WHY DO YOU WANT POLITICAL POWER.

We know the way of power - power through domination, power through compulsion. Through political power we hope to change fundamentally; but such power only breeds further darkness, disintegration evil, the strengthening of the 'me'. We are familiar with the various forms of acquisition, both individually and as groups, but we have never tried the way of love, and we don't even know what it means. Love is not possible so long as there is the thinker, the centre of the 'me'. Realising all this, what is one to do? Surely, the only thing which can bring about a fundamental change, a creative, psychological release, is everyday watchfulness, being aware from moment to moment of our motives, the conscious and the unconscious.
So long as the thinker exists apart from his thought, which he is trying to dominate, there can be no fundamental transformation. So long as the 'me' is the observer, the one who gathers experience, strengthens himself through experience, there can be no radical change, no creative release. That creative release comes only when the thinker is the thought - but the gap cannot be bridged by any effort. When the mind realises that any speculation, any verbalisation, any form of thought only gives strength to the 'me', when it sees that as long as the thinker exists apart from thought there must be limitation, the conflict of duality - when the mind realises that, then it is watchful, everlastingly aware of how it is separating itself from experience, asserting itself, seeking power. In that awareness, if the mind pursues it ever more deeply and extensively without seeking an end, a goal, there comes a state in which the thinker and the thought are one. In that state, there is no effort, there is no becoming, there is no desire to change; in that state the 'me' is not, for there is a transformation which is not of the mind.
It is the only when the mind is empty that there is a possibility of creation; but I do not mean this superficial emptiness which most of us have...I am talking of the emptiness which  comes through extraordinary thoughtfulness, when the mind sees its own power of creating illusion and goes beyond. Creative emptiness is not possible so long as there is the thinker who is waiting, watching, observing, in order to strengthen himself.
Can the mind ever be empty of all symbols, of all words with their sensations, so that there is no experiencer who is accumulating? Is it possible for the mind to put aside completely all the reasonings, the experiences, the impositions, authorities, so that it is in a state of emptiness? You will not be able to answer this question, naturally; it is an impossible question for you to answer, becuase you do not know, you have never tried...It is only the new that can transform, not the old. The creative can come into being only when the mind itself is new; and the mind can renew itself only when it is capable of seeing all its own activities, not only at the superficial level, but deep down...
If you begin to observe, to be aware of your own activities from day to day, watching the whole process of yourself as in a mirror, then, as you go deeper, you will come to the ultimate question of this emptiness in which alone there can be  the new. Then you will find the answer, then you will see that the change comes without your asking; that the state of creative emptiness is not a thing to be cultivated - it is there, it comes darkly, without any invitation; only in that state is there a possibility of renewal, newness, revolution. 
(Abridged from 'The First And Last Freedom', courtesy: KFI; Published in 'The Speaking Tree' dated 22nd May, 2016, a Times of India Publication)  
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