A mind that is not silent, a heart that is not quiet, such a mind and such a heart is always in conflict and misery. Do what it will, it will always bring misery upon itself and upon others. If one has listened easily, quietly, not being mesmerised by these words, then one comes upon it darkly, unknowingly, and there it is! It may last a single second, a minute, a day or a century – that doesn’t matter. When you want to grasp it, when you say, ‘I must have it the whole of my life,’ then you are fragmented; then you begin again the fragmentation, the contradiction, the anger, the jealousy and all the rest of it. In order to see the totality of existence, time as the past and present must come to an end.
From Public Talk 8, Saanen, 26 July 1966