Daily Quote, Thursday March 5, 2009

Good morning everyone,

It's bright and sunny here again in Halifax! The players are coming out onto the field and England will resume their first innings on 378 for 5. It still looks like a great batting strip and today Mrs. Jones of Dartmouth has sent in a lovely chocolate cake for the commentators!

Robert

Here is today's quote. Today I'll put my reflection underneath.

choicelessly observant

All human problems arise from this extraordinarily complex, living center which is the 'me', and a man who would uncover its subtle ways has to be negatively aware, choicelessly observant.

Collected Works, Vol. XIII - 202

My reflection:

So what is it to be negatively aware? It is clearly a state of being as well as an action. The perception is the action as Krishnamurti puts it. I think it's to be aware of oneself in such a way that one is aware of oneself as nothing. In observation of my reactions to what you say and do, I negate the awareness I have of "me" as something.

It's not the same as knowing myself. If I know myself then I am positively aware; I am something as there is content. Then there is the "me" again.

I'm just thinking about this now in the context of wha Derrida says about deconstruction. It's like there are three stages in becoming negatively aware. 1) I live completely unconsciously, unaware of my conditioning, all the images I relate to, and the idea of "me" that I have as I walk around. 2) I then observe myself and am aware of the contents of my conditioning and this "me." 3) Then I have the insight that this is of the past, the movement of thought as response to fear of being lonely. This negates the "me" as I see it as just an idea, an escape into an image, a response to fear.

Any thoughts on this?

This quote from the Krishnamurti Notebooks that I found might help to think it through.

"To see wholly, the brain has to be in a state of negation. Negation is not the opposite of the positive; all opposites are related within the fold of each other. Negation has no opposite. The brain has to be in a state of negation for total seeing; it must not interfere, with its evaluations and justifications, with its condemnations and defences. It has to be still, not made still by compulsion of any kind, for then it is a dead brain, merely imitating and conforming. When it is in a state of negation, it is choicelessly still. Only then is there total seeing. In this total seeing which is the quality of the mind, there is no seer, no observer, no experiencer; there’s only seeing. The mind then is completely awake. In this fully wakened state, there is no observer and the observed; there is only light, clarity. The contradiction and conflict between the thinker and thought ceases."

Krishnamurti’s Notebook, pp. 125–126© 1976 by Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd.

PS. Do check out the reference to a letter by David Bohm's wife that Laureen gave in her comment to yesterday's daily quote.