| Understanding is not a matter of time, not a matter of gradation or gradualness. You either see or you don’t see. And you cannot see if you are not totally, deeply aware of your reactions, of your conditioning. Being aware of your conditioning, watch it choicelessly – see the fact and not give opinions, judgment about the fact. That is, look at the fact without thought. Then there is an awareness, an attention where the known doesn’t interfere. It is that attention without frontiers, without a centre, that can comprehend the unknowable. But merely thinking about the unknowable with a petty, little mind, a mind that is crippled with neurotic ideas, fear, despair, greed and envy, such a mind can never comprehend. However much it may speculate about the unknowable, about God, about this or that, it has very little meaning. Such a mind is not a religious mind at all; it is a stupid mind. I am using the word ‘stupid’ in the dictionary sense, not emotionally or condemnatory. From Public Talk 3, London, 12 June 1962 Read more | 