Where there is conditioning, there is no freedom. There cannot be love, there cannot be affection. It is imperative, absolutely essential for the future of humanity that we are concerned about how the brain is conditioned. If one is aware of that, then we can proceed to ask whether it is possible to free the brain? The relationship between the brain and the mind is possible when the brain is completely free.
We are conditioned, is it possible to be free from it? Don’t say it is or it is not, because that will be absurd; whereas if you are enquiring, then you are learning through investigation. Where do you begin to enquire? Do you begin to enquire from the outside or do you begin to enquire from inside? That is, is the outside world different from the world in which we live inside? Do you understand that question? The society, the morals, the outward world - is that different from you? Or have you created it? Please look at this: The world is you and you are the world.
It is very important to understand this. In our disorder, in our confusion, in our desire for security, we have created a world outside of us as society, which is corrupt, immoral, confused, everlastingly at war, because we in ourselves are confused, we are in conflict.
So where do you begin, knowing that you have created this world? You have to begin with yourself, not with the alteration of the system, of the outer world. It means, not looking for a new leader, new system, new philosophy, new gurus, but looking at yourself as you are. Can you observe yourself as you would observe your face in a mirror? Can you observe your reactions, your responses, because your reactions and your responses are what you are. So let us begin to enquire there.
Life is a process of relationships. There is no life without relationships. This is a fact. You may be a hermit, you may be a monk, you may withdraw from society as a whole, but you are related. As a human being, you cannot escape from being related. You are related to your wife, your husband, your children. You are related to your government, to the hermit who withdraws because you feed him, and that hermit is related to his ideas. So, relationship is the basis of human existence.
Without relationships there is no existence. You are either related to the past, which is, to all the tradition, to all the memories, to the monks, or you are related to some future ideation. So relationship is the most important thing in life. Do you see the truth of that, not verbally, not intellectually, but actually with your heart and mind?
We are enquiring what is your relationship with another? Are you hurt from your childhood? Are you wounded psychologically? Is that wound leading you to being violent? The consequence of being hurt, inwardly wounded, is that you close yourself more and more in order not to be hurt. And your relationship with another then becomes very narrow and limited. We must first enquire whether it is possible to find out if you can never be hurt. What is the root of being hurt? What is the cause? When I say I am hurt, my pride is hurt, what does that mean? My teacher has hurt me, my parents have hurt me.
We are all hurt. We are all wounded by an accident, by a word, by a look, by a gesture. So what is it that hurt? You say I am hurt. What is that ‘I’ which is being hurt? Is it not an image that you have built about yourself? We are asking a very serious question: What iis it that is hurting you? The brain has the capacity to create images. The images are the illusions. We all have illusions, even war is an illusion, we must accept it.