| To come upon an extraordinary sensitivity, for the brain to discover it, there must be meditation. Not the stupid meditation of repetition of words, prayers and all that kind of nonsense, but meditation to find out whether the brain can be quiet, free of all the so-called animalistic reactions. You know what I mean by animalistic reactions: you hit me and I hit you back, or I suppress it – the various forms. Can the brain be extraordinarily quiet, and yet vigorous, capable of reasoning healthily? A neurotic brain cannot do this, a brain that is tortured, that has broken down through constant submission to a relationship, idea or conditioning. The brain cells have been so heavily conditioned, so heavily brutalised by the repetition of pleasure, pain, love, hate, going through that circle – can that brain see the reactions and remain without the reaction of the animal? That is part of meditation. To proceed further, the totality of the mind, which is the brain, the physical being, the nervous responses, the emotions, the anxieties, the totality which is the mind, can that mind free itself? This is the next movement of meditation. From Public Discussion 7, Saanen, 9 August 1966 Read more | 