Is it possible to look at the problem comprehensively, wholly?
The more we think over a problem, the more we investigate, analyse, and discuss it, the more complex it becomes. So is it possible to look at the problem comprehensively, wholly? How is this possible? Because that, it seems to me, is our major difficulty. Our problems are being multiplied – there is imminent danger of war, there is every kind of disturbance in our relationships – and how can we understand all that comprehensively, as a whole? Obviously, it can be solved only when we can look at it as a whole – not in compartments, not divided. When is that possible? Surely, it is only possible when the process of thinking – which has its source in the ‘me’, the self, in the background of tradition, of conditioning, of prejudice, of hope, of despair – has come to an end. Can we understand this self, not by analysing, but by seeing the thing as it is, being aware of it as a fact and not as a theory – not seeking to dissolve the self in order to achieve a result but seeing the a
ctivity of the self, the ‘me’, constantly in action? Can we look at it, without any movement to destroy or to encourage? That is the problem, is it not? If, in each one of us, the centre of the ‘me’ is non-existent, with its desire for power, position, authority, continuance, self-preservation, surely our problems will come to an end.