Talks with American Students

Most of us in this confused and brutal world try to carve out a private life of our own, a life in which we can be happy and peaceful and yet live with the thing of this world. We seem to think that the daily life we lead, the life of struggle, conflict, pain and sorrow, is something separate from the outer world of misery and confusion. We seem to think the individual, the 'you', is different from the rest of the world. . . . When you look a little more closely, not only at your own life but also at the wold, you will see that what you are - your daily life, what you think, what you feel - is the external world, the world about you. You are the world, you are the human being that has made this world of utter disorder, the world that is crying helplessly in great sorrow. . . .