Tagged: thinking
The thought of violence
Many times I hear that part of Education is to teach the student “how to think.”
Actually, that is called conditioning, in a mild way. The proper label is violence.
Most individuals do not realize how violence has been ingrained by society. The competitive “spirit” hungry for success is violence, as it is not concerned at all for the common good. It is just about “ME” and “MY” loved ones. If we want to observe this with some depth, we may need to inquire about the nature of thought:
“Thought is the response of the brain that has recorded. If the brain did not record, you would have no thought or knowledge. It is like a registering machine. From knowledge is memory, and the response of memory is thought.”
J. Krishnamurti – Public Talk 1 in Madras (Chennai), 24 December 1977
Notice the automatic process of thought. That mechanism is unable to be creative. It only repeats what is recorded, although with variations. That may be a “good thing” to learn some technical skill, but the art of living is not concerned with that skill at all.
Out of that repetition and the obsession of “becoming number 1” to feel “successful” in society, the thought of violence was generated.
“Thought has created violence in me, and then it creates non-violence to be achieved, and then there is conflict.”
J. Krishnamurti – Buddhist Scholars Discussion in Madras, 21 January 1985
Observe the contradiction. I AM vs. I SHOULD BE. What SHOULD BE is an ideal. That is the main component of the rhetorical talk of a politician. Those are the “feel good” words that most want to listen. We don’t want to SEE what IS. We are blind.
What is needed is a new way to deal with what IS.
“Please learn. Learn to observe, not memorize. We have contradiction only when we are not dealing with what is actually going on. Because we don’t know how to deal with what is going on, we invent the ideal, which is an escape. If you want to change what is going on, don’t have contradiction. Then you have the energy to deal with what is, instead of wasting energy in contradiction, having ideals and all the rest of it. I am violent, and my conditioning has been not to be violent, so I try to be non-violent. Whereas in actual fact, I am violent. So I am wasting my energy in trying to be non-violent. When I remove that, I have the energy to deal with what is – the energy to observe the fact of being angry. I won’t use the word ‘anger’ because the word is not the thing. Therefore there is only that reaction. The moment you name it, it becomes stronger. By associating through that word with the past, you are giving it strength. If you don’t name it, it soon dissipates. Eliminate contradictions altogether, and you are dealing only with what is actually going on.
J. Krishnamurti – Public Discussion 1 in Madras (Chennai), 27 December 1977
What should I DO to eliminate violence in me?
Acknowledge it. Do not fight it. OBSERVE it when it appears and become aware on how “I “want to demonstrate my supremacy over others, then we invent escapes, such as pride, shame, competition, non-violence and even nationalism.
“Nationalism is a poison.”
J. Krishnamurti – Public talk 2 in Bombay (Mumbai) 25 January 1981.
As the emotion is OBSERVED without labeling it or judgment; there is a space where it could be seen to its root causes. Every person may have a different root, although the “output” is violence. Observation is not concerned with results or the goal of “becoming better.” Observation is only concerned with OBSERVATION.
Thought, memory, thinking, conditioning, action; which in our society usually results in violence. It is a vicious cycle.
For those eager to “practice” and learn this “new method,” there is a catch:
“Real learning comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased.” – J. Krishnamurti. There is no achievement, no “becoming better,” no reward in the afterlife, no “special mention” and honors, no utility whatsoever in our “money making” society. Can we handle that?
The thought, the thinker, thinking and dreaming
“Thinking is common to all humanity. Thought is not my thought; there is only thought. Thought is neither of the East or West; there is only thinking. “ J. Krishnamurti
“I think therefore, I am.” Rene Descartes
The philosopher and mystic, J. Krishnamurti states the opposite of philosopher, mathematician and scientist Descartes: Thought is not mine vs. I think. Thus, thought is mine.
Most of humanity will experience as Descartes states. Few individuals will understand the depth of Krishnamurti, for he is not an intellectual (although described as such) but he merely states his own experiences. Without similar experiences, there will not be understanding.
Also, whether it is “my” thought or there is only thought, there is the “reality” of thought or the lack of it, called “dreams.”
Descartes said: “The dreams we imagine when we are asleep should not in any way make us doubt the truth of the thoughts we have when we are awake.”
Nevertheless, he had a dream which told him a lot:
“…After a short time, he goes back to sleep once more, and finds himself in a third dream. In front of him, on a table, is a book. Having opened it, he sees that it is a dictionary. Then he notices a second book. This one is a poetry anthology. He flicks through it and immediately comes upon the latin verse: “Quod vitae sectabor iter?”: “Which path in life will I choose?”.
At the same time, an unknown man appears and presents him with a poem which starts with Est et non (what is and is not). He adds that it is an excellent work. The young soldier says:
“I know. It is in this book of poems. Look!”
But he flicks through the anthology in vain. He can’t find the poem. So, he takes up the dictionary and notices that some of the pages are missing. He is exchanging a few more words with the stranger when, suddenly, the books and the man disappear.”
Is following the path of “what is” and “what is not” a choice? We take both in Life.
Can we find that poem in a book? Can we find words to describe it? Life is such a poem.
Many “ideas” or “inventions” came from a dream.
When Life speaks to us, we say” I imagined a dream.” “ I invented this gadget.”
Out of touch with awareness, most don’t perceive that we can only “do” thinking with what Life has already thought.
We say “My thought”: How scientific that could be!!
Dreams are only dreams, for all those who only dream.
Thinking on Thoughts
If we could just observe a thought as if it was the opinion of someone else, we could learn the art of knowing who we ARE through the conditionings of what we have learned.
It is that simple, but the idea that “my thought is mine, “ is destroying the opportunity.
“I wanted” to write something today. “I” did not know what to write. Most of the times “I” don’t. The thoughts are merely flowing. It would be a lie to say: “These are MY thoughts.” This awareness allows for what some call “creativity.” When “I” am not, there is… creativity.
It is not “I” being inspired, but merely catching the thoughts and putting them in writing.
Many times “I” get surprised that “I” could write “religiously” in 2 blogs. “I” wouldn’t be able to, if “I” thought that it was “I.”
Am “I” some sort of medium or channel? Everyone is. It is just that we don’t realize it.
We are “ONE.” Right? We like that “concept.”
That ONE is expressed in many ways through many people. That oneness is expressed through many individualities to go back to the source, ONE. That journey is what makes up Life.
A thought is what connects us with everything, to that changing oneness at any given time. It is only a connector but most believe that to be “I.”
OBSERVE the thought in a non-judgmental way, so it goes through “you.” That is all. Reject it or show favoritism to it, and it will stick around.
Both ways (rejection or favoritism) help to build our ego. We will build a personality framed by ideas of what is “good or bad.”
What is the source of that discrimination?
Conditioning.
A 3-year-old child does not know what “good” or “bad” means. He learns though the conditioning of his parents. If he touches his genital, he may see disapproval from his parents, he may feel the rejection coming from them, their conditioning. That is the starting point.
In “Spirituality” for the masses, thoughts are separated as “good/bad, wasteful, neutral, etc.”
All that labeling is meant to give the seeker a way to “choose” what he should think.
It cannot happen.
Despite the efforts of the seeker, thoughts will come in unfiltered. However, the individual may impose a thought in top of the natural one, to make himself believe that he is “changing his thinking.”
That is an illusion.
In a world conditioned to DO things to “change the world,” we cannot DO a thing to change “our” thoughts from the root. Have we observed that?
As we ARE so our thoughts shall BE.
However, we do not know who we ARE, for we are busy DOING changes to look like someone else: The guru, the saint, the angel, the artist, the star, the rich and famous, etc. That is what we call to be “creative,” to copy someone who is accepted, deemed to be worthwhile, “successful.”
Every time we hold on to a particular thought, we become defined by it. It is that definition which will confine us, through the security and comfort of beliefs systems and ideas to preserve that thought.
Living through thoughts we forget what is “real.”
Are you connected with “social media”? through “virtual communities”?
That is the world of the mind and ideas. Because I write a note or post a picture to others, I believe that I am connected, that I have a relation with others.
That is not so. It is only superficial.
It is like watching the Ocean through a camera and being able to hear the sounds of Nature through a CD. There is no presence. No reality.
However, our minds have been trained to believe that this is the “real” thing. It is less satisfying and fulfilling, but for the mind; there is no difference.
It is when we go beyond the mind, when “reality” has a different shape.
Beyond the mind is “no-mind.”
That is meditation. That is to feel life rather than to verbalize it with another thought…
What is the mind and no-mind?
When we become aware of our inner state, we start understanding “what makes it tick.” If we want to communicate those findings to another, then a particular language is invented to describe the experiences.
Those listening or reading the explanations but without the experience, will be caught up with just the words.
For instance, if a religion talks about “being soul conscious,” immediately there is a misunderstanding from those without the experience. Then, those individuals want to “achieve soul consciousness,” they want to “work on it,” etc. That only shows their conditioning.
If Ahnanda mentions “No-I,” it is the same as the Buddhist “emptiness,” and the same as “soul conscious.”
Readers caught up with words but unable to look at their inner experience, will try to intellectually understand what “no-I” is.
You cannot. For “I” am denying that which you think you are.
Thus, another word that may convey a similar experience is “no-mind.”
However, the question now becomes: “What is the mind?”
Here some “definitions:”
1) The mind is a set of cognitive faculties including consciousness, perception, thinking, judgement, and memory.
2) The element of a person that enables them to be aware of the world and their experiences, to think, and to feel; the faculty of consciousness and thought.
3) In common parlance, ‘the mind’ most often refers to the seat of human consciousness, the thinking-feeling ‘I’ that seems to be an agentic causal force that is somehow related but is also seemingly separable from the body.
Those definitions are only pointers to know that we are talking about a “table” and not an “apple.” Unless you look at your own table, you will not know ‘table.’
Your emotions, your conditioning, your traumas, your expectations, your taboos, your beliefs all of that is the mind.
All of that will give you a unique identity which is different than anyone else.
Therefore, unlearning, healing, dissolving, surrendering that mind… all of those “spiritual key words,” mean the same thing, or rather: It “is pointing to the same experience.”
When we use the mind, we are caught up with dictionary definitions, concepts, methods, analysis. We wish to understand our mind by using those things. That will not happen.
As the mind surrenders, there is “no-mind.” As there is openness, there is integration with all that is.
Call that soul consciousness, call that emptiness, call that no-mind, no-I, call that oneness, call that God…
Labels and more labels.
Some readers love a particular label used by a Spiritual Guru. If another uses a different label, then that becomes “false” for them. The mind entertains in those debates, meaningless “theory.”
You will know that the mind is going away, when enjoyment of Life arrives, you become relax, you will “go with the flow”… until then, relentless pursue your dreams, stress yourself out, strive to make “a difference,” be “number 1,” experience the accomplishments taking you nowhere, experience the “hamster wheel” of the mind…
Once the mind is tired, frustrated, it gives up… then you can finally sit down and observe… You will understand without trying to. 🙂
The “office world” does not teach that.
Being successful
The other day I purchased a bed linen. The Company selling it had an unusual ad: “It is said that Webster’s first dictionary in 1806 defined success as being “generous, prosperous and kind” Regrettably, the most recent published definition of success is “getting or achieving wealth, respect and fame.” We do business based on the 1806 definition.”
Observe how the meaning of words change in time. 200 years later, that same word means something completely different, thus a definition will change in “no time” in time. 🙂
Take the word “god” for example. Isn’t the definition of that word different among people? Who has the “right” definition?
“I.” 🙂
The word “success” is a human invention. Our society has bought into it. To be successful is the objective, the thing to attain; although it is not clear what it means.
How wealthy is wealthy? How famous is fame? Isn’t respect nowadays another word for inspiring fear? Who is the authority to define what something is?
The guy down the street wants “respect,” and he earns it through his ability to inspire fear into his neighbors.
Being “generous, prosperous and kind” is not a corporate attitude or behavior towards business. We cannot make ourselves generous or kind through a corporate mission statement. We ARE or we ARE not. If we behave as if we were kind, generous, etc. from 8 Am to 5 PM, Monday through Friday… We ARE fake.
Words meaning absolutely nothing. Pretty, touchy words, no feelings. All mind, no heart.
That is the same scenario when most talk about love and loving someone. There is the blurb, the political correct phrases, the catchy words, but nothing else.
Love is not something to talk about. Words destroy the sacredness of the moment, the relationship, what it could be… the feeling.
Therefore, “Being successful,” means anything that you desire.
Achieving that, means very little unless there is an agreement that it is worth something.
For mice, to be “successful” could be to get cheese from a human refrigerator. But mice are “intelligent” enough not to worry about success.
Being successful is taken to extremes in our society. For instance:
What is so important about a football game or a “world cup” soccer game?
Nothing…. It is just a game. But yet there is a common agreement that this game could be in fact a “historic moment.” Everyone is watching it. It is transcendent… It is team A versus team B. The “World champ” (yet another pretty word meaning nothing) will victoriously emerge from that “duel of nemesis…”
That is the human world of fantasy. Something to pass time with, to keep the mind entertained until death arrives… Then success is over; then there is only “losing the battle” against cancer, drunk drivers, medical doctors, and all excuses death may use to “take us away from our loved ones.” 🙂
All the winning, all the success gets taken away by Death; then under that cloudy perspective; we become automatic “losers.” We believe that… unless there is an “afterlife,” then the “I” could be “successful” there…
As our minds step away from words, the meaning of living Life in the innocence of an empty mind, will replace the meaning of the words.
Every Life story from the “lowly” untouchable mosquito to the immortal Sam the true “man,” is neither a success nor a failure.
In Life no one could be a success nor a failure but only in the “fantasy island” of the conditioned human mind, that is the mind full of duality.
Remember: What someone says it is not accurately what they mean or feel. It cannot be.
Beware of words.
The religious “I.”
The “I,” the ego does not allow us to perceive the unity of all.
That “I” solidifies separation through thinking. Thought means separation.
Look at a sunset. What do you see? The Sun, the Ocean, clouds, the sky, seagulls, fish.
All of those labels separate forms. In “reality” none of those labels exist, none of those separate things exist as separate; those things come as one, in one package, which cannot be contained as a static thing, for it is always changing as the weather changes.
By labeling, naming and counting we become more interested in descriptions, analysis and dissections… the mind is in its glory! We become a mental entity devoid of a heart to feel.
Naming, counting, describing and analysis will starve our being from feeling that landscape, that instant of Nature which will nurture us for we are part of it as well. The observer and the object being observed are related through feelings; they are one as long as there is no separation through thought.
I am not saying that the mind is “bad.” It is just an out of control “device,” just like people nowadays behave with their smartphones; there is a continuous on-going dependency. With the mind is extremely subtle for we identify with it intimately, that is why we are not aware.
When Ego exists; then to possess becomes the next thing in his agenda.
“This is Angela. She is MY wife.” The label “wife” has no meaning in “real” Life. It is just a common agreement by society, a thought. That thought has an owner, “I.”
“If I have not realized my own ego which is an illusion; How is it possible to realize other things such as God?”
It is impossible.
“Why?”
Because the illusion of the ego will color everything else “I” perceive.
That is why a religious path becomes an ego trip for many followers. That is why the “experience” of God becomes another way to solidify the importance of our ego. “MY” experience. I must be important, special… for others do not have it.
Any search for “ spiritual experiences” is without a doubt an ego trip to “thy Kingdom come.”
It is another way to escape from what is truly important, that is; to realize the self. By realizing one part of the Totality, we realize the whole. But we refuse to start with who we ARE now. We want to believe in an ideal of what “I” should be. We want to search for another ideal: MY ideal of what God should be, MY ideal of the afterlife, MY ideal of what Life should be through an out of this world “spiritual experience.”
The ego is interested in possessing the key to unlock the chakras, the method to elevate the Kundalini, to glow in white light, to meditate the “right way” in bliss, to sit next to God, to become an angel, a saint, a guru, to go to heaven… to become better, to work for God…To obtain all of those experiences…
It is true that all of those “experiences” with angels, Kundalini and chakras may happen is someone’s path, but they weren’t sought out, they came without looking to obtaining them; thus away from the egotistical mind.
The ego is not interested in diluting itself into “no-I,” into an egoless existence. The ego must continue into the afterlife and must possess the “eternal, everlasting” things.
By DOING all of those things, we are just going away, increasing the distance from realizing the self.
However, that is not “bad” for that walking away sooner or later will bring the seeker back to himself. It is just a matter of time; and that is why the ego believes in “speeding things up,” for “time is money even in the afterlife.” 🙂
It doesn’t work like that. There is a necessary assimilation/realization of Life experiences. Consciousness will move as the BEING is ready, not when the ego decides to “DO” it.
Knowing who we are
Who we are? “That” is not a concept, a religious word to recite and to say “I know.”
It is to allow for “that” to be, to acknowledge it, to embrace it, to honor it. It may not be what the “I” was taught to see as “good” but that is what is…. It will change if allowed to. There is no “I” who could do that magic of change, it happens by itself when we realize that we are Life itself, that is change.
Harry, a “seeker” said: “I am responsible for my decisions. I have made many “bad” choices… but I didn’t know any better… We are what we do.”
Because you didn’t know, you’ve learned. Is that “bad”?
Now that you “know” that is not enough. The magic happens when there is openness to BE it.
Many KNOW but only few ARE.
You see, in Life there is no destination or final objective, it is a continuous circle of experiences…
Harry: “I don’t agree with that. I think that there is a destination for we are stillness, silence…”
When we are not silence, what are we? Do we see that by naming something as the goal of what “it” should be, there is an automatic negation of that who I am?
Harry: “Negation? No… I am not negating anything.”
Isn’t the goal to become silence, stillness?
If that is the goal, then what you are “now” is not what is supposed to be, it is lacking, and it is in need of completion.
That is the talk of most religions: You are not “perfect” now… BUT we can teach how to get there…
How are you going to reach there? By following a method given by a belief system, an illuminated one, God, etc.
Don’t we realize that “we are all One”?
Then, why should we separate noise or movement as not being us? Isn’t movement and noise part of that Oneness?
Your belief may say that there is a goal to attain; but once we observe that Life is continuous change, how could we say that the goal is stillness?
Harry: “We are talking about 2 different things. You are talking about Life and I am talking about another realm where we all go, a realm full of bliss where we will be who we truly are… that realm is where God abides….”
How could we say that Life is separated from that realm, if we are all ONE?
Now, we are in this Life. Tomorrow we may be in your realm beyond. “You” as today will not be going there. Someone else may, which is not “you.” There are many changes between “you” and that one in the future.
Who are “you” then? Why is there this compulsive need to go into the future if “you” will not be there?
Life is a thread of relationships. We are all related. The egotistical mind is obstinate in the separation of things when nothing can exist without being in relationship. Our mind believes that we are something static, when we are Life itself, changing all the time. Why do we separate from Life?
Harry: “ Let me go back…The goal is to be more spiritual, more spirit like and to go away from the density of the body…”
The word “spirituality” is an overrated word. To be “more spiritual” is just a state of Being, just like being “less spiritual.” By being less-spiritual, we become “more spiritual.” By being “more spiritual,” we become less… It is movement within that duality. One state will lead to another.
That is why to say: “I will make effort to become more spiritual” is senseless. By being less, the change into “more” will happen.
To be “illuminated” is not the end, the goal, but merely another state of being, which will change as Life changes.
Religions have taught us to praise, and try to attain one state of being rather another, but once we ARE one state of being, we will move into the other side; automatically, without effort…
The fish swimming in the river of Life, is going with the current. The fish may believe that “it is “I” making the effort to move.”
But… We know better.
Exploring the Depth of Living 