| We have had philosophies, beliefs and religions for thousands of years, and they have not changed man. They have perhaps given him a superficial polish; he is perhaps less savage – perhaps – but he is still brutal, violent, capricious, not capable of sustained seriousness. And we live this kind of life, a life of great sorrow, from the moment we are born till we die. That is the fact, and no amount of speculative theories about the fact will affect the fact. What affects the fact, the ‘what is’, is the capacity, the energy, the intensity, the passion with which you look at that fact. And you cannot have passion and intensity if your mind is chasing, running away after some delusion, a speculative ideology. From Public Talk 3, Santa Monica, California, 7 March 1970 Read more | 