The observer, who has come into being through various images, thinks himself permanent, and between himself and the images he has created, there is a division, a time interval. This creates conflict between himself and the images he believes are causing his troubles. Then he says, ‘I must get rid of this conflict,’ but the very desire to get rid of the conflict creates another image. Awareness of all this, which is real meditation, has revealed that there is a central image put together by all the other images, and this central image, the observer, is the censor, the experiencer, the evaluator, the judge who wants to conquer or subjugate the other images or destroy them altogether. The other images are the result of judgments, opinions and conclusions by the observer, and the observer is the result of all the other images – therefore, the observer is the observed.

From Freedom from the Known

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One must discover whether there are two separate things, two separate movements: the observer and that which is observed. Are they separate? Or is the observer the observed? It is tremendously important to find this out for oneself; if one does, then the whole way one thinks undergoes a complete change. It is a most radical discovery, the result of which means the structure of morality and the continuation of knowledge have, for oneself, quite a different meaning. Find out if you have discovered this for yourself, or whether you have accepted what you have been told as fact. Have you discovered this for yourself without any outside agency telling you it is so? If it is your discovery, it releases tremendous energy, which before had been wasted in the division between the observer and the observed.

From Beyond Violence

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Who is the observer? This is not deep philosophy, but just ordinary, daily life. Who is the observer? Who is the ‘I’ that says, ‘I look’? The ‘I’ that is looking is the accumulated experiences, condemnations, observations, knowledge and so on. It is the centre, the observer. He separates himself from the thing observed, saying, ‘I am observing my fear, my guilt, my despair.’ But the observer is the observed. If he is not, he recognises his despair. I know what despair is, what loneliness is, and that memory remains. The next time it arises, I say that I see something different from me. This division between the observer and the observed creates a conflict, and then I go off on a tangent, trying to find a way to resolve it. But the fact is that the observer is the observed. This is not an intellectual concept, but a fact.

From Collected Works, Vol. 17

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We are concerned with observing the actual facts, the ‘what is’. To observe ‘what is’ very clearly and to see the full significance of those facts, we must look at it without our conditioning. That is where the difficulty is going to lie, because you have opinions, you have values, you approach them as a Hindu, Buddhist, Christian, or what you will, with your nationality, with your peculiar idiosyncrasies, and these prevent you from observing, from looking. Observation is an art. It is not easily learnt. One has observed neither the sunset nor the stars, neither the trees nor the facts, outwardly or inwardly. So, if we are going to travel together – and I hope we will – we have to observe scientifically, ruthlessly and with great intelligence.

From Collected Works, Vol. 14

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To listen with judgment, comparing what we hear with what we already know or have read, is a form of distraction. But if we can listen without comparison, with effortless attention, then that very listening is an act of meditation which brings about a deep transformation. Try observing yourself sometimes to see if you ever really listen to anything, to what your friends say, to what your wife or husband says, to what your boss says, and you will find that your mind is not there at all. You pretend to listen, but you are only half listening; either you are frightened, or bored, or you just don’t want to listen, so there is no direct communication. Listening in itself brings about an extraordinary miracle. The very act of listening produces an immense understanding without any effort on your part; and since you are here and I am talking, I would suggest, if I may, that you listen to find out what it is I am trying to convey.

From Collected Works, Vol. 10

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So we are going to talk over together like two friends discussing a problem, neither one trying to persuade the other to accept or to discard. And to talk over together, both must listen, and that is going to be our difficulty. Listening is one of the most difficult things to do. We never listen. We are listening to our own thoughts, to our own ideas, to our own concepts, to the ways of how we should or should not behave. We are concerned with our own occupations, with our own problems, with our own sorrows, and we have our own answers and explanations; or we have the explanations and the sayings of another whom we respect or whom we are afraid of – which is the same thing. The act of listening is really one of the most difficult things to do.

From Collected Works, Vol. 16

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We are friends, you and I; we are two friends who are not persuading or dissuading, not asking each other to commit to something or other – then they would not be friends. We are two friends asking each other whether it is possible to live peacefully for the entire existence of our lives. Not at odd moments, not when we have nothing to do, but to live without a single conflict or problem.

From Where Can Peace Be Found?

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I hope we are thinking together, observing together, as two friends walking along a road and seeing what is around us, not only what is very close and immediately perceived, but what is in the distance. We are taking the journey together, perhaps affectionately, hand in hand – two friends amicably examining the complex problem of life, neither of them leader or guru, because when one sees actually that our consciousness is the consciousness of the rest of mankind, then one realises that one is both the guru and the disciple, the teacher as well as the pupil, because all that is in one’s consciousness. That is a tremendous realisation. So as one begins to understand oneself deeply, one becomes a light to oneself and not dependent on anybody, on any book or on any authority – including that of the speaker – so that one is capable of understanding this whole problem of living and of being a light to oneself.

From The Network of Thought

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As long as we are trying to achieve a psychological result, as long as we want inward security, there must be a contradiction in our lives. I do not think most of us are aware of this contradiction, or if we are, we do not see its real significance. On the contrary, contradiction gives us an impetus to live; the very element of friction makes us feel that we are alive. The effort, the struggle of contradiction, gives us a sense of vitality. That is why we love wars, that is why we enjoy the battle of frustrations. So long as there is the desire to achieve a result, which is the desire to be psychologically secure, there must be a contradiction; and where there is contradiction, there cannot be a quiet mind. Quietness of mind is essential to understand the whole significance of life.

From The First and Last Freedom

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The engineer has been taught how to achieve certain physical results by the application of the knowledge man has gathered through the centuries, and you have been taught how to achieve certain inner results by controlling your thoughts, cultivating virtue, doing good works, and so on, all of which is equally a matter of knowledge gathered through the centuries. The engineer has his books and teachers, as you have yours. Both of you have been taught a technique, and both of you desire to achieve an end, you in your way, and he in his. You are both after results. And is God, or truth, a result? If it is, then it’s put together by the mind, and what is put together can be rent asunder.

From Commentaries on Living Series 3

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Outwardly, you discipline and renounce, you chart your course, step by step, to reach the end. You measure the progress of your achievement according to the standards of virtue: how you have given up this or that, how controlled you are in your behaviour, how tolerant and kind you are, and so on. You have learnt the art of concentration, and you withdraw into a forest, a monastery or a darkened room to meditate; you pass your days in prayer and watchfulness. Outwardly, you have made your life simple, and through this thoughtful and calculated arrangement, you hope to reach the bliss that is not of this world. But is reality reached through external controls and sanctions? Though outward simplicity, the putting aside of comfort, is obviously necessary, will this gesture open the door to reality?

From Commentaries on Living Series 1

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