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subscribe Tell a friend QUESTIONS AND ANSWERS 36TH QUESTION - SAANEN
5TH QUESTION & ANSWER MEETING - 27TH JULY 1980
'BEYOND MEASURE'
One's problems can be solved without the help of others; they are created by oneself in relationship to another; and however subtle, however superficial or great they can be solved if one applies one's mind and heart to resolving them - that is if one is not slack and lazy.
But the questioner wants to go much further. He comes here to share something he calls `measureless to man' (in Coleridge's words), something beyond all measure, something that is not given in churches. The first thing is to be clear as to what we mean by measure - because he uses the word `measureless'. Distance can be measured. So-called progressive evolution can be measured. One was this yesterday; through meeting the present yesterday is modified and gives the movement to the future. That can be measured. Thought is a material process which can be measured - the superficiality of one's thinking, the deeper and the deepest thoughts. The more and the less can always be measured. Comparison is a process of measurement. Imitation and conformity can be measured.
As long as there is measurement the mind can only function in that measurement. The mind, the brain, through training and custom have fallen into the habit of measurement. Is there something which is not measurable? Is there such a thing? Can the mind, the brain, and the heart, they are all one, can that whole structure be free of measurement?
The brain - which has evolved through time, millions and millions of years - is the common brain of humanity. We may not like to realize this because we are accustomed to the idea that our brains are individual. That concept of individuality has been the tradition through millennia. That brain is constantly measuring - the more, the less, the better and the best - it is constantly functioning in that pattern. But the questioner comes to share something measureless to man.
How then are we going to find out if there is something beyond all measure, that is beyond all time - because time is measurement? Time is movement. Thought is movement. Time is thought. Thought is born out of memory, experience, knowledge. This is a material process because in the very cells of the brain memories are stored. Everything that the brain creates is a material process.
Insight is total perception of the whole complex movement of measurement. You can only have that insight when you perceive without previous knowledge, for if you are using knowledge then it is comparative, it is measurable. Insight is not measurable. When there is measureless insight the unfolding of the whole movement of comparison is not only seen but ends immediately. You can test it; you do not have to accept the speaker's word for it.
So: what is beyond measure? To find out there must be freedom from fear, the deep-rooted, conscious or unconscious fears. Fear is something that can be observed and resolved, because the root of fear - not the various branches and the leaves of that tree - is time. One is afraid of tomorrow. One is afraid of what has happened. The physical pain which one has had is gone but the fear that it might occur again remains. Psychologically one has done something wrong, dishonourable and there is fear. Psychologically, fear is time: "I am afraid of dying. I am living now but I dread what might happen; that is the measurement of time. The root of fear is time and thought. To have an insight into that is the ending of fear totally.
The ending of fear means the understanding of time and the ending of sorrow. If the mind and the brain, are cleared of sorrow and fear then there may be something other. But we want to be assured of it, we want it guaranteed, like a good watch: that is the commercial mentality. There is no guarantee and that is the beauty of it. This one has to do for itself, not for a reward. And that is very difficult for most people. If one is given something in exchange it is an act of measurement. So, can the mind be free of all measurement - especially in your relationship to another, which is more difficult? When one is free of all measurement then something totally different takes place. When that which has taken place beyond measure is described, it is no longer measureless. You can describe the mountain, the shape of it, the line of it, the shadows; you can paint it, make a poem about it, but all that is not the mountain. We sit in the valley and say, "Please tell us about the mountain." We do not walk there. We want to be comfortable. There is something beyond all measure.