Meditations 1969 Part11 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 11
Meditation is not the mere control of body and thought, nor is it a system of breathing-in and breathing-out. The body must be still, healthy and without strain; sensitivity of feeling must be sharpened and sustained; and the mind with all its chattering, disturbances and gropings must come to an end. it is not the organism that one must begin with, but rather it is the mind with its opinions, prejudices and self-interest that must be seen to. When the mind is healthy, vital and vigorous, then feeling will be heightened and will be extremely sensitive. Then the body, with its own natural intelligence which hasn't been spoiled by habit and taste, will function as it should. So one must begin with the mind and not with the body, the mind being thought and the varieties of expressions of thought. Mere concentration makes thought narrow, limited and brittle, but concentration comes as a natural thing when there is an awareness of the ways of thought. This awareness does not come from the thinker who chooses and discards, who holds on to and rejects. This awareness is without choice and is both the outer and the inner; it is an interflow between the two, so the division between the outer and the inner comes to an end. Thought destroys feeling, feeling being love. Thought can offer only pleasure, and in the pursuit of pleasure love is pushed aside. The pleasure of eating, of drinking, has its continuity in thought, and merely to control or suppress this pleasure which thought has brought about has no meaning; it creates only various forms of conflict and compulsion. Thought, which is matter, cannot seek that which is beyond time, for thought is memory, and the experience in that memory is as dead as the leaf of last autumn. In awareness of all this comes attention, which is not the product of inattention. It is inattention which has dictated the pleasureable habits of the body and diluted the intensity of feeling. Inattention cannot be made into attention. The awareness of inattention is attention. The seeing of this whole complex process is meditation from which alone comes order in this confusion. This order is as absolute as is the order in mathematics, and from this there is action the immediate doing. Order is not arrangement, design and proportion; these come much later. Order comes out of a mind that is not cluttered up by the things of thought. When thought is silent there is emptiness, which is order.

Meditations 1969 Part10 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 10
Happiness and pleasure you can buy in any market at a price. But bliss you cannot buy for yourself or for another. Happiness and pleasure are time-binding. Only in total freedom does bliss exist. Pleasure, like happiness, you can seek, and find, in many ways. But they come, and go. Bliss that strange sense of joy has no motive. You cannot possibly seek it. Once it is there, depending on the quality of your mind, it remains timeless, causeless, and a thing that is not measurable by time. Meditation is not the pursuit of pleasure and the search for happiness. Meditation, on the contrary, is a state of mind in which there is no concept or formula, and therefore total freedom. It is only to such a mind that this bliss comes unsought and uninvited. Once it is there, though you may live in the world with all its noise, pleasure and brutality, they will not touch that mind. Once it is there, conflict has ceased. But the ending of conflict is not necessarily the total freedom. Meditation is a movement of the mind in this freedom. In this explosion of bliss the eyes are made innocent, and love is then benediction.

Meditations 1969 Part9 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 9
That morning the sea was like a lake or an enormous river without a ripple, and so calm that you could see the reflections of the stars so early in the morning. The dawn had not yet come, and so the stars, and the reflection of the cliff, and the distant lights of the town, were there on the water. And as the sun came up over the horizon in a cloudless sky it made a golden path, and it was extraordinary to see that light of California filling the earth and every leaf and blade of grass. As you watched, a great stillness came into you. The brain itself became very quiet, without any reaction, without a movement, and it was strange to feel this immense stillness. "Feel" isn't the word. The quality of that silence, that stillness, is not felt by the brain; it is beyond the brain. The brain can conceive, formulate or make a design for the future, but this stillness is beyond its range, beyond all imagination, beyond all desire. You are so still that your body becomes completely part of the earth, part of everything that is still. And as the slight breeze came from the hills, stirring the leaves, this stillness, this extraordinary quality of silence, was not disturbed. The house was between the hills and the sea, over- looking the sea. And as you watched the sea, so very still you really became part of everything. You were everything. You were the light, and the beauty of love. Again, to say "you were a part of everything" is also wrong: the word "you" is not adequate because you really weren't there. You didn't exist. There was only that stillness, the beauty, the extraordinary sense of love. The words you and I separate things. This division in this strange silence and stillness doesn't exist. And as you watched out of the window, space and time seemed to have come to an end, and the space that divides had no reality. That leaf and that eucalyptus and the blue shining water were not different from you. Meditation is really very simple. We complicate it. We weave a web of ideas round it what it is and what it is not. But it is none of these things. Because it is so very simple it escapes us, because our minds are so complicated, so time-worn and time-based. And this mind dictates the activity of the heart, and then the trouble begins. But meditation comes naturally, with extraordinary ease, when you walk on the sand or look out of your window or see those marvellous hills burnt by last summer's sun. Why are we such tortured human beings, with tears in our eyes and false laughter on our lips? If you could walk alone among those hills or in the woods or along the long, white, bleached sands, in that solitude you would know what meditation is. The ecstasy of solitude comes when you are not frightened to be alone no longer belonging to the world or attached to anything. Then, like that dawn that came up this morning, it comes silently, and makes a golden path in the very stillness, which was at the beginning, which is now, and which will be always there.

Meditations 1969 Part8 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 8
It was one of those lovely mornings that have never been before. The sun was just coming up and you saw it between the eucalyptus and the pine. It was over the waters, golden, burnished such light that exists only between the mountains and the sea. It was such a clear morning, breathless, full of that strange light that one sees not only with one's eyes but with one's heart. And when you see it the heavens are very close to earth, and you are lost in the beauty. You know, you should never meditate in public, or with another, or in a group: you should meditate only in solitude, in the quiet of the night or in the still, early morning. When you meditate in solitude, it must be solitude. You must be completely alone, not following a system, a method, repeating words, or pursuing a thought, or shaping a thought according to your desire. This solitude comes when the mind is freed from thought. When there are influences of desire or of the things that the mind is pursuing, either in the future or in the past, there is no solitude. Only in the immensity of the present this aloneness comes. And then, in quiet secrecy in which all communication has come to an end, in which there is no observer with his anxieties, with his stupid appetites and problems only then, in that quiet aloneness, meditation becomes something that cannot be put into words. Then meditation is an eternal movement. I don't know if you have ever meditated, if you have ever been alone, by yourself, far away from everything, from every person, from every thought and pursuit, if you have ever been completely alone, not isolated, not withdrawn into some fanciful dream or vision, but far away, so that in yourself there is nothing recognizable, nothing that you touch by thought or feeling, so far away that in this full solitude the very silence becomes the only flower, the only light, and the timeless quality that is not measurable by thought. Only in such meditation love has its being. Don't bother to express it: it will express itself. Don't use it. Don't try to put it into action: it will act, and when it acts, in that action there is no regret, no contradiction, none of the misery and travail of man. So meditate alone. Get lost. And don't try to remember where you have been. If you try to remember it then it will be something that is dead. And if you hold on to the memory of it then you will never be alone again. So meditate in that endless solitude, in the beauty of that love, in that innocency, in the new then there is the bliss that is imperishable. The sky is very blue, the blue that comes after the rain, and these rains have come after many months of drought. After the rain the skies are washed clean and the hills are rejoicing, and the earth is still. And every leaf has the light of the sun on it, and the feeling of the earth is very close to you. So meditate in the very secret recesses of your heart and mind, where you have never been before.

Meditations 1969 Part7 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 7

It had rained heavily during the night and the day, and down the gullies the muddy stream poured into the sea, making it chocolate-brown. As you walked on the beach the waves were enormous and they were breaking with magnificent curve and force. You walked against the wind, and suddenly you felt there was nothing between you and the sky, and this openness was heaven. To be so completely open, vulnerable to the hills, to the sea and to man is the very essence of meditation. To have no resistance, to have no barriers inwardly towards anything, to be really free, completely, from all the minor urges, compulsions and demands, with all their little conflicts and hypocrisies, is to walk in life with open arms. And that evening, walking there on that wet sand, with the seagulls around you, you felt the extraordinary sense of open freedom and the great beauty of love which was not in you or outside you but everywhere. We don't realize how important it is to be free of the nagging pleasures and their pains, so that the mind remains alone. It is only the mind that is wholly alone that is open. You felt all this suddenly, like a great wind that swept over the land and through you. There you were denuded of everything, empty and therefore utterly open. The beauty of it was not in the word or in the feeling, but seemed to be everywhere about you, inside you, over the waters and in the hills. Meditation is this.

Meditations 1969 Part6 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 6

After the rains the hills were splendid. They were still brown from the summer sun, and now all the green things would come out. It had rained quite heavily, and the beauty of those hills was indescribable. The sky was still clouded and in the air there was the smell of sumac, sage and eucalyptus. It was splendid to be among them, and a strange stillness possessed you. Unlike the sea which lay far down below you, those hills were completely still. As you watched and looked about you, you had left everything down below in that little house your clothes, your thoughts and the odd ways of life. Here you were travelling very lightly, without any thoughts, without any burden, and with a feeling of complete emptiness and beauty. The little green bushes would soon be still greener, and in a few weeks' time they would have a stronger smell. The quails were calling and a few of them flew over. Without knowing it, the mind was in a state of meditation in which love was flowering. After all, only in the soil of meditation can this flower bloom. It was really quite marvellous, and strangely, all through the night it pursued you, and when you woke, long before the sun was up, it was still there in your heart with its incredible joy, for no reason whatsoever. It was there, causeless, and was quite intoxicating. It would be there all through the day without your ever asking or inviting it to stay with you.

Meditations 1969 Part5 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 5

Is there a new experience in meditation? The desire for experience, the higher experience which is beyond and above the daily or the commonplace, is what keeps the well-spring empty. The craving for more experience, for visions, for higher perception, for some realization or other, makes the mind look outward, which is no different from its dependence on environment and people. 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 1969 PART4 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 4

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 colour, 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 PART3 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 3
When you turn your head from horizon to horizon your eyes see a vast space in which all the things of the earth and of the sky appear. But this space is always limited where the earth meets the sky. The space in the mind is so small. In this little space all our activities seem to take place: the daily living and the hidden struggles with contradictory desires and motives. In this little space the mind seeks freedom, and so it is always a prisoner of itself. Meditation is the ending of this little space. To us, action is bringing about order in this little space of the mind. But there is another action which is not putting order in this little space. Meditation is action which comes when the mind has lost its little space. This vast space which the mind, the I, cannot reach, is silence. The mind can never be silent within itself; it is silent only within the vast space which thought cannot touch. Out of this silence there is action which is not of thought. Meditation is this silence.

Meditations 1969 Part2 - J Krishnamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 2

Perception without the word, which is without thought, is one of the strangest phenomena. Then the perception is much more acute, not only with the brain, but also 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, however, 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 this ecstasy which gives to the eye, to the brain and to the heart, the quality of innocency. Without seeing life as something totally new, it is a routine, a boredom, a meaningless affair. So meditation is of the greatest importance. It opens the door to the incalculable, to the measureless.

Meditations 1969 Part1- J Krishanamurti

MEDITATIONS 1969 PART 1
In the space which thought creates around itself there is no love. This space divides man from man, and in it is all the becoming, the battle of life, the agony and fear. Meditation is the ending of this space, the ending of the me. Then relationship has quite a different meaning, for in that space which is not made by thought, the other does not exist, for you do not exist. Meditation then is not the pursuit of some vision, however sanctified by tradition. Rather it is the endless space where thought cannot enter. To us, the little space made by thought around itself, which is the me,is extremely important, for this is all the mind knows, identifying itself with everything that is in that space. And the fear of not being is born in that space. But in meditation, when this is understood, the mind can enter into a dimension of space where action is inaction. We do not know what love is, for in the space made by thought around itself as the me, love is the conflict of the me and the not-me. This conflict, this torture, is not love. Thought is the very denial of love, and it cannot enter into that space where the me is not. In that space is the benediction which man seeks and cannot find. He seeks it within the frontiers of thought, and thought destroys the ecstasy of this benediction.

Book of Life - J krishnamurti

Here is the talk given by J Krishnamurti at Sri Lanka on 9th November 1980 called 'THE BOOK OF LIFE'. It gives us some good insights……
“May we were continue with what we were saying yesterday evening? We said that the whole story of mankind is in you, the vast experiences, the deep-rooted fears, anxieties, sorrow, pleasure and all the beliefs that man has accumulated throughout the millennia. You are that book. That's what we said yesterday. And it is an art to read that book. It is not printed by any publisher. It is not for sale. You can't buy it in any book shop. You can't go to any analyst because his book is the same as yours; nor to any scientist. The scientist may have a great deal of information about matter, and the astrophysics, but his book, the story of mankind, is the same as yours. That book, we said yesterday afternoon. And without carefully, patiently, hesitantly reading that book, you will never be able to change the society in which we live, the society that is corrupt, immoral, there is a great deal of poverty, injustice and so on. Any serious man would be concerned with the things as they are in the world at present, with all the chaos, corruption, war - the greatest crime, which is war. In order to bring about a radical change in our society and its structure, one must be able to read the book which is yourself, and the society is brought about by each one of us, by our parents, grandparents and so on. All human beings have created this society and when the society is not changed, there will be more corruption, more wars and greater destruction of the human mind. That's a fact. So to read this book, which is yourself, one must have the art of listening to what the book is saying. That is, to listen to it, which means to listen implies not to interpret what the book is saying. Just observe it as you would observe a cloud. You can't do anythIng about the cloud, nor the palm leaves swaying in the wind, nor the beauty of a sunset. You cannot alter it, you cannot argue with it, you cannot change it. It is so. So one must have the art of listening to what the book is saying. The book is you, so you can't tell the book what is should reveal. It will reveal everything. So that must be the first art, to listen to the book. There is another art, which is the art of observation, the art of seeing. When you read the book which is yourself, there is not you and the book. Please understand this. There is not the reader and the book separate from you, the book is you. So you are observing the book, not telling the book what is should say. Am I making this clear? That is, to read, to observe all the reactions that the book reveals. To see very clearly without any distortion what the lines, the chapters, the verse, the poems, the beauty, the struggle, everything that is telling you, revealing. So there is the art of seeing, the art of listening. There is also another art; the art of learning. The computers can learn. They can be programmed and they will repeat what they have been told. If a computer plays with a master of chess, the master may beat it two or three or four times but it is learning. It avoids where it has made a mistake, it can correct it, so through experience it is learning so that after a few games the computer can beat the master chess player. That's how our mind works, our mind. We first experience accumulate knowledge, store it in the brain, then thought, as memory, and then action. From that action, you learn. And so the learning is the accumulation of further knowledge. So you begin again. Knowledge - experience, knowledge, memory and thought and action. This cycle is going on all the time with all of us. I hope I am making this clear that every action, either gives further knowledge, though the mind changes, modifies its past experience, and goes on. This is what a mind that is aware, awake is doing all the time, like a computer. Experience, knowledge, memory, thought, action, and the action modifies, or adds more knowledge, and you go on that way. Clear? So this is what we are doing all the time, which is called learning, learning from experience. This has been the story of man - constant challenge and response to that challenge. And that response can be equal to the challenge, or not quite up to the challenge, but it learns, and accumulates knowledge, and the next challenge it responds again more fully, or less fully. So this process is going on all the time in our minds, which is called learning. You learn a language. That is, you learn the meaning of the words, the syntax, the grammar, put sentences together and gradually accumulate a vocabulary and then, if you have got a good memory, you begin to talk that particular language which you have spent time on. This is the human process of learning. That is, always moving from knowledge to knowledge. And the book is the whole knowledge of mankind, which is you. Am I making all this clear? And either - please listen to this with a little care and patience - either you keep that circle going all the time, or find a way of moving out of that circle. I am going to show it to you in a minute. That is, we are always functioning from the past knowledge, modified by the present and moving forward. The forward is modified again which becomes the past, and this process is part of our life. Are we getting all this? I am making this, if you don't mind, I know you are probably very learned, very educated, but I am putting all this into very, very simple language; but the word is not the thing. Right? Ceylon, Sri Lanka - forgive me - is not the land, the beauty of the land, the palm trees, the river, the marvellous trees, and the fruit, and the flowers. So the word is not the thing. Please bear that in mind all the time we are talking together, that the word is not the thing. The word husband is not the man, it is a word. By word we measure. So please bear in mind throughout this talk, and the other two talks that are to take place and the discussion, public discussion, that the word is never the thing. The symbol is never the actual. The picture is not that which is. So if that is deeply rooted in our mind then words have very little significance. You follow? The thing matters, not the word. So, as I said, there is the art of seeing, the art of listening and the art of learning. The learning is movement from the past to the present, modified to the future, and that is experiencing, and so on. The whole cycle is what we call learning. That is, psychological learning as well as technological learning. Right? Which means what? The mind is never free from the known. Are we all getting somewhere together, or am I making this awfully difficult? It is not difficult. Probably, if the speaker may point out, you are not used to this kind of thinking, this kind of enquiry, constant moving forward. So, as we said, our learning is always within the field of the known. And so the mind becomes mechanical. Right? If I have a particular habit and I live with that habit my mind becomes mechanical. If I believe in something and I repeat, repeat, repeat, it becomes mechanical. So we are saying that we are living always within the area of the known. So our minds have become a network of words, never the actual, but words, words, words, and moving, changing, altering within the narrow, limited area of knowledge. So learning implies something totally different. We are going to go into it together. We have said very clearly, what is seeing, how to see the book, read the lines, the art of listening to the book, never distorting, never interpreting, choosing what you like, and don't like, what you appreciate and don't appreciate. Then you are not reading a book. Right? And we are saying also that we all live within the narrow limits of the known. And that has become our constant habit, therefore our mind, if you examine your mind, is repetitive, habitual, accustomed, you believe in god and you believe in god for the rest of your life. If anybody says there is no god, then you call him irreligious. So you are caught in habit. Now we are saying that is not learning at all. Learning is something entirely different. Learning means enquiring into the limits of knowledge and moving away from it. Right? This will be difficult, we will go into it as we go along. So there is the art of seeing, the art of learning, the art of listening, and the art of learning, never to be caught in the same pattern, or invent another pattern. The constant breaking down of patterns, the norms, the values, which doesn't mean living without any restraint. Society is now permissive, it doesn't mean that at all. This constant awareness of this pattern formation of the mind and breaking it down, so that the mind is constantly aware, alert. Right? Now with those three factors, listening, observing, learning, with those basic factors let's read the book together. You are reading the books with me. I am not reading your book, we are reading the human book, which is you and the speaker, and the rest of mankind. Clear? Please give a little attention to this because we live in a society that is so unhappy, that is in such conflict, struggle, strife, and there seems to be no end to it. And we are seeing if we know how to read that book, which is yourself, all conflict, all noise, travail, all that comes to an end. It is only then that there truth can come then into your field. It is only such a mind that is really a religious mind, not the believing mind,not the mind that does all kinds of rituals, not the mind that puts on strange garments, but the mind that is free after having read completely all the book. And it is only such a mind that receives the benediction of truth. It is only such a mind that can go infinitely far beyond time. So together, I mean together, we are reading the book, not the printed book, the book that is you. So it is your responsibility not merely to listen to what the speaker is saying, but also what the speaker is saying is your book, opening it chapter by chapter, page by page, until the very end, if you can travel that far. And we must travel together if we are to solve the human problems, as they exist. Together we can solve it, not one person. So what is the first chapter? Please think together, don't let me tell you. What is the first chapter in that book? That is, your book, and the first chapter in that book, the content of that chapter? All right, let's go on together. Apart from the physical existence, the physical organism with all the travail of the body, the disease, the laziness, the sluggishness, the lack of proper food, proper nourishment - apart from all that, what is the first movement? I am asking you. We are together exploring; I am not exploring and telling you, that would be very easy for you. But if we do it together it will be yours, and when you are able to read it you don't have to have a priest, you don't have to have a psychologist, you don't depend on anybody. You will begin to have that extraordinary freedom which gives you tremendous vitality, the vitality of psychological freedom. So please let us share this book together. Are you waiting for me? I am afraid you are because you have never even looked at yourself deeply. You may have looked at your face, combed your hair, powdered your face and all the rest of it, but you have never looked into yourself. But when you look into yourself don't you discover for yourself that you are a secondhand human being? It may be rather unpleasant to consider oneself a secondhand human being, but we are full of other people's knowledge - what somebody has said, what some philosopher, or some teacher or some guru has said, what the Buddha said, what Christ said an so on. We are all full of that. Also, if you have been to school, and college or university, there also you have been told what to do, what to think. So if you realize that you are a secondhand human being, then you can put aside that secondhand quality of the mind and look. The speaker will go on if you will kindly follow it, if you don't it's up to you. The first observation is that we live in contradiction, that there is no order in us. Order is not a blueprint, saying, order is putting the same thing in the same place everyday. But order implies something far greater than the mechanical discipline of a particular habit, norm, sanction. Right? We are saying order is something entirely different from the accepted normal discipline. The word discipline means, it comes from Latin and so on, which means to learn, not to conform, not to imitate, not to copy, obey, but to learn. You understand? is this clear? So one discovers in that book, the first chapter, that we live an extraordinarily confused, disorderly life - wanting one thing and denying that you want it, saying one thing and doing something else, thinking one thing and acting something else. So there is constant contradiction. Where there is contradiction, there must be conflict. Right? Are you following all this? Or are you bored with this? Come with me, sirs, please tell me are you following this, or not? Audience: Yes. K: Good! At last somebody says, yes. You are not following the speaker. You are following the book which is yourself, that you are living in a disorderly way, that you are in perpetual conflict. That conflict expresses itself as ambition, fulfilment, conformity, identification with a person, with a country, with an idea and never living with the actual. Right? So we live in disorder, both politically, religiously, in our family life. So we have to find out what is order. The book will tell you if you know how to read the book. It says you live in disorder. Follow it - turn the next page. There you will find what it means to live in disorder. If we don't understand the cause of disorder, order will never come into being. You are following all this? You know, it is like fighting a mass of people who don't understand a thing of all this, but it doesn't matter. It is the speaker's responsibility. So we find disorder exists as long as there is contradiction, not only verbal contradiction, but psychological contradiction. As we said, not being honest, absolute honesty, you say one thing, you mean it, to have great integrity. So if one understands the nature of disorder, not intellectually or verbally, but actually, the book is saying don't translate what you read into an intellectual concept, but read it properly. When you read it, it says your contradictions exist, and they can only end if you understand the nature of contradiction. Contradiction exists when there is division, like the Hindus and the Muslims, like the Jews and the Arabs, the communists and the non-communists, this constant divisive process between the various types of Buddhists, the various types of Hindus, Christians, and so on. Where there is division there must be conflict, which is disorder. When you understand the nature of disorder, out of that comprehension, out of the depth of understanding the nature of disorder, comes naturally order. Order is like a flower coming out naturally, and that order, that flower, never withers. Always there is order in one's life because you have really, deeply read the book, which says where there is division there must be conflict. Now have we read that book, those books so clearly, that we understand the nature of disorder? I'll go into it a little more deeply. The next chapter. The next chapter says as long as you are working from a centre towards the periphery, there must be contradiction. That is, as long as you are acting self-centredly, selfishly, egotistically, personally, narrowing the whole of this vast life into that little 'me', you will inevitably create disorder. The 'me' is a very small affair, put together by thought. Thought says my name, the form, the psychological structure and the image it has built about itself - 'I am somebody.' So as long as there is self-centred activity there must be contradiction, therefore there must be disorder. And the book says don't ask how not to be self-centred. Right? Please follow this carefully. The book says when you ask how, you are asking for a method. Then if you pursue that method, it is another form of self-centred activity. Got it? The book is telling you all this. I am not telling you this. The speaker is not translating the book for you. We are reading it together. As long as you belong to any sect, group, religion, you are bound to create conflict. This is difficult to swallow, because we all believe in something. You believe in god, another doesn't; another believes in the Buddha, another believes in Jesus, and Islam says there is only something else. So belief brings division in relationship between man and man. Though you believe in god, you are not living the life of god. You understand? Belief has no value. You don't believe the sun rises and sets, you never say, I believe the sun rises, or the sun sets. If it doesn't rise we will all be dead in three or four days. There is no need for belief when you are only concerned with facts, facts being that which is actually happening in your book. Please, come on sirs. Then the problem arises also, which I am going to go into presently, which is how you read the book, whether you are separate from the book. When you pick up a novel or a thriller, you are reading it as an outsider turning the pages over, with all the exciting story and so on. But here the reader is the book. You understand the difficulty. The reader is the book. He is reading it as though he is reading a part of himself. He is not reading a book. I wonder if you understand this? We will go into it as we go along. The book also says man has lived under authority - political, religious, the leader, the guru, the man who knows, the intellectual philosopher. He has always conformed to a pattern of authority. Please listen very carefully to what the book is saying, which is, there is the authority of law; whether you approve of that law or not there is the authority of law; there is the authority of the policemen, the authority of an elected government and there is the authority of the dictator. We are not talking about that authority. We are reading in the book about the authority that the mind seeks in order to be secure. The mind is always seeking security, the book says. And the books says, when you are seeking security psychologically, you are inevitably bound to create authority - the authority of the priest, the authority of the image, the authority of the man who says "I am enlightened, I will tell you." You understand all this? So it says be free of all that kind of authority, which means be a light to yourself, and don't depend on anyone for the understanding of life, for the understanding of that book. To read that book there is nobody between you and the book, no philosopher, no priest, no guru, no god, nothing. You are the book and you are reading it. So there must be freedom from the authority of another, whether the authority is of the husband or the wife, or the wife or the husband. It means to be able to stand alone, and most people are so frightened. The book, the next chapter says you have discussed, you have read, the first chapter of disorder and order and authority. The next chapter says life is relationship. Life Is relationship in action, not only relationship with your intimate person but you are related to the whole of mankind. Because you are like the rest of the human beings, wherever they may live, because he suffers, you suffer and all the rest of it. Psychologically you are the world and the world is you. Therefore you have tremendous responsibility. Then the book says in the next chapter, man has lived with fear from time immemorial - fear, not only fear of nature, fear of the environment, fear of disease, fear of accidents and so on, but also the much deeper layers of fear, the deeper, unconscious, untrodden waves of fear. We are going to read the book together till the chapter ends and says, "Watch it and you will be able to end it". We are going together to see, to read the book so carefully, so patiently, so that when you have come to the chapter your mind is free of all fear. The book again says, next page, what is fear? How does it arise, what is its nature? Why has man not solved this problem? Why does he live with it? Has he become accustomed to it? Has he accepted it as the way of life? Why has man, the human being, you, not resolved this problem so that your mind is totally free from fear? Because as long as there is fear you live in darkness. You may worship whatever you will, out of that darkness. Your worship is out of that darkness and therefore your worship is absolutely meaningless. So it is very important to read further into the nature of fear. Now, if you examine closely, if you read that book, every word of it, it asks you, how does fear arise? Is it remembrance of things past - the remembrance of some pain, of something which you have done, which you ought not to have done; a lie that you have told and you don't want it to be discovered and you are frightened that it might be discovered; an action that has corrupted your mind and you may be afraid of that corruption, of that action? Or you may be afraid of the future, or you may be afraid of losing a job, or of not becoming a prominent citizen in a particular little backyard of a country. So there are innumerable forms of fear. People are afraid of the dark, people are afraid of public opinion, people are afraid of death - we will deal with death later - people are afraid of not fulfilling, whatever that may mean. Apart from the fear of disease, one may have a great deal of physical pain and that pain is registered in the mind and one is afraid that pain might return. You know all this. So the book says go on, read more. What is fear? Is it brought about by thought? You are following all this? Is it brought about by time? I am healthy now, but as I grow older, I will be ill and I am frightened. That is time. Or is it thought that says anything might I happen to me, I might lose my job, I might go blind, I might lose my wife, whatever it is. Is that the root of fear - the book is asking you. So you say turn the page and you will find the answer in yourself. The speaker is not telling you. There, it says thought and time are the factors of fear. So it says thought is time. Right? So the question then is, the next page says: is it possible for the human mind, for you who are reading that book which is yourself, the book asks you, is it possible to be completely free of fear so that there is not a breath of fear? Which is what? I hope you are reading it with me, I am not reading it by myself. Have you got the energy to go with this? So it says again, don't ask for a method. Method means a repetition, a system; the system which you invent will not solve fear, because you are then following a system, not understanding the nature of fear. So don't look for a system, but only understand, understand the nature of fear. It says: what do you mean by understand? I am going into it. When it is that you say, even now, "Now I understand something"? What do you mean by that? Either you understand the verbal construction and the meaning of the word, which is a particular form of intellectual operation, or you see the truth of it. When you see the truth of this, then the thing disappears. You understand? When you see clearly for yourself that thought and time are the factors of fear, not as a verbal statement, but it is part of you, it is in your blood, in your mind, in your heart, that time is the factor, then you will see that fear has no longer a place, only time. You understand? I wonder if you have got that? Because fear has been brought about by time and thought. I am afraid of what might happen, I am afraid of my loneliness. I never examine my loneliness, what it means, but I am afraid of it, which means I run away from it, but that loneliness is my shadow, it pursues me. You can't run away from your shadow. So you have to have the patience of observation, which is not to run away but to observe, to look, to listen, to hear what that book is saying: it says time is the factor, not fear. So you have to understand time. You are following all this? Please, sirs, if you are tired, tell me. It's half past seven if you are tired we will stop for a few minutes and then continue. Are you tired? Yes, or no? Audience: No. K: How does it happen that you are not tired? You have had a long day in the office, from nine to five, or whatever it is - oh, today is a holiday, so you are not tired because you have a holiday. But you have an office and you will be tired. All right, you are not tired, let's go on. So it says, time is the factor, if you can understand time, then perhaps there will be an end to fear. So you have to ask what is the relationship between time and thought - the book is asking you: find out what is the relationship between time and thought. Thought is a movement from the known to the known. It is a movement: the past memories meeting the present, modifying itself and going on. This movement from yesterday to today to tomorrow is the movement of time, by sunrise and by sunset. There is also psychological time. That is, I have known pain, I hope I shall not have it, it might occur again, which is the movement of the past through the present modifying itself and the future. There is time by the watch. There is time inwardly - I hope to be; you are not, but you hope; you are violent but you hope to be non-violent. You are greedy, envious, but through time, through evolution, you will gradually get rid of it. So time is a movement from the past, present, future. Thought is also from the past, knowledge, memory, movement to the future. So time is thought. Right? Clear? The next question is much more difficult to answer. You have to have patience to move so far. Patience means - please understand I am using the word 'patience' in a particular sense. Patience means the absence of time. Generally patience means go slow, be patient, take time, don't react quickly, be quiet, take it easy, give the other fellow an opportunity to express himself, so on and so on. We are not using the word 'patience' in that sense. We are saying patience means the forgetting of time so that you can look, you can observe. But if you have time through which you are observing, you are impatient. You get what I am saying? I am saying something extraordinary. I'll go into it by myself later. So you have to have patience to read the chapter, which says time is the factor of fear. Thought is time. And as long as thought is functioning you are bound to be afraid. Right? Logically. So the next chapter says: is there a stopping to time, is there an ending to time? Time is a great factor in our life - I am, but I will be; I don't know, but I will know; I don't know this particular language but I will learn, give me time. Time will heal our wounds. Time blunts sensitivity. Time destroys relationship between man, woman. Time destroys understanding because understanding is immediate, not "I will learn to understand". So the book is saying time plays an extraordinarily important part in our life. Our brains have evolved through time. It is not your brain or my brain, but the human brain, the human brain which is you, you have identified that brain as your brain, as your mind. But it is not your mind or your brain, it is the human brain which has evolved through millions of years. So you see the brain, which is conditioned by time, can only operate in time. Right? You understand all this? So we are asking the brain to do something totally different. The book says your brain, your mind, functions in time. Time has played an important part in your life. Time is not the solution of any problem, except technological problems. Don't use time as a resolution of a problem, between you and your wife, between you and your job and so on. It is very difficult to understand this. Please give your mind to this, to read the book properly. So it says: can time end? If you don't end it fear will go on with all its consequences. And it says: don't ask how to end it. The moment you ask somebody how to end it, he has not read the book, he will give you a theory. I wonder if you understand this. So this is real meditation. You understand? This is real meditation, which is to enquire whether time can ever stop. The speaker says it can, and it does. Careful, please! The speaker says so, not your book. So if you say, the speaker says it ends, I hope it ends, and you believe in that hope, you are not reading the book, you are just living on words. And living on words doesn't dissolve fear. So you have to read the book of time, and go into it and explore the nature of time, how you react to time, how your relationship is based on time. I know you, which is time. You follow? Go into it. Which means also knowledge means time. But if you are using knowledge as a means of advancement, you are caught in time and therefore fear, anxiety, and the whole process goes on. To enquire into the nature of ending of time requires a silent mind, a mind that is free to observe, not frightened. You understand? Free to observe the movement of time in yourself, how you depend on it. You know, if somebody told you there is no such thing as hope - just listen carefully - there is no such thing as hope, you would be horrified, wouldn't you? Do you understand what I am saying? Hope is time. So you have to investigate the nature of time and realize that your brain and your mind and your heart, which are one, are functioning, conditioned in time. And therefore you are asking something totally different. You are asking the brain, the mind, to function differently and that requires great attention in your reading. You understand? So sirs, that is enough for this evening. We will go into matters of pleasure, death, birth, all that, next Saturday and Sunday. After that unfortunately we have to go to other places."

For more on teaching of J Krishnamurti visit to http://www.jkrishnamurti.org

Art Of Living

Here is excrepts from the talk given by Mr Goenka in Switzerland which will give some insights:-
"Everyone seeks peace and harmony, because these are what we lack in our lives. From time to time we all experience agitation, irritation, disharmony, suffering; and when one suffers from agitation, one does not keep this misery limited to oneself. One keeps distributing it to others as well. The agitation permeates the atmosphere around the miserable person. Everyone who comes into contact with him also becomes irritated, agitated. Certainly this is not the proper way to live.
One ought to live at peace with oneself, and at peace with all others. After all, a human being is a social being. He has to live in society--to live and deal with others. How are we to live peacefully? How are we to remain harmonious with ourselves, and to maintain peace and harmony around us, so that others can also live peacefully and harmoniously?
One is agitated. To come out of the agitation, one has to know the basic reason for it, the cause of the suffering. If one investigates the problem, it will become clear that whenever one starts generating any negativity or defilement in the mind, one is bound to become agitated. A negativity in the mind, a mental defilement or impurity, cannot exist with peace and harmony.
How does one start generating negativity? Again, by investigating, it becomes clear. I become very unhappy when I find someone behaving in a way which I don't like, when I find something happening which I don't like. Unwanted things happen and I create tension within myself. Wanted things do not happen, some obstacles come in the way, and again I create tension within myself; I start tying knots within myself. And throughout life, unwanted things keep on happening, wanted things may or may not happen, and this process or reaction, of tying knots--Gordian knots--makes the entire mental and physical structure so tense, so full of negativity, that life becomes miserable.
Now one way to solve the problem is to arrange that nothing unwanted happens in my life and that everything keeps on happening exactly as I desire. i must develop such power, or somebody else must have the power and must come to my aid when I request him, that unwanted things do not happen and that everything I want happens. But this is not possible. There is no one in the world whose desires are always fulfilled, in whose life everything happens according to his wishes, without anything unwanted happening. Things keep on occurring that are contrary to our desires and wishes. So the question arises, how am I not to react blindly in the face of these things which I don't like? How not to create tension? How to remain peaceful and harmonious?
In India as well as in other countries, wise saintly persons of the past studied this problem--the problem of human suffering--and found a solution: if something unwanted happens and one starts to react by generating anger, fear or any negativity, then as soon as possible one should divert one's attention to something else. For example, get up, take a glass of water, start drinking--your anger will not multiply and you'll be coming out of anger. Or start counting: one, two, three, four. Or start repeating a word, or a phrase, or some mantra, perhaps the name of a deity or saintly person in whom you have devotion; the mind is diverted, and to some extent, you'll be out of the negativity, out of anger.
This solution was helpful: it worked. It still works. Practicing this, the mind feels free from agitation. In fact, however, the solution works only at the conscious level. Actually, by diverting the attention, one pushes the negativity deep into the unconscious, and on this level one continues to generate and multiply the same defilements. At the surface level there is a layer of peace and harmony, but in the depths of the mind there is a sleeping volcano of suppressed negativity which sooner or later will explode in violent eruption.
Other explorers of inner truth went still further in their search; and by experiencing the reality of mind and matter within themselves they recognized that diverting the attention is only running away from the problem. Escape is no solution: one must face the problem. Whenever a negativity arises in the mind, just observe it, face it. As soon as one starts observing any mental defilement, it begins to lose strength. Slowly it withers away and is uprooted.
A good solution: it avoids both extremes--suppression and free license. Keeping the negativity in the unconscious will not eradicate it; and allowing it to manifest in physical or vocal action will only create more problems. But if one just observes, then the defilement passes away, and one has eradicated that negativity, one is freed from the defilement.
This sounds wonderful, but is it really practical? For an average person, is it easy to face the defilement? When anger arises, it overpowers us so quickly that we don't even notice. Then overpowered by anger, we commit certain actions physically or vocally which are harmful to us and to others. Later, when the anger has passed, we start crying and repenting, begging pardon from this or that person or from God: 'Oh, I made a mistake, please excuse me!' But the next time we are in a similar situation, we again react in the same way. All that repenting does not help at all.
The difficulty is that I am not aware when a defilement starts. It begins deep in the unconscious level of the mind, and by the time it reaches the conscious level, it has gained so much strength that it overwhelms me, and I cannot observe it.
Then I must keep a private secretary with me, so that whenever anger starts, he says, 'Look master, anger is starting!' Since I cannot know when this anger will start, I must have three private secretaries for three shifts, around the clock! Suppose I can afford that, and the anger starts to arise. At once my secretary tells me, 'Oh, master, look--anger has started!' The first thing I will do is slap and abuse him: 'You fool! Do you think you are paid to teach me?' I am so overpowered by anger that no good advise will help.
Even supposing wisdom prevails and I do not slap him. Instead I say, 'Thank you very much. Now I must sit down and observe my anger.' Yet it is possible? As soon as I close my eyes and try to observe the anger, immediately the object of anger come into my mind--the person or incident because of which I become angry. Then I am not observing the anger itself. I am merely observing the external stimulus of the emotion. This will only serve to multiply the anger; this is no solution. It is very difficult to observe any abstract negativity, abstract emotion, divorced from the external object which aroused it.
However, one who reached the ultimate truth found a real solution. He discovered that whenever any defilement arises in the mind, simultaneously two things start happening at the physical level. One is that the breath loses its normal rhythm. We start breathing hard whenever a negativity comes into the mind. This is easy to observe. At subtler level, some kind of biochemical reaction starts within the body--some sensation. Every defilement will generate one sensation or another inside, in one part of the body or another.
This is a practical solution. An ordinary person cannot observe abstract defilements of the mind--abstract fear, anger, or passion. But with proper training and practice, it is very easy to observe respiration and bodily sensations--both of which are directly related to the mental defilements.
Respiration and sensation will help me in two ways. Firstly, they will be like my private secretaries. As soon as a defilement starts in my mind, my breath will lose its normality; it will start shouting, 'Look, something has gone wrong!' I cannot slap my breath; I have to accept the warning. Similarly the sensations tell me that something has gone wrong. Then having been warned, I start observing my respiration, my sensation, and I find very quickly that the defilement passes away.
This mental-physical phenomenon is like a coin with two sides. On the one side are whatever thoughts or emotions are arising in the mind. One the other side are the respiration and sensations in the body. Any thought or emotion, any mental defilement, manifests itself in the breath and the sensation of that moment. Thus, by observing the respiration or the sensation, I am in fact observing the mental defilement. Instead of running away from the problem, I am facing reality as it is. Then I shall find that the defilement loses its strength: it can no longer overpower me as it did in the past. If I persist, the defilement eventually disappears altogether, and I remain peaceful and happy.
In this way, the techniques of self-observation shows us reality in its two aspects, inner and outer. Previously, one always looked with open eyes, missing the inner truth. I always looked outside for the cause of my unhappiness; I always blamed and tried to change the reality outside. Being ignorant of the inner reality, I never understood that the cause of suffering lies within, in my own blind reactions toward pleasant and unpleasant sensations.
Now, with training, I can see the other side of the coin. I can be aware of my breathing and also of what is happening inside me. Whatever it is, breath or sensation, I learn just to observe it, without losing the balance of the mind. I stop reacting, stop multiplying my misery. Instead, I allow the defilement to manifest and pass away.
The more one practices this technique, the more quickly one will find one will come out of negativity. Gradually the mind becomes freed of the defilements; it becomes pure. A pure mind is always full of love--selfless love for all others; full of compassion for the failings and sufferings of others; full of joy at their success and happiness; full of equanimity in the face of any situation.
When one reaches this stage, the entire pattern of one's life starts changing. It is no longer possible to do anything vocally or physically which will disturb the peace and happiness of others. Instead, the balanced mind not only becomes peaceful in itself, but it helps others also to become peaceful. The atmosphere surrounding such a person will become permeated with peace and harmony, and this will start affecting others too.
By learning to remain balanced in the face of everything one experiences inside, one develops detachment towards all that one encounters in external situations as well. However, this detachment is not escapism or indifference to the problems of the world. A Vipassana meditator becomes more sensitive to the sufferings of others, and does his utmost to relieve their suffering in whatever way he can--not with any agitation but with a mind full of love, compassion and equanimity. He learns holy indifference--how to be fully committed, fully involved in helping others, while at the same time maintaining the balance of his mind. In this way he remains peaceful and happy, while working for the peace and happiness of others.
This is what the Buddha taught; an art of living. He never established or taught any religion, any 'ism'. He never instructed his followers to practice any rites or rituals, any blind or empty formalities. Instead, he taught just to observe nature as it is, by observing reality inside. Out of ignorance, one keeps reacting in a way which is harmful to oneself and to others. But when wisdom arises--the wisdom of observing the reality as it is--one come out of this habit of reaction. When one ceases to react blindly, then one is capable of real action--action proceeding from a balanced mind, a mind which sees and understands the truth. Such action can only be positive, creative, helpful to oneself and to others.
What is necessary, then, is to 'know thyself'--advice which every wise person has given. One must know oneself not just at the intellectual level, the level of ideas and theories. Nor does this mean to know just at the emotional or devotional level, simply accepting blindly what one has heard or read. Such knowledge is not enough. Rather one must know realty at the actual level. One must experience directly the reality of this mental-physical phenomenon. This alone is what will help us to come out of defilements, out of suffering.
This direct experience of one's own reality, this techniques of self-observation, is what is called 'Vipassana' meditation. In the language of India in the time of the Buddha, passana meant seeing with open eyes, in the ordinary way; but Vipassana is observing things as they really are, not just as they seem to be. Apparent truth has to be penetrated, until one reaches the ultimate truth of the entire mental and physical structure. When one experiences this truth, then one learns to stop reacting blindly, to stop creating defilements--and naturally the old defilements gradually are eradicated. One come out of all the misery and experiences happiness.
There are three steps to the training which is given in a Vipassana meditation course Firstly, one must abstain from any action, physical or vocal, which disturbs the peace and harmony of others. One cannot work to liberate oneself from defilements in the mind while at the same time one continues to perform deeds of body and speech which only multiply those defilements. Therefore, a code of morality is the essential first step of the practice. One undertakes not to kill, not to steal, not to commit sexual misconduct, not to tell lies, and not to use intoxicants. By abstaining from such action, one allows the mind to quiet down sufficiently so that it can proceed with the task at hand.
The next step is to develop some mastery over this wild mind, by training it to remain fixed on a single object: the breath. One tries to keep one's attention for as long as possible on the respiration. This is not a breathing exercise: one does not regulate the breath. Instead one observes natural respiration as it is, as it comes in, as it goes out. In this way one further calms the mind so that it is no longer overpowered by violent negativities. At the same time, one is concentrating the mind, making it sharp and penetrating, capable of the work of insight.
These first two steps of living a moral life and controlling the mind are very necessary and beneficial in themselves; but they will lead to self-repression, unless one takes the third step - purifying the mind of defilements by developing insight into one's own nature. This is Vipassana: experiencing one's own reality, by the systematic and dispassionate observation of the ever-changing mind-matter phenomenon manifesting itself as sensation within oneself. This is the culmination of the teaching of the Buddha: self-purification by self-observation.
This can be practiced by one and all. Everyone faces the problem of suffering. it is a universal disease which requires a universal remedy--not a sectarian one. When one suffers from anger, it is not a Buddhist anger, Hindu anger, or Christian anger. Anger is anger. When one become agitated as a result of this anger, this agitation is not Christian, or Hindu, or Buddhist. The malady is universal. The remedy must also be universal.
Vipassana is such a remedy. No one will object to a code of living which respects the peace and harmony of others. No one will object to developing control over the mind. No one will object to developing insight into one's own reality, by which it is possible to free the mind of negativities. Vipassana is a universal path.
Observing reality as it is by observing the truth inside--this is knowing oneself at the actual, experiential level. As one practices, one keeps coming out of the misery of defilements. From the gross, external, apparent truth, one penetrates to the ultimate truth of mind and matter. Then one transcends that, and experiences a truth which is beyond mind and matter, beyond time and space, beyond the conditioned field of relativity: the truth of total liberation from all defilements, all impurities, all suffering. Whatever name one gives this ultimate truth, is irrelevant; it is the final goal of everyone.
May you all experience this ultimate truth. May all people come out of their defilements, their misery. May they enjoy real happiness, real peace, real harmony."