"Man can be cultivated – and the more you are cultivated, the less real you are.

"The reality is your uncultivated self, untouched by society. But that is dangerous. A child, if left to himself, will be just an animal. He will be authentic, but he will be an animal; he will not become a man. So that is not possible, that alternative is closed. We cannot leave a child to himself. We have to do something, and whatsoever we do will disturb the real self. It will give clothings, it will give faces and masks to the child. He will become a man, but then he will become an actor; he will not be real. If you leave him to himself he will be like an animal – authentic, real, but not a man. So it is a necessary evil that we have to teach him, we have to cultivate and condition him. Then he becomes a man, but unreal.

"The third possibility opens with these techniques of meditation. All techniques of meditation are really 'unconditionings.' Whatsoever society has given to you can be taken away again, and then you will not be an animal. Then you will be something more than man. You will be a superman – real, but not an animal.

"How does it happen? A child has to be given culture, education. There is no possibility of leaving him to himself. If you leave him to himself, he will never become a man; he will remain an animal. He will be real, but he will miss the world, the dimension of consciousness which opens with man. So we have to make him a man, and he becomes unreal.

"Why does he become unreal? Because this man is just imposed from without. Inside he remains the animal. From outside we impose humanity on him. He is divided; he is split in two. Now the animal goes on living within, and the man without. That is why whatsoever you do and say is a double bind. You have to maintain a face which has been given to you, and you continuously have to satisfy your animal also. That creates problems, and everyone becomes dishonest."