=== 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.

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

Questioner: Can we learn from experience?

Krishnamurti: Certainly not. Learning implies freedom, curiosity, inquiry. When a child learns something, he is curious about it, he wants to know, it is a free momentum, not a momentum of having acquired and of moving from that acquisition.

We have innumerable experiences; we have had five thousand years of wars. We have not learnt a thing from them except to invent more deadly machinery with which to kill each other.

We have had many experiences with our friends, with our wives, with our husbands, with our nation—we have not learnt.

Learning, in fact, can only take place when there is freedom from experience.

The Impossible Question, p 78

=== Thoughts ===

The idea that we can apply knowledge built up from past experience to current issues is one that makes little sense, when viewed through the lens of impermanence, because each situation and each problem is entirely new.

Each situation in our lives, each individual moment, brings a radically different challenge ; a challenge which must be faced anew, not with some strategy constructed based on the events of the past, but based on a thorough, complete, and intelligent assessment of the present moment.

The attempt to superimpose obsolete plans and outdated conclusions on something which is radically new, and not simply just novel, leads to nothing but further confusion, division, and misery.

Applying these solutions from the past to current situations divides us from the present, destroying our ability to see things as they actually are, and dooming us to repeat our previous mistakes. Humanity keeps falling into the same old traps!

Each generation fights wars for entirely selfish reasons, destroying each other, building up animosity, fear, and hatred, because people who would otherwise have absolutely no reason to quarrel.

We continue to divide ourselves from each other, generating inequality, injustice, and misery for those “less fortunate” individuals that get caught up in the drama, creating a world built on immorality, division, and disorder.

If there is any hope for solving the enormous problems that mankind currently faces, it is quite obvious that we must at once abandon all efforts funded on previous experience, and explore radically new alternative courses of action.

It’s long past time that we tried something different.

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

Just listen, because if you are capable of listening and seeing the truth of what is being said, then thought will not act. If you are in that state of listening, the fact, the truth, will act. If a seed is planted in the earth and has vitality, it will grow. In the same way, the act of listening is the soil.

The act of listening is only possible when there is attention, and attention does not exist if there is interpretation, evaluation, condemnation, or judgement of that to which you are listening. If you listen completely, attentively, without any observer who is the thinker, then that very act of listening will put away what is false, and you will listen only to what is true.

The act of listening is the field. In that field every kind of seed is sown, and only the seed that has vitality, energy, strength, will come up, will flourish. That’s what we are doing now.

We’re actually listening, neither accepting nor disagreeing nor judging. We’re actually listening so completely that the very act of listening destroys what is false and lets the seed of truth take root.

The Collected Works vol XVI, pp 146-147

=== Thoughts ===

To understand Reality, to find Truth, to know God, or to reach Enlightenment- call it what you like- requires a supreme act of attention. It has nothing to do with muscular movements, physical exertion, lighting incense, offering prayers, collecting up enough spiritual points to ascend to the next level, or any of the other rubbish commonly prescribed by “priests”,  “gurus”, “meditation experts”, and “spiritual coaches”- charlatans, all of them. It does, however, require that you initiate and continue to perform an endless series of  subtle actions. You must execute a perpetual series of entirely selfless observations.

Reaching Truth is not like flicking on a light-switch, lighting a candle’s wick, opening a door, or any of those other absurd metaphors, because it is certainly not a one time deal. You do not “arrive”, you do not “transcend”, and you do not become anything different from what you already are. Reality will not unfold before you all at once for you to understand forever, because reality itself is in a constant state of evolution.

If you have any sense at all, if you are at all aware of yourself or your surroundings, you should also be aware that absolutely everything is in a state of constant change. It should be obvious that the universe exists in an endless state of transformation, revitalization, and renewal, as explained by the elegant Buddhist concept of Impermanence.

Understanding impermanence, the concomitant fact that the nature of reality is essentially empty, you should see that attachment to fixed conclusions- like your identity- is absolutely absurd. In fact, when viewed under the illumination of impermanence and emptiness, you will see that attachment to anything becomes quite obviously insane.

Thus, to find Truth, to know God, or to experience Reality for what it is, you will have to first put aside your attachments, your clinging, and your identification with the “self”. You will have to abandon your beliefs, your ideas, and your conceptions.

You will have to make a supreme act of attention which requires unwavering dedication to diligently observing the perpetual evolution of both yourself and your surroundings, allowing you to remain aware of the relationship between the two. And if you want to see Reality, you will not be able to stop making this act of observation, since everything is in a permanent state of flux. You must remain in a constant state of alert, astute, and attentive observation, following along with the movement of the universe.

Now please don’t confuse what I’m saying here. I am not making the claim that the “you” (the ego) must do anything in particular, because there is nothing to accomplish, there is nothing to complete, and there are certainly no goals, tasks, nor any paths for you to follow. There are no predetermined movements, no mantras, no meditations, nor any books to guide you to this understanding.

As Krishnamurti says, “Truth is a Pathless Land“. It can’t be taught, it can’t be given, and it most certainly cannot be bought. It’s not listed on Amazon, it’s not on a shelf at Barnes & Noble, it’s not chanted at the Meditation Center, nor written on the scrolls stored in the Temple.

Because Truth is a living, breathing entity. It is an endless flowing motion, following along with the rest of Reality in a constant state of change. It is that ceaseless movement, that triumphant progression, and boundless transformation of energy, flowing throughout the universe, through each and every one of us, and everything else that exists.

And to see it, to listen to it, to follow along with it, requires intelligence. It requires a mind that is still, whole, holy, undistracted, and undivided. And intelligence can only flower when the mind is still, when “self” has dissolved, along with all of its trappings. The “ego”, and that accumulation resulting from a lifetime of conditioned learning- your beliefs, prejudices, distortions, and interpretations- must all be put aside.

To execute this complete act of attention, you must first face the fact that you have been brainwashed to perceive the world in a certain way, you must accept the reality that you distort, interpret, and pervert the things you see, feel, hear, taste, and touch, and you must make yourself capable of looking at it all in an entirely new light.

You must abandon your attachment to all of that, without bringing in the idea of “control”. Because the controller is the same as the controlled. After all, who is controlling your behavior? Isn’t it simply another fragment of thought? And isn’t it ridiculous to assume that any one fragment of thought has any right to control the rest? Which fragment is most important? Which fragment is the real you? None of them, obviously.

At each and every moment, your world is made up of the sum of its constituent parts. Your personal reality is determined by the behavior of those parts, by the relationships they share, and by their individual movements in action. Your world undergoes a state of constant evolution, as those parts move around, redefine themselves, and mix with each other in different ways.

Because of this, there is no difference between the internal “you”, and the external “other”, because even your smallest actions will eventually cascade into an avalanche, affecting everything else that exists by way of the interconnectedness of all things, by way of the Butterfly Effect.

When you can put aside your ego, your accumulated knowledge, your convictions, conclusions, and subjective beliefs- that illusory division between “self” and “other” will be exposed in the light for what it really is; a complete and utter falsehood.

It’s no more than a superstition; the product of centuries of societal brainwashing, the accumulation and obsession with knowledge, with achievement, with goals, and with plans, driven by the desire to find some assurance of security. You attempt to fill up the void and establish an enduring form of the self, in order to protect yourself from fear of non-existence. And it all rests on that futile , yet most fundamental of all human drives, the urge to immortality.

But exposed in the light of Truth, this false construction of the “self”, and the division between “internal” and “external” collapses, and the world comes rushing in.

In that moment, all the pieces of the puzzle will fall into place. You will find order, confusion will dissolve, and you’ll get a glimpse of what it means to be “awakened”. But remember, it’s not like flipping on a switch. In a few days, a few hours, or perhaps even just a few seconds, you’ll lose that clarity, and fall back into the shadow.

Something will happen that pulls you back down into the darkness, plunging you into the confusion, chaos, and disorder. And until you can adapt to each and every moment, remaining in a state of limitless, unfocused, and undivided attentiveness, you will never be able to see the Truth.

But you can do this, if you’d only try.

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

Listening is an art which very few of us are capable of. We never actually listen. The word has a sound and when we do not listen to the sound, we interpret it, try to translate it into our own particular language or tradition. We never listen acutely, without any distortion.

So, the speaker suggests, respectfully, that you so listen and not interpret what he says. When you tell a rather exciting story to a little boy, he listens with a tremendous sense of curiosity and energy. He wants to know what is going to happen, and he waits excitedly to the very end. But we grown-up people have lost all that curiosity, the energy to find out, that energy which is required to see very clearly things as they are, without any distortion.

We never listen to each other. You never listen to your wife, do you? You know her much too well, or she you. There is no sense of deep appreciation, friendship, amity, which would make you listen to each other, whether you like it or not. But if you do listen so completely, that very act of listening is a great miracle.

That Benediction is Where You Are, pp 22-23

=== Thoughts ===

When we experience the world, when we listen to the sound of the wind, the sound of music, or even the sound of our own heartbeat, most of us don’t hear those sound as they actually exist. We interpret them through the screen of knowledge, through the distorting lens of the “self”, of our identities, with all of their conclusions, beliefs, and prejudices. We interpret what we hear in terms of previous experience experience.

Experiencing the world in this way, we meet with nothing new. We encounter only modifications, adaptations, and alterations. The things that we experience are merely novel, rather than new. There is a huge difference between those two words. We lose that essential human trait, that fundamental feature of our being- the capacity for creativity- becoming shoddy little second-hand people.

We drill all the life out of living, leading monotonous lifestyles that promote habitual behavior. We fall prey to patterns, becoming attached to “planning”, “goals”, and obsessing over attempts toward achieving “success”.

We lose our inspiration, becoming despondent, depressed, and disinterested in the world around us. And, worst of all, we misunderstand the source of this confusion- which is our attachment to the self and all of it’s trappings- attempting to dig ourselves out of that hole by further filling up the void with our possessions, our conclusions, and ridiculous beliefs.

And when we are faced with these facts, our typical, perhaps even natural response is to ask: “What am I to do about it?”

But as I explained above, and as Krishnamurti has stated before- the it is me! “I”  can do nothing!

The source of the confusion and the crux of the problem is our attachment to that “I”. It’s that obsession with our “ego”, that clinging to the “self”.

The answer is not in planning, it has nothing to do with premeditated behavior. It lies in putting all that aside, negating the trappings of the self, and simply allowing events to unfold without attempting to control them. It’s refusing to interpret, evaluate, or appraise.

Simply, to listen. That’s when the Miracle unfolds.

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

There is an art of listening. The word “art” implies putting everything in its right place. If you understand the meaning of that word, the real art is not painting pictures, but the art of putting your life in its proper place, which is to live harmoniously. When you have put everything in yourself in its right place, you are free.

Putting everything in its right place is part of intelligence. You will say we are giving a new meaning to that word “intelligence”. One must. Intelligence implies reading between the lines, between the words, between two silences, between speech, listening with your mind all the time alert to listen.

You hear not only with the ear, but also without the ear.

On Love and Loneliness, pp 87-88

=== Thoughts ===

As usual, today’s passage couldn’t have come at a better time for me. Isn’t it amazing how things just seem to fall into place without any conscious effort on our part to arrange them? I even find it funny that the more I attempt to control them, the more likely they are to spiral into chaos and confusion.

Finally, as I’ve been dying to talk about it, this quote introduces Krishnamurti’s idea of the Artist. And if you ask me, there’s no single more important subject.

But what is this mysterious “Artist”, and what is his Artistry?

First, let’s digress. As we’ve discussed before, when the mind is silent, completely quiet, and totally still, in absolute observation of both itself, and it’s surroundings, only then can it uncover insights, patterns, and the subtle intricacies of this living. A unique clarity emerges, a clarity which exposes it’s beliefs, it’s ideas, and it’s behavior, in the pure light of complete understanding, and absolute truth. The interconnectedness of all things emerges as a fact, rather than an academic idea.

And the more often that this occurs, the more often the mind becomes capable of accidentally organizing itself in a way that makes sense, in a way that appears moral, and the more often it is able to achieve accomplishments which coul be called “spiritually productive” (though that is a ridiculous, and entirely unhelpful term).

In meditation, in dreams, and even in daily life, this thing grows, it unfolds- or to borrow a phrase from Krishnamurti- it begins to “flower” within that internal space created by the now silent mind.

Please don’t get trapped by the terms here being used to convey actions, or to express ideas. When I say “that internal space”, I don’t mean an actual physical space, and I don’t mean that there is a division between that which is “internal” as opposed to that which is “external”. This is a metaphor, used to shed light on a subtlety. The description is not the same as the described, and these words are not the thing they represent!

But to return to what I was saying, when this thing begins to flower, when it begins to unfold out of that silent space, the mind finds itself performing actions, like the act of writing this post, which it feels it was meant to do. It perceives with absolute assurance that that action is exatly what needed to be done at that particular moment in time.

Since it’s my birthday, I’m going to get a little personal here, and use myself as an example. Please bear with me, as I wouldn’t do this if I didn’t fully believe that it would be illustrative of the concept Krishnamurti has presented, and serve a useful purpose for anyone curious about this topic.

Over this past year, I’ve finally begun to do some of the things I always felt like I should be doing. I’ve become quite comfortable in my own skin, with myself, my thoughts, my beliefs, and most importantly, my actions, and my relationship to the world at large. I’ve never cared much for the opinion of others, but this past year I’ve become even more independent, more self-assured, and more confidant than ever before that I’m following the right path- that I’m doing the things that I was meant to do.

I”ve repeatedly found myself performing those actions I always thought I should be doing- like writing. I’ve talked about writing, planned to write a book, prepared to set up a Blog, told people that I was going to do it, and promised myself to start. Year, after year, after year. It’s been both my New Years and Birthday resolution for as long as I can remember. And yet, I’ve never got around to actually doing it.

Something else has always come up. There’s always been those convenient distractions of friends, family, or significant others. There’s always been those convenient distractions of television, the internet, and a myriad of other uncessary things. But here I am, on the first day of my 26th year on this planet, finally doing it. I’m really doing it!

Those distractions haven’t disappeared, I haven’t put all of that aside, rejected it, ignored it, or avoided it, but the increasing number of moments of lucidity and the profound moments of silence which I’ve experienced over the past year have helped to reorganize my priorities, reestablish my connection to my creative side, and reenergized my efforts to produce the act I’m performing at this very moment!

You could say that it feels like I’m actualizing my potential, becoming the real me, or even doing what it feels like I was put here to do. And please don’t think I’m boasting here- I’m fully aware that I am in no way great at this- but what I can say is that it feels right.

When I write my mind is quiet, still, sharp, yet expansive. Ideas, images, and these words flow rather naturally from out of the void, right through my fingers, and onto this screen! If you haven’t noticed it- not that it necessarily appears that way- everything on this blog is written in the style of Stream of Consciousness.

None of it is “planned”, it’s not “organized”, or “arranged”. And it’s meant to be that way! I haven’t purposefully coordinated it as such- it’s just what tends to work. And while I haven’t planned out any pieces for Chayacitra, when I’ve attempted to do so elsewhere, I think you might be able to guess the result. … … …

People talk about “writer’s block”, but I think that the term is often severely misunderstood. It often seems that people assign that blockage to the act of writing itself, when I would argue that’s it the creation of the division between the “writer” and “his writing” which is the sole source of the problem. Writing, like any other form of action, like listening, seeing, breathing, or even living, can’t be “blocked”. In similar fashion, it’s never “initiated”. Real writing, like real action, unfolds in and of itself. It’s unplanned, unscheduled, not according to an idea, but according to the necessity of the situation. It happens once everything has been put into it’s proper place, by the act of intelligence.

Real action is never planned, because real action implies creativity. Action means “acting”, in the present, from a place of complete attention, from a place of originality, inspired by that limitless nothingness we call the void. True action is the work of an Artist, not the artist with which we’re all familiar- those charletons, those businessmen, or those fakes- but real Artists.

Artistry is real creativity. Creativity is real originality. And originality implies something that is totally new.  Original action, by definition, is not translated, not adapted, and not interpreted from what has come before. It isn’t built upon the accretion of previous activity, or even funded from the material of the past. And it’s certainly not “based on a true story”.

The meaning of these words- the Artist, Creativity, and Originality- like so many others, has been lost to us through the misuse and outright abuse of our language by commercial interests. In the age of advertising, of subliminal marketing, consumerism, and blatant commercialism, our language- and communication itself- has become so watered down that it’s sometimes difficult to even tell what’s being discussed!

So let’s carefully consider this term- this “Artist”.

The Artist is not he who puts paint to canvass, then sells it in a gallery. The Artist is not she who writes a novel, and travels around the country pitching it to Agents. And the Artist is certainly not those that produce something with explicitly commercial interests in mind.

There are very few of them left these days, real Artists. I certainly wouldn’t venture to call myself one, and I don’t personally know any either. I’ve seen them before, but not in quite a while. I do live in Southern CA though- in Orange County of all places- which is certainly not the type of environment that nourishes and promotes people like these.

The real Artist is that rare individual who has become entirely a Light unto Himself.

Please understand, when I use the masculine pronoun, I don’t mean “men”, I mean human beings. This is just a manner of speech.

The real Artist is that rare individual who rejects his selfish ways, denies the supposed rationality of status quo, and though he lives within society, he is completely unblemished by it’s rampant and widespread corruption. His pure being is unaffected by the idiocy, the immaturity, and the inappropriateness that surrounds him. And his Art is not the things that he produces, but his actions, his behavior, and his every day life. In fact, he may not produce anything that would be traditionally be labelled “art” at all.

His Art is the smile on his face, the generosity in his heart, and the lack of rigidity in his movements. It’s the sound of his voice and the gleam in his eyes.

He exhibits a total absence of “plans”, “goals”, and “strategies”. He rejects “tradition” and whoelheartedly accepts accepts the inherent risks of exploration, adventure, and uncertainty.

He is unafraid, not of loneliness, nor of failure, but completely, as in he feels no fear. His spirit is unbridled, untamed, and his heart is full of love, not for anything in particular, but for everything that exists. He does not divide himself from the universe at large.

He is at once both here, and yet not here. He is “one who has thus gone, and one who has thus come“. You could even say that he is one who has found the truth, and who lives that truth with his every day behavior.

His Art is his life, yet he wouldn’t claim it as such. In fact, he wouldn’t claim much at all, except perhaps, that he had nothing to claim. Like Socrates, he is ostracized by society, having been deemed a threat to the status quo. He is marginalized, misunderstood, misinterpreted, and often persecuted. Yet he utters no complaints and puts forth no resistance.

He doesn’t merely think outside the box, he lives outside it. He might even state that there is no box, but you would probably miss his true meaning.

In fact, you would probably fear him, like most of the rest of humanity does. You would see his everyday behavior as at best unproductive, and at worst completely insane. His very presence would serve a threat to your beliefs, to your conception of the real and the unreal, and to the image of self-identity which you’ve so carefully constructed.

But the Artist would not mind. Because he lives alone, as a light unto himself.

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

You know, there are two ways of listening: to listen casually, to hear a series of ideas, agreeing or disagreeing with them; or there is another way of listening, which is not only to listen to the words and the meaning of those words, but also to listen to what is actually taking place in yourself.

If you listen in this way, then what the speaker says is related to what you are listening to in yourself; then you are not merely listening to the speaker—which is irrelevant—but to the whole content of your being.

And if you are listening in that way with intensity, at the same time and at the same level, then we are both of us partaking, sharing together, in what is actually taking place. Then you have the passion which is going to transform that which is.

Beyond Violence, pp 37-38

=== Thoughts ===

For the first time since I started writing these, I had some trouble figuring out this passage. I had to read it a couple times before I got around my immediate “huh?” reaction. I was doing exactly what Krishnamurti warned against- reading the quote while attempting to understand it in terms of my own ideas, beliefs, and conclusions. I wanted to see where it fit into my own mental scheme, and was searching for a way to justify my agreement with what he’d said.

While Krishnamurti’s talks and writings cover a wide variety of subjects, sometimes it can be frustrating to read what essentially seems like the same point, made time and time again. But as he’s explained before (notably in the incredible series of interviews he recorded with Dr. Alan W. Anderson in 1974), it’s useful to discuss the same subject multiple times, but approaching it in different ways. Using different words, different metaphors, and different examples to shed light on a subject helps the audience to appreciate and understand it more fully. Most of us just aren’t going to understand everything that first time around. I’ll be the first to admit that I don’t always get it at first glance!

With that in mind, the above passage is quite similar that what we’ve been discussing lately in the past few posts: Real observation, or true perception, requires a negation of the ego and all of it’s associated baggage.

If you agree or disagree with what the things that you read or hear, you have no chance of actually understanding what’s being presented. You’re just evaluating it in terms of similarity to your preconceived conclusions, trying to figure out whether or not it fits with your preexisting mental hierarchy, or classificatory scheme. All you’re doing is reinforcing your own subjective viewpoints, by reinforcing them with further evidence, or reinforcing them by rejecting evidence that you find contradictory (according to your already established beliefs).

If your perception rests on approval or rejection of what others put forth, you will experience entirely according to personal preconceptions and prejudices, translating everything you meet in the present in terms of your past. You experience nothing original, you see nothing new, and your life becomes monotonous, dull, and repetitive.

Listening to what’s actually taking place within yourself does not mean listening to your own internal dialogue. It doesn’t mean listening to your internal verbal response to what you’ve heard, in terms of the words or thoughts that what you’ve witnessed produces, but it means paying attention to the way that you react to what you’ve seen.

It means watching yourself and the movement of your thoughts. It means observing that movement and the career that is your response. The response itself is not what’s important. It’s the mechanism of delivery that counts.

Listening to what’s actually taking place within yourself does not mean identification, attachment, or approval of your response. It means observing the response itself, as an impartial and objective witness. It means watching your reactions to the stimulation introduced by the environment. It means following closely to your response to your surroundings.

Real listening is not possible as long as you remain attached to the self. Your “I” necessarily includes previous experience, all of your self-constructed images and ideas, and even your ideological dogma. Without first negating all of that, without being able to put it all aside, there is absolutely no possibility of perceiving the actual because your perceptions will be a mere translation, or an interpretation of what really exists.

For more on this subject, check out these recent posts: Is There Seeing Without Preconception, Listening To Everything, Observation Without The Screen Of Knowledge, To See Without The Shadow Of Yourself, and What Is Perception.

=== 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 ===

When we attempt to perceive without first negating our prejudices, our conceptions, and our beliefs, we limit perception and see only according to our ideas. We see only according to our self-constructed images, based on previous experience.

We meet nothing anew. We don’t see things as they actually exist, but translated through that fogged lens of our personalities and subjective mental conceptual structures.

When we walk down the street to look at the flowers, we’re no longer amazed by their beauty and spontaneity, but rather, we become selfishly satisfied with their habit of conforming to our expectations. “There is the Rose,” we say, “I have been expecting it, and it has come. How marvelous.” And how sad.

We lose that essential capacity to find real joy in the simple things, in the beauty and the glory of the natural environment, in nature. We lose that ability to appreciate the small things and become focused on abstract ideas like “happiness”, “success”, and “prosperity”- all of which mean nothing!

We divide ourselves from the actual, from real living, and from ourselves. We become disillusioned, despondent, and depressed. Our lives become a chore; repetitive, and routine.

And it all stems from that initial division, from that subtle and seemingly innocuous maneuver, from that movement out of the universal, and into that divided conceptual structure between the “self” and “other”.

And what’s the solution?

Don’t merely tell yourself “I should not do this”. Don’t simply say “I will not divide”. When you bring in the “should” and the “will”, you bring introduce the element of time.

You fall back on that familiar habit of procrastination. You separate yourself from action by introducing the future, idealized state. And you doom yourself to failure.