Daily Quote, Tuesday August 18, 2009.

Good morning everyone,

A fraction cooler last night!

Today's quote from Krishnamurti continues with the question of the experiencer, the "me."

Without any desire for reward or fear of punishment.

Now, is it possible for the mind to free itself of the observer, of the watcher, of the experiencer, without any motive? Obviously, if there is a motive, that very motive is the essence of the 'me', of the experiencer. Can you forget yourself entirely without any compulsion, without any desire for reward or fear of punishment, just forget yourself? I do not know if you have tried it. Has such a thought even occurred to you, has it ever come to your mind? And when such a thought does arise, you immediately say, 'If I forget myself, how can I live in this world where everybody is struggling to push me aside and get ahead?'

To have a right answer to that question you must first know how to live without the 'me', without the experiencer, without the self-centred activity, which is the creator of sorrow, the very essence of confusion and misery. So is it possible, while living in this world with all its complex relationships, with all its travail, to abandon oneself completely an be free of the things which go to make up the 'me'?

The Collected Works, Vol. X - 254

Here are my reflections.

Krishnamurti was once asked (actually he was asked a lot) what his real purpose was, and he said it was simply to make people completely and unconditionally free. When he say, as he does here, that to be free is act without any desire for reward or fear of punishment, he is speaking to the same question that Patanjali speaks to in the Yoga Sutras: non-attachment.
What ties us to the world, what creates fear, is the desire for recognition for the "I." It turns the "i" into the "I." This is our primary motive; it is the heart of all selfish action: the fear of staying small and not being noticed.

We see everyone in the world doing the same thing and today this leads to the common mantra: "I'm just doing what I need to do for myself." Those who chant such a mantra in their daily conversation can't forget themselves. To forget yourself is to enter a life of service; it is to sacrifice the "me" to love, not just the silly love of sex and infatuation, but the love that is only possible when their is no experiencer.

Best wishes

Robert