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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Man has made progress from the bow and arrow to the atom bomb, from the bullock cart to the jet plane that travels at 1,600 miles per hour. That is generally called progress. But is there progress in any other direction, inwardly? Have you, as an individual, progressed inwardly? Have you found anything for yourself? We know what other people have said and what they say they have found, but have we found anything for ourselves? Are we more charitable, more kind? Are our minds more expansive and alert, inwardly? Have we put away fear? Without that, to make progress in the world, is to destroy ourselves.

From Collected Works, Vol. 8

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There is progress in the field of mechanical science, progress with regard to machines, cars, modern conveniences, and the conquering of space. But I am not referring to that kind of progress, because progress in mechanical science must ever be transient; in that, there can never be fulfilment for man. There can be no fulfilment for man in mechanical progress. There will be better cars, better aeroplanes, better machines, but fulfilment is not to be realised through this continual process of mechanical perfection – not that I am against machines. When we speak of progress, as applied to what we call individual growth, what do we mean? We mean the acquiring of more knowledge, greater virtue, which is not fulfilment.

From Collected Works, Vol. 1

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