Has it ever happened to you – I am sure it has – that you suddenly perceive something, and at that moment you have no problems at all? The very moment you perceived the problem, it has ceased to exist.
Do you understand? You have a problem, and you think about it, argue with it, sweat over it; you exercise every means within the limits of your mind to understand it. Finally you say, ‘I can do no more.’ There is nobody to help you understand, no guru, no book. You are left with the problem, and there is no way out.
Having inquired into the problem to the full extent of your capacity, you leave it alone. Your mind is no longer worried, no longer tearing at the problem, no longer saying, ‘I must find an answer’; so it becomes quiet, does it not? And in that quietness you suddenly hit upon the answer.
Hasn’t that sometimes happened to you? It is not an enormous thing. It happens to great mathematicians, scientists, and people experience it occasionally in everyday life. Which means what? The mind has exercised fully its capacity to think, and has come to the edge of all thought without finding an answer; therefore it becomes quiet not through weariness, not through fatigue, not by saying, ‘I will be quiet and thereby find the answer.’ Having already done everything possible to find the answer, the mind becomes spontaneously quiet.
There is an awareness without choice, without any demand, an awareness in which there is no anxiety; and in that state of mind there is perception. It is this perception alone that will resolve all our problems. Escaping doesn’t help. Most of us are used to escaping immediately when a problem arises, and we find it very difficult to stay with the problem – just to observe it without interpreting, condemning, or comparing, without trying to alter it or do something about it. That demands one’s complete attention, but to most of us no problem is ever so serious that we want to give it our complete attention because we lead a very superficial life, and we are easily satisfied by glib answers, quick responses. We want to forget the problem, put it away and get on with something else.
It is only when the problem touches us intimately, as in the case of death, or a complete lack of money, or when the husband or the wife has left us – it is only then that the problem may become a crisis. But we never allow any problem to bring about a crisis in our life; we always push it away by explanations, by words, by the various things we use as a defence.
If you are merely looking for an answer to the various problems, then you will never find it; you will only find a solution that is suitable to you, that you like or dislike, that you reject or accept; but that is not the answer – it is only your response to a particular like or dislike. But if one does not seek an answer but looks at the problem, really investigates it, then the answer will be found in the problem itself. But we are so eager to find an answer. We suffer; our life is a confusion of conflict, and we want to put an end to that confusion; we want to find a solution, and so we are always seeking an answer. Probably there is no answer in the way we want it answered.
But if we do not seek an answer, and which means to investigate the whole problem patiently, without condemnation, without accepting or rejecting, just investigate and proceed patiently – then you will find the problem itself, while unfolding, reveals extraordinary things. For that, the mind must be free; it must not take sides or choose.