Daily Quote, Thursday April 30, 2009.
Good morning everyone,
Bright and sunny again today. Have a great day.
If you practice a method you are still living within a very small space.
When you look at a tree, or the face of your neighbor, or the face of your wife or husband, and if you look with that quality of mind that is completely quiet, then you will see something totally new. Such silence of the mind is not something that can be attained through any practice; if you practice a method you are still living within a very small space which thought has created, as the 'me,' the 'I' practicing, advancing. That space is full of conflict, full of its own achievements and failures, and such a mind can never be quiet, do what it will.
Meditations - 97
Thursday, April 30, 2009
Wednesday, April 29, 2009
Daily Quote, Wednesday April 29, 2009.
Good morning everyone,
Day two of very nice and sunny here.
The more I read K and reflect upon it all, the more it is about paying attention to yourself. Doing this honestly has the capacity to disolve fear instantly. That moment of seeing the truth of what is is very quiet and very sacred. Reading chapter 1 of The Ending of Time last night, you can see how the movement of time as thought creates so much fear. Fear of the future; it disloves right away when you see yourself creating the future, all the dangers and obstacles, in thought.
Here is todays's quote.
What is religion?
What is religion? It is the investigation, with all one's attention, with the summation of all one's energy, to find that which is sacred, to come upon that which is holy. That can only take place when there is freedom from the noise of thought, the ending of thought and time, psychologically, inwardly - but not the ending of knowledge in the world where you have to function with knowledge. That which is holy, that which is sacred, which is truth, can only be when there is complete silence, when the brain itself has put thought in its right place. Out of that immense silence there is that which is sacred.
The Wholeness of Life - 145
Good morning everyone,
Day two of very nice and sunny here.
The more I read K and reflect upon it all, the more it is about paying attention to yourself. Doing this honestly has the capacity to disolve fear instantly. That moment of seeing the truth of what is is very quiet and very sacred. Reading chapter 1 of The Ending of Time last night, you can see how the movement of time as thought creates so much fear. Fear of the future; it disloves right away when you see yourself creating the future, all the dangers and obstacles, in thought.
Here is todays's quote.
What is religion?
What is religion? It is the investigation, with all one's attention, with the summation of all one's energy, to find that which is sacred, to come upon that which is holy. That can only take place when there is freedom from the noise of thought, the ending of thought and time, psychologically, inwardly - but not the ending of knowledge in the world where you have to function with knowledge. That which is holy, that which is sacred, which is truth, can only be when there is complete silence, when the brain itself has put thought in its right place. Out of that immense silence there is that which is sacred.
The Wholeness of Life - 145
Tuesday, April 28, 2009
Two quotes on one day!
After dallying along in cyberspace, both quotes arrived this afternoon. The top one is technically yesterdays.
Study group is this Sunday at 5:30pm at the Second Cup. Looking forward to seeing everyone. :-)
Aware without any choice, to observe, to learn.
There are various schools, in India and further East, where they teach methods of meditation - it is really most appalling. It means training the mind mechanically; it therefore ceases to be free and does not understand the problem.
So when we use the word 'meditation' we do not mean something that is practiced. We have no method. Meditation means awareness: to be aware of what you are doing, what you are thinking, what you are feeling, aware without any choice, to observe, to learn. Meditation is to be aware of one's conditioning, how one is conditioned by the society in which one lives, in which one has been brought up, by the religious propaganda - aware without any choice, without distortion, without wishing it were different. Out of this awareness comes attention, the capacity to be completely attentive. Then there is freedom to see things as they actually are, without distortion. The mind becomes unconfused, clear, sensitive. Such meditation brings about a quality of mind that is completely silent - of which quality one can go on talking, but it will have no meaning unless it exists.
Beyond Violence - 80
Inward going is not a search.
The curious part of meditation is that an event is not made into an experience. It is there, like a new star in the heavens, without memory taking it over and holding it, without the habitual process of recognition and response in terms of like and dislike. Our search is always outgoing; the mind seeking any experience is outgoing. Inward going is not a search at all; it is perceiving. Response is always repetitive, for it comes always from the same bank of memory.
Meditations - 77
After dallying along in cyberspace, both quotes arrived this afternoon. The top one is technically yesterdays.
Study group is this Sunday at 5:30pm at the Second Cup. Looking forward to seeing everyone. :-)
Aware without any choice, to observe, to learn.
There are various schools, in India and further East, where they teach methods of meditation - it is really most appalling. It means training the mind mechanically; it therefore ceases to be free and does not understand the problem.
So when we use the word 'meditation' we do not mean something that is practiced. We have no method. Meditation means awareness: to be aware of what you are doing, what you are thinking, what you are feeling, aware without any choice, to observe, to learn. Meditation is to be aware of one's conditioning, how one is conditioned by the society in which one lives, in which one has been brought up, by the religious propaganda - aware without any choice, without distortion, without wishing it were different. Out of this awareness comes attention, the capacity to be completely attentive. Then there is freedom to see things as they actually are, without distortion. The mind becomes unconfused, clear, sensitive. Such meditation brings about a quality of mind that is completely silent - of which quality one can go on talking, but it will have no meaning unless it exists.
Beyond Violence - 80
Inward going is not a search.
The curious part of meditation is that an event is not made into an experience. It is there, like a new star in the heavens, without memory taking it over and holding it, without the habitual process of recognition and response in terms of like and dislike. Our search is always outgoing; the mind seeking any experience is outgoing. Inward going is not a search at all; it is perceiving. Response is always repetitive, for it comes always from the same bank of memory.
Meditations - 77
Sunday, April 26, 2009
Daily Quote, Sunday April 26, 2009.
Hi everyone,
The weather is, well, back to "normal" shall we say, hopefully just for this morning!
How can a mind which is everlastingly chattering perceive anything?
Meditation implies a quality of mind that can completely attend, therefore, a mind that can be completely still. The mind is always chattering, always talking, either to itself, within itself or to somebody, always in movement. How can a mind which is everlastingly chattering perceive anything? Only a mind that is completely attentive has the total energy to observe, because you need tremendous energy to observe. The religious monks and others say that you cannot waste energy; therefore no sex, if you want to be a saint. And when you become a celibate and have taken vows of celibacy, there is havoc in you, because you are denying the whole biological system and there is a wastage of energy. You are battling, battling, battling. Or you go to the other extreme, indulge, which is another form of wasting energy. Whereas, if you are attentive, it is the greatest form of all summation of energy. It means intensity, passion, and you cannot be passionate if you are wasting. Without a ny effort the mind can become completely quiet and therefore full of energy without any distortion.
Talks and Dialogues in Sydney 1970 - 76
Hi everyone,
The weather is, well, back to "normal" shall we say, hopefully just for this morning!
How can a mind which is everlastingly chattering perceive anything?
Meditation implies a quality of mind that can completely attend, therefore, a mind that can be completely still. The mind is always chattering, always talking, either to itself, within itself or to somebody, always in movement. How can a mind which is everlastingly chattering perceive anything? Only a mind that is completely attentive has the total energy to observe, because you need tremendous energy to observe. The religious monks and others say that you cannot waste energy; therefore no sex, if you want to be a saint. And when you become a celibate and have taken vows of celibacy, there is havoc in you, because you are denying the whole biological system and there is a wastage of energy. You are battling, battling, battling. Or you go to the other extreme, indulge, which is another form of wasting energy. Whereas, if you are attentive, it is the greatest form of all summation of energy. It means intensity, passion, and you cannot be passionate if you are wasting. Without a ny effort the mind can become completely quiet and therefore full of energy without any distortion.
Talks and Dialogues in Sydney 1970 - 76
Saturday, April 25, 2009
Daily Quote, Saturday April 25, 2009.
And still they rise!
You have not ended your sorrow, and you want to find enlightenment.
You can sit in the right posture with your back straight, breathing correctly, do pranayama and all the rest of it for the next ten thousand years, and you will be nowhere near perceiving what truth is, because you have not understood yourself at all, the way you think, the way you live. You have not ended your sorrow, and you want to find enlightenment. You can do all kinds of twists and turns with your body and this seems to fascinate people, because they feel it is going to give some power, some prestige. Now, all these powers are like candles in the sun; they are like candle light when the brilliant sun is shining.
Krishnamurti in India 1970-71 - 55
And still they rise!
You have not ended your sorrow, and you want to find enlightenment.
You can sit in the right posture with your back straight, breathing correctly, do pranayama and all the rest of it for the next ten thousand years, and you will be nowhere near perceiving what truth is, because you have not understood yourself at all, the way you think, the way you live. You have not ended your sorrow, and you want to find enlightenment. You can do all kinds of twists and turns with your body and this seems to fascinate people, because they feel it is going to give some power, some prestige. Now, all these powers are like candles in the sun; they are like candle light when the brilliant sun is shining.
Krishnamurti in India 1970-71 - 55
Friday, April 24, 2009
Daily Quote, Friday April 24, 2009.
Good morning as the temperatures start to rise!!
The 'how to be free' only enslaves you.
Do not make meditation a complicated affair; it is really very simple and because it is simple it is very subtle. Its subtlety will escape the mind if the mind approaches it with all kinds of fanciful and romantic ideas. Meditation, really, is a penetration into the unknown, and so the known, the memory, the experience, the knowledge which it has acquired during the day, or during a thousand days, must end. For it is only a free mind that can penetrate into the very heart of the immeasurable. So meditation is both the penetration and the ending of the yesterday.
The trouble begins when we ask how to end the yesterday. There is really no 'how.' The 'how' implies a method, a system and it is this very method and system that has conditioned the mind. Just see the truth of this. Freedom is necessary - not 'how' to be free. The 'how to be free' only enslaves you.
Beyond Violence - 54
Good morning as the temperatures start to rise!!
The 'how to be free' only enslaves you.
Do not make meditation a complicated affair; it is really very simple and because it is simple it is very subtle. Its subtlety will escape the mind if the mind approaches it with all kinds of fanciful and romantic ideas. Meditation, really, is a penetration into the unknown, and so the known, the memory, the experience, the knowledge which it has acquired during the day, or during a thousand days, must end. For it is only a free mind that can penetrate into the very heart of the immeasurable. So meditation is both the penetration and the ending of the yesterday.
The trouble begins when we ask how to end the yesterday. There is really no 'how.' The 'how' implies a method, a system and it is this very method and system that has conditioned the mind. Just see the truth of this. Freedom is necessary - not 'how' to be free. The 'how to be free' only enslaves you.
Beyond Violence - 54
Thursday, April 23, 2009
Daily Quote, Thursday April 23, 2009.
Good morning,
My health is starting to match the weather! Anyone else out there with a nasty cold?
So the coughing, sneezing, and headache are not the cold! Yippee. :-)
The description is not the described.
This is something most marvelous if you come upon it. I can go into it, but the description is not the described. It's for you to learn all this by looking at yourself - no book, no teacher can teach you about this. Don't depend on anyone, don't join spiritual organizations; one has to learn all this out of oneself. And there the mind will discover things that are incredible. But for that, there must be no fragmentation and therefore immense stability, swiftness, mobility. To such a mind there is no time and therefore living has quite a different meaning.
The Impossible Question - 190
Good morning,
My health is starting to match the weather! Anyone else out there with a nasty cold?
So the coughing, sneezing, and headache are not the cold! Yippee. :-)
The description is not the described.
This is something most marvelous if you come upon it. I can go into it, but the description is not the described. It's for you to learn all this by looking at yourself - no book, no teacher can teach you about this. Don't depend on anyone, don't join spiritual organizations; one has to learn all this out of oneself. And there the mind will discover things that are incredible. But for that, there must be no fragmentation and therefore immense stability, swiftness, mobility. To such a mind there is no time and therefore living has quite a different meaning.
The Impossible Question - 190
Wednesday, April 22, 2009
Daily Quote, Wednesday April 22, 2009.
Good morning,
Once again it's like thick soup out there!
Please note the reference to "entertainment" in today's quote. :-)
Beliefs, like ideals, are escapes from the fact.
Belief is so unnecessary, as are ideals. Both dissipate energy which is needed to follow the unfolding of the fact, the 'what is.' Beliefs, like ideals, are escapes from the fact and in escape there is no end to sorrow. The ending of sorrow is the understanding of the fact from moment to moment. There is no system or method which will give understanding but only a choiceless awareness of a fact. Meditation according to a system is the avoidance of the fact of what you are; it is far more important to understand yourself, the constant changing of the facts about yourself, than to meditate in order to find god, have visions, sensations, and other forms of entertainment.
Krishnamurti's Notebook - 41
Good morning,
Once again it's like thick soup out there!
Please note the reference to "entertainment" in today's quote. :-)
Beliefs, like ideals, are escapes from the fact.
Belief is so unnecessary, as are ideals. Both dissipate energy which is needed to follow the unfolding of the fact, the 'what is.' Beliefs, like ideals, are escapes from the fact and in escape there is no end to sorrow. The ending of sorrow is the understanding of the fact from moment to moment. There is no system or method which will give understanding but only a choiceless awareness of a fact. Meditation according to a system is the avoidance of the fact of what you are; it is far more important to understand yourself, the constant changing of the facts about yourself, than to meditate in order to find god, have visions, sensations, and other forms of entertainment.
Krishnamurti's Notebook - 41
Tuesday, April 21, 2009
Daily Quote, Tuesday April 21, 2009
Good morning from under the heavy blanket of fog here in Halifax!
If your meditation is only a personal matter then it is not meditation.
We have to alter the structure of our society, its injustice, its appalling morality, the divisions it has created between man and man, the wars, the utter lack of affection and love that is destroying the world. If your meditation is only a personal matter, a thing which you personally enjoy, then it is not meditation. Meditation implies a complete radical change of the mind and the heart. This is only possible when there is this extraordinary sense of inward silence, and that alone brings about the religious mind. That mind knows what is sacred.
Beyond Violence - 133
Good morning from under the heavy blanket of fog here in Halifax!
If your meditation is only a personal matter then it is not meditation.
We have to alter the structure of our society, its injustice, its appalling morality, the divisions it has created between man and man, the wars, the utter lack of affection and love that is destroying the world. If your meditation is only a personal matter, a thing which you personally enjoy, then it is not meditation. Meditation implies a complete radical change of the mind and the heart. This is only possible when there is this extraordinary sense of inward silence, and that alone brings about the religious mind. That mind knows what is sacred.
Beyond Violence - 133
Monday, April 20, 2009
Daily Quote, Monday April 20, 2009
Good morning everyone,
This morning's quote is on meditation again. It sems to go a bit further than the last few. What he seems to be saying is that anything that is useful cannot be an opening to the immeasurable. My reading of this is that to be useful, to have utility as he puts it, something must be compared. To this extent, to say that something is useful presupposes that something else is useless. So in true meditation there is no experience, no process of recognition in observation. Instead, the idea is to commune, which means to be close to, very close so that there is no separation of space and time. In communion there is the disolution of the self.
I thought our study group discussion of violence was incredible last night.
Next meeting is Sunday May 3. We'll be starting our discussion of The Ending of Time then. I will probably start to post quotes from this book on the blog as I'm reading it and would invite everyone to do the same with things they find of interest. If you're not sure how to post vs. leaving a comment, just ask me.
There is no meaning; there is no utility.
Perception without the word, that is without thought, is one of the strangest phenomena. Then the perception is much more acute, not only with the brain, but with all the senses. Such perception is not the fragmentary perception of the intellect nor the affair of the emotions. It can be called a total perception, and it is part of meditation. Perception without the perceiver in meditation is to commune with the height and depth of the immense. This perception is entirely different from seeing an object without an observer, because in the perception of meditation there is no object and therefore no experience. Meditation can take place when the eyes are open and one is surrounded by objects of every kind, but then these objects have no importance at all. One sees them but there is no process of recognition, which means there is no experiencing.
What meaning has such meditation? There is no meaning; there is no utility. But in that meditation there is a movement of great ecstasy, which is not to be confounded with pleasure. It is the ecstasy, which gives to the eye, to the brain, and to the heart the quality of innocence. Without seeing life as something totally new, it is a routine, boredom, and a meaningless affair. So meditation is of the greatest importance. It opens the door to the incalculable, the measureless.
Meditations 1969 - 3
Good morning everyone,
This morning's quote is on meditation again. It sems to go a bit further than the last few. What he seems to be saying is that anything that is useful cannot be an opening to the immeasurable. My reading of this is that to be useful, to have utility as he puts it, something must be compared. To this extent, to say that something is useful presupposes that something else is useless. So in true meditation there is no experience, no process of recognition in observation. Instead, the idea is to commune, which means to be close to, very close so that there is no separation of space and time. In communion there is the disolution of the self.
I thought our study group discussion of violence was incredible last night.
Next meeting is Sunday May 3. We'll be starting our discussion of The Ending of Time then. I will probably start to post quotes from this book on the blog as I'm reading it and would invite everyone to do the same with things they find of interest. If you're not sure how to post vs. leaving a comment, just ask me.
There is no meaning; there is no utility.
Perception without the word, that is without thought, is one of the strangest phenomena. Then the perception is much more acute, not only with the brain, but with all the senses. Such perception is not the fragmentary perception of the intellect nor the affair of the emotions. It can be called a total perception, and it is part of meditation. Perception without the perceiver in meditation is to commune with the height and depth of the immense. This perception is entirely different from seeing an object without an observer, because in the perception of meditation there is no object and therefore no experience. Meditation can take place when the eyes are open and one is surrounded by objects of every kind, but then these objects have no importance at all. One sees them but there is no process of recognition, which means there is no experiencing.
What meaning has such meditation? There is no meaning; there is no utility. But in that meditation there is a movement of great ecstasy, which is not to be confounded with pleasure. It is the ecstasy, which gives to the eye, to the brain, and to the heart the quality of innocence. Without seeing life as something totally new, it is a routine, boredom, and a meaningless affair. So meditation is of the greatest importance. It opens the door to the incalculable, the measureless.
Meditations 1969 - 3
Sunday, April 19, 2009
Daily Quote, Sunday April 19, 2009.
Hi everyone,
A bit late today as I was teaching a class at the yoga conference at 7am. Apologies! Getting up an hour early turned out to be a bit of a challenge. :-)
Or the laughter of a man as he passes by.
We hardly ever listen to the sound of a dog's bark or to the cry of a child or the laughter of a man as he passes by. We separate ourselves from everything, and then from this isolation look and listen to all things. It is this separation that is so destructive, for in that lies all conflict and confusion. If you listened to the sound of bells with complete silence you would be riding on it - or, rather, the sound would carry you across the valley and over the hill. The beauty of it is felt only when you and the sound are not separate, when you are part of it. Meditation is the ending of the separation, but not by any action of will or desire.
Meditation is not a separate thing from life; it is the very essence of life, the very essence of daily living. To listen to the bells, to hear the laughter of a peasant as he walks by with his wife, to listen to the sound of the bell on the bicycle of a little girl as she passes by: it is the whole of life, and not just a fragment of it, that meditation opens.
The Only Revolution - 163
Hi everyone,
A bit late today as I was teaching a class at the yoga conference at 7am. Apologies! Getting up an hour early turned out to be a bit of a challenge. :-)
Or the laughter of a man as he passes by.
We hardly ever listen to the sound of a dog's bark or to the cry of a child or the laughter of a man as he passes by. We separate ourselves from everything, and then from this isolation look and listen to all things. It is this separation that is so destructive, for in that lies all conflict and confusion. If you listened to the sound of bells with complete silence you would be riding on it - or, rather, the sound would carry you across the valley and over the hill. The beauty of it is felt only when you and the sound are not separate, when you are part of it. Meditation is the ending of the separation, but not by any action of will or desire.
Meditation is not a separate thing from life; it is the very essence of life, the very essence of daily living. To listen to the bells, to hear the laughter of a peasant as he walks by with his wife, to listen to the sound of the bell on the bicycle of a little girl as she passes by: it is the whole of life, and not just a fragment of it, that meditation opens.
The Only Revolution - 163
Saturday, April 18, 2009
Daily Quote, Saturday April 18, 2009.
Hi everyone,
Really nice day if you're here in Halifax.
A mind which is a light to itself needs no experience.
What an extraordinary thing meditation is. If there is any kind of compulsion, effort to make thought conform, imitate, then it becomes a wearisome burden. The silence which is desired ceases to be illuminating. If it is the pursuit of visions and experiences, then it leads to illusions and self-hypnosis. Only in the flowering of thought and so ending thought does meditation have significance. Thought can only flower in freedom, not in ever-widening patterns of knowledge. Knowledge may give newer experiences of greater sensation but a mind that is seeking experiences of any kind is immature. Maturity is the freedom from all experience; it is no longer under any influence to be or not to be.
Maturity in meditation is the freeing of the mind from knowledge, for knowledge shapes and controls all experience. A mind which is a light to itself needs no experience. Immaturity is the craving for greater and wider experience. Meditation is the wandering through the world of knowledge and being free of it to enter into the unknown.
Krishnamurti's Notebook - 213
Hi everyone,
Really nice day if you're here in Halifax.
A mind which is a light to itself needs no experience.
What an extraordinary thing meditation is. If there is any kind of compulsion, effort to make thought conform, imitate, then it becomes a wearisome burden. The silence which is desired ceases to be illuminating. If it is the pursuit of visions and experiences, then it leads to illusions and self-hypnosis. Only in the flowering of thought and so ending thought does meditation have significance. Thought can only flower in freedom, not in ever-widening patterns of knowledge. Knowledge may give newer experiences of greater sensation but a mind that is seeking experiences of any kind is immature. Maturity is the freedom from all experience; it is no longer under any influence to be or not to be.
Maturity in meditation is the freeing of the mind from knowledge, for knowledge shapes and controls all experience. A mind which is a light to itself needs no experience. Immaturity is the craving for greater and wider experience. Meditation is the wandering through the world of knowledge and being free of it to enter into the unknown.
Krishnamurti's Notebook - 213
Friday, April 17, 2009
Daily Quote, Friday April 21, 2009
Good morning on a very sunny morning!
Today's quote reminds me of trying get a cat to sit on your lap. The cat always sits on the lap of the person who least wants it. :-)
If you set out to be good, goodness will never flower.
If you set out to meditate, it will not be meditation. If you set out to be good, goodness will never flower. If you cultivate humility, it ceases to be. Meditation is the breeze that comes in when you leave the window open; but if you deliberately keep it open, deliberately invite it to come, it will never appear.
The Only Revolution - 37
Good morning on a very sunny morning!
Today's quote reminds me of trying get a cat to sit on your lap. The cat always sits on the lap of the person who least wants it. :-)
If you set out to be good, goodness will never flower.
If you set out to meditate, it will not be meditation. If you set out to be good, goodness will never flower. If you cultivate humility, it ceases to be. Meditation is the breeze that comes in when you leave the window open; but if you deliberately keep it open, deliberately invite it to come, it will never appear.
The Only Revolution - 37
Thursday, April 16, 2009
Daily Quote, Thursday April 16, 2009
Good morning,
On a lovely sunny day!
You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim.
Meditation is one of the most extraordinary things, and if you do not know what it is you are like the blind man in a world of bright color, shadows and moving light. It is not an intellectual affair, but when the heart enters into the mind, the mind has quite a different quality; it is really, then, limitless, not only in its capacity to think, to act efficiently, but also in its sense of living in a vast space where you are part of everything.
Meditation is the movement of love. It isn't the love of the one or of the many. It is like water that anyone can drink out of any jar, whether golden or earthenware; it is inexhaustible. And a peculiar thing takes place, which no drug or self-hypnosis can bring about; it is as though the mind enters into itself, beginning at the surface and penetrating ever more deeply, until depth and height have lost their meaning and every form of measurement ceases. In this state there is complete peace - not contentment which has come about through gratification - but a peace that has order, beauty and intensity. It can all be destroyed, as you can destroy a flower, and yet because of its very vulnerability it is indestructible. This meditation cannot be learned from another. You must begin without knowing anything about it, and move from innocence to innocence.
The soil in which the meditative mind can begin is the soil of everyday life, the strife, the pain and the fleeting joy. It must begin there, and bring order, and from there move endlessly. But if you are concerned only with making order, then that very order will bring about its own limitation, and the mind will be its prisoner. In all this movement you must somehow begin from the other end, from the other shore, and not always be concerned with this shore or how to cross the river. You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim. And the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is.
Meditations 1969 - 1
Good morning,
On a lovely sunny day!
You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim.
Meditation is one of the most extraordinary things, and if you do not know what it is you are like the blind man in a world of bright color, shadows and moving light. It is not an intellectual affair, but when the heart enters into the mind, the mind has quite a different quality; it is really, then, limitless, not only in its capacity to think, to act efficiently, but also in its sense of living in a vast space where you are part of everything.
Meditation is the movement of love. It isn't the love of the one or of the many. It is like water that anyone can drink out of any jar, whether golden or earthenware; it is inexhaustible. And a peculiar thing takes place, which no drug or self-hypnosis can bring about; it is as though the mind enters into itself, beginning at the surface and penetrating ever more deeply, until depth and height have lost their meaning and every form of measurement ceases. In this state there is complete peace - not contentment which has come about through gratification - but a peace that has order, beauty and intensity. It can all be destroyed, as you can destroy a flower, and yet because of its very vulnerability it is indestructible. This meditation cannot be learned from another. You must begin without knowing anything about it, and move from innocence to innocence.
The soil in which the meditative mind can begin is the soil of everyday life, the strife, the pain and the fleeting joy. It must begin there, and bring order, and from there move endlessly. But if you are concerned only with making order, then that very order will bring about its own limitation, and the mind will be its prisoner. In all this movement you must somehow begin from the other end, from the other shore, and not always be concerned with this shore or how to cross the river. You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim. And the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is.
Meditations 1969 - 1
Wednesday, April 15, 2009
There is a point beyond which calculation must cease
Hi all. I'm back from a very long road trip, and came across this wonderful passage as the train was bounding across the prairies in the pre-morning light (does that mean I was on a "rail trip"?):
If you really want to find out if there is such a thing as God, something that cannot possibly be put into words ... one must understand oneself, the structure and the nature of the self; and the structure and the nature of oneself is measurable by thought. It is measurable in the sense that thought can perceive its own activities, thought can see what it has created, what it has denied, what it has accepted; and when one realizes the limitations of thought, then perhaps one can go into that which lies beyond thought. (Awakening of Intelligence, p. 302-303)
In the past few days (this is Ted speaking again, not a quote!), I've been noticing my thoughts and following their logic, following them to their conclusion. Thoughts can be very compelling! But the ones I've been having lately, the energetic ones, don't really withstand any scrutiny. If I simply ask, "Is that true?," they dissipate; they aren't true. These ones are particularly false, but I'm not sure any thought can withstand a few moments of scrutiny. All thought is limited. And in uncovering the limits of particular thoughts, one is brought back to a more embodied, dynamic reality. I haven't exactly found God this week (!), but I like Krishnamurti's suggestion above that we might watch our thoughts with sufficient curiosity that their limitations automatically reveal themselves. What remains is beyond thought.
Here's Jacques Derrida: "There is a point, or a limit, beyond which calculation must cease." He's writing about justice, its actual impossibility within any concrete understanding of justice, and (more hopefully) its inevitable arrival in the unconceptualized space beyond conceptual thought.
Be well.
If you really want to find out if there is such a thing as God, something that cannot possibly be put into words ... one must understand oneself, the structure and the nature of the self; and the structure and the nature of oneself is measurable by thought. It is measurable in the sense that thought can perceive its own activities, thought can see what it has created, what it has denied, what it has accepted; and when one realizes the limitations of thought, then perhaps one can go into that which lies beyond thought. (Awakening of Intelligence, p. 302-303)
In the past few days (this is Ted speaking again, not a quote!), I've been noticing my thoughts and following their logic, following them to their conclusion. Thoughts can be very compelling! But the ones I've been having lately, the energetic ones, don't really withstand any scrutiny. If I simply ask, "Is that true?," they dissipate; they aren't true. These ones are particularly false, but I'm not sure any thought can withstand a few moments of scrutiny. All thought is limited. And in uncovering the limits of particular thoughts, one is brought back to a more embodied, dynamic reality. I haven't exactly found God this week (!), but I like Krishnamurti's suggestion above that we might watch our thoughts with sufficient curiosity that their limitations automatically reveal themselves. What remains is beyond thought.
Here's Jacques Derrida: "There is a point, or a limit, beyond which calculation must cease." He's writing about justice, its actual impossibility within any concrete understanding of justice, and (more hopefully) its inevitable arrival in the unconceptualized space beyond conceptual thought.
Be well.
Daily Quote, April 15, 2009.
Hi everyone,
At last back to bright and sunny in Halifax!
Have a great day.
Light is light; it does not ask for more light.
Always to seek for wider, deeper, transcendental experiences is a form of escape from the actual reality of 'what is,' which is ourselves, our own conditioned mind. A mind that is awake, intelligent, free, why should it need, why should it have, any experience at all? Light is light; it does not ask for more light.
The Flight of the Eagle - 38
Hi everyone,
At last back to bright and sunny in Halifax!
Have a great day.
Light is light; it does not ask for more light.
Always to seek for wider, deeper, transcendental experiences is a form of escape from the actual reality of 'what is,' which is ourselves, our own conditioned mind. A mind that is awake, intelligent, free, why should it need, why should it have, any experience at all? Light is light; it does not ask for more light.
The Flight of the Eagle - 38
Tuesday, April 14, 2009
Daily Quote, Tuesday April 14, 2009.
Good morning everyone,
A different story today it seems. Sun rather than snow!
It is only when there is friction that there is noise.
Meditation is to find out whether the brain, with all the activities, all its experiences, can be absolutely quiet. Not forced, because the moment you force, there is duality. The entity that says, 'I would like to have marvelous experiences, therefore I must force my brain to be quiet,' will never do it. But if you begin to inquire, observe, listen to all the movements of thought, its conditioning, its pursuits, its fears, its pleasures, watch how the brain operates, then you will see that the brain becomes extraordinarily quiet; that quietness is not sleep but is tremendously active and therefore quiet. A big dynamo that is working perfectly hardly makes a sound; it is only when there is friction that there is noise.
The Impossible Question - 72
Good morning everyone,
A different story today it seems. Sun rather than snow!
It is only when there is friction that there is noise.
Meditation is to find out whether the brain, with all the activities, all its experiences, can be absolutely quiet. Not forced, because the moment you force, there is duality. The entity that says, 'I would like to have marvelous experiences, therefore I must force my brain to be quiet,' will never do it. But if you begin to inquire, observe, listen to all the movements of thought, its conditioning, its pursuits, its fears, its pleasures, watch how the brain operates, then you will see that the brain becomes extraordinarily quiet; that quietness is not sleep but is tremendously active and therefore quiet. A big dynamo that is working perfectly hardly makes a sound; it is only when there is friction that there is noise.
The Impossible Question - 72
Monday, April 13, 2009
Daily Quote, Monday April 19, 2009
Good morning everyone,
Well, it's not raining in Halifax, not yet anyway. Though if we take note of what K says, the raindrops are pretty important! Sun on the way for Tuesday so I hear. :-)
That drop nourishes the earth and man.
It's curious how all-important meditation becomes; there's no end to it nor is there a beginning to it. It's like a raindrop: in that drop are all the streams, the great rivers, the seas and the waterfalls; that drop nourishes the earth and man; without it, the earth would be a desert. Without meditation the heart becomes a desert, a wasteland.
Krishnamurti's Notebook - 91
Good morning everyone,
Well, it's not raining in Halifax, not yet anyway. Though if we take note of what K says, the raindrops are pretty important! Sun on the way for Tuesday so I hear. :-)
That drop nourishes the earth and man.
It's curious how all-important meditation becomes; there's no end to it nor is there a beginning to it. It's like a raindrop: in that drop are all the streams, the great rivers, the seas and the waterfalls; that drop nourishes the earth and man; without it, the earth would be a desert. Without meditation the heart becomes a desert, a wasteland.
Krishnamurti's Notebook - 91
Sunday, April 12, 2009
Daily Quote, Sunday April 12, 2009.
Good morning everyone,
Rather dark here in Halifax this morning and not just because I'm up early! More rain seems likely but quite light rain.
It has no technique and therefore no authority.
Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody. That is the beauty of it. It has no technique and therefore no authority. When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy - if you are aware of all that in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation.
So meditation can take place when you are sitting in a bus or walking in the woods full of light and shadows, or listening to the singing of birds or looking at the face of your wife or child.
Freedom from the Known - 116
Good morning everyone,
Rather dark here in Halifax this morning and not just because I'm up early! More rain seems likely but quite light rain.
It has no technique and therefore no authority.
Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody. That is the beauty of it. It has no technique and therefore no authority. When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy - if you are aware of all that in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation.
So meditation can take place when you are sitting in a bus or walking in the woods full of light and shadows, or listening to the singing of birds or looking at the face of your wife or child.
Freedom from the Known - 116
Saturday, April 11, 2009
Daily Quote, Saturday April 11, 2009.
Good morning,
Nice and clear this morning but I here rain might be on the way later.
The religious mind is the explosion of love.
A meditative mind is silent. It is not the silence which thought can conceive of; it is not the silence of a still evening; it is the silence when thought - with all its images, its words and perceptions - has entirely ceased. This meditative mind is the religious mind - the religion that is not touched by the church, the temples or by chants.
The religious mind is the explosion of love. It is this love that knows no separation. To it, far is near. It is not the one or the many, but rather that state of love in which all division ceases. Like beauty, it is not of the measure of words. From this silence alone the meditative mind acts.
The Only Revolution - 115
Good morning,
Nice and clear this morning but I here rain might be on the way later.
The religious mind is the explosion of love.
A meditative mind is silent. It is not the silence which thought can conceive of; it is not the silence of a still evening; it is the silence when thought - with all its images, its words and perceptions - has entirely ceased. This meditative mind is the religious mind - the religion that is not touched by the church, the temples or by chants.
The religious mind is the explosion of love. It is this love that knows no separation. To it, far is near. It is not the one or the many, but rather that state of love in which all division ceases. Like beauty, it is not of the measure of words. From this silence alone the meditative mind acts.
The Only Revolution - 115
Friday, April 10, 2009
Daily Quote, Friday April 10, 2009.
Good morning everyone,
It's just my suggestion, but I wouldn't try out what K is suggesting in today's quote in a car the first time you try it, just in case! Maybe walking would be better to start with. :-)
Just look without thought.
I wonder if you have ever walked along a crowded street, or a lonely road, and just looked at things without thought? There is a state of observation without the interference of thought. Though you are aware of everything about you, and you recognize the person, the mountain, the tree, or the oncoming car, yet the mind is not functioning in the usual pattern of thought. I don't know if this has ever happened to you. Do try it sometime when you are driving or walking. Just look without thought; observe without the reaction which breeds thought. Though you recognize color and form, though you see the stream, the car, the goat, the bus, there is no reaction, but merely negative observation; and that very state of so-called negative observation is action. Such a mind can utilize knowledge in carrying out what it has to do, but it is free of thought in the sense that it is not functioning in terms of reaction. With such a mind - a mind that is attentive without reaction - you can go to the office, and all the rest of it.
Collected Works, Vol. XIV - 205
Good morning everyone,
It's just my suggestion, but I wouldn't try out what K is suggesting in today's quote in a car the first time you try it, just in case! Maybe walking would be better to start with. :-)
Just look without thought.
I wonder if you have ever walked along a crowded street, or a lonely road, and just looked at things without thought? There is a state of observation without the interference of thought. Though you are aware of everything about you, and you recognize the person, the mountain, the tree, or the oncoming car, yet the mind is not functioning in the usual pattern of thought. I don't know if this has ever happened to you. Do try it sometime when you are driving or walking. Just look without thought; observe without the reaction which breeds thought. Though you recognize color and form, though you see the stream, the car, the goat, the bus, there is no reaction, but merely negative observation; and that very state of so-called negative observation is action. Such a mind can utilize knowledge in carrying out what it has to do, but it is free of thought in the sense that it is not functioning in terms of reaction. With such a mind - a mind that is attentive without reaction - you can go to the office, and all the rest of it.
Collected Works, Vol. XIV - 205
Thursday, April 9, 2009
Daily Quote, Thursday April 9, 2009
Hi everyone,
Looking like it'll be nice and sunny this morning, after a few clouds have drifted away!
What is essential is to see that one is confused.
What is essential is to see that one is confused, that all activity, all action which springs from confusion, must be confused also. It's like a confused person seeking a leader - his leader must also be confused. So, what is essential is to see that one is confused and not try to escape from it, not try to find explanations for it; be passively, choicelessly, aware. And then you will see that quite a different action springs from that passive awareness, because if you make an effort to clarify the state of confusion, what you create will still be confused. But, if you are aware of yourself, choicelessly, passively aware, then that confusion unfolds and fades away.
You will see, if you will experiment with this - and it will not take a long period of time, because time is not involved in it at all - that clarification comes into being. But you must give your whole attention, your whole interest, to it. And I am not at all sure that most of us do not like to be confused, because in the state of confusion you need not act. And so we are satisfied with the confusion, because to understand confusion demands action which is not the pursuit of an ideal or an ideation.
Collected Works, Vol. V - 359
Hi everyone,
Looking like it'll be nice and sunny this morning, after a few clouds have drifted away!
What is essential is to see that one is confused.
What is essential is to see that one is confused, that all activity, all action which springs from confusion, must be confused also. It's like a confused person seeking a leader - his leader must also be confused. So, what is essential is to see that one is confused and not try to escape from it, not try to find explanations for it; be passively, choicelessly, aware. And then you will see that quite a different action springs from that passive awareness, because if you make an effort to clarify the state of confusion, what you create will still be confused. But, if you are aware of yourself, choicelessly, passively aware, then that confusion unfolds and fades away.
You will see, if you will experiment with this - and it will not take a long period of time, because time is not involved in it at all - that clarification comes into being. But you must give your whole attention, your whole interest, to it. And I am not at all sure that most of us do not like to be confused, because in the state of confusion you need not act. And so we are satisfied with the confusion, because to understand confusion demands action which is not the pursuit of an ideal or an ideation.
Collected Works, Vol. V - 359
Wednesday, April 8, 2009
Daily Quote, Wednesday April 8, 2009
Good morning,
Pretty grey in town this morning. :-)
A confused mind cannot find clarity.
A confused mind seeking clarity will only further confuse itself, because a confused mind can't find clarity. It's confused; what can it do? Any search on its part will only lead to further confusion. I think we don't realize that. When it's confused, one has to stop - stop pursuing any activity. And the very stopping is the beginning of the new, which is the most positive action, positive in a different sense altogether. All this implies that there must be profound self-knowing: to know the whole structure of one's thinking-feeling, the motives, the fears, the anxieties, the guilt, the despair. To know the whole content of one's mind, one has to be aware, aware in the sense of observing, not with resistance or with condemnation, not with approval or disapproval, not with pleasure or nonpleasure, just observing. That observation is the negation of the psychological structure of a society which says, 'You must, you must not.' Therefore, self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom, and also, self-knowledge is the beginning and the ending of sorrow. Self-knowing is not to be bought in a book, or by going to a psychologist and being examined analytically. Self-knowledge is actually understanding what is in oneself: the pains, the anxieties - seeing them without any distortion. Out of this awareness clarity comes into being.
Collected Works, Vol. XVII - 21
Good morning,
Pretty grey in town this morning. :-)
A confused mind cannot find clarity.
A confused mind seeking clarity will only further confuse itself, because a confused mind can't find clarity. It's confused; what can it do? Any search on its part will only lead to further confusion. I think we don't realize that. When it's confused, one has to stop - stop pursuing any activity. And the very stopping is the beginning of the new, which is the most positive action, positive in a different sense altogether. All this implies that there must be profound self-knowing: to know the whole structure of one's thinking-feeling, the motives, the fears, the anxieties, the guilt, the despair. To know the whole content of one's mind, one has to be aware, aware in the sense of observing, not with resistance or with condemnation, not with approval or disapproval, not with pleasure or nonpleasure, just observing. That observation is the negation of the psychological structure of a society which says, 'You must, you must not.' Therefore, self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom, and also, self-knowledge is the beginning and the ending of sorrow. Self-knowing is not to be bought in a book, or by going to a psychologist and being examined analytically. Self-knowledge is actually understanding what is in oneself: the pains, the anxieties - seeing them without any distortion. Out of this awareness clarity comes into being.
Collected Works, Vol. XVII - 21
Tuesday, April 7, 2009
Daily Quote, Tuesday April 7, 2009
Good morning everyone,
Time to launch your boats if you're heading out this morning in Halifax. Brollys might not be enough!
Robert
It is futile to fight one habit by another habit.
Questioner: If I understand you rightly, awareness alone and by itself is sufficient to dissolve both the conflict and the source of it. I am perfectly aware, and have been for a long time, that I am 'snobbish.' What prevents my getting rid of snobbishness?
Krishnamurti: The questioner has not understood what I mean by awareness. If you have a habit, the habit of snobbishness for instance, it is no good merely to overcome this habit by another, its opposite. It is futile to fight one habit by another habit. What rids the mind of habit is intelligence. Awareness is the process of awakening intelligence, not creating new habits to fight the old ones. So, you must become conscious of your habits of thought, but do not try to develop opposite qualities or habits. If you are fully aware, if you are in that state of choiceless observation, then you will perceive the whole process of creating a habit and also the opposite process of overcoming it. This discernment awakens intelligence, which does away with all habits of thought. We are eager to get rid of those habits which give us pain or which we have found to be worthless, by creating other habits of thought and assertions. This process of substitution is wholly unintelligent. If you will observe you will find that mind is nothing but a mass of habits of thought and memories. By merely overcoming these habits by others, the mind still remains in prison, confused and suffering. It is only when we deeply comprehend the process of self-protective reactions, which become habits of thought, limiting all action, that there is a possibility of awakening intelligence, which alone can dissolve the conflict of opposites.
Collected Works, Vol. III - 73
Good morning everyone,
Time to launch your boats if you're heading out this morning in Halifax. Brollys might not be enough!
Robert
It is futile to fight one habit by another habit.
Questioner: If I understand you rightly, awareness alone and by itself is sufficient to dissolve both the conflict and the source of it. I am perfectly aware, and have been for a long time, that I am 'snobbish.' What prevents my getting rid of snobbishness?
Krishnamurti: The questioner has not understood what I mean by awareness. If you have a habit, the habit of snobbishness for instance, it is no good merely to overcome this habit by another, its opposite. It is futile to fight one habit by another habit. What rids the mind of habit is intelligence. Awareness is the process of awakening intelligence, not creating new habits to fight the old ones. So, you must become conscious of your habits of thought, but do not try to develop opposite qualities or habits. If you are fully aware, if you are in that state of choiceless observation, then you will perceive the whole process of creating a habit and also the opposite process of overcoming it. This discernment awakens intelligence, which does away with all habits of thought. We are eager to get rid of those habits which give us pain or which we have found to be worthless, by creating other habits of thought and assertions. This process of substitution is wholly unintelligent. If you will observe you will find that mind is nothing but a mass of habits of thought and memories. By merely overcoming these habits by others, the mind still remains in prison, confused and suffering. It is only when we deeply comprehend the process of self-protective reactions, which become habits of thought, limiting all action, that there is a possibility of awakening intelligence, which alone can dissolve the conflict of opposites.
Collected Works, Vol. III - 73
Monday, April 6, 2009
Daily Quote, Monday April 6, 2009
Good morning,
There was some sun a moment ago, honest! :-)
To understand one habit is to open the door to understanding the whole machinery of habit.
So, I must first understand the futility of resistance or effort in breaking a habit. If that is clear, what happens? I become aware of the habit - fully aware of it. If I smoke, I observe myself doing it. I am aware of putting my hand in my pocket, bringing out the cigarettes, drawing one from the package, tapping it on my thumbnail or other hard surface, putting it in my mouth, lighting it, extinguishing the match, and puffing. I am aware of every movement, of every gesture, without condemning or justifying the habit, without saying it is right or wrong, without thinking, 'How dreadful, I must be free of it,' and so on. I am aware without choice, step by step, as I smoke. You try it next time, that is, if you want to break the habit. And in understanding and breaking one habit, however superficial, you can go into the whole enormous problem of habit: habit of thought, habit of feeling, the habit of imitation - and the habit of hungering to be something, for this too is a ha bit. When you fight a habit, you give life to that habit, and then the fighting becomes another habit, in which most of us are caught. We only know resistance, which has become a habit. All our thinking is habitual, but to understand one habit is to open the door to understanding the whole machinery of habit. You find out where habit is necessary, as in speech, and where habit is completely corruptive.
Collected Works, Vol. XIII - 204
Good morning,
There was some sun a moment ago, honest! :-)
To understand one habit is to open the door to understanding the whole machinery of habit.
So, I must first understand the futility of resistance or effort in breaking a habit. If that is clear, what happens? I become aware of the habit - fully aware of it. If I smoke, I observe myself doing it. I am aware of putting my hand in my pocket, bringing out the cigarettes, drawing one from the package, tapping it on my thumbnail or other hard surface, putting it in my mouth, lighting it, extinguishing the match, and puffing. I am aware of every movement, of every gesture, without condemning or justifying the habit, without saying it is right or wrong, without thinking, 'How dreadful, I must be free of it,' and so on. I am aware without choice, step by step, as I smoke. You try it next time, that is, if you want to break the habit. And in understanding and breaking one habit, however superficial, you can go into the whole enormous problem of habit: habit of thought, habit of feeling, the habit of imitation - and the habit of hungering to be something, for this too is a ha bit. When you fight a habit, you give life to that habit, and then the fighting becomes another habit, in which most of us are caught. We only know resistance, which has become a habit. All our thinking is habitual, but to understand one habit is to open the door to understanding the whole machinery of habit. You find out where habit is necessary, as in speech, and where habit is completely corruptive.
Collected Works, Vol. XIII - 204
Sunday, April 5, 2009
Daily Quote, Sunday April 5, 2009
Good morning,
Today's quote is great! I was thinking about something related to this when I woke up this morning.
Most of us don't want to be intensely aware; it is too disturbing.
Questioner: How is it possible to be intensely aware while one is occupied with a particular job?
Krishnamurti: I do not see the difficulty. Why can't one be intensely aware while doing the job? Whether the job is mechanical, scientific, or bureaucratic, in being intensely aware while you are doing that job, you will not only do it more efficiently but you will also begin to be aware of why you are doing it, what are the motives behind your work. You will find out if you are afraid of your boss; you will observe how you talk to your underlings and to those above you. Being intensely aware in your relationship with others, you will know whether you are creating enmity, jealousy, hatred; you will see all your own responses in relationship, whether you are here, in a bus, in your office, or in the factory. All this is implied in intense awareness.
Also, if you are intensely aware, you might give up your job. Therefore, most of us don't want to be intensely aware; it is too disturbing; we would rather continue with what we are doing, even if it is very boring. At best, we break away from that which bores us and find a job which is less boring, but this too soon becomes routine.
So, we are caught in habit: the habit of going to the office every morning, the habit of smoking, the sexual habit, the habit of ideas, concepts, the habit of being an Englishman, and so on. We function in habit. To be intensely aware of habit has its own danger, and we are afraid of danger. We are afraid of not knowing, of not being certain. There is great beauty, there is great vitality, in not being certain. It is not insanity to be completely insecure; it doesn't mean that one becomes psychotic. But none of us want that. We would rather break one habit and create a more pleasant habit.
Collected Works, Vol. XIII - 212
Good morning,
Today's quote is great! I was thinking about something related to this when I woke up this morning.
Most of us don't want to be intensely aware; it is too disturbing.
Questioner: How is it possible to be intensely aware while one is occupied with a particular job?
Krishnamurti: I do not see the difficulty. Why can't one be intensely aware while doing the job? Whether the job is mechanical, scientific, or bureaucratic, in being intensely aware while you are doing that job, you will not only do it more efficiently but you will also begin to be aware of why you are doing it, what are the motives behind your work. You will find out if you are afraid of your boss; you will observe how you talk to your underlings and to those above you. Being intensely aware in your relationship with others, you will know whether you are creating enmity, jealousy, hatred; you will see all your own responses in relationship, whether you are here, in a bus, in your office, or in the factory. All this is implied in intense awareness.
Also, if you are intensely aware, you might give up your job. Therefore, most of us don't want to be intensely aware; it is too disturbing; we would rather continue with what we are doing, even if it is very boring. At best, we break away from that which bores us and find a job which is less boring, but this too soon becomes routine.
So, we are caught in habit: the habit of going to the office every morning, the habit of smoking, the sexual habit, the habit of ideas, concepts, the habit of being an Englishman, and so on. We function in habit. To be intensely aware of habit has its own danger, and we are afraid of danger. We are afraid of not knowing, of not being certain. There is great beauty, there is great vitality, in not being certain. It is not insanity to be completely insecure; it doesn't mean that one becomes psychotic. But none of us want that. We would rather break one habit and create a more pleasant habit.
Collected Works, Vol. XIII - 212
Saturday, April 4, 2009
Daily Quote, Saturday April 5, 2009
Good morning everyone,
It looks like the rain has stopped here in Halifax. I say s "looks" but it's still quite dark, so it's really more like "sounds" like it's stopped raining!
Have a great day.
Robert
Can the mind be aware of that emptiness without naming it?
I think most of us are aware - perhaps only rarely since most of us are so terribly occupied and active - but I think we are aware, sometimes, that the mind is empty. And, being aware, we are afraid of that emptiness. We have never inquired into that state of emptiness, we have never gone into it deeply, profoundly; we are afraid, and so we wander away from it. We have given it a name, we say it is 'empty,' it is 'terrible,' it is 'painful'; and that very giving it a name has already created a reaction in the mind, a fear, an avoidance, a running away.
Now, can the mind stop running away, and not give it a name, not give it the significance of a word such as empty about which we have memories of pleasure and pain? Can we look at it, can the mind be aware of that emptiness without naming it, without running away from it, without judging it, but just be with it? Because, then, that is the mind. Then there is not an observer looking at it; there is no censor who condemns it; there is only that state of emptiness with which we are all really quite familiar but which we are all avoiding, trying to fill it with activity, with worship, with prayer, with knowledge, with every form of illusion and excitement.
But when all the excitement, illusion, fear, running away stops, and you are no longer giving it a name and thereby condemning it, is the observer different then from the thing which is observed? Surely, by giving it a name, by condemning it, the mind has created a censor, an observer, outside of itself. But when the mind does not give it a term, a name, condemn it, judge it, then there is no observer, only a state of that thing we have called emptiness.
Collected Works, Vol. IX - 23
Good morning everyone,
It looks like the rain has stopped here in Halifax. I say s "looks" but it's still quite dark, so it's really more like "sounds" like it's stopped raining!
Have a great day.
Robert
Can the mind be aware of that emptiness without naming it?
I think most of us are aware - perhaps only rarely since most of us are so terribly occupied and active - but I think we are aware, sometimes, that the mind is empty. And, being aware, we are afraid of that emptiness. We have never inquired into that state of emptiness, we have never gone into it deeply, profoundly; we are afraid, and so we wander away from it. We have given it a name, we say it is 'empty,' it is 'terrible,' it is 'painful'; and that very giving it a name has already created a reaction in the mind, a fear, an avoidance, a running away.
Now, can the mind stop running away, and not give it a name, not give it the significance of a word such as empty about which we have memories of pleasure and pain? Can we look at it, can the mind be aware of that emptiness without naming it, without running away from it, without judging it, but just be with it? Because, then, that is the mind. Then there is not an observer looking at it; there is no censor who condemns it; there is only that state of emptiness with which we are all really quite familiar but which we are all avoiding, trying to fill it with activity, with worship, with prayer, with knowledge, with every form of illusion and excitement.
But when all the excitement, illusion, fear, running away stops, and you are no longer giving it a name and thereby condemning it, is the observer different then from the thing which is observed? Surely, by giving it a name, by condemning it, the mind has created a censor, an observer, outside of itself. But when the mind does not give it a term, a name, condemn it, judge it, then there is no observer, only a state of that thing we have called emptiness.
Collected Works, Vol. IX - 23
Friday, April 3, 2009
Simulating Spirituality
The following article was written for the Yoga Atlantic Magazine, The Wave, for the Spring 2009 issue. Please feel free to leave comments.
Simulating Spirituality: The Story of a Public Entertainer
Robert Webber
In the 1960’s the historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that the most important event of the 20th century was the arrival of Eastern philosophy in the West. With its attention to the search for self-knowledge, Buddhism, Yoga, and other forms of spirituality had the potential to implode our social, political, and economic structures and systems. Up until then in the West, economic progress, democratic politics, and the idea of an external God provided a tightly knit super-structure. Indeed, the sociologist Max Weber, who saw the Protestant work ethic as the spiritual basis of capitalism development. Now people would be less prepared to work eight or ten hours a day at a mundane job just to get ahead and retire early. Eastern thought would make it harder for people to maintain that outward focus on the world that the traditional Western idea of progress had held in place.
So what has happened? Has yoga created an implosion in Western society? Is there a radical revolution building within our systems or has something else happened? Like a physical organism that is attacked by a virus, we have to look at the Western economic system’s ability to release the anti-bodies necessary to kill that virus. To put it differently, is Western society absorbing yoga into itself? Was Toynbee less prophetic than he seemed? To go into this question fully would require much more than the 800 words or so that I have here but I’ll offer a few suggestions that might stimulate you to consider the question for yourself.
We first need to ask what is at the heart of our contemporary economy. I would suggest that our whole economy and society is now based upon entertainment. Whether something is entertaining determines whether we pay attention to it. Things have to be fun. No matter what event or product your see advertised today, no matter what its underlying purpose, you see more or less every time the tag line that it’s also going to be fun. It seems like we have lost our depth, our ability to take anything seriously. Perhaps in our pursuit of progress our life has become so utterly one-dimensional that we are hopelessly depressed and have to be injected with the promise of fun before we’ll get up off the sofa?
I’ve been interested in this question for years, ever since I studied the work of Jean Baudrillard during my Ph.D. research, but the question came up again strongly when I glanced at the cover of a copy of Vanity Fair at a friend’s house about a year ago. Besides the photo-shopped cover picture, the cover had a small quotation in the bottom left hand corner. Drawn to it for some reason, I read “I am just a public entertainer who has understood his times.” The quotation was from Pablo Picasso and it really made me stop and think. In an instant I realized that this is what I was as a yoga teacher. All the popularity of my classes over ten years flashed before me, and I saw myself just as I was, an entertainer. I was just a public yoga entertainer who had for some reason understood the spirit of the times he lived in.
In my classes I spoke to that spirit very well and people came because it fitted their own lingering sense of something existing below of the surface of saving for retirement or paying off the mortgage. I talked lucidly and engagingly about discovering one’s true self, finding one’s dharma, listening to how your body feels and finding inner guidance. But the truth is that until I saw the quote from Picasso and woke up, I was only ever playing with images. The image of finding our dharma or being guided from within were interesting for students so long as we didn’t get too close to the actuality of it, and my skill as the unwitting entertainer was to keep just enough distance between the students and the actuality so that the ideas were never real. In practical terms, I was inviting people to observe how they feel, but not to observe the “me” that was observing the feeling. The depth was missing and so it was just entertainment. Students felt relaxed, their bodies felt healthy and vibrant, they explored some interesting ideas, and they had fun. Everyone, usually anyway, was happy. To use a phrase of Baudrillard’s, we were “simulating” spirituality.
So what really is entertainment? Entertainment is an escape from what is through playing with images. Movies are entertaining because you can identify with the images but not have to pull the trigger, throw the punch, or leave the dying friend in the road. However, we also look at images in our own minds all the time without being at the movies or watching TV. To a large degree our whole lives have become movies with ourselves in the staring role. It begins when we are kids and imagine we are a great football or hockey players when we are on the playing field or at the rink, and it continues all the way into adulthood with identification with movie stars. Take the popularity of celebrity make-over TV programs as an example.
But take it a little further and ask yourself who you imagine yourself to be in your in your yoga classes, either as a student or as a teacher. Are you Shiva Rhea or Erich Schiffmann? Also, do you include “fun” or similar words in your class descriptions? In other words, are you entertaining yourself and your students with images? It’s out of insecurity that we dumb down what we do for others or identify with a teacher, tradition, or idea. It makes what we do more appealing to others and us more likeable. You might want to try this inquiry. Ask yourself if you are aware of a fear of losing your students? Observe very closely your own reaction to what you say in class next time you teach and see. Are you an entertainer?
At the same time though, yoga students exist in their own world of images. So while you might be chatting along about the importance of discovering the Atman, the crucial the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna, or the break in knowledge about yoga that appeared with the Vedanta, they might be working towards the image of Trikonasana that they have seen on a DVD. You might be talking to yourself and they might be creating their own measurement of progress in their practice. Progress is entertaining. Thought constantly plays with the image of the quest, going from here to there, and achieving something. That’s why the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali has been so popular and held authority in yoga circles for so long.
As I observed my own teaching and my own classes in my post-Picasso world, I saw that I had to find a way of getting my students to relate directly to what is, to show them how to know themselves from what they were doing rather than relating to images, ideas, and concepts. It was out of this realization that I turned to the work of Krishnamurti that I had flirted with a bit for a little while. Krishnamurti’s teachings have helped me to develop my teaching so that it’s harder for my students to avoid the real issues of personal transformation while they are in their yoga postures. Nothing is being forced on them, but by taking each posture and using it as an inquiry into the images that we create as reactions to what is, each posture becomes a mirror into wider and deeper self-knowledge.
I was asked to write on the Yoga Loft’s new Yoga Teacher Training course for this article, which was very nice as it would be an opportunity to promote the course a little. But as it hasn’t started yet it felt that all I would actually do is entertain you with ideas and images rather than give you a description of actuality! What I can say is that it is geared towards promoting self-inquiry in students. Not only is it infused deeply with my interest in Krishnamurti’s teachings (I am going to the Krishnamurti Foundation in Ojai, California for five weeks this summer to take some courses and do some research), it is also set up as an exploration of the differences and similarities between my style of practice and teaching and that of my colleague and friend Seth Daley, who teaches Ashtanga Yoga.
My sense, without wishing to be critical of other local programs, is that yoga teacher training can become another form of entertainment, especially when you follow just one style, one teacher, or one yoga tradition. It allows the mind to move too easily in a straight line, narrowing its focus, and it gives students too reassuring an image of where they are heading. My hope with our program at the Yoga Loft is that students taking it will, right from the start, be required to question for themselves their own identity as yoga practitioners and then as yoga teachers. The whole idea is not to offer a path to follow but instead to inspire a spirit of questioning. In this way, the students will continue to find out for themselves throughout their whole career as yoga teachers. As Krishnamurti put it, famously now, truth is a pathless land. You can’t create a system or a method to find liberation; you just have to look and see what is.
The Yoga Teacher Training Program starts on September 25, 2009. You can find more details at www.theyogaloft.ca/ytt
Simulating Spirituality: The Story of a Public Entertainer
Robert Webber
In the 1960’s the historian Arnold Toynbee wrote that the most important event of the 20th century was the arrival of Eastern philosophy in the West. With its attention to the search for self-knowledge, Buddhism, Yoga, and other forms of spirituality had the potential to implode our social, political, and economic structures and systems. Up until then in the West, economic progress, democratic politics, and the idea of an external God provided a tightly knit super-structure. Indeed, the sociologist Max Weber, who saw the Protestant work ethic as the spiritual basis of capitalism development. Now people would be less prepared to work eight or ten hours a day at a mundane job just to get ahead and retire early. Eastern thought would make it harder for people to maintain that outward focus on the world that the traditional Western idea of progress had held in place.
So what has happened? Has yoga created an implosion in Western society? Is there a radical revolution building within our systems or has something else happened? Like a physical organism that is attacked by a virus, we have to look at the Western economic system’s ability to release the anti-bodies necessary to kill that virus. To put it differently, is Western society absorbing yoga into itself? Was Toynbee less prophetic than he seemed? To go into this question fully would require much more than the 800 words or so that I have here but I’ll offer a few suggestions that might stimulate you to consider the question for yourself.
We first need to ask what is at the heart of our contemporary economy. I would suggest that our whole economy and society is now based upon entertainment. Whether something is entertaining determines whether we pay attention to it. Things have to be fun. No matter what event or product your see advertised today, no matter what its underlying purpose, you see more or less every time the tag line that it’s also going to be fun. It seems like we have lost our depth, our ability to take anything seriously. Perhaps in our pursuit of progress our life has become so utterly one-dimensional that we are hopelessly depressed and have to be injected with the promise of fun before we’ll get up off the sofa?
I’ve been interested in this question for years, ever since I studied the work of Jean Baudrillard during my Ph.D. research, but the question came up again strongly when I glanced at the cover of a copy of Vanity Fair at a friend’s house about a year ago. Besides the photo-shopped cover picture, the cover had a small quotation in the bottom left hand corner. Drawn to it for some reason, I read “I am just a public entertainer who has understood his times.” The quotation was from Pablo Picasso and it really made me stop and think. In an instant I realized that this is what I was as a yoga teacher. All the popularity of my classes over ten years flashed before me, and I saw myself just as I was, an entertainer. I was just a public yoga entertainer who had for some reason understood the spirit of the times he lived in.
In my classes I spoke to that spirit very well and people came because it fitted their own lingering sense of something existing below of the surface of saving for retirement or paying off the mortgage. I talked lucidly and engagingly about discovering one’s true self, finding one’s dharma, listening to how your body feels and finding inner guidance. But the truth is that until I saw the quote from Picasso and woke up, I was only ever playing with images. The image of finding our dharma or being guided from within were interesting for students so long as we didn’t get too close to the actuality of it, and my skill as the unwitting entertainer was to keep just enough distance between the students and the actuality so that the ideas were never real. In practical terms, I was inviting people to observe how they feel, but not to observe the “me” that was observing the feeling. The depth was missing and so it was just entertainment. Students felt relaxed, their bodies felt healthy and vibrant, they explored some interesting ideas, and they had fun. Everyone, usually anyway, was happy. To use a phrase of Baudrillard’s, we were “simulating” spirituality.
So what really is entertainment? Entertainment is an escape from what is through playing with images. Movies are entertaining because you can identify with the images but not have to pull the trigger, throw the punch, or leave the dying friend in the road. However, we also look at images in our own minds all the time without being at the movies or watching TV. To a large degree our whole lives have become movies with ourselves in the staring role. It begins when we are kids and imagine we are a great football or hockey players when we are on the playing field or at the rink, and it continues all the way into adulthood with identification with movie stars. Take the popularity of celebrity make-over TV programs as an example.
But take it a little further and ask yourself who you imagine yourself to be in your in your yoga classes, either as a student or as a teacher. Are you Shiva Rhea or Erich Schiffmann? Also, do you include “fun” or similar words in your class descriptions? In other words, are you entertaining yourself and your students with images? It’s out of insecurity that we dumb down what we do for others or identify with a teacher, tradition, or idea. It makes what we do more appealing to others and us more likeable. You might want to try this inquiry. Ask yourself if you are aware of a fear of losing your students? Observe very closely your own reaction to what you say in class next time you teach and see. Are you an entertainer?
At the same time though, yoga students exist in their own world of images. So while you might be chatting along about the importance of discovering the Atman, the crucial the conversation between Arjuna and Krishna, or the break in knowledge about yoga that appeared with the Vedanta, they might be working towards the image of Trikonasana that they have seen on a DVD. You might be talking to yourself and they might be creating their own measurement of progress in their practice. Progress is entertaining. Thought constantly plays with the image of the quest, going from here to there, and achieving something. That’s why the Yoga Sutras of Patanjali has been so popular and held authority in yoga circles for so long.
As I observed my own teaching and my own classes in my post-Picasso world, I saw that I had to find a way of getting my students to relate directly to what is, to show them how to know themselves from what they were doing rather than relating to images, ideas, and concepts. It was out of this realization that I turned to the work of Krishnamurti that I had flirted with a bit for a little while. Krishnamurti’s teachings have helped me to develop my teaching so that it’s harder for my students to avoid the real issues of personal transformation while they are in their yoga postures. Nothing is being forced on them, but by taking each posture and using it as an inquiry into the images that we create as reactions to what is, each posture becomes a mirror into wider and deeper self-knowledge.
I was asked to write on the Yoga Loft’s new Yoga Teacher Training course for this article, which was very nice as it would be an opportunity to promote the course a little. But as it hasn’t started yet it felt that all I would actually do is entertain you with ideas and images rather than give you a description of actuality! What I can say is that it is geared towards promoting self-inquiry in students. Not only is it infused deeply with my interest in Krishnamurti’s teachings (I am going to the Krishnamurti Foundation in Ojai, California for five weeks this summer to take some courses and do some research), it is also set up as an exploration of the differences and similarities between my style of practice and teaching and that of my colleague and friend Seth Daley, who teaches Ashtanga Yoga.
My sense, without wishing to be critical of other local programs, is that yoga teacher training can become another form of entertainment, especially when you follow just one style, one teacher, or one yoga tradition. It allows the mind to move too easily in a straight line, narrowing its focus, and it gives students too reassuring an image of where they are heading. My hope with our program at the Yoga Loft is that students taking it will, right from the start, be required to question for themselves their own identity as yoga practitioners and then as yoga teachers. The whole idea is not to offer a path to follow but instead to inspire a spirit of questioning. In this way, the students will continue to find out for themselves throughout their whole career as yoga teachers. As Krishnamurti put it, famously now, truth is a pathless land. You can’t create a system or a method to find liberation; you just have to look and see what is.
The Yoga Teacher Training Program starts on September 25, 2009. You can find more details at www.theyogaloft.ca/ytt
Daily Quote, Friday April 3, 2009.
Hi everyone,
It seems like we are back on track with the daily quote. I'm going back to posting the quote for the day on the day it arrives and hope that it keeps arriving early.
Robert
Here we go for today:
An innocent mind has no fear.
What brings freedom from fear - and I assure you the freedom is complete - is to be aware of fear without the word, without trying to deny or escape from fear, without wanting to be in some other state. If with complete attention you are aware of the fact that there is fear, then you will find that the observer and the observed are one: there is no division between them. There is no observer who says, 'I am afraid'; there is only fear, without the word which indicates that state. The mind is no longer escaping, no longer seeking to get rid of fear, no longer trying to find the cause, and therefore it is no longer a slave to words. There is only a movement of learning, which is the outcome of innocence, and an innocent mind has no fear.
Collected Works, Vol. XIII - 250
Hi everyone,
It seems like we are back on track with the daily quote. I'm going back to posting the quote for the day on the day it arrives and hope that it keeps arriving early.
Robert
Here we go for today:
An innocent mind has no fear.
What brings freedom from fear - and I assure you the freedom is complete - is to be aware of fear without the word, without trying to deny or escape from fear, without wanting to be in some other state. If with complete attention you are aware of the fact that there is fear, then you will find that the observer and the observed are one: there is no division between them. There is no observer who says, 'I am afraid'; there is only fear, without the word which indicates that state. The mind is no longer escaping, no longer seeking to get rid of fear, no longer trying to find the cause, and therefore it is no longer a slave to words. There is only a movement of learning, which is the outcome of innocence, and an innocent mind has no fear.
Collected Works, Vol. XIII - 250
Thursday, April 2, 2009
Update on the Daily Quote
So they're changing over to a new website address which is somehow causing repeats in the quote. I was assured that it will be back to normal soon.
Keep checking in.
Keep checking in.
Daily Quote, Thursday March 2, 2009
Hi everyone,
For some reason, the quote has been the same for the last three days. I think it's a great quote, as were the ones leading up to it a few days ago, but maybe there is a glitch in the system somewhere! I will email them.
Please check back this evening.
Thanks
Robert
Hi everyone,
For some reason, the quote has been the same for the last three days. I think it's a great quote, as were the ones leading up to it a few days ago, but maybe there is a glitch in the system somewhere! I will email them.
Please check back this evening.
Thanks
Robert
Wednesday, April 1, 2009
Daily Quote, Wednesday March 19, 2009
Good morning,
What a difference a day makes! Bright and Sunny.
Are you anything in yourself?
Questioner: If I have no image of myself, then I am nothing.
Krishnamurti: But are you anything anyhow? [Laughter] Please don't laugh, this is much too serious. Are you anything in yourself? Strip yourself of your name, title, money, position, your little capacity to write a book and be flattered - and what are you? So, why not realize and be that? You see, we have an image of what it is to be nothing, and we don't like that image; but the actual fact of being nothing, when you have no image, may be entirely different. And it is entirely different. It is not a state that can be realized in terms of being nothing or of being something. It is entirely different when there is no image of yourself. And to have no image of yourself demands tremendous attention, tremendous seriousness. It is only the attentive, the serious, that live, not the people who have images of themselves.
Collected Works, Vol. XV - 196
Good morning,
What a difference a day makes! Bright and Sunny.
Are you anything in yourself?
Questioner: If I have no image of myself, then I am nothing.
Krishnamurti: But are you anything anyhow? [Laughter] Please don't laugh, this is much too serious. Are you anything in yourself? Strip yourself of your name, title, money, position, your little capacity to write a book and be flattered - and what are you? So, why not realize and be that? You see, we have an image of what it is to be nothing, and we don't like that image; but the actual fact of being nothing, when you have no image, may be entirely different. And it is entirely different. It is not a state that can be realized in terms of being nothing or of being something. It is entirely different when there is no image of yourself. And to have no image of yourself demands tremendous attention, tremendous seriousness. It is only the attentive, the serious, that live, not the people who have images of themselves.
Collected Works, Vol. XV - 196
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