you are here: > Self > 10. A new beginning
 
10.16
Deconstructing good intentions and promises
 
  Most of us are accustomed to think that time is nbecessary for transformation: I am something, and to change, what I am into what I should be requires time. I am greedy, with greed's results of confusion, antagonism, conflict and misery; to bring about the transformation, which is non-greed, we think time is necessary. That is to say time is considered as a means of evolving into something greater, of becoming something.  
  The problem is this: One is violent, greedy, envious, angry, vicious or passionate. To transform what is, is time necessary? First of all, why do we want to change what is, or bring about a transformation? Why? because what we are disattisfies us; it creates conflict, disturbance, and, disliking that state, we want something better, something nobler, more idealistic. Therefore we desire transformation because there is pain, discomfort, conflict. is conflict overcome by time?  
  If you say it will be overcome by time, you are still in conflict. You may say it will take twenty days or twenty years to get rid of conflict, to change what you are, but during that time you are still in conflict and therefore time does not bring about transformation. When we use time as means of acquiring a quality, a virtue or a state of being, we are merely postponing or avoiding what is; and I think it is important to understand this point.  
  Greed or violence causes pain, disturbance in the world of our relationship with one another, which is society; and being conscious of this state of disturbance, which we term greed or violence, we say to ourselves " I will get out of it in time; I will practice non-violence, I will practise non-envy, I will practice peace."  
  being in a state of conflict you want to achieve a state in which there is no conflict. Now is that state of no conflict the result of time, of a duration? Obviously not; because while you are achieving a state of non-violence, you are still being violent and therefore still in conflict.  
  Our problem is, can a conflict, a disturbance, be overcome in a period of time, whether it be days, years or lives? What happens when you say " I am going to practice non-violence during a certain period of time? The very practice indicates that you are in conflict, does it not? You would not practice if you were not resisting conflict; you say the resistance to conflict is necessary in order to overcome conflict and for that resistance you must have time.  
  But the very resistence to conflict is itself a form of conflict. You are spending your energy in resisting conflict in the form of what you call greed, envy or violence but your mind is still in conflict, so it is important to see the falseness of the process of depending on time as a means of overcoming violence and thereby be free of that process. The you are able to be what you are: a psychological disturbance which is violence itself.  
  To understand anything, any human or scientific problem, what is important, what is essential? A quiet mind, is it not? a mind that is intent on understanding. It is not a mind that is exclusive, that is trying to concentrater- which again is an effort of resistance. If I really want to understand something, there is immediately a quiet state of mind. When you want to listen to music or look at a picture which you love, which you have a feeling for, what is the state of your mind? Immediately there is a quietness, is there not? When you are listening to music, your mind does not wander all over the place; you are listening.  
  Similarly, when you want to understand conflict, you are no longer depending on time at all; you are simply confronted with what is, which is conflict. Then immediately there comes a quietness, a stillness of mind. When you no longer depend on time as a means of transforminf what is because you see the falseness of that process, the you are confronted with what is, and as you are interested in undestanding what is, naturally you have a quiet mind.  
  In that alert yet passive state of mind there is understanding. So long as the mind is in conflict, blaming, resisting, condemning, there can be no understanding. If I want to understand you, I must not condemn you, obviously. It is that quiet mind, that still mind, which brings about tranformation. When the mind is lo longer resisting, no longer avoiding, no longer discarding or blaming what is but is simply passively aware, then in that passivity of the mind you will find, if you really go into the problem, that there comes a transformation.  
  Revolution is only pssible now, not in the future; regeneration is today, not tomorrow. If you will experiment with what has been said, you will dins that there is immediate regeneration, a newness, a quality of freshness; because the mind is always still when it is interested, when it desires of has the intention to understand.  
  The difficulty with most of us is that we have not the intention to understand, because we are afraid that if we understood it might bring about a revolutionary action in our life, and therefore we resist. It is the defence mechanism that is at work when we use time or an ideal as a means of gradual transformation.  
  Thus regeneration is only possible in the present, not on the future, not tomorrow. A man who relies on time as a means through which he can gain happiness or realize truth or UCA is merely deceiving himself, he is living in irgnorance and therefor ein conflict.  
  A man who sees that time is not the way out of difficulty and who is therefore free from the false, such a man naturally has the intention to understand, therefore his mind is quite spontaneously, without compulsion, without practice.  
  When the mind is still, tranquil, not seeking any answer or any solution, beither resisting nor avoiding- it is only then that there can be a regeneration, because then the mind is capable of perceiving what is true, and it is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.  
     
     
 
<<Back       Continue>>
 

Copyright © 2010 UCADIA. All rights reserved.