Ambition is the result of greed, envy, desire for power.
The very desire to suppress ambition is a trick of the mind to be something else - which is part of ambition.
An ambitious mind is a corrupt mind. An ambitious mind cannot possibly understand what it is to meditate; it is thinking in terms of achievement, of success, of fulfilling.
Ambition produces envy. Ambition is the result of the desire for power and position, for personal advancement, political and religious - politically in the name of an idea of the future or of the present, and spiritually in the name of something equally good or equally bad. We have known such ambitions - to be somebody, to be dominating people in the name of peace, in the name of Master, in the name of God, and heaven knows what else.
Where there is ambition, there must be exploitation, man against man, nation against nation, and the very people who are shouting peace are the very ones who are doing things which are highly destructive, perhaps for themselves and for their country or for their idea. Such people do not bring peace. They only verbalize peace, but they have not got peace in their hearts. Such people obviously cannot bring to the world peace or happiness; they must only bring contention, war.
An action springing from ambition - whether that ambition be for the individual or for the collective or for the nation or for the world - is inaction because such an action produces misery, as you can see in the world factually. So, nationalism is becoming a poison.
All our so-called progress is based on ambition. If you draw, you must draw much better than anybody else; if you make an image, it must be better than that made by anybody else; there is this constant struggle. What happens in this process is that you become very cruel. Because you want to achieve an end, you become cruel, ruthless, thoughtless, in your group, in your class, in your nation.
Ambition is the activity of an unhappy person, not of a happy person. But to live, to act, to think, to create, without ambition, is extremely difficult. Without understanding ambition, there cannot be creativity. An ambitious person is never a creative, joyous person; he is always tortured. But a man who feels the love of anything, the being of anything, is really creative; such a person is a revolutionary. A person who is a communist, a socialist, a congressman, or an imperialist cannot be revolutionary. The creative human being is inwardly very rich, and out of that richness, he acts and has his being.
Ambition is really a form of power, the desire for power over myself and over others, the power to do something better than anybody else. In ambition, there is a sense of comparison, and therefore, the ambitious man is never really a creative man, is never a happy man; in himself he is discontented.
When you understand this whole question of ambition and are aware of it - not verbally, not ideologically or as an idea, as an ideal eventually to be achieved, but actually be aware of it - in your daily existence, you will see that from that awareness, a new action is coming into being, which is an action without effort, without struggle, because you have understood. You are seeing the truth of it, and therefore the perception of what is true liberates. And therefore you are acting freely without any compulsion, without any fear. T
Ambition is a self-centered action. Though it may talk in terms of peace and world welfare, God, truth, this or that, it is surely the self-centered movement expressing itself through comparison, ambition. Such a mind is incapable of love. That is one thing. And can the mind see the truth of all this? A mind which is concerned with itself, with its own advancement, with its own expression through fulfillment, economic, social, and all the rest of it - such a mind is incapable of affection, of love.
One of the causes of fear is ambition, is it not? You are all ambitious, are you not? What is your ambition? To pass some examination? To become a clerk? To become a governor? Or if you are very young, to become an engineer or to drive engines across the bridge? You are all ambitious. Why are you ambitious? What does it mean? Have you ever thought about it?
Ambition, as we generally know it, is the outcome of fear. Now, if I am interested as a boy in being an engineer because I love it, because I want to build beautiful houses, because I want to have the best irrigation in the world, because I want to build the best roads, it means I love the thing; therefore, that is not ambition. In that, there is no fear. So, ambition and interest are two different things, are they not? I am interested in painting, I love it, I do not want to compete with the best painter or the most famous painter, I just love painting. You may be better at painting, but I do not compare myself with you. I love what I am doing when I paint; that in itself is sufficient for me.
What has ambition done in the world? So few have ever thought about it. When somebody is struggling to be on the top of somebody else, when everybody is trying to achieve, to gain, have you ever found out what is in their hearts? If you will look at your own heart and see when you are ambitious, when you are struggling to be somebody, spiritually or in the world, you will find that there is the worm of fear inside it. The ambitious man is the most frightened man because he is afraid to be what he is, because he says, "If I am what I am, I shall be nobody. Therefore, I must be somebody, I must become the engineer, the engine driver, the magistrate, the judge, the minister."
If you examine this very closely, if you go beyond the wall of words, behind the wall of ideas, positions, and ambitions, you will find there is fear because he is afraid to be what he is. Because he thinks that what he is, is so insignificant, so poor, so ugly, so lonely, so empty, he says, "I must go and do something outside." Either he goes after what he calls God - which is just another form of ambition - because he is afraid, or he wants to be somebody in the world. So, what happens is that this fear is covered up, this loneliness - this sense of inward emptiness of which he is really frightened - is covered up. He runs away from it, and the ambition becomes the emotions through which he can escape.
He goes after what he calls God - which is just another form of ambition - because he is afraid, or he wants to be somebody in the world. So, what happens is that this fear is covered up, this loneliness - this sense of inward emptiness of which he is really frightened - is covered up. He runs away from it, and the ambition becomes the emotions through which he can escape.
There is perpetual fighting, and our society is one constant struggle of one man against another, and this struggle is called the ambition to be something. Old people encourage you to do that. You must be ambitious, you must be something, you must marry a rich man or a rich woman, you must have the right kind of friends. So, the older generation, those who are frightened, those who are ugly in their hearts, try to make you like them, and you also want to be like them because you see the glamour of it all. When the governor comes, everybody bows down to the earth to receive him, gives him garlands, makes speeches; he loves it, and you love it because you feel you are honored, you know his uncle or you know his clerk, so you want to bask in the sunshine of his ambitions, of his achievements. So you are easily caught in it, in the web of the older generation, in a world which is most ugly, most monstrous. Only if you are very careful, if you are watchful and if you question all the time, if you do not accept and are not afraid, then you will not be caught in it, then you will create a different world.
Is it possible to be free from ambition? I can think it out logically, see the conflicts, the ruthlessness, the brutality of ambition in my relationships, and so on. And will that help me? Will explanations of the perniciousness of ambition help me to be free from ambition? Or, is there only one way, which is to see all the implications of ambition without condemnation, just to be aware of the fact that I am ambitious not only at the conscious level but at the deeper levels of my own thinking? Surely, I must be completely aware of it, without any resistance, because the more I struggle against it, the more vitality I give it.
Ambition has become a habit with me, and the more I resist a habit, the stronger it becomes. Whereas, if I am aware of it, merely see the fact of it, does that not bring about a radical change? I am no longer concerned with suppressing ambition or with putting it aside, nor am I satisfied with any explanation - I am directly concerned with the fact of ambition. So, when I look at it, what do I see? Is ambition mere habit? Am I caught in the habit of a society which is based on ambition, on success, on being somebody? Am I stimulated by challenge, by the sense of achievement, and without that stimulation do I feel lost, and so I depend on stimulation? Is it not possible to be aware of all this, to see the implications of it and not react - just see the fact?
A man who would have a new mind, a fresh mind, a young mind, has to be free totally from ambition. Because, ambition implies competition, which is what we are brought up on from our childhood - to compete in our school and to be somebody there and so on right through the world, right through our existence - to be somebody, which means violence, ruthlessness, no love or sympathy in this.
If we can understand not by discarding ambition but by understanding the ways of ambition - by being open, by comprehending, by listening to the truth of ambition - perhaps we may come upon that creativity in which there is a continuous expression which is not the expression of self-fulfillment but is the expression of energy without the limitation of the 'me'.
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