, we want to be entertained. And religions have become that too, a form of entertainment. So please bear in mind throughout these talks that this is not in any way entertainment. The speaker is not trying to help you. Please bear that in mind very seriously. Because if he is out to help you then he becomes the leader, a man who then conducts you, tells you what to do and so on. - Saanen 1st Public Talk 8th July 1984 |
| Posted: ...even intellectually, do you have a quick perception of what is the whole nature and structure of authority? Authority of books, authority of professors, authority of scientists, authority of the religious priests, and so on and so on. Or your own experience, which has become your authority. To have an immediate insight into this then you are free totally of all authority. Then you don't have to fight and struggle to say "I accept this authority, I don't accept that. The authority of my guru is marvellous but I reject the authority of the priest". They are exactly the same thing. So in discussing, in being challenged and challenging each other, are you free of authority? There is the authority of the policeman, the authority of the law, the authority of the surgeon - that perhaps has its right place - but is there psychological authority of a belief, of a dogma, of a conclusion, of an ideology, the Communist, Socialist or whatever authority, religious, inwardly? If you have then you will never find out what is right action - obviously. Right? So enquiring step by step into this are you actually, if I may most respectfully ask, free of authority, including the authority of this person sitting on the platform at this moment? If you are not, find out why you accept authority inwardly. Objectively you need authority - right? You can't drive on the right hand side in England, you would have accidents. If you reject authority of some State laws you will be punished and so on and so on - there authority has its right place. But inwardly, deeply, not to have any form of authority. - Brockwood Park 1st Public Talk 26th August 1978 |
| Posted: So we have to understand what relationship is. Are we related? Is one human being related to another? We mean by relationship, don't we?, to be in contact intellectually, emotionally. psychologically. Are we in such contact? Or, is there contact, relationship, between the image that you have about yourself and the image you have about another? You have an image about yourself, ideas about yourself, concepts, experiences and so on. You have your particular idiosyncrasies, tendencies - all that has built an image about yourself. Please listen to it, observe it in yourself. Do not, as I said, merely listen to words - they have little meaning. But, in hearing the words, if the words reveal your own consciousness, your own state, then the words have meaning. If you observe, you have an image about yourself: that you are this, you are that; that you had this experience and that experience; that you are ugly or you are beautiful; that you want to be this or you want to be that. You have an image, an idea, a conclusion about yourself: that you are spiritual, that you are the Atman, that you are the soul or whatever it is. You have an image carved by the mind, or carved through your experience, through tradition, through circumstances, through strange pressures. There is that image of yourself, and the other person also has an image about himself. So these two images come into contact, and that is what we call relationship. Whether it is the most intimate relationship between a husband and wife, or the image that you have created about Russia, about America, about Vietnam, about this or that, the contact between the two images is what we call relationship. Please do follow this. That is all the relationship we know. - Collected Works, VOL XVI Bombay 1st Public Talk 13th February 1966 |
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