BENGALURU: There are fears in relationship, fears of uncertainty, fears of the past and the future, fears of not knowing, fears of death, fears of loneliness, the agonizing sense of solitude. You may be related to others, you may have a great many friends, you may be married, you may have children, but there is this sense of deep isolation, this sense of loneliness. That is one of the factors of fear. There is also the fear of not being able to fulfil. And the desire to fulfil brings with it the sense of frustration, and in that there is fear. There is fear of not being able to be absolutely clear about everything. So there are many, many forms of fear.
The word “art” means to put things in their proper place, not giving one or the other undue importance. If you give too much importance to technology, then other ways of existence are given too little; therefore there is disharmony. If you give sex the highest, all-consuming importance, make it the only thing that matters in life, as most people do perhaps there are exceptions then again you exaggerate and bring about disharmony. If you rate money as all important, again contradiction takes place or if you say power, domination is all important, again contradiction occurs.
To live harmoniously, therefore, means to put everything in its proper place. Will you do this not give your body the tremendous importance the West gives it, how you look, how you dress? which doesn’t mean you mustn’t dress properly, decently. Will you do all this? If you don’t, why do you talk about order? There is no point at all. But if one wants to live in order and therefore in harmony with a sense of great beauty, perhaps also peace, then you must have order.
You see, you are not educated to be alone. Do you ever go out for a walk by yourself? It is very important to go out alone, to sit under a tree-not with a book, not with a companion, but by yourself-and observe the falling of a leaf, hear the lapping of the water, the fishermen’s song, watch the flight of a bird, and of your own thoughts as they chase each other across the space of your mind. If you are able to be alone and watch these things, then you will discover extraordinary riches which no government can tax, no human agency can corrupt, and which can never be destroyed.
Why does the mind think about sex at all? Why? Why has it become a central issue in your life? When there are so many things calling, demanding your attention, you give complete attention to the thought of sex.. What happens, why are your minds so occupied with it? Because that is the way of ultimate escape, is it not? It is a way of complete self-forgetfulness. For the time being, at least for the moment, you can forget yourself-and there is no other way of forgetting yourself. Everything else you do in life gives emphasis to the “me”, to the self. Your business, your religion, your gods, your leaders, your political and economic actions, your escapes, your social activities, your joining one party and rejecting another-all that is emphasizing and giving strength to the “me”. That is, there is only this one act in which there is no emphasis on the “me”, so it becomes a problem, does it not?