Self Knowledge Is the Beginning of Wisdom: Fourteen Public Meetings, Ojai, USA, 1949

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?

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?

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.

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'?