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Over a vast reach of time, four million years, a diverse group of hominids developed on the face of this globe. All human populations today are members of the sole surviving hominid, Homo Sapiens. Biological evolution is an undeniable fact. Evolution of civilisations from various cultures in different parts of the world is also a historical fact. What we call civilisation is a highly evolved, complex, organised expression of human thinking.

And, as time is passing, this particular faculty of the human brain, the intellect, is becoming more and more complex and subtle. Science, technology, politics, economics, religion and education are ever-growing fields of knowledge. Even the study of one subject like psychology branches into other disciplines like evolutionary biology, cognitive science, neuroscience, psychophysiology and linguistics.

Yet, there seems to be some part of the human personality which has remained underdeveloped - the animal nature of man. Indeed, with the help of his highly developed intellect, the animal in man has become more cunning, crooked, vicious and destructive. Time, instead of making this better, only makes it worse as more 'self-protective' patterns of behaviour are accumulated. Hence, massacres, genocide, wars - the annihilation of human beings by human beings -exist in our civilised world.

All of us are familiar with the awakening of the animal in us on occasions of fury, passion, greed, wrath and violence when our highly developed, superior intellect is completely subdued by a voluminous outpouring of emotional energy. All of us have experienced the submission and slavery of our logical and reasoning faculties before the cruel authority of our sensuous desires and fears. The evolution over time of social morality, ethics, religious sanctions and other codes of conduct have never been successful in restraining this destructive force of our desires and fears.

If the human race is to be saved, this devastating energy trapped in human consciousness must be understood and ended, not over time, but every instant as it is born, manifesting in thought and feeling.

The question arises: What is the nature of this energy trapped in the human brain during the evolutionary process? Krishnamurti, the great 20th century sage, suggests that it is the consciousness of a separate ego, a sense of 'me' that desires to be and fears not being, which generates thoughts and feelings that sustain the sense of separateness. Time only helps to strengthen this self-activating, vicious circle.

So, evolution in the true sense lies not through time but in the ending of time. Processes that take time - methods, systems, practices, disciplines - postpone true evolution. Time is created by the sense of a distinct self, a separate 'I', with its desire to 'be' and its fear of 'not continuing to be'. Therefore, the ending of time, or true evolution, comes about with the ending of consciousness of separateness.

It is not difficult to see that there is no such single entity as 'I' which could be ended; instead it is a composite of thoughts and feelings which create a sense of self as they arise. It is these which must end and end as they arise, that is, not over time. This can happen only by choiceless awareness which is the direct, timeless approach suggested by Krishnamurti.

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