Thought, stillness and time
Gstad small group Discussion 1965
Description of book
1. Is thought detrimental? - 15 August 1965 Duration: 63 minutes • Why does one seek pleasure? • Can the mind only face 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? 2. Am I aware of the process of thinking? - 18 August 1965 Duration: 60 minutes • Can I see that thought is destructive, except where it is essential? • Why is it that we don't see something immediately? • Do you know when you are thinking? • Is the thing that we call thinking, thinking at all? • Do you think from the background noise when a problem arises? • When the mind becomes totally aware of the background, is there thinking when a problem arises? • What happens when I am aware of this hum, this noise incessantly going on? • Is the background noise different from the observer? • How am I to live an everyday life with complete silence? 3. What will make me see that thought breeds frustration? - 21 August 1965 Duration: 78 minutes • What is the function of thought? • Can the mind see the fact that thought will always breed frustration? • Function is necessary, but function with status, position and power must breed frustration. • Without frustration thought says to itself, 'I am not seeking. I don't want anything.' • If there is no thought, what happens? • The very perception of the limitation of thought is the act of opening the door, rather than thought opening the door. • To function without prestige, without frustration, that itself is an extraordinary state, meaning to function without self-centred activity. 4. From where do attachment and detachment come? - 24 August 1965 Duration: 65 minutes • 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'? 5. A complete stillness - 25 August 1965 Duration: 65 minutes • Is there a single movement that will completely transform my whole way of life? • The passion is there but the perfume doesn't take place. What am I to do? • Am I in a position of a man who for the first time is walking on a road by himself and discovering? • Does one know what a complete stillness means? • It is only from a very still mind that a mutation takes place. • Is there an ending to thought, therefore an ending to time? • If I have no thought and therefore no time, and so no wasting of energy, there is no movement, therefore there is complete stillness. • Is it possible to look at everything without thought, therefore without time, J. KRISHNAMURTI and so walk with silence? 6. When the mind is completely quiet, how can there be time? - 29 August 1965 Duration: 85 minutes • What does time mean to you, as a human being? • Is there such thing as existence? • Quietness has come because I have understood the nature of time, function, thought and pleasure. • What takes place when there is great intensity? • Thought has a movement in function. Here there is no movement which thought can recognise, because thought is not coming into this at all. • When time comes to an end, is there distance and space? • If you look at the mountain without the layer of thought as function, as the experiencer, what is space? •