We had started to look at this question earlier and we agreed it was best to open it up for wider discussion. There are so many problems to choose from when one looks around at the world in which we live: political problems, economic problems, humanitarian problems, practical problems as well as all the many problems of personal relationship. Therefore perhaps we ought to start with the perceiver of these problems, with the one who says, ‘This is the first problem we must all address,’ or, ‘This is the prime problem of living.’ Each perceiver will offer a different suggestion or answer to this question depending upon his geographical, cultural and psychological position. But is there perhaps something, somewhere, about which we can say with total certainty, ‘Yes, this is our greatest problem in life’? Then, if there are those who disagree with what we have seen, the onus is upon them to change the focus or to point us in the right direction. In other words, it is no longer our problem to persuade or change the view of anyone else. Instead, it is all about finding the spot where both of us are looking at the same thing together. Then the problem itself may speak to us quite separately from all the many words we have to say about it.
Let’s begin.