In The Present Is The Whole Of Time

Washington D.C. 1st Public Talk 20th April 1985:

‘In The Present Is The Whole Of Time’

This is not a lecture on any particular subject according to certain disciplines, scientific or philosophical. Lectures are meant to inform on a particular subject or instruct, but we are not going to do that. So this is not a lecture, nor is it a form of entertainment. In this country especially, one is greatly accustomed to being entertained, amused. Rather in these talks, this afternoon and tomorrow morning, we are going to talk together about the whole of our existence from the moment we are born until we die.

In that period of time, whether it be fifty years, ninety years or a hundred years, we go through all kinds of problems and difficulties. We have economic, social, religious problems; problems of personal relationship, problems of individual fulfilment, wanting to find one’s roots in some place or other; and we have innumerable psychological wounds, fears, pleasures, sensations. There is a great deal of fear in all human beings, a great deal of anxiety, uncertainty, and a pursuit of pleasure, and also all human beings on this beautiful earth suffer a great deal of pain, loneliness. We are going to talk about all that together. And about what place religion has in modern life. We are also going to talk over together the question of death; and what is a religious mind and what is meditation; is there anything that is beyond thought and is there anything sacred in life, or is everything matter so that we lead a materialistic life?