What is the present? Do you know what it is? You say: ‘Live in the present’, as many intellectuals advocate—they advocate it because to them the future is bleak (Laughter), meaningless, therefore they say, ‘Live in the present, make the best of the present, be completely “with it”’. We must find out what the present is. What is ‘the now’? Do you know what ‘the now’ is, what the present is? Is there such a thing as the present? No, please, don’t speculate about it, observe it. Have you ever noticed what ‘the now’ is? Can you be aware of ‘the now’, know what it is? Or do you only know the past, the past which operates in the present, which creates the future? Are you following? When you say ‘live in the present’ you must find out what that present actually is. Is there such a thing? To understand if there is such a thing as the actual present, you must understand the past. And when you observe what you are as a human being, you see you are completely the result of the past. There is nothing new in you, you are second-hand. You are the past looking at the present, translating the present. The present being the challenge, the pain, the anxiety, a dozen things which are the result of the past, and you are looking at it getting very frightened and thinking about tomorrow, which again creates another pleasure—you are all that. To understand ‘the now’ is an immense problem of meditation—that is meditation. To understand the past totally, see where its importance lies, and to see its total unimportance, to realize the nature of time—all that is part of meditation. Perhaps we can go into it another evening. But, Sirs, before you can meditate there must be the foundation of righteousness, which means no fear. If there is any kind of fear, secret or obvious, then meditation is the most dangerous thing, because it offers a marvellous escape. To know what the meditative mind is, is one of the greatest things.K