Beauty, violence, fear, pleasure, time and thought are all interrelated. Is it possible to clear violence in ourselves? This is a very complex problem. I want to live completely at peace with myself and with this beautiful world. What is beauty? “How am I to live in a world of violence?” Those are the inevitable questions. What can I do?

Most of us take pleasure in violence, having antagonistic feellings toward others. Each country are in battle with other countries. There is great deal of anarchy in the world. Violence is not merely organized killing in the name of peace. Violence is not merely killing another. Violence is much more deeper. It is violence when we use sharp word, when we obey because there is fear. And to go into a problem I must completely open to it. It must be obvious to me that we are violent human being. We are trying to understand violence as a fact, not as an idea. If you want to understand the actual you must give your whole attention to it. That attention are distracted when you create an ideal. Some of us, in order to get rid of violence, have used a concept called nonviolence. We think we can get rid of the fact but we can not. Is this problem of violence out there? When you call yourself a European or an American, you are being violent. Do you see why? Because you are separating yourself. Here I am, a violent human being, whether I am black or white. I am concerned with it if it is possible to be free from. It is destroying me and destroying the world. I want to understand it. One can not say, “It is part of me and nothing can be done.” Isn’t it important to you that your children are killed? If that doesn’t interest you, what does? Guarding your design job? Having a nice car?

There are terrible wars going on. In the Asia or in the Africa you see immense poverty. Who has brougth this about? Economically, politically, religiously. Who is responsible for all the mess that we have in the world? We are living on this earth, and each one is seeking his freedom. Everything we do is action. What is self-interest? Is this related to the beauty? It is important to understand all this. Self-interest devides people. You and I. My interest opposed to your interest, your country, my country. Can one live without any kind of self-interest? Everybody is against somebody, struggling to arrive at a safer place. We push other people aside because we are trying to become a big man. If I say my mind is crude and I try to become sensitive, the very effort to become sensitive is crudity.

We have experienced violence in anger, in our sexual demands, violence in jealousy, violence in hatred. One of the most common expressions of violence is anger. If you run away with my wife or my sister I get angry. I am also angry when my habits are disturbed. Can we look at anger without any explanation, without saying, “I must protect my idea,” or “I was right to be angry”? Can you look at anger objectively? Neither defending it nor condemning it? Can we go to the root of violence and be free from it? I think one can. Otherwise we shall live everlastingly in battle with each other. If I know how to look at violence, not only outwardly but also in ourselves, then I will able to see the truth. If you are interested then attend with all your mind to find out. Anger is not separete from me. I am anger. If violence is not a major problem for you, then you can not find out why you condemn or justify. You have to understand that you condemn or justify because it is part of social structure you live in. The way you live is your affair. Most of us have accepted violence as a way of life. We might be able to modify ourselves, live a little more quietly, but this will not give total perception.

What is time? Time is important factor in our life. That is the moment that you are sitting there as you are reading. You are what you are now. The present is what we have been and what we are. The past, modifiying itself in the present and the future. Time is tradition. Time is remembrance. Time is knowledge adding more and more. We need time to design a car or a bus. But time creates lots and lots of problems. We have been violent. We have tried to cover it over with logical conclusions but we are still killing each other. Horrible things are happening to the annimals, and the human beings. We are violent people. Competitive, barbarous, antagonistic. If there is no transformation now, I will be the same tomorrow. So simple if you look at it. You can not look for another to help you. You are understanding yourself. You are looking at yourself. Time as we have been, and what we will be. “I am unhappy, but one day I will be happy.” What is the relationship of time, thought to fear?

What is thinking? Thinking is common to all mankind. We all think. We think in terms of time. All our life based on thought. Look at our brains, how it works. We never dig into ourselves. You have to find out what is thinking? What is the cause of thinking? If you understand the cause then you can solve any of the problem. The cause of anything, the cause of a design problem, the cause of a fear. What is the origin of all thought? Is it experience? The experience stored up in the brain as memory and that memory reacts as thinking. Is it so simple? Is thinking based on experience, knowledge, memory? We are full of kowledge of other people. The more knowledge you have the more you think. Science is adding more and more very day. Thought is the basis of our life, working in the design office, or in a design school, or a factory. Look what is happening with the designers and who runs the design offices. Look objectively then we will able to see the truth.

What is fear? Fear of being ill, fear of death. Fear of losing ones job. Fear of hundered little things. Fear is common to all of us, like power, position. If one can discover the cause, then deal with the cause. Then that cause comes to an end. You do not have to do anything about it. Just to observe the cause as you observe something external. No one is trying to help you. There are others who might help you. You may leave your problems to be solved. They may solve them according to their desires, their power, their position. You have to face the facts. To create an atmosphere in which there is no fear and violence requires a greate deal of thinking.

When in a state of mind in which all violence has come to an end there is joy and beauty. Which is very different from pleasure. What does beauty mean to each one of us? Is it the face, the body, the great pleasure in seeing some of those marvellos designs? Or beauty is the pictures in the museums? Is there beauty in our life? The sense of generosity, the sense of high sensitivitiy? Are we talking about something extreme? Or it is the common all of us that we all go through great periods of suffering. Is everything beautiful? Is everyone living happily? Is beauty love? Is beauty plesure? When you see those hills and the blue sky and the sunburned grass and the calm sea and the sun set, when you look at them, not verbalizing, then what takes place? For that moment you become silent. The sea and the sun set absorbs you at that moment. And you forget yourself. For a moment this immensity drive our pettiness away.

It is only when you are constantly observing, constantly learning, constantly inquiring, then you find beauty, truth or love. Do you know what it means to learn? We learn from everyting. Life itself is your teacher, and we are in a state of constant learning. Your mind must be free to observe it. It must not be occupied with problems. The moment we want to be something, we are no longer free. If you understand the simplicity of it you will also see its extraordinary beauty. It is good to see what is beautiful, but you must also observe the ugly things of live. Freedom needs infinite space. When there is a lack of space there is violence. Because of the limitied space between us aggression must exist. Freedom means infinite space not created by the me. Freedom and love go together. If I love you because you love me, that is not love. That is trade. To love is not ask anything in return. When love becomes pleasure, then pain is inevitable. Love is not thought. Freedom is beyond thought. Freedom is to stand alone, unattached and unafraid. It is thought that gives plesure as sexual and as the plesure of achivement. When this plesure comes to an end naturaly or by accident then sorrow is your shadow. Plesure encouraged by thought. Thought says: ”I like this and I don’t like that.” When I say: “I want more of that plesure.” I am the thought. So I have built a chain of continuity which is time.

When you are doing something with your hole being, not because you want to get somewhere, in that there is no competition. You are not struggling with anyone for better place. The higher you climbe the more misery you cause for yourself and others, because to get there you have to compete.

I wonder if you have ever stopped to observe the marvellous clouds in the east as the sun rise? Often at that time the sea is calm, and everyting is reflected on its surfece. How soft is the sunlight on the waters. It is all very beautiful. Do you ever notice any of that? Or are you so busy, that you forget the beauty of this earth? We all have pleasure in attachment, in achieving position, money, fame. Our brain is caught in repetition. Is repitition indication of old age? Is repitition indication of senility? Probably you have never ask this question. You can not answer it because you have not observed yourselves deeply. We depend on so many things. So many books, so many leaders. If one part of my life is in disorder, then the whole of my life is in disorder. If there is disorder in regard to design business, then the rest of my life is in disorder. You have to be a light to yourself. That can never be given by another, by any designer, by any philosopher or psycohologist, or any teacher.