Is thought detrimental? 15 August 1965. Duration: 63 minutes. Why does one seek pleasure? Can the mind face only facts and not thought? Why have I never said, 'Thought is poison' to myself? Meeting something one doesn't know, facing something which has no answer. Acting without knowing. What is a state of mind which is silent? Time is detrimental. Are we twisting everything to our core of pleasure?

Our education is concerned with the accumulation of knowledge. Very few of us are capable of living a life without the influence of specialists. What is the point of going to a university, getting a degree and disappearing into the vast structure of society? Q: How shall we approach the idea of study? If you express from something already accumulated it is a deadly bore, but if you are all the time watching, not only yourself but the world, you are learning.

The roots of psychological conflict. 1 April 1980. Duration: 82 minutes. Has humanity taken a wrong turn? What is the root of this tremendous inward conflict of humanity? When I am trying to become something, it is a constant battle. Can the brain itself see that it is caught in time and as long as it is moving in that direction conflict is eternal, endless? Can the mind realise, resolve a psychological problem immediately?

What is truth and what is reality? Anything that thought thinks about or reflects upon or projects, that is reality. And that reality has nothing to do with truth. The art of seeing is to place reality where it is, and not move that in order to get truth. You can’t get truth. How am I to empty that consciousness and yet retain knowledge – otherwise I couldn’t function – and reach a state which will comprehend reality?

Without self-knowledge, we cannot go beyond the self-projected illusions of the mind. It’s only in relationship that one can know oneself as one is. A mind that is filled with beliefs, dogmas, assertions and quotations is an uncreative, repetitive mind. Can we look at ourselves without beliefs? A mind that is quiet because it understands fear and understands itself is creative.

What is the relationship of the brain to the totality of the mind? Fear of not being, fear of isolation, fear of not having pleasure, fear of having no relationship, is the soil from which the stem of contradiction grows. I want to be free of this stem to see what happens if there is no attachment, no detachment, because I am not afraid. Is there a peace with no entity saying, ‘I am peaceful?'

Thought and the brain. Can the brain free itself from all self-delusion? Why has the self become important? Can there be only sensation, thought and no desire? Can desire—which brings illusion, self-deception and all the complications of changing desires—can the root of desire be dissipated? What prevents one from having a real insight? That is, seeing the truth of desire and therefore end it. Is it that we have never asked this question? When there is no desire whatsoever then there is a total revolution, and that will affect the consciousness of man.

How does it happen that the deep layers hidden in consciousness can be exposed? Comparison between what is with what has been, and what will be, is the process of fear....

Complete freedom from thought. 9 September 1972. Duration: 76 minutes. Learning is instant perception and action. What place has thought in learning? To learn about freedom, must thought be completely silent? Does insight into freedom take time? Can thinking, however rational, bring about a psychological revolution in us? Is thought always conditioned? Is freedom the nonexistence of thought?

What is the function of education? Some people say that we must live now and others say that we must be concerned further, beyond the present. Can man really be human without any effort? What is the difference between affection and love? How am I to know that I am bad? How am I to improve? Why does nature attract us?

What is the operation of thought? 14 July 1974. Duration: 84 minutes. In the world around us and inside us, is there a relationship between the inner and the outer? Are you free to listen, or do you listen with interpretation and prejudices? Do I observe the content of my consciousness as an outsider?

We shall explore together into this life, existence, in which is included relationship, love and death, not merely as a phenomenon but as something tremendously significant, to be cherished, deeply lived. Meditation is the approach to this problem of living.

Can the mind be free? 3 February 1969. Duration: 99 minutes. The society in which we live is the result of our psychological state. Where there is fear there is aggression. For most of us, freedom is something that we don’t want. Inaction is total action. What is the machinery that builds images? Questions from the audience follow the talk.

What takes place when one falls in love? Why has sex taken on such extraordinary importance? How will you know that it is stupid to be a nationalist? You see or understand only when the mind is quiet, when you are aware without any choice. When I say, ‘I love you,’ I have blocked myself from looking at you. Is it possible to look totally impersonally and yet be completely intimate? One takes a drug and has an extraordinary experience. At the base of this is the demand for wider and deeper experiences. Why do you want experience?

To look without a concept is to be aware of the observer and the thing observed. 20 May 1967. Duration: 88 minutes. Violence and sorrow are not limited to the West or the East; they are parts of the human structure psychologically. Is it possible to bring about a change radically, a total revolution in the psyche itself, not through time? The first and last freedoms are when the mind is totally free from concepts and the mechanical process of building a formula.