We're asking whether compassion
– or love – is pleasure.
So we are going to investigate together,
– please bear in mind, together –
what is the significance and the meaning of pleasure,
which every human being is seeking,
which every human being is pursuing at any cost.
What is pleasure?
The pleasure derived from possession,
the pleasure derived from capacity, talent,
the pleasure when you can dominate another,
the pleasure
of having tremendous power,
politically, religiously, or economically.
Then there is the pleasure of sex,
the pleasure that money gives
so that you have a great sense of freedom.
They're are all multiple forms of pleasure.
And if you observe very carefully, look at yourself
as though you are looking at yourself in a mirror,
you will see that you are pursuing the same – pleasure.
It may not be money, it may not be many possessions,
but it may be through sex,
or clinging to a particular form of experience,
which has given you great delight,
holding on to that,
or a particular conclusion,
an ideological conclusion
that gives you a sense of great superiority,
which is a form of pleasure.
So, what actually is the meaning of pleasure?
The word,
not the pleasure derived from something,
but the essence of pleasure.
Because we discussed the other day when we met, the nature of fear,
and whether human beings,
you as a human being representing all humanity,
can be free completely, totally of fear.
We went into that very carefully
and I do not think we'll go into it again today
because we won't have time.
So we're asking:
what is the nature and the structure of pleasure,
which every human being is seeking.
In pleasure there are several things:
there is enjoyment,
there is a sense of joy,
pleasure, enjoyment, joy,
and further on, ecstasy.
In the field of pleasure these are involved:
pleasure, joy,
taking delight in something,
and the sense of ecstasy.
The meaning of the word ecstasy,
– please understand what it means –
the root meaning is to be beyond yourself.
There is no self to enjoy.
The self, that is the me, the ego, the personality,
has all totally disappeared,
there is only that sense of being outside.
That is ecstasy.
But that ecstasy has nothing whatsoever to do with pleasure.
So we're going to look carefully at pleasure,
the meaning of it, in which is included joy,
taking a delight in something
and so on.
I hope you want to go into this.
And you may not want to go into it
because you may be frightened,
because you say, for God's sake,
if you take away pleasure what have we in life?
We are not taking away pleasure.
We're not saying it's ugly, wrong, anything of that.
We are examining it.
But if you say, don't examine it too closely because I'm frightened,
then please don't examine.
But if you want to understand it,
see the significance of it, go into it very deeply,
then there must be no blockage by your fear.