=== JKrishnamurti.org Daily Quote ===

How can one be free of the images that one has? First of all, I must find out how these images come into being, what is the mechanism that creates them.

You can see that at the moment of actual relationship, that is, when you are talking, when there are arguments, when there are insults and brutality, if you are not completely attentive at that moment, then the mechanism of building an image starts.

That is, when the mind is not completely attentive at the moment of action, then the mechanism of building images is set in motion. When you say something to me which I do not like—or which I like—if at that moment I am not completely attentive, then the mechanism starts.

If I am attentive, aware, then there is no building of images.

The Awakening of Intelligence, p 337

=== Thoughts ===

To put it very simply:

We begin building images when we interpret our surroundings, in terms of our previous experience.

To dig a little deeper:

Image building occurs at the point of our encounter with something that we do not pay complete and total attention to. We build an image about something when we perceive it with divided attention. Be it another person, idea, or even natural scenery, if we do anything more than to take it in with our eyes, ears, noses, mouths, hands, etc., then we begin to build an image.

If we are incapable of perceiving it without evaluating it, without comparing it, and without measuring it, then we begin to build an image. And when we build an image about it, we are evaluating our perception of it, rather than perceiving or experiencing the thing itself. Typically, our evaluation takes place in terms of like or dislike, attraction or repulsion, intrigue or disgust, or comparison to some similar thing which we’ve already encountered (and created an image about).

For most of us, everything we meet is treated in this way. For most of us, we evaluate everything we meet because we do not meet anything with complete attention. When we encounter something, we are busy thinking about something else, and an occupied (or divided) mind is obviously quite incapable of perceiving wholly, totally, or with complete attention.

Our distracted mind becomes incapable of simply watching the situation in front of our eyes, listening to the sounds being delivered to our ears, or tasting the food we’re eating, because we’re busy thinking about completely different things. And even worse, most of us are so used to behaving in this way- to classifying, categorizing, and evaluating everything that we come into contact with- that we have become literally incapable of experiencing anything new!

Everything we meet is therefore evaluated, translated, and judged in terms of what we’ve already experienced. Everything we meet is compared to the most similar thing that we’ve previously encountered. Therefore, everything we meet is conceptualized in terms of it’s relationship to that incredibly complicated mental structure- that complex image- which we have already formed about our world, about ourselves, and about reality.

Thus, whatever we encounter is judged in terms of that hierarchy, according to our preconceived mental structures, and placed in it’s proper spot. It is classified, conceptualized, and categorized within that intricate structure that we carry around with us at all times, and use to meet each new experience. And most of us feel that we must perform this behavior (whether consciously or subconsciously) if we are to understand the things we meet. But in reality, our reduction of things to images negates the possibility for understanding anything at all!

And, lacking that understanding of the things that we meet, we miss out on the real beauty of the flower, the tree, or the light on the water. Instead we evaluate it’s beauty in terms of our ideas (our images) about “beauty”, about what it means to “beautiful”. And as they say- “Beauty is in the eye of the beholder”- but that is only the case while the beholder remains attached to his image of beauty.

Let’s use an example to illustrate this idea; one that Krishnamurti himself has discussed before.

When we walk past the rose, we’re likely to say to ourselves something like: There is the “rose”. I have been expecting it, and now it has come. It is absolutely beautiful, more beautiful than any other “rose” I’ve ever seen. [Or, alternatively, It is not as beautiful as the rose I saw yesterday, It is hideous, or even It is pretty, but not that pretty.]

It does not matter whether this particular rose is the best or the worst “rose” that we have ever encountered. The point is that as long as we remain attached to measuring it in terms of it’s relative beauty compared to other “roses” (to our image about what it means to be a rose), we are incapable of perceiving this instance of the rose as it actually exists. We perceive it as the “rose”, rather than the rose because we are chained to our image of the “rose” as it should exist.

Instead of perceiving this rose as completely new (which it is), since it is quite obviously entirely different from all the “roses” which we’ve previously encountered, we classify it, we measure it, we judge it, we interpret it, and we evaluate it. We create an image about it- the image of the “rose”.

And thus, we never experience the rose. We only meet our image of the “rose”.

=== JKrishnamurti.org Daily Quote ===

Attention is this hearing and this seeing, and this attention has no limitation, no resistance, so it is limitless. To attend implies this vast energy: it is not pinned down to a point. In this attention there is no repetitive movement; it is not mechanical. There is no question of how to maintain this attention, and when one has learnt the art of seeing and hearing, this attention can focus itself on a page, a word.

In this there is no resistance which is the activity of concentration. Inattention cannot be refined into attention. To be aware of inattention is the ending of it: not that it becomes attentive. The ending has no continuity. The past modifying itself is the future—a continuity of what has been—and we find security in continuity, not in ending.

So attention has no quality of continuity. Anything that continues is mechanical. The becoming is mechanical and implies time. Attention has no quality of time. All this is a tremendously complicated issue. One must gently, deeply go into it.

Letters to the Schools vol II, p 31

=== Thoughts ===

Well, he’s certainly right about one thing- this is a tremendously complicated issue, and like usual, it’s fundamentally important that we all have a deep and total understanding of what’s being discussed here. Even I had to read this quote a couple times before I really knew what Krishnamurti was talking about, and I study his works religiously. So let’s do something a little different this time, and take things to a personal level. I’ll try to illustrate the ideas expressed above with an example from my daily life.

On Friday morning I got up and started getting ready for work, like I normally do, except that I did things a little differently. (As the Thai’s are so fond of saying “same, same, but different”.  I spent the first few minutes of my day in silent observation, and watched my mind emerge from it’s nightly slumber. As I observed the usual activity of thoughts starting to slowly roll out of the void, gaining momentum with each new idea, and each increasing level of attachment to those ideas, I did something different from usual, and simply refused to identify with them. Instead of getting carried away by what I was thinking, instead of attaching myself to those thoughts and becoming absorbed by them like usual, I simply watched them unfold, and disappear back into the void, observing myself from a somewhat detached state.

You see, over the past year, since I really began watching myself in earnest, since I’ve become fully aware of my daily behavior, I’ve become increasingly convinced that the best way to stop attachment is to cut it off at the source, at the very first moment of consciousness, right after waking up. I’ve found this to be by far the best way to keep my mind from spiraling rapidly out of control; because that’s what thought causes it to do! Thought divides me from the environment, sucking my attention inward as if it were trapped in a vortex, focusing it on my internal mental constructs, ideas, and beliefs.

As Krishnamurti explains above, and as I’ve experienced it in daily living, thought reduces attention to concentration. While attention implies total awareness of myself and my surroundings, including the relationship connecting the two, concentration is a focused or limited awareness of some particular individual aspect of one or the other, in which the relationship between the two is completely lost. Concentration implies a divided, limited, and entirely subjective state of consciousness. Concentration itself is a mental state in which reality cannot possibly be experienced for what it actually is, because it represents an abstraction, a simplification, or evaluation of that which is real.

When I wake up each morning, my mind immediately launches off from that initial starting point of the first thought, which is to say the first division between “self” and “other”, and rockets me toward an infinite web of other remembrances, fears, desires, and insecurities. The more attached I become to these thoughts, the more momentum they build up, and the further refined my concentration or focus becomes, to the detriment of my ability to pay attention to everything happening both around, and inside of me. And without that consciousness of attention, I have noticed in practice that I have absolutely no chance of understanding anything, or operating with intelligence (as Krishnamurti would put it).

As I woke up Friday morning though, I watched the rotors of my mind spin up and begin to roll out that familiar line of thoughts, but instead of getting lost in them like usual, instead of attaching my consciousness to them, and instead of becoming completely absorbed by them, I merely observed them. Like Krishnamurti says above, I was aware of the thoughts as inattention, and as such, they dissolved on their own, returning to the void from whence they came. Instead of focusing on my thoughts, I refused to focus on anything whatsoever. I simply observed my surroundings, and watched the process of my mind emerging from deep sleep. Instead of turning my attention inward, I refused to turn it in any direction whatsoever.

With a completely unfocused attention, I was able to participate in my morning ritual in a completely different way. Instead of focusing on my thoughts, I listened to the water coming out of the shower head, and felt it running down my body. I felt the soft cloth of the towel, and watched the response of my hair to the brush. And throughout the entire process of getting ready, I felt the beating of my heart, the breathing of my lungs, and the other movements of my body.

And amazingly, that usually highly repetitive daily process of getting ready for work took on an entirely new light! All of my movements and actions seemed new, fresh, and entirely full of life. And while thoughts occasionally cropped up, they inevitably slipped off back into the void as I refused to limit my attention by focusing on them.

As I walked to my car, I continued to observe my surroundings, looking at the fresh morning light, smelling the dew on the grass, and listening to the sounds of the birds chirping. When I caught sight of a Red-Tailed Hawk sitting up on top of one of the trees, I stopped and watched it for a few minutes, even though I felt like I should be hurrying off to work. And while I watched the Hawk, I became fully and deeply aware of the amazing color of the morning sky, the gentle breeze tickling my hair, and the cool, crisp morning air on my exposed skin. I felt completely alive, and fully present in the moment as it unfolded, undistracted, and undivided by concetration.

It was a beautiful morning to be sure, but even more so because I was actually experiencing it for what it is, instead of interpreting it according to my own ideas (like most of us usually do), or in a half-assed way, by dividing my attention by placing some of it’s focus on my internal dialogue. Without that distraction of the internal thought-stream, and without my attention limited by focused concentration, I was able to look, see, smell, taste, feel, and touch the world around me in a way that seemed entirely different; more complete, or real.

As I opened the door to the car I listened to the noise of the hinges, and felt the metal of the handle. I looked at the car, not as that all-too familiar possession that is “my car”, but as an incredibly complicated and intricate device; as a real work of art, and creative ingenuity. And as I started the engine, I listened to it’s sounds, felt it’s vibrations, and waited patiently for it to heat up. I watched the windshield defrost, following the many little streams of water, like so many rivers, running down the sides of the windows. I never felt like I was in a hurry. I never felt rushed. I just watched and listened to everything happening around me, watching the events unfold from a state of unfixed and unfocused attention. No one thing, including myself, was more important than any other. There was no evaluation, interpretation, or valuation of any of the actions happening around me, there was only observation.

And when I started my drive to work, I didn’t turn on the radio or even put on any music. And I didn’t feel bored at all, on the contrary! Instead, I listened with rapt attention to the acceleration of the car, and devoutly watched the scenery pass by. I sat patiently at a red light, waiting for my turn to join that slow crawling morning commute, and watched with fascination as a thick blanket of fog slowly rose over the freeway. And when I merged into the line of cars snaking their way up the 405, I didn’t race over to the fast lane like I usually do, but stayed to the right, without experiencing the typical feeling that I was losing in some kind of a race.

I felt no need to rush, no need to hurry, and none whatsoever to compete with everyone around me. Because I wasn’t comparing myself to them. Because I was living in a space where the “I” takes no more precedence than anything else! Measure never even came into the picture, even though that’s what I’d usually do. This morning, things seemed different. I was experiencing everything as entirely new. That typical feeling of disgust and revulsion toward the morning commute, that most monotonous and obnoxious of all of my daily routines, never even entered into my mind. At peace with my surroundings, I simply observed the world around me. Even though I was on my way to work, it felt as if I had nowhere to be, and absolutely nothing to do. Simply enjoyed my surroundings.

I felt no revulsion, no anger, no disappointment, and no frustration. I didn’t mind sitting at red lights, crawling up the freeway at low speed, or even arriving at my cubicle  for another nine hour stretch of monotonous work-life. I didn’t feel trapped, confined, or even disgusted by the rat race, as I normally do. Instead, I took my time. I enjoyed my morning. I explored the world around me, and my reactions to it, without becoming attached to them, without identifying with them. The process of getting to work didn’t feel at all like the usual race to the cubicle, but like an ambling saunter through the world of man. And all of this because I was experiencing the world from a place of attention, rather than concentration.

Imagine the possibilities for your own life!

And, to get a little preachy, while I’d be the first to call the world of men entirely corrupt, disgusting, and morally bankrupt, I’m also aware that this is the world each one of us has helped to create (myself included, of course). Each one of us sustains this world with our daily behavior, and our repetitive thoughts and actions. And while I’d also be first to say that this world should, and needs to change, I’d also be first to admit that this won’t happen until each and every one of us changes first. And by us, I mean you and me. We must change. And we must change now.

But we need not meditate (in the usual sense of that word), we need not prostrate (as we’ve been told), we need not perform recitation of mantra (as the Guru says), nor accumulation of karma (as some Buddhists proclaim).

We must simply refuse to continue dividing ourselves from our surroundings. We must refuse to make divisions. We must cut off that habitual attachment to and obsession with our thoughts.

As Krishanmurti often explains, “the first step is the last”. That first glimpse of reality is all that it takes. Once you get that glimpse the entire system of accumulation and identification is finished!

The rest of your life becomes the act of living, rather than a response to being alive. And let me tell you, this requires both a fundamental and radical adjustment. And it is a thing which must be experienced to be fully understood.

And none of your so-called “spiritual” activity has anything to do with it! At no point in this lifetime, no matter how hard you try, will you ascend to some alternate reality, living in a land that sparkles like diamonds, where everyone is happy, and everything is beautiful.

But, if you refuse to focus you attention, if you refuse to limit it with concentration, you can find a space for yourself in this world which will fill you will joy, excitement, energy, and love. You can find freedom in this world. And you can make it a better place in the process. And the simple beauty, and the point of all this, is that all you have to do is try.

=== JKrishnamurti.org Daily Quote ===

Attention involves seeing and hearing. We hear not only with our ears but also we are sensitive to the tones, the voice, to the implication of words, to hear without interference, to capture instantly the depth of a sound.

Sound plays an extraordinary part in our lives: the sound of thunder, a flute playing in the distance, the unheard sound of the universe; the sound of silence, the sound of one’s own heart beating; the sound of a bird and the noise of a man walking on the pavement; the waterfall. The universe is filled with sound.

This sound has its own silence; all living things are involved in this sound of silence. To be attentive is to hear this silence and move with it.

Letters to the Schools vol II, p 30

=== Thoughts ===

Do you ever really listen to the sounds of the world? Or do you only interpret them? Do you just scan them for meaning, merely skimming along on the surface of those noises, searching for something interesting enough to trap your attention for a few fleeting moments, before moving along to the next thing?

When you speak with people, do you listen to what they have to say? Or are you simply waiting until it becomes your turn to speak again? Have you ever listened not to what they’re saying, but to how it’s being said? Are you even aware that there’s a difference?

The noise of the world is all around you, at each and every moment, but have you even noticed? Most people haven’t.

Most people are far too busy following their own internal sounds- that incessant internal dialogue that each of us creates- comprised of thoughts, desires, and plans, that they’re simply too distracted to pay any attention to the world around them.

Have you ever really listened?

=== JKrishnamurti.org Daily Quote ===

Just be aware; that is all you have to do, without condemning, without forcing, without trying to change what you are aware of. Then you will see that it is like a tide that is coming in. You cannot prevent the tide from coming in; build a wall, or do what you will, it will come with tremendous energy.

In the same way, if you are aware choicelessly, the whole field of consciousness begins to unfold. And as it unfolds, you have to follow; and the following becomes extraordinarily difficult—following in the sense to follow the movement of every thought, of every feeling, of every secret desire.

It becomes difficult the moment you resist, the moment you say, “That is ugly”, “This is good”, “That is bad”, “This I will keep”, “That I will not keep.”

The Collected Works vol XV, p 85

=== Thoughts ===

The explanation of choiceless awareness is not a procedural set of instructions for achieving a desired effect. It is not a set a guidelines for reaching Enlightenment, nor any sort of instructional system that we can use to find inner peace. Rather, this definition is a description of a behavior, or more clearly, an act.

But action is not something done according to a plan, or an idea. Acts are  not a series of preconceived movements, carried out by a mind attempting to achieve some end, whatever that might be. Real action can take place only after we have put aside our attachment to plans, objectives, and the self. Real action is performed only when there is an honest relationship between ourselves and our environment, allowing us to respond appropriately to our surrounding environmental cues.

Everyone has performed real action before, though most of us probably didn’t recognize the difference. Think of a time when you were so caught up in the moment that your mess of ideas, conclusions, beliefs, and personal history was put aside completely; when you did something without thinking to yourself “I should do this”, or “I should not do that”. Think of a time when, simply put, your behavior was not directed by your subjective self.

Perhaps during a sporting event, a concert, a business presentation, or even a sexual encounter, you’ve managed to do this. Or perhaps you never have…

But for those of you who’ve acted in the past, do you remember how it seemed like you were able to move through the motions with a skillful, yet subtle manner, without having to plan your next set of movements? Do you remember how things seemed to unfold naturally, without a plan, an orchestration, or any other self-controlled behavior? Do you remember how there was no difference between the controller (you), and the controlled (your movements and behavior)?

In those moments, with your complete attention focused on the environmental stimuli and your responses to it, you effectively put an end to the self and instead focused your total energy on the situation at hand. In those moments your preconceptions, your prejudices, and subjective beliefs were effectively negated, which allowed you to act with total attention.

Did you feel caught up in the moment? Swept up by the excitement of the situation and your surroundings? Did you feel a connectedness to the world around you, or even perhaps that you were doing just the right thing, at just the right time?

If you can manage to watch yourself choicelessly, at each and every moment of the day, without identification, condemnation, or justification, you will find yourself fully capable of entering a different kind or relationship with the world around you.

You’ll witness the dissolution of the previously all-important “self”, experience some form of ego-death, out of which will flower pure understanding.

And it is only when you completely understand that subtle relationship between yourself and your environment that you can perform a complete an of attention necessary for creating that space out of which intelligence itself emerges.

And in that space, when looking at the universe with an intelligent mind, everything you see, hear, touch, taste, smell, and feel will make perfect sense. You will feel as if your search has finally reached it’s objective, like you’ve uncovered some existential truth.

Remaining in that state of choiceless awareness you will witness the unfolding of a new form of consciousness- total understanding- which rushes in on you like a fast approaching wave, sweeping aside all your attachments and illusions with an unmatched ferocity.

And in this state everything you experience will take on a new light. You will encounter that which you have been seeking for all these years and you will understand what it means to live in total Freedom.

You can do it, if you’d only try.

=== JKrishnamurti.org – Daily Quote ===

Do not think about doing it, but actually do it now. That is, be aware of the trees, the palm tree, the sky; hear the crows cawing; see the light on the leaf, the colour of the sari, the face; then move inwardly. You can observe, you can be aware choicelessly of outward things. It is very easy.

But to move inwardly and to be aware without condemnation, without justification, without comparison is more difficult. Just be aware of what is taking place inside you—your beliefs, your fears, your dogmas, your hopes, your frustrations, your ambitions, and all the rest of the things. Then the unfolding of the conscious and the unconscious begins. You have not to do a thing.

The Collected Works vol XV, p 85

=== Thoughts ===

It’s a fascinating experience- “choiceless awareness” . To sit in total silence, devoid of the accumulation of the “I”, and simply observe without condemnation, identification, or justification. To listen to the beating of your heart, feel the expansion of your lungs, and the vibratory energy coursing through you, connecting you to the rest of the universe.

To watch thought unravel like the many miles of a dark road at night. To float along above the river of consciousness-unattached to its petty desires, delusions, and divisions- following along its course and observing that graceful movement of its destination-less progression through the void.

To enjoy that space which exists only when total silence prevails, that respite from the hectic confusion you’ve become accustomed to calling “my life”. To bask in the glow of unfiltered awareness, and observe with pure perception. There’s simply nothing like it. Nothing at all.

And it will surprise you to see just how little you know about yourself- how you work, and what you actually are. It will shock you to see your connection to the environment without experiencing yourself through the filter of your images, beliefs, and conclusions. It will feel like opening your eyes for the first time, and seeing everything in a completely different way, but one that feels vaguely familiar.

It might even feel more natural than your ordinary daily awareness. It certainly does to me. It might be like waking up from an incredibly deep sleep, or a very long and lucid dream, and finally returning to reality.

But you might experience an initial moment of sheer panic, a helplessness driven by total confusion, or absolute chaos. You might be gripped with fear, and your mind might attempt to reassert control with an unmatched ferocity that explodes into your stream of consciousness as a barrage of frantic questions- Where have you gone? What have you become? What should you do? What can you do? What is to become of you? Are you dying? Does it matter?

And as the wheels of your mind begin to race away, spinning off in a desperate attempt to get you to cling to some semblance of familiarity, to some vestige of security, you will have to refuse to engage with thought and instead remain in a state of total detachment.

You will have to refuse that desire to cling back to your ego, to avoid grabbing that last rung of the ladder as the helicopter takes off from the mountain peak, for you know that the only other way down is to abandon yourself completely, and to jump into the void with hands wide open.

And that is exactly what you will do. You will remain standing on the edge of the cliff in a state of total observation. And after that first gasp of fear, once all of your illusions have fallen away, you will jump into the void, and experience reality for what it is.

And in that moment you will understand what it means to be entirely and absolutely Free.

=== JKrishnamurti.org – Daily Quote ===

The dictionary meaning of the word ‘perception’ is to become aware of, to apprehend. That is, you see the cupboard, you have a preconception of it; that is not perception. Is there seeing without preconception? Only the mind that has no conclusion, such a mind can see. The other cannot.

If I have previous knowledge of that cupboard, the mind identifies it as cupboard. To look at that cupboard without the previous accumulation of prejudices or hurts, is to look. If I have previous hurts, memories, pain, pleasure, displeasure, I have not looked.

Tradition and Revolution

=== Thoughts ===

To see things for what they are, we must be capable of putting aside our preconceptions, our prejudices, and that entire structure and hierarchy of conclusions and classifications which we have so carefully constructed over the course of our lives.

Without putting all of this aside, when you look at things, you will see them only according to your preconceived ideas, rather than for what they actually are. And a mind that looks through the screen of ideas can never hope to find that joy, that ecstasy, and that detachment which is required for living in a state of total freedom.

=== JKrishnamurti.org – Daily Quote ===

I am learning about myself—not according to some psychologist or specialist—I am watching and I see something in myself; but I do not condemn it, I do not judge it, I do not push it aside—I  just watch it. I watch that I am proud—let us take that as an example. I do not say, “I must put it aside, how ugly to be proud.”—but  I just watch it. As I am watching, I am learning.

Watching means learning what pride involves, how it has come into being.  I cannot watch it for more than five or six minutes—if one can, that is a great deal—the next moment I become inattentive. Having been attentive and knowing what inattention is, I struggle to make inattention attentive. Do not do that, but watch inattention, become aware that you are inattentive—that is all.

Stop there. Do not say, “I must spend all my time being attentive”, but just watch when you are inattentive. To go any further into this would be really quite complex . There is a quality of mind that is awake and watching all the time, watching though there is nothing to learn. That means a mind that is extraordinarily quiet, extraordinarily silent. What has a silent, clear mind to learn?

The Impossible Question, pp 25-26

=== Thoughts ===

To really experience reality we must be capable of watching that movement which is our life, the evolution of the world, and the subtle, but constant transformation of energy happening all around us at each and every moment. We must follow along with impermanence, paying close attention to it’s career, and observing our relationship with the environment.

This observation is something entirely new, it is unstructured and unplanned, without rules, guidelines, or goals. It is not watching according to Krishnamurti’s strategy, the Buddha’s strategy, or even our own strategy, but simply observation. Observation for observations sake.

And it is only in that action of total observation, which flourishes after we’ve put aside our attachment to preconceived conclusions, images, and ideas, that we can experience reality for what it really is, and reach an understanding of both ourselves and our world.

=== JKrishnamurti.org – Daily Quote ===

The act of listening is the act of learning. One has to learn so much about life, for life is a movement in relationship. And that relationship is action. We have to learn—not accumulate knowledge from this movement that we call life and then live according to that knowledge, which is conformity.

To conform is to adjust, to fit into a mould, to adjust oneself to the various impressions, demands, pressures of a particular society. Life is meant to be lived, to be understood. One has to learn about life, and one ceases to learn the moment one argues with life, comes to life with the past, with one’s conditioning as knowledge. So there is a difference between acquiring knowledge and the act of learning.

You must have knowledge; otherwise you will not know where you live, you will forget your name, and so on. So at one level knowledge is imperative, but when that knowledge is used to understand life—which is a movement, which is a thing that is living, moving, dynamic, every moment changing—when you cannot move with life, then you are living in the past and trying to comprehend the extraordinary thing called life. And to understand life, you have to learn every minute about it and never come to it having learned.

The Collected Works vol XV, pp 13-14

=== Thoughts ===

Without the use of practical knowledge, daily living would be a disaster. Without access to that accretion of past experience to guide ourselves through the variety of tasks, challenges, and problems that we face on a daily basis, we’d be lost in a nightmare of total chaos.

Certain behaviors, like driving, speaking a language, typing, and playing a musical instrument require knowledge of the past; they require that we rely on previous experience. And it would be ridiculous to suggest otherwise.

But what place has knowledge, what place has the past in our search for Truth, Reality, or Enlightenment?

If everything in the universe is impermanent (in a constant state of change) then how could the past (which is fixed) possibly guide our understanding of the present?

Real wisdom (understanding) cannot possibly be captured by a book, a concept, or an idea. Reality cannot be described by a painting, a photograph, a play, or a film. And Truth is not disseminated in speeches, lecture halls, or mp3 files.

Wisdom, Truth, Reality, or Enlightenment (call it what you will) cannot be wrapped up, packaged, and prepared for distribution like the “fixed” commodities we’re used to dealing with, because it’s constantly evolving. Truth is not a commercial entity, it can’t be bought or sold, it can’t be given, and it certainly can’t be set in stone. It is constantly evolving.

And even though our inventory of knowledge is also constantly evolving- expanding, growing, becoming more profound, or more exciting- as our our beliefs, concepts, and ideas are transformed by our continued life experience, by what we read, see, hear, feel, taste, and touch, that inventory is still essentially based on the past.

That inventory of knowledge is funded exclusively based on our previous experience, which is essentially fixed, or dead. There is no possibility that fixed notions, stable ideas, conceptions, and conclusions can provide a complete illumination of the present.

Thus knowledge cannot possibly shed light on Truth, Reality, or Enlightenment. The stagnant cannot fully illuminate the fluid. The stable cannot fully illuminate the moving. And the fixed cannot fully illuminate the impermanent.

Let go of that knowledge which you’re so attached to. Stop with your clinging to the past. Put aside your systems and training, your ideas, beliefs, conclusions, and intellectual concepts galore.

Face yourself and your life for what it is- something unique, unprecedented, and new. Something which requires your complete attention, careful consideration, and total observation, at each and every moment.

Follow along with the movement of your life, the movement of the world, and the relationship that connects the two.

Illuminate your understanding, and live in total Freedom.

You can do it, if you’d only try.