All roles are dangerous. The world tends to trap you in the role you play and it is always extremely hard to maintain a watchful, mocking distance between oneself as one appears to be and oneself as one actually is. James Baldwin
I never resist temptation, because I have found that things that are bad for me do not tempt me. George Bernard Shaw
How to be a genuine fake A double-bind game is a game with self-contradictory rules, a game doomed to perpetual self-frustration - like trying to invent a perpetual-motion machine in terms of Newtonian mechanics, or trying to trisect any given angle with a straight-edge and compass. The social double-bind game can be phrased in several ways: The first rule of this game is that it is not a game. Everybody must play. You must love us. You must go on living. Be yourself, but play a consistent and acceptable role. Control yourself and be natural. Try to be sincere. Essentially, this game is a demand for spontaneous behaviour of certain kinds. Living, loving, being natural or sincere - all these are spontaneous forms of behaviour: they happen "of themselves" like digesting food or growing hair. As soon as they are forced they acquire that unnatural, contrived, and phony atmosphere which everyone deplores - weak and scent-less like forced flowers and tasteless like forced fruit. Life and love generate effort, but effort will not generate them. Faith - in life, in other people, and in oneself - is the attitude of allowing the spontaneous to BE spontaneous, in its own way and in its own time. This is, of course, risky because life and other people do not always respond to faith as we might wish. Faith is always a gamble because life itself is a gambling game with what must appear, in the hiding aspect of the game, to be colossal stakes. But to take the gamble out of the game, to try to make winning a dead certainty, is to achieve a certainty which is indeed dead. The alternative to a community based on mutual trust is a totalitarian police-state, a community in which spontaneity is virtually forbidden. from The Book: On the taboo against knowing who you are, by Alan Watts.
They are playing a game. They are playing at not playing a game. If I show them I see they are, I shall break the rules and they will punish me. I must play the game, of not seeing I see the game. === JILL I don't respect myself I can't respect anyone who respects me. I can only respect someone who does not respect me. I respect Jack BECAUSE he does not respect me I despise Tom BECAUSE he does not despise me Only a despicable person can respect someone as despicable as me I cannot love someone I despise Since I love Jack I cannot believe he loves me What proof can he give? === How clever has one to be stupid? The others told her she was stupid. So she made herself stupid in order to not to see how stupid they were to think she was stupid, because it was bad to think they were stupid. She preferred to be stupid and good, rather than bad and clever. It is bad to be stupid: she needs to be clever to be so good and stupid. It is bad to clever, because this shows how stupid they were to tell her how stupid she was. === If I don't know I don't know I think I know If I don't know I know I think I don't know === There is something I don't know that I am supposed to know. I don't know WHAT it is I don't know, and yet am supposed to know, and I feel I look stupid if I seem both not to know it and not know WHAT it is I don't know. Therefore I pretend I know it. This is nerve-racking since I don't know what I must pretend to know. Therefore I pretend to know everything. I feel you know what I am supposed to know but you can't tell me what it is because you don't know that I don't know what it is. You may know what I don't know, but not that I don't know it, and I can't tell you. So you will have to tell me everything === All in all Each man in all men all men in each man All being in each being Each being in all being All in each Each in all All distinctions are mind, by mind, in mind, of mind No distinction no mind to distinguish === ALTHOUGH INNUMERABLE BEINGS HAVE BEEN LED TO NIRVANA NO BEING HAS BEEN LED TO NIRVANA Before one goes through the gate one may not be aware there is a gate One may think there is a gate to go through and look for a long time for it without finding it One may find it and it may not open If it opens one may be through it As one goes through it one sees that the gate one went through was the self that went through it no one went through a gate there was no gate to go through no one ever found a gate no one ever realized there was never a gate === The statement is pointless the finger is speechless from Knots by R.D.Laing
When the way comes to an end, then change - having changed, you pass through. I Ching
Common sense is the collection of prejudices acquired by the age of eighteen. Great spirits have always encountered violent opposition from mediocre minds. Albert Einstein
The map is not the territory. Alfred Korzbyski
Teachers open the door, but you must enter by yourself. Chinese Proverb
Attachment is the great fabricator of illusions; reality can be attained only by someone who is detached. Simone Weil
Affirmations are a useful method of "programming" your mind to act in a particular way. These affirmations collected from a number of sources can be printed on 3" x 5" index cards and carried with you during the day. Make it a habit to read them through at least in the morning and evening during a quiet time. Affirmations I am tolerant of the ambiguity in problems. I begin every task by thinking of new and better ways to accomplish it. I consider many possible solutions from many diverse sources. I have an adventurous mind and seen new experiences regularly. I have an unusual ability to reach creative decisions and to find creative solutions for problems. I have the courage and self-confidence necessary to put my solutions into practice. I have the strength and persistence necessary to work ideas through to solutions. I maintain a complexity of outlook on life. I play with partial, incomplete and sometimes foolish ideas. I recognise the task of making mistakes but learn from my failures. I spend ten minutes each morning and evening, thinking over problems. I treat each new problem I encounter as a new door to be opened, and an opportunity to be creative. I trust my feelings and unconscious thoughts. Further information on the effectiveness of affirmations as a tool for creativity can be found in Julia Cameron's book The Artist's Way - A Spiritual Path to Higher Creativity .
NLP for Creativity and Self-Development Page Inner Alignment of Intelligences This is an NLP pattern designed to use your seven kinds of smart. The first part is a sequential instruction set. The second part lays out the same instructions in a way that will enable you to print them and use them for the pattern easily. Here is how these Intelligences might be accessed and aligned within us for a particular purpose. Step 1 Label 7 cards with the 7 kinds of smart. (Or print and cut the summary of anchors list.) Linguistic Intelligence- Word Smart Logical-mathematical Intelligence- Logic Smart Spatial Intelligence - Picture Smart Musical Intelligence - Music Smart Bodily-kinaesthetic Intelligence- Body Smart Interpersonal Intelligence- People Smart Intra-personal Intelligence of the inner Self Smart Step 2. Decide on a goal. What do you want to accomplish that will be facilitated by using your integrated intelligences. Step 3 Lay out the cards on the floor with a couple of feet between them. Step 4 Stand at the Linguistic intelligence card so that the rest of the cards are on the floor in a line behind you. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced linguistic competency or excellence, when words flowed for you. Or think how it would be to have that fluency. Anchor that feeling at your lips. Step 5 Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Logical-Mathematical Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced Logical-Mathematical competency or excellence, when things seemed very rational for you. Or think how it would be to have that logical facility. Anchor that feeling at your temple. Step 6 Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Spatial Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced Spatial competency or excellence, when you could see things clearly and images were very vivid for you. Or think how it would be to have that spatial facility. Anchor that feeling at your eyes . Step 7 Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Musical Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced Musical competency or excellence, when you were in tune with music or rhythm. Or think how it would be to have that musical facility. Anchor that feeling with a finger snap. Step 8 Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Bodily Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced physical or athletic competency or excellence, when you felt good in your body. Or think how it would be to have that physical facility. Anchor that feeling with a clenched fist. Step 9 Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Intra-personal Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced having rapport with others, when you were really communicating well . Or think how it would be to have that Intra-personal facility. Anchor that feeling with a nod of the head. Step 10 Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Interpersonal Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced inner harmony or excellence, when you were in touch with your feelings . Or think how it would be to have that Interpersonal facility. Anchor that feeling with a deep breath. Now you see the other cards stretching out in front of you each with anchor for the many kinds of intelligence you possess. Think of the goal. Take a deep breath and step forward. Nod your head and think of how you feel at peace with accomplishing this goal and see the smiles of your colleagues as you work with them happily on this goal. Take a step forward and clench your fist. Nod your head and take a deep breath and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal excellence combined with the feeling of strength and ease in your body. Take a step forward and snap your fingers. Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist. and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical excellence combined with the feeling of harmony and a song in your heart. Take a step forward . Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist,and snap your fingers and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical, musical excellence combined with the feeling of clarity of vision. Take a step forward and touch your eyes. Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist,and snap your fingers and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical, musical excellence combined with the feeling of clarity of vision. Take a step forward and touch your temple. Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist, snap your fingers and touch your eyes and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical, musical, spatial excellence combined with the feeling of it making all the sense in the world to do it. Take a step forward and touch your lips. Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist, snap your fingers, touch your eyes and touch your temple and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical, musical, spatial, logical excellence combined with the feeling of it telling yourself in eloquent terms that you can and will accomplish this goal with all the many intelligences you possess. Take a step forward and chant "Ommmm". Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist, snap your fingers, touch your eyes and touch your temple and touch your lips and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical, musical, spatial, logical excellence combined with the feeling of it telling yourself in eloquent terms that you can and will accomplish this goal with all the many intelligences you possess. Anchor this feeling with whatever seems appropriate to you as you feel the inner alignment of your multi-mind. Feel the power of being totally capable of bringing all your talents to bear on this goal. Now get up and do something toward the goal even if it is a small step. Each time you do something toward it fire off the anchor and enhance it. I think you'll build incredible momentum this way. Summary of Anchors Word Smart - Touch lips Logic Smart - Touch Temple Picture Smart - Touch eyes Music Smart - Snap Fingers Body Smart - Clench fist People Smart - Nod Self Smart - Deep Breath Inner Alignment of Intelligences I've layed out the exercise sorted by the cards being used. You can print this out and cut between the Cards so that you have the directions right on the cards that you use. Then you don't have to write it down and you can read the directions as you do the exercise. UP is for when you are first backing up the ladder and DOWN is what you do when you are coming forward again. Hope this helps. Card One Word Smart - Touch lips UP Decide on a goal. What do you want to accomplish that will be facilitated by using your integrated intelligences. Stand at the Linguistic intelligence card so that the rest of the cards are on the floor in a line behind you. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced linguistic competency or excellence, when words flowed for you. Or think how it would be to have that fluency. Anchor that feeling at your lips. Go to card 2 DOWN Take a step forward and touch your lips. Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist, snap your fingers, touch your eyes and touch your temple and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical, musical, spatial, logical excellence combined with the feeling of it telling yourself in eloquent terms that you can and will accomplish this goal with all the many intelligences you possess. Anchor this feeling with whatever seems appropriate to you as you feel the inner alignment of your multi-mind. Feel the power of being totally capable of bringing all your talents to bear on this goal. Now get up and do something toward the goal even if it is a small step. Each time you do something toward it fire off the anchor and enhance it. I think you'll build incredible momentum this way. _______________________________________________ Card Two Logic Smart - Touch Temple UP Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Logical-Mathematical Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced Logical-Mathematical competency or excellence, when things seemed very rational for you. Or think how it would be to have that logical facility. Anchor that feeling at your temple. Go to card 3 DOWN Take a step forward and touch your temple. Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist, snap your fingers and touch your eyes and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical, musical, spatial excellence combined with the feeling of it making all the sense in the world to do it. Go to card 1 _______________________________________________ Card Three Picture Smart - Touch eyes UP Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Spatial Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced Spatial competency or excellence, when you could see things clearly and images were very vivid for you. Or think how it would be to have that spatial facility. Anchor that feeling at your eyes . Go to card 4 DOWN Take a step forward touch your eyes. Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist,and snap your fingers and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical, musical excellence combined with the feeling of clarity of vision. Go to card 2 _______________________________________________ Card Four - Music Smart - Snap Fingers UP Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Musical Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced Musical competency or excellence, when you were in tune with music or rhythm. Or think how it would be to have that musical facility. Anchor that feeling with a finger snap. Go to card 5 DOWN Take a step forward and snap your fingers. Nod your head, take a deep breath, clench your fist. and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal, physical excellence combined with the feeling of harmony and a song in your heart. Go to card 3 _______________________________________________ Card 5 Body Smart - Clench fist UP Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Bodily Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced physical or athletic competency or excellence, when you felt good in your body. Or think how it would be to have that physical facility. Anchor that feeling with a clenched fist. DOWN. Go to card 6 Take a step forward and clench your fist. Nod your head and take a deep breath and think about accomplishing your goal with interpersonal, intra-personal excellence combined with the feeling of strength and ease in your body. Go to card 4 _______________________________________________ Card 6 People Smart - Nod UP Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Intra-personal Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced having rapport with others, when you were really communicating well . Or think how it would be to have that Intra-personal facility. Anchor that feeling with a nod of the head. Go to card 7 DOWN Nod your head and think of how you feel at peace with accomplishing this goal and see the smiles of your colleagues as you work with them happily on this goal. Go to card 5 _______________________________________________ Card 7 Self Smart - Deep Breath UP Slowly as you feel comfortable step back onto the card marked Interpersonal Intelligence. Access the feeling of a time when you experienced inner harmony or excellence, when you were in touch with your feelings . Or think how it would be to have that Interpersonal facility. Anchor that feeling with a deep breath. DOWN Now you see the other cards stretching out in front of you each with anchor for the many kinds of intelligence you possess. Think of the goal. Take a deep breath and step forward. Go to card 6
Do not seek to follow in the footsteps of the men of old; seek what they sought. Basho
"Do you love anything? Your wife, your children, your so-called country; do you love the earth, love the beauty of a tree, the beauty of a person? Or are you so terribly self-centred that you never have any perception of anything at all? Love brings compassion. Compassion is not doing some social work. When you are asked most profound questions, which stir you up, you become negligent. When I ask you a question of that kind, whether you love somebody, your faces are blank. And this is the result of your religion, of your devotion to your nonsensical gurus, your devotion to your leaders - not devotion, you are frightened, therefore you follow. So ask yourself, if one may suggest it, walking along the path with you as a friend: do you know what love means? Love that does not demand a thing from another. Ask yourselves. It does not demand a thing from your wife, from your husband - nothing, physically, emotionally, intellectually is demanded from another. Not to follow another, not to have a concept, and pursue that concept. Because love is not jealousy, love has no power in the ordinary sense of that word. Love does not seek position, status, power. But it has its own capacity, its own skill, its own intelligence." J. Krishnamurti, 26 November 1981, Benares, India
"Relationship... is the mirror in which you discover yourself. Without relationship you are not; to be is to be related; to be related is existence. You exist only in relationship; otherwise you do not exist; existence has no meaning. It is not because you think you are that you come into existence. You exist because you are related; and it is the lack of understanding of relationship that causes conflict." J. Krishnamurti
"The beginning of meditation is self-knowledge, which means being aware of every-moment and thought and feeling, knowing the layers of my consciousness, .... To know the deeply concealed activities, the hidden motives, responses, thoughts and feelings, there must be tranquility in the conscious mind.... That superficial mind must understand the right significance of its activities and thereby bring tranquility to itself." "It can bring about tranquility, peace, stillness, only be understanding its own activities, by observing them, by being aware of them, by seeing its own ruthlessness .... It is only when all these have projected themselves and are understood,when the whole consciousness is unburdened, unfettered by any wound, any memory whatsoever, that it is in a position to receive the eternal.... If you really want to know yourself...you can follow without condemnation or justification, every movement of thought and feeling; by following every thought and feeling as it arises you bring about tranquility which is not compelled, not regimented, but which is the outcome of having no problem, no contradiction. It is like the pool that becomes peaceful, quiet, any evening when there is no wind; when the mind is still, then that which is immeasurable comes into being." From J. Krishnamurti, "The First and Last Freedom" in the section on Prayer and Meditation
"If you have read this book for a whole hour, attentively, that is meditation." "Meditation is a state of mind which looks at everything with complete attention, totally, not just part of it. And no one can teach you how to be attentive." "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 the birds or looking at the face of your wife or child." From "Freedom From the Known", J. Krishnamurti (page 116)
"It is always difficult to keep simple and clear. The world worships success, the bigger the better; the greater the audience the greater the speaker; the colossal super buildings, cars, aeroplanes and people. Simplicity is lost. The successful people are not the ones who are building a new world. To be a real revolutionary requires a complete change of heart and mind, and how few want to free themselves. One cuts the surface roots; but to cut the deep feeding roots of mediocrity, success, needs something more than words, methods, compulsions. There seem to be few, but they are the real builders--the rest labour in vain. One is everlastingly comparing oneself with another, with what one is, with what one should be, with someone who is more fortunate. This comparison really kills. Comparison is degrading, it perverts one's outlook. And on comparison one is brought up. All our education is based on it and so is our culture. So there is everlasting struggle to be something other than what one is. The understanding of what one is uncovers creativeness, but comparison breeds competitiveness, ruthlessness, ambition, which we think brings about progress. Progress has only led so far to more ruthless wars and misery than the world has ever known. To bring up children without comparison is true education." J. Krishnamurti, "Krishnamurti, A Biography", by Pupul Jayakar, pp. 255-256
"To know the whole process, the totality of oneself, does not require any expert, any authority. The pursuit of authority only breeds fear. No expert, no specialist, can show us how to understand the process of the self. One has to study it for oneself. You and I can help each other by talking about it, but none can unfold it for us, no specialist, no teacher, can explore it for us." Krishnamurti, "The First And Last Freedom," 1954, p. 75.
- A conversation that Laura Archera Huxley had with Krishnamurti which she recounts in her book "This Timeless Moment" - At the time she was married to Aldous Huxley who was a long-time friend of K's. Laura Huxley writes of a lunch given by Signora Vanda Scaravelli in her chalet in Gstaad, Switzerland. Only the Scaravellis, the two Huxleys and K himself were present at the lunch, and much of the conversation centered around Laura's new book "Recipes for Living and Loving." LH had been much involved in psycho-therapy work and she "told our hosts how my recipes had succeeded with some people for whom the orthodox methods had failed. Krishnamurti asked a few questions and listened intently. We spoke about vitamins and imagination, solitary confinement, LSD, alcoholism, and the congress on extra-sensory perception that Aldous had recently attended in the South of France." After lunch Signora Scaravelli suggested that Laura and K might want to have a private chat. They moved out to the terrace of the chalet "where Aldous could see us silhouetted against the sweeping view of the Alps." Later, Aldous asked her, "What in the world happened between you and Krishnamurti? You two were gesticulating with such animation and excitement - it almost looked as though you were having a fight. What happened?" Now follows Laura's account of this conversation with K in which she asked him questions that many students of his teachings have wanted to ask. His replies were immense. "The silent pantomime Aldous had seen through the French window must have been descriptive of our conversation - an extraordinary conversation against an extraordinary panorama. Krishnamurti and I had stood, walked, and sat on the terrace of the Swiss chalet, enveloped by high peaked mountains and pine woods of all gradations of green, light exhilarating green, and the deeper green of the vast mountain pastures. Brightness again, in luminous sky and in shining flowers, in sensuous undulating valleys, in Krishnamurti. Brightness everywhere. The first thing I asked Krishnamurti, continuing our table conversation about psychotherapy, was how he dealt with the problem of alcoholism. He said nonchalantly that it had happened quite often that people, after one or two interviews with him, stopped drinking. When I asked how this came about, he said he did not know. He dismissed the subject and asked me whether LSD, mescaline, and the psychedelic substances in general were really of any benefit or just gave a temporary illusion. I told him of the medical research done in Canada in the field of alcoholism - of unexpected and successful results reported by Canadian doctors with a number of hopeless alcoholics who stopped drinking after only one or two administrations of LSD, and without further therapy. Krishnamurti seemed surprised. He was silent for a few moments. There was something that he was going to say: also I had the feeling that his inner intensity was too powerful for the medium of words. I had no idea what was coming, but I knew something was about to happen. Silently he was holding my eyes with his dark burning look. Then with an extremely intense voice, he exploded. 'You know, I think that those people who go about helping other people...' He stopped - then, with even more piercing gaze, he spat out the next words like bullets of contempt: 'those people..they are a CURSE!' After the conversation at the table I had no doubt that 'those people' included me. The accusation and the fire with which he flung it at me were for an instant paralysing. Then, almost without thinking, I asked, 'What about you? What do you think you are doing? You go about helping other people.' As though he had never thought of himself as belonging to that cursed category, Krishnamurti was taken aback for a moment, totally surprised and perplexed. Then, with disarming simplicity and directness, he said, 'But I don't do it on purpose!' It was the most extraordinary of statements. Aldous was enormously impressed by it, and also very touched and amused. Of course he understood it. But I must have looked bewildered, for Krishnamurti, in a softer, calmer way, said, 'It just happens, do you see?' Alas, I did not see very well. Krishnamurti continued, 'I am not a healer, or a psychologist, or therapist, or any of those things.' The words 'healer,' psychologist,' 'therapist,' burst from him like projectiles ejected by compressed power. 'I am only a religious man. Alcoholics or neurotics or addicts - it doesn't matter what the trouble is - they get better quite often - but that is not important; that is not the point - it is only a consequence.' 'What is wrong with such a consequence?' I asked. 'I only give people techniques or recipes or tools to help them to do what they need to do - what is wrong with using the transformation of energy to change those miserable feelings into constructive behaviour?' That had been what we had discussed at lunch. I knew that Krishnamurti was violently opposed to dogmas, rites, gurus, and Ascended Masters - to all the gadgetry of those organised powers whose aim is to impress the masses with keeping the godhead and its graces as their supreme and private monopoly. But I had no idea that he also objected to psycho-physical exercises, such as my recipes. Unaware of this fact, I had innocently exposed myself and my work. Now I realized that he had restrained himself during lunch, tactfully waiting until we were alone. He did not restrain himself now: vehemently, with unspeakable intensity he spoke. 'No! No! Techniques - transformation - no - rubbish! One must destroy - DESTROY...EVERYTHING!' Fleetingly a thought crossed my mind: how easily such a man can be misunderstood, misinterpreted! I wanted to understand - I knew that he wanted me to understand, but how to ask - that was the question. "But what do YOU do?' I repeated. And he repeated: 'Nothing - I am only a religious man.' It had the sound of a final statement, a baffling one to me. Six words, I thought, but hundreds of different meanings, according to each person's conditioning. Perhaps he was simply restating what Christ had said: 'But rather seek ye the kingdom of God; and all these things shall be added unto you.' But I was not thinking about Christ - I wanted to know what Krishnamurti meant by 'a religious man.' 'What is a religious man?' (Huxley asking K.) Krishnamurti changed his tone and rhythm. He spoke now calmly, with incisiveness. 'I will tell you what a religious man is. First of all. a religious man is a man who is alone - not lonely, you understand, but alone - with no theories or dogmas, no opinion, no background. He is alone and loves it - free of conditioning and alone - and enjoying it. Second, a religious man must be both man and woman - I don't mean sexually - but he must know the dual nature of everything; a religious man must feel and be both masculine and feminine. Third,' and now his manner intensified again, 'to be a religious man, one must destroy everything - destroy the past, destroy one's convictions, interpretations, deceptions - destroy ALL self-hypnosis - destroy until there is no center; you understand, NO CENTER.' He stopped. No center? After a silence Krishnamurti said quietly, 'Then you are a religious person. Then stillness comes. Completely still.' Still were the immense mountains around us. Infinitely still."
A person who had listened to Krishnamurti for many years once said to him: "I see the extraordinary effect that the teachings have had on me and that they have on others. There seems to be something in them beyond the words which has the ability to change people's lives. I have now listened to you for many years and I know all the words. In terms of just words I could say many of the things that you say but I know that when I say them they don't have the same impact. I feel that this is because, while I know the teachings, I don't live them." Krishnamurti was nodding in agreement with this and the questioner continued. "My question to you is; when you say something like 'the world is you and you are the world' and you live it, it is clearly true. If I say 'you are the world and the world is you' and I don't live it, is that statement still true?" Krishnamurti was quiet for a moment and then said slowly, "Well yes, the statement is still true when you say it, but it has no truth in it."
"I wonder if one realizes, not as an idea, not as something of romantic appeal, but as an actual fact, that one is the world -- psychologically, inwardly, one is the world. Go to India, they have the same problems as here, suffering, loneliness, death, anxiety, sorrow. Wherever one goes this is the fact common to humanity. When you hear this statement that psychologically, inwardly, one is the world, do you make of it an idea? Or do you actually realize it as you realize it when a pin is thrust into your thigh or your arm, the actual pain of it? You don't have an idea about that; it is so, there is pain. So does one actually realize that immense fact, feel it as something vital, something that is tremendously actual? If one does, then that psychological fact affects the mind, the brain -- not one's little mind narrowed by national or family concerns -- it affects the human brain. When one realizes that, it brings a sense of great responsibility, without any sense of guilt, but a sense of tremendous responsibility for all things connected with human beings, how one educates one's children, how one behaves, and so on. If one actually realizes this immensity - it is immense - then the particular entity as 'me' seems so insignificant; all ones little worries become so shoddy. When one sees this fact, when it is felt in one's heart and mind, one covers the earth; one wants to protect everything, for one is responsible." J. Krishnamurti, 1980, Bulletin 40, Ojai
"The brain is not forcing itself to be quiet. If it is forcing itself to be quiet then it is still in operation of the past. In that there is division, there is conflict, there is discipline and all the rest of it. But if the old brain understands, or sees the truth - that as long as it is in constant response to any stimulus, it must operate along the old lines - if the old brain sees the truth of that, then it becomes quiet. It is the truth that brings about quietness - not the intention to be quiet." From J. Krishnamurti, 'The Awakening of Intelligence' p. 377
"Thought has created the problems which surround us and our brains are trained, educated, conditioned, to the solving of problems...It is essential that we understand the nature of our thinking and the nature of our reactions which arise from our thinking." (page 20) "From experience we acquire knowledge, from knowledge memory; the response of memory is thought, then from thought to action, from that action you learn more, so the cycle is repeated. That is the pattern of our life. That form of learning will never solve our problems because it is repetition." (page 25) "Suppose I have great sorrow for the death of someone with whom I have lived for many years. Then there is this sorrow which is the essence of isolation; we feel totally isolated, completely alone. Now, remain completely with that feeling, not verbalising it, not rationalising it, or escaping from it, or trying to transcend it - all of which is the movement that thought brings about. When there is that sorrow and thought does not enter into it at all - which means you are completely sorrow, not trying to overcome sorrow, but totally sorrow - then there is the disappearance of it. It is only when there is the fragmentation of thought that there is travail." (page 65) From J. Krishnamurti "The Network of Thought"
Q: ... You see a mountain and you recognise that it is a mountain, not an elephant. To differentiate in this way, surely, there must be judgement and evaluation? K: You see the mountain, you recognise it and the recognition is only possible when a memory of the mountain has been established. Obviously, otherwise you can't recognise it. Q: I remember when I came to Switzerland as a small child and I saw a mountain for the first time, it was without any remembrance. It was very beautiful! K: Yes, Sir, when you see it for the first time you don't say, "It is a mountain". Then somebody tells you that it is a mountain and the next time you recognise it as such. Now, when you observe, there is the whole process of recognition. You don't confuse the mountain with a house or an elephant, it is a mountain. Then the difficult problem arises: to observe it non-verbally. "That is a mountain", "I like it or I don't like it", "I wish I could live up there", and so on. From J. Krishnamurti, 'The Awakening of Intelligence' p. 329
"As you watch, you learn that the observer is merely a bundle of ideas and memories without any validity or substance, but that fear is an actuality and that you are trying to understand fact with an abstraction which of course, you cannot do. But, in fact, is the observer who says, 'I am afraid', any different from the thing observed which is fear? The observer is fear and when that is realized there is no longer any dissipation of energy in the effort to get rid of fear, and the space-time interval between the observer and the observed disappears. When you see you are a part of fear, not separate from it-that you are fear- then you cannot do anything about it; then fear comes totally to an end." J. Krishnamurti
"Ideas have become far more important to us than action---ideas so cleverly expressed in books by the intellectuals in every field. The more cunning, the more subtle, those ideas are the more we worship them and the books that contain them. We are those books, we are those ideas, so heavily conditioned are we by them. We are forever discussing ideas and ideals and dialectically offering opinions. Every religion has its dogma, its formula, its own scaffold to reach the gods, and when inquiring into the beginning of thought we are questioning the importance of this whole edifice of ideas. We have separated ideas from action because ideas are always of the past and action is always the present---that is, livings is always the present. We are afraid of living and therefore the past, as ideas, has become so important to us." J. Krishnamurti
"As long as there is a time interval between the observer and the observed it creates friction and therefore there is a waste of energy. That energy is gathered to its highest point when the observer is the observed, in which there is no time interval at all. Then there will be energy without motive and it will find its own channel of action because then the "I" does not exist." J. Krishnamurti
"A man who is fully aware is meditating.... If you are interested to discover the whole process of yourself--not merely the superficial part but the total process of your whole being--then it is comparatively easy. If you really want to know yourself, you will search out your heart and mind to know their full content and when there is intention to know , you will know. Then you can follow, without condemnation or justification, every movement of thought and feeling; by following every thought and every feeling as it arises you bring about tranquility which is not compelled, not regimented, but which is the outcome of having no problem, no contradiction. It is like the pool that becomes peaceful, quiet, any evening when there is no wind; when the mind is still,then that which is immeasurable comes into being." From J. Krishnamurti "The First and Last Freedom" (p.221):
"That silence which is not the silence of the ending of noise is only a small beginning. It is like going through a small hole to an enormous, wide, expansive ocean, to an immeasurable, timeless state. But this you cannot understand verbally unless you have understood the whole structure of consciousness and the meaning of pleasure, sorrow and despair, and the brain cells themselves have become quiet. Then perhaps you may come upon that mystery which nobody can reveal to you and nothing can destroy. A living mind is a still mind, a living mind is mind that has no centre and therefore no space and time. Such a mind is limitless and that is the only truth, that is the only reality." From J. Krishnamurti, "Freedom from the Known":
"The mind itself is petty, small, and by merely saying it is petty you haven't dissolved its pettiness. You have to understand it, the mind has to recognise its own activities, and in the process of that recognition, in the awareness of the trivialities which it has consciously and unconsciously built, the mind becomes quiet. In that quietness is the creative state and 'this' is the factor which brings about transformation." From J. Krishnamurti, "The First and Last Freedom", page 276:
"It is desire that creates illusion - through desire one wants fulfilment, one hopes for something more. Unless you understand the whole nature and structure of desire, the mind will inevitably create illusion. Can your mind, having understood the activity of desire, know its relative value and therefore be free to observe? Which means you observe without any kind of illusion. [...] I am not talking for my benefit. Although I have talked for fifty-two years I am not interested in talking. But I am interested to find out if you can also discover the same thing so that your life will be totally different, transformed, so that you have no problems, no complexities, no strife or longing.That is the reason the speaker is talking, not for his own gratification, nor for his own enjoyment, not for his own fulfilment." From a talk given by Krishnamurti at Saanen, July 29, 1979, "A Quiet Mind." ("Meeting Life," pages 204/5):
"Meditation is something that is not contrived, organised. Meditation IS. It begins with the first step, which is to be free of all your psychological hurts, accumulated fears, anxiety, loneliness, despair, sorrow. That is the foundation, that is the first step, and the first step is the last step. If you take that first step it is all over...The ending of sorrow is love. Where there is that love there is compassion. And that compassion has its own integral intelligence. And when that intelligence acts, that action is always true. There is no conflict where there is that intelligence." J. Krishnamurti, a Bombay Talk 1985
"Desire is always in contradiction. I desire contradictory things, which doesn't mean that I must destroy desire, suppress, control or sublimate it, I simply see that desire itself is contradictory. It is not the objects of desire but the very nature of desire which is contradictory. And I have to understand the nature of desire before I can understand conflict. In ourselves we are in a state of contradiction, and that state of contradiction is brought about by desire, desire being the pursuit of pleasure and the avoidance of pain." From J. Krishnamurti, "Freedom from the Known":
"It is important to understand from the very beginning that I am not formulating any philosophy or any theological structure of ideas or theological concepts. It seems to me that all ideologies are utterly idiotic. What is important is not a philosophy of life but to observe what is actually taking place in our daily life, inwardly and outwardly. If you observe very closely what is taking place and examine it, you will see that it is based on an intellectual conception, and the intellect is not the whole field of existence; it is a fragment, and a fragment, however cleverly put together, however ancient and traditional, is still a small part of existence whereas we have to deal with the totality of life. And when we look at what is taking place in the world we begin to understand that there is no outer and inner process; there is only one unitary process, it is a whole, total movement, the inner movement expressing itself as the outer and the outer reacting again on the inner. To be able to look at this seems to me all that is needed, because if we know how to look, then the whole thing becomes very clear, and to look needs no philosophy, no teacher. Nobody need tell you how to look. You just look." J. Krishnamurti
"Awareness is observation without condemnation. Awareness brings understanding because there is no condemnation or identification but silent observation. If I want to understand something, I must observe, I must not criticise, I must not condemn, I must not pursue it as pleasure or avoid it as non-pleasure. There must merely be the silent observation of a fact. There is no end in view but awareness of everything as it arises.... First, there is awareness of things about one, being sensitive to objects, to nature, then to people, which means relationship; then there is awareness of ideas. This awareness, being sensitive to things, to nature, to people, to ideas, is not made up of separate processes, but is one unitary process. It is a constant observation of everything, of every thought and feeling and action as they arise within oneself" From J. Krishnamurti, "The First and Last Freedom" page 173:
"We said, this 'me' is a living thing, a movement. All the time it is adding to itself and taking away from itself. And this 'me', this movement, is the root of all violence. Not only this 'me' as something static which invents the soul, which invents God, Heaven and punishment---it is the whole of that. We are asking: does the mind realize that the 'me' is the cause of this mischief? The mind---use the word intelligence if you like---which sees the whole map of violence, all the intricacies, sees it by observing, this mind says: that is the root of all evil. So the mind now asks: is it possible to live without the 'me'?... Seeing is acting. Now, does the mind see this whole map of violence and the root of it? And what is it that sees? If the 'me' sees it, then it is afraid to live differently, then the 'me' says, 'I must protect myself, I must resist this, I am afraid'. Therefore the 'me' refuses to see the map. But the seeing is not the 'me'... Do we realize that the mind which is observing this entire map is entirely different from the 'me' which sees it and is afraid to break from it? There are two different observations: the 'me' seeing, and 'seeing'. The 'me' seeing must inevitably be afraid and must therefore resist and say, "How shall I live? What shall I do? Must I give this up? Must I hold on?" and so on. We said: any movement of the 'me' is violence. But there is a mere seeing of the map, which is entirely different. Is this clear? Now, which is it that you are doing?..." J. Krishnamurti
"Saturday, April 23, 1983. The clouds are still hanging over the hills, the valley and the mountains. Occasionally there is an opening in the sky and the sun comes through, bright, clear, but soon it disappears. One likes this kind of morning, cool, fresh, with the whole world green around you. As the summer comes on the sun will burn all the green grass, and the meadows across the valley will be parched, dry, and all the grass with the bright green will have gone. In the summer all the freshness has gone. One likes these quiet mornings. The oranges are so bright and the leaves, dark green, are shining. And there is a perfume in the air from the orange blossom, strong, almost suffocating. There is a different kind of orange to be picked later on before the summer heat. Now there is the green leaf, the orange and the flower of the same tree at the same time. It is a beautiful world and man is so indifferent to it, spoiling the earth, the rivers and the bays and the fresh-water lakes. But let's leave all that behind and walk along a narrow path, up the hill where there is a little stream which in a few weeks will be dry. You and a friend are walking along the path, talking now and then, looking at all the various colours of green. What a variety there is, from the lightest green, the Nile green, and perhaps even lighter, bluer, to the dark greens, luscious, full of their own richness. And as you go along up the path, just managing to walk along together side by side, you happen to pick up something ravishingly beautiful, sparkling, a jewel of extraordinary antiquity and beauty. You are so astonished to find it on this path of so many animals which only a few people have trodden. You look at it with great astonishment. It is so subtly made, so intricate that no jeweller's hand can ever made it. You hold it for some time, amazed and silent. Then you put it very carefully in your inside pocket, button it, and are almost frightened that you might lose it or that it might lose its sparkling, shining beauty. And you put your hand outside the pocket that holds it. The other sees you doing this and sees that your face and your eyes have undergone a remarkable change. There is a kind of ecstasy, a speechless wonder, a breathless excitement. When the man asks: 'What is it that you have found and are so extraordinarily elated by?' you reply in a very soft, gentle voice (it seems so strange to you to hear your own voice) that you picked up truth. You don't want to talk about it, your are rather shy; the very talking might destroy it. And the man who is walking beside you is slightly annoyed that you are not communicating with him freely, and he says that if you have found the truth, then let's do gown into the valley and organise it so that others will understand it, so that others will grasp it and perhaps it will help them. You don't reply, you are sorry that you ever told him about it. [...]" From "Krishnamurti to Himself", pp. 85:
"Why should you accept what anybody says about these matters---including myself? Why should you accept any authority about the inward movement of life? We reject authority outwardly; if you are at all intellectually aware and observant politically you reject these things. But we apparently accept the authority of someone who says, "I know, I have achieved, I have realized." The man who says he knows, he does not know. The moment you say you know, you don't know. What is it you know? Some experience which you have had, some kind of vision, some kind of enlightenment? I dislike to use that word "enlightenment". Once you have experienced that, you think you have attained some extraordinary state; but that is past, you can only know something which is over and therefore dead." J. Krishnamurti
"...death is extraordinarily like life when we know how to live. You cannot live without dying. You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute. This is not an intellectual paradox. To live completely, wholly, every day as if it were a new loveliness, there must be dying to every- thing of yesterday, otherwise you live mechanically, and a mechanical mind can never know what love is or what freedom is... Freedom from the known is death, and then you are living." From J. Krishnamurti, "Freedom From The Known"
"to look at myself without any formula -- can one do that? Otherwise you can't learn about yourself obviously. If I say, I am jealous, the very verbalization of that fact, or of that feeling, has already conditioned it. Right? Therefore I cannot see anything further in it. Now the question is: can the mind be free of this egocentric activity? Right? That is really the question, not whether it is so or not. Which means can the mind stand alone, uninfluenced? Alone, being alone does not mean isolation. Sir, look: when one rejects completely all the absurdities of nationality, the absurdities of propaganda, of religious propaganda, rejects conclusions of any kind, actually, not theoretically, completely put aside, has understood very deeply the question of pleasure and fear, and division -- the `me' and the `not me' -- is there any form of the self at all?" J. Krishnamurti, "Observing Without The `Me' Brockwood Park, First Public Talk, September 5, 1970
"I realise my life is wrong. Nobody has to point that out; it is so. That is a fact and you come along and tell me that you can do something instantly. I don't believe you. I feel it can never happen. You come and tell me this whole struggle, this monstrous way of living, can be ended immediately. My brain says, sorry, you are cuckoo, I don't believe you. But K says, look, I will show it to you step by step. You may be god, you may be the Buddha, but I don't believe you. And K tells you, listen, take time, in the sense, have patience. Patience is not time. Impatience is time. Patience has no time." J. Krishnamurti, The Way of Intelligence, p. 59
Questioner: How can one reconcile the demands of society with a life of total freedom? Krishnamurti: What are the demands of society? Tell me, please. That you go to the office from nine to five, or the factory, that you go to a nightclub for excitement after all the boredom of the day's work, take a fortnight or three weeks' holiday in sunny Spain or Italy? What are the demands of society? That you must earn a livelihood, that you must live in that particular part of the country all your life, practise as a lawyer, or a doctor, or in the factory as a union leader, and so on. Right? Therefore one must also ask the question: what is this society that demands so much, and who created the wretched thing? Who is responsible for this? The church, the temple, the mosque, and all the circus that goes on inside them? Who is responsible for all this? Is the society different from us, or have we created the society, each one of us, through our ambition, through our greed, our envy, our violence, through our corruption, through our fear, wanting our security in the community, in the nation - you follow? We have created this society and then blame the society for what it demands. Therefore you ask: can I live in absolute freedom, or rather, can I reconcile with society and myself seek freedom? It is such an absurd question. Sorry, I am not being rude to the questioner. It is absurd because yousociety. Do we really see that, not as an idea, not as a concept, or something you must accept? But we, each one of us on this earth for the last 40,000 years or more, have created the society in which we live: the stupidity of religions, the stupidity of the nations arming themselves. For God's sake, we have created it because we insist on being American or French or Russian. We insist on calling ourselves Catholic, Protestant, Hindu, Buddhist, Muslim, and this gives us a sense of security. But it is these very divisions that obstruct the search for security. It is so clear. So there is no reconciliation between society and its demands and your demands for freedom. The demands come from your own violence, from your own ugly, limited selfishness. It is one of the most complex things to find out for oneself where selfishness is, where ego very, very subtly hides itself. It can hide politically 'doing good for the country'. It can hide in the religious world most beautifully: 'I believe in God, I serve God', or in social help - not that I am against social help, don't jump to that conclusion - but it can hide there. It requires a very attentive, not analytical, but an observing brain to see where the subtleties of the self, of selfishness, are hidden. Then when there is no self, society doesn't exist; you don't have to reconcile with it. It is only the inattentive, the unaware who say, 'How am I to respond to society when I am working for freedom?' You understand? If I may point out, we need to be re-educated, not through school, college, university - which also condition the brain - nor through work in the office or the factory. We need to re-educate ourselves by being aware, seeing how we are caught in words. Can we do this? If we cannot do it we are going to have perpetual wars, perpetual weeping, always in conflict, misery and all that is entailed. The speaker is not pessimistic or optimistic; these are the facts. When you live with facts as they are, not with data produced by the computer, but observing them, watching your own activity, your own egotistic pursuits, then out of that grows marvellous freedom with all its great beauty and strength. J. Krishnamurti "The Demands of Society, Saanen, Switzerland, July 1984 From Bulletin 48, 1985"
Love is the law, love under will.