What is knowledge? It is acquired through thousands of years through experience, stored in the brain as knowledge and memory. And from that memory thought arises. So knowledge is limited always, whether now or in the future. And so thought is always limited. And where there is limitation there is conflict. So what place has creativity with regard to science? Is there a relationship at all? Please, we are thinking together, we are questioning the very source, the very accumulative process of knowledge. Science means knowledge - Latin and so on. And can creativity in its deepest sense, in its profound activity, what place has creativity or creation with regard to knowledge? We have given tremendous importance to knowledge, from the ancient times, from China, India, before the Christian civilisation came into being they were tremendously respectful, worshipped knowledge. And knowledge, as we said before, is always limited because it is based on experience and so memory, thought, is limited. Thought has created most extraordinary things in the world - all the great monuments, from the ancient of times, great art, vast technology in the present day, and the creation of a nuclear bomb, and so on. Thought has brought about extraordinary state in the world. Thought has created god, built vast cathedrals of Europe, all the things that are filled in the museums - poetry, statue, and all the marvellous things that thought has done. Because thought is the outcome of knowledge, knowledge is science, expressed technologically or otherwise. Thought also has created wars - and we are faced with another war, maybe. And human beings for the last five thousand or more years have been killing each other in the name of god, in the name of peace, in the name of their own particular tribal country. Man has destroyed other human beings, now, in the present civilisation where we are gathered here, where they are producing these enormous destructive things, that is the result of science which is knowledge.
So what place has knowledge, science, with creation? Creation has been one of the most complex problems. Various religions say this is the source of creation - god, and so on. Each tribal country, which is called nationalism has their own particular expression, have their own tribal gods. And science which has produced extraordinary, marvellous things in the world - communication, computers, medicine, surgery - all that has been the result of thought - going to the moon and so on. So can thought ever be creative, in its most profound sense? What is creation? Must creation be always expressed, manifested? That which is manifested must be limited. We are the result of tremendous years, or centuries of endeavour, conflict, struggle, pain, sorrow - we are the result of all that. Our brains have infinite capacity, but it has been conditioned, not only religiously but also nationally. You are all Americans, Chinese, Russians, and so on. We have divided the world geographically, religiously, culturally, and also we have divided human beings - the Caucasians, the blacks and the browns, like us. And so thought has brought about tremendous conflict between human beings - that's a fact - not only between individuals, but also collectively. We have also suffered through wars, through pestilence, every form of disease. And science has been able to help or cure some of all that. But also science has produced most destructive instruments of war. Before, you killed a man perhaps in a war, two or three hundred people, or more, now you can destroy the whole world. Again based on ideals, ideologies, tribal glorification, which is nationalism. Taking all that, what we are after 45,000 years as Homo sapiens, what are we, what have we become? And in this confusion - because most human beings are terribly confused, though they may not admit it - uncertain, not only seeking physical security, but also they want inward psychological security in their relationships, with regard to future, and so on. So taking all this into consideration, our brains are specialised, conditioned by knowledge, and so our activities are conditioned, limited. Wherever there is limitation there must be conflict. When you divide the world into the Americas, the Asiatics, the Europeans, the Jew and the Arab, there must be conflict; not only wars but conflict between individuals, between man and woman. Considering all this, what place has creation?
Knowledge can never be creative. We are going to question all this. Knowledge can bring about a better physical world, externally, and when we give such extraordinary importance to knowledge, which is the intellect - to us intellect is vital, important, essential, but intellect is also limited. We never look at life holistically, as a whole, not as a scientist, a physician, psychiatrist and so on. We are human beings first. And as human beings what are we, what have we become, after millennia upon millennia? Are we civilised? I know you are all very affluent society, you have a great man cars, marvellous country, beautiful roads and so on, but we, as human beings, what are we? And it is human beings that are capable of creation, not only as scientists but also in our daily life. Because after all what is important? We have forgotten, or we never had the art of living, not as scientists, as human beings. We are perpetually in conflict. And can conflict, struggle, pain, anxiety, uncertainty, can such a brain be creative? Or creation is something entirely different?
Please as we said, we are thinking together, if that is possible. Not that the speaker thinks and tells you, or do we together as human beings think about these matters now? That is, to forget our professions, of our vocations of imitation, and as human beings can we be creative? First if we understand the significance of that then we can turn to science, religion and so on. Can we, as human beings, look at the world as we have made of it? I wonder if one realises whether we are individuals at all. Because our consciousness, which is made up of our reactions, physical, biological reactions, our beliefs, our faith, all the prejudices that we have, multiplication of opinions, the fears, the insecurity, the pain, the pleasure, and all the suffering that human beings have born for thousands of years. All that is our consciousness. Our consciousness is what we are. And in this confusion, in this contradiction, can there be creation? And we share the consciousness of entire humanity because you suffer, you have pleasures, beliefs, conclusions, opinions, and all the religious dogmas and faiths, which is shared by all human beings on this earth. So one questions whether we are individuals psychologically. You may be different, you may be tall, you may be short, but as human beings with our consciousness, are we different from the rest of mankind? We have never questioned all this. We trot along all the days of our lives accepting, imitating, conforming. When we rebel, we rebel outwardly: there have been revolutions - Russian, French, and thousands of revolutions have taken place. But inwardly we remain more or less as we have been for thousands of years. So taking all this, not intellectually but as a whole, are we creative? Or creation is something entirely different. You can invent a new method, discover, explore, break up the atom and so on and so on. It is all the activity of thought - cunning, capable, deceptive, creating illusions, and worshipping those illusions. After all, all religions are based on that. Thought has created god. The speaker is not an atheist, but thought has created wars, murdered in the name of god millions of people, and thought has created all the things in the cathedrals, in the churches, in the temples, in the mosques.
So can thought be creative? Because, as we said, thought is limited because it is based on knowledge, and knowledge is the result of vast experience. So we are asking a really very fundamental question: whether thought can ever be creative. It can invent, it can produce new weapons of war, the surgery, medicine and so on. And in our relationship with each other, man, woman, what place has thought in that? Is thought love? I know we say not, but if we look at ourselves and our relationship with each other - husband, wife and boy and a girl, and so on - our relationship is based on the image you have built about her and she has built about him. That relationship is based on thought.
So thought has been extraordinarily capable of certain things, and thought has also brought about the destruction of man, of human beings like ourselves, dividing them into ideologies - the Russian ideology, democratic ideology and so on. So please, thought can never be creative because what it can manifest must be limited. And where there is limitation there must be conflict - between man and woman, between ideologies, between the Arab and the Jew, between the American and the Russian - this division geographically, nationally, religiously. And conflict can never under any circumstances bring about a creativity of creation. So if thought is not the ground of creation then what is creation? When does it take place? Baking a bread is also creation of a certain kind, having babies, also creation, and so on, all the way up. But surely creation can only take place when thought is silent. You may totally disagree with this. I hope you do. I am sure you do! Because to us thought is extraordinarily important, which means the intellect, which is only part of a human being.
So the speaker says creativity can never take place where there is the activity of thought. And the question then arises: can thought be quiet, can thought be put aside for a while? Then who is it that helps thought to put it aside? It is still thought. I don't know if you are following all this. So it is a very complex process. And they have tried every method to quieten thought - drugs, tranquillisers, and also they have tried every form of meditation - the Zen meditation, the Tibetan, the Hindu, the Buddhist, and all the latest gurus with their nonsense (laughter) - they have tried everything to quieten the thought. Because thought has its place. But psychologically, inwardly, can there be certain silence, quietness? And love is that silence, is that quality of great strength, quiet energy.
So we are asking, is love the only factor that is creative? Not sex. I know we have reduced love to pleasure. And we have to ask what is love? If you once comprehend, perceive that thought can never under whatever circumstances be creative, because thought is limited - of that there is no question. If we once see the truth of it then we can begin to ask: is there another instrument, another way of looking at life? Then we can begin to enquire, what is love? What is compassion? What is intelligence? Intelligence is part of that thought; intelligence has created Los Alamos. And what is the nature of love? Is it desire? Is it pleasure? Is it creating images - images about your wife, your husband? Is it the images of ideologies? So to find out, to discover, to come upon that extraordinary thing called love one must have a very clear understanding of our daily life. And that means psychologically, inwardly, we have no freedom. We talk about freedom, especially in this country where you have experts to tell you what to do - specialists. I don't know, you must be aware of all this - how to bring up a baby, how to have sex, how to beautify yourself, what kind of exercise, and so you have specialists in religion, in science, and so on. And this you call freedom. And as our time is very, very limited we cannot possibly go into the question more deeply: what is freedom. Without freedom there is no love. But we are not free. We are anxious, we are frightened of death, frightened of the future, we have carried this burden of fear for thousands of years. We are talking about psychological fears first, and the physical fears later.
So can such a brain which is so conditioned, as a computer, can such a brain love? And is creativity, whether in science, in biology and so on, where there is great activity of thought with its own peculiar intelligence, can that thought create, be creative? If not then how does creation take place? They have asked this question, religious people have asked this question, theologians. If you go to India, they will invent their own theory about creation, so do the Christians, Muslims, and all say god, or some biological reason.
So we are saying that creation is only possible where there is love. Then what is love? Love is not desire, love is not pleasure. Love is not religious entertainment. To understand the complexity of desire, the complexity of sorrow, and the enormous - the thing that we call death, all that is part of our life, our daily living. So is there freedom? Have we love? If there is love we will never kill another human being, never. And this whole world now is collecting armaments. Every country wants the latest instrument of destruction. America is supplying it, England, Russia, Germany, and each country is producing its own deadly instruments, and amongst this chaos we want to have the spirit of creation, creativity. One hand you produce most destructive instruments of war, on the other you talk about love, peace, and so on. We live in a state of contradiction, and where there is contradiction there must be conflict and therefore there can never be creation, or creativity. It is only when the brain is quiet - not controlled quietness - when the brain is absolutely silent, though it has its own rhythm. Man has enquired into this from the ancient of days. Can the brain be utterly still for a while? Not everlastingly chattering, not probing, not enquiring, not searching, but quiet, still.
And to understand that stillness one must understand what is meditation, and so on. Meditation is not conscious meditation, because that is what you have been taught - conscious deliberate meditation, sitting cross legged, lying down, or repeating certain phrases, and so on. That is all deliberate conscious effort to meditate, which is part of desire. And the speaker says such meditation is nonsense. It is like desiring a good house, a good dress, and you desire to have a peaceful mind, which is the same thing. Conscious meditation destroys, prevents the other form of meditation. To go into that we haven't time, because that requires extraordinary perception, without the word, without image.
So, science is the movement of knowledge, gathering more and more and more. The `more' is the measurement, and thought can be measured because thought is a material process. And knowledge has its own insight, its own limited creation, and therefore it brings conflict. But we are talking about holistic perception, in which the ego, the `me', the personality doesn't enter at all. Then only there is this thing called creativity.
No comments:
Post a Comment