Biography of J. Krishnamurti [Excerpts]

It is good to experiment with identification. How do we experiment with anything ? From the most simple to the most complex. We say this is mine - my sandals, my house, my family, my work, and my god; with identification comes the struggle to hold. Containing it becomes a habit. Any disturbance which might break that habit is pain, and then we struggle to overcome that pain. But identification, the feeling of the mind, belongs to something that continues. If one really experiments with this, just being aware, without any desire to alter or choose, one discovers so many astonishing things in oneself. The mind is the past, the tradition, the memories which are the foundation of identification. Can the mind, as we know it now, function without this process of identification? Find out, play with it; be aware of the movements of identification with the common daily things, with the most abstract. One finds out odd things, how thought fades, how it plays tricks upon itself.

Let awareness pursue thought through the corridors of the mind, uncovering, never choosing, ever pursuing. (p.274)

It is especially difficult, as one is placed, not to desire, crave for certain things, happenings; not to compare. But whatever the condition, desires, cravings, comparisons continue. We always crave for more or for less, for continuity of some pleasure and the avoidance of pain. What is really quite interesting is this: Why does the mind create a center, within itself, round which it moves and has its being? Life is a thousand and one influences, innumerable pressures, conscious and unconscious. Among these pressures and influences, we choose some and discard others, and so we gradually build up a center. We don't let all these pressures and influences pass by, unaffected by them. Every influence, every pressure affects us, the effect is called good or bad, we don't seem to be able to watch, to be aware of pressure, and not take part in it one way or the other, resisting it or welcoming it. This resistance or welcome makes for the center from which we act. Can the mind not create this center? The answer can only be found through experimentation, not through any form of assertion or denial. So experiment and find out. With the ending of this center there is true freedom. (p.274-275)

One does get agitated, anxious and sometimes frightened. These things do happen. They are the accidents of life. Life is a cloudy day. It was clear and sunny the other day, but now it is raining, cloudy and cold; this change is the inevitable process of living. Anxiety, fear suddenly comes upon one; there are causes for it, hidden or fairly obvious, and one can with a little awareness find those causes. But what is important, is to be aware of these incidents or accidents and not give them time to take root, permanent or temporary. One does give root to these reactions when the mind compares; it justifies, condemns or accepts. You know, one has to be on one's toes all the time, inwardly, without any tension. Tension arises when you want a result, and what arises again creates tension which has to be broken. Let life flow. (p.275)

It is so fatally easy to get used to anything, to any discomfort, to any frustration, to any continued satisfaction. One can adjust oneself to any circumstances, to lunacy or to asceticism. The mind likes to function in grooves, in habits, and this activity is called living. When one sees this one breaks away from all this and tries to lead a life which has no meaning, no moorings, no interests. Interests, if one's not very alert, bring us back to a pattern of life. In all this you will see the will, the directive, is functioning, the will to be, to achieve, to become and so on. Will is the very center of the chooser and so long as will exists, the mind can only function in habits, either self-created or imposed. Freedom from will is the real problem. One can play various tricks upon oneself, to be free from will, the center of the me, the chooser, but it will go on under a different name, under a different cloak. When one sees the real significance of habit, of getting used to things; choosing, naming, pursuing an interest and soon; when there is an awareness of all this, then the real miracle takes place, the cessation of will. Experiment with this, be aware of all this, from moment to moment, without any wish to arrive anywhere. (p.275-276)

A quiet mind, but very alert, watchful, is a blessing; it is like the earth, rich with immense possibilities. When there is such a mind, not comparing, not condemning, then only is it possible for the immeasurable richness to be.

Don't let the smoke of pettiness smother you and let the fire go out. You have to keep going, tearing away, destroying, never taking root. Don't let any problem take root, finish with it immediately and wake up every morning fresh, young, and innocent.

Be wise and definite about your health; don't let emotion and sentiment interfere with your health nor belittle your action. There are too many influences and pressures that constantly shape the mind and heart, be aware of them, cut through them and don't be a slave to them. To be a slave is to be mediocre. Be awake, aflame.

Face the fear, invite it, don't let it come upon you suddenly, unexpectedly, but face it constantly; pursue it diligently and purposefully.

Don't let it frighten you.

Deeply, inwardly, there may be a slow withering away; of this you may be unconscious or, being conscious, negligent. The wave of deterioration is always on the top of us, it does not matter who it is. To be ahead of it and meet it without reaction and be out of it requires great energy. The energy only comes when there is no conflict whatsoever, conscious or unconscious. Be very awake.

Don't let problems take root. Go through them rapidly, cut through them as through butter. Don't let them leave a mark, finish with them as they arise. You can't help having problems, but finish with them immediately. (p.276)

Don't, whatever happens, be smothered by circumstances, by the family - by your own physical condition. Eat properly, exercise, and don't become slack. Having come to a certain state, keep going, don't stay there - either go forward or you retrogress. You can't be static. You have ridden on the inward wave for so many years, withdrawn, inward, but now from that inward movement you must go out - meet more people - expand.

Have done a great deal of meditation and has been good. I hope you are doing it too - begin by being aware of every thought - feeling - all day, the nerves and the brain - then become quiet, still - this is what cannot be done through control - then really begins meditation. Do it with thoroughness.

Whatever happens don't let the body shape the nature of the mind - be aware of the body, eat right, be by yourself during the day for some hours - don't slip back and don't be a slave to circumstances. Be tremendous - be awake. (p.277)

He said that he had been speaking in India for thirty years and nothing had happened. "There is not one person who is living the teaching". (p.284)

People who are without creativity build dead institutions. (p.287)

The Krishnamurti Foundation was formed in London on the 28th of August (1968), this year, to direct and co-ordinate the diffusion of the teachings throughout the world. We worked for many months on the statutes of the Krishnamurti Foundation to make quite sure that it would respond exactly to our needs, that no one person or group could seize control of it now or later, and that it was entirely responsible to me and subject to my wishes.

I would like to make it clear that the Krishnamurti Foundation is simply an office, simply an efficient instrument to do material things. It is not in any way an "organisation" in the sense in which I use that word so often when I speak against organisations. It is not a psychological organisation. Belief and following are not involved, nor hierarchy. It is simply a committee responsible to me which will see that the teachings, publishing, etc., are diffused according to my wishes. (p.291)

It is necessary to ask questions. Questions to which there are no answers. So that the question throws man back of himself and the way the structure of thought operates. The hand that seeks to throw away or reject is the same hand that itself holds.

The act of seeing and listening activates the sense. Seeing, without the word as thought intervening, creates energy.

To know the self as it is, not as one wishes it to be, which is illusion, an ideal and fictious. It is only that 'which is' that can be transformed, not that which you wish to be. The understanding of what you are - ugly, beautiful, wicked, evil - understanding without distortion is the beginning of virtue. Virtue alone gives freedom.

He spoke of the tenacity of the Hindu mind, which despite conquest and repression had kept alive the ancient teachings.

Indian myth delighted Krishnaji. He often made me repeat the legend of Narada. (p.298)
It is one of the greatest sorrows in the world that one wants to convey something tremendous with one's heart and mind and you don't receive it. That is sorrow not only to the speaker, but to you who listen. (p.305)

Without understanding the structure and nature of thought you will not come upon this silence naturally. (p.305-306)

To find that which is not of time, which has no measure, which is not nameable, the mind must be completely still.

When you see that, then there is clarity in observation and learning, which is the act of intelligence. In observing that which is false the brain cells become quiet, and with that the mind naturally, easily, sweetly - without any effort - is extraordinarily quiet. And in that stillness of mind there is no time.

In that silence there is no observer, no experience, but only that quality of complete and total silence. In that silence the door is open. What lies beyond the door is indescribable, it cannot be put into words. (p.306)

I think the idea of the teaching and the taught is basically wrong, at least for me. I think it is a matter of sharing rather than being taught, partaking rather than giving or receiving. And so, can we share something which is not in the field of time, thought, and direction?

Where you are the other is not. (p.313)

Look Rajesh, the world is in darkness. It is mad. The violence you see all around you is crazy. And these places - Rajghat (Varanasi), Rishi Valley, Brockwood Park, and Ojai - have to become centers of light. The older people have messed everything up. They have not done it. And the new people, young people have to do it. You understand? I hope you have not come here to experiment for a year or two but are committed to this. (p.315)

The whole question of the student having deep trust and confidence in the educator was, Krishnaji said, "central to the process of education". (p.316)

Sex is like a tender flower, an intense flame, delicate and rare. It has to be nurtured and cherished. You have to be specially watchful when it is not operating as nature intended. To let sex function freely is to dissipate energy; to suppress it brutally is to destroy something delicate and intensely beautiful. So watch it with warmth, nurture it, let it discover itself and unfold - neither denying it nor succumbing to it. (p.317)

Questions to which there are no answers. So that the questions throws man on himself and the way the structure of thought operates.

To learn is to observe and to act.

To observe, to watch things as they are, not twist them to suit inclinations or prejudices. (p.318)

The word freedom is a dangerous word. Freedom for most people means to do what they would like to do, a freedom from social restrictions, social morality.

Freedom from something is one thing, and freedom for itself another. Only in negation is there freedom. By learning about disorder, there is order.

With the dying is the living. You must die to yesterday, to live today, and then there is love.

To live in the present is to see in the microscope, not according to your wish or my wish, to see in the microscope how the past flows through the present and explodes into the future. But as long as the mind is caught in the image of the past, how can the heart live in the present? And love is the present, not the tomorrow.

What have you done with your life? Don't say, 'I am going to fulfil next life.' There is only the present, the beauty of the present, the richness of the present. You have had this life, this extraordinary thing called life in which there is sorrow, pleasure, fear, guilt and all the tortures and the loneliness and despair of life and the beauty of life. And what have you done with it? A life was given to you, the most precious thing in the world, and what have you done? You have distorted it, tortured it, torn it to pieces, divided it, brought about violence, destruction, hatred, lived a life without love, without compassion. (p.320)

When you accept nationalism, and you accept it because you have found security in it, that security is completely destroyed because nationalism invariably divides; and where there is a division there must be conflict. So your nationalism, in which the brain has found security, is bringing about its own destruction.

Our brain, the brain cells, have themselves been conditioned for thousands and millions of years. And if there is no breakthrough in this conditioning, there will always be disaster, there will always be sorrow, there will always be confusion, there will be no harmony.

There is security only in the truth that life has no security, but is a constant movement. That is the truth, and in that truth there is security. (p.321)

Order, which is harmony, comes only when there is freedom from disorder. Order comes only when there is understanding, learning, about the disorder. And out of the learning about disorder - not the learning how to bring order into disorder, which you can never do - out of that learning comes order, naturally. (p.321-322)

First there is a hearing by the ear and there is a hearing without the ear, which is a state like a mill pond that is absolutely still without a single movement. There is no air that ruffles it. And when the question is put in it, it is like a piece of stone thrown in a still pond. The waves are the answers.

When you approach the question afresh, the very throwing of the question into the mill pond produces the answer. There is no entity that answers. (p.332)

hought being aware of itself,

Of its own activities. (p.333)

Observing in the sense that in such observation there is no remembrance of the thing which is being observed.

In the process of observation, there is no center from which it is being observed, the center being memory, various conclusions, hurts. There is no point from which 'it' is being observed.

And in this observation there is no conclusion, there is no association with past events, which means the 'seeing' is as quiet as the mill pond. (p.334)

As the physical organism is now over 80 I have been considering how best the next 10 or 15 years should be spent. As I have repeated and can repeat it again without boredom, I have spent more time and given more talks in India than anywhere else. I am not concerned with the results, what effect the Teachings have in India, how deep the roots have penetrated, but I think one has the right to ask and should ask, as I am asking, why there is not in India after all these years one person totally and completely involved in these Teachings, living them and dedicated entirely to them. I am not in any way blaming any of you, but if I may, I would urge you to give your serious attention to this. (p.342)

Total ending of thought is immobility, is silence; thought as time has to stop. (p.371)

Can one observe without the past? Can one have insight without the weight of yesterday? Insight is instantaneous. Perception of totality is an instant perception. If that is so, what is the need for preparation? (p.373)

Time, preparation, the whole process of evolution is unnecessary. If you so listen, you have the whole perception. (p.374)

The mind is heavily conditioned. It does not listen. K says something totally true. Something immovable, irrevocable, and it has tremendous weight, like a river with volumes of water behind it. But X does not listen to that extraordinary statement.

After all, listening, seeing totally, is like thunder or lightning that destroys everything. To go through the whole process is not to deny this instant thing. (p.375)

Thought is a fragment. Can thought, which is a fragment, see the whole of consciousness? 'I am hurt' - that feeling is a part of consciousness. Thought is a broken piece in movement. That fragment, that thought, cannot see the whole. Thought does not see it is hurt; it says, 'I am hurt'.

Thought can never be aware of the total content of consciousness. It can only be aware of the fragment.

Consciousness is the totality of life. Not only my life, your life, but the life of the animal, the tree; the totality of all life. (p.376)

India has lived all these centuries on ideas. She has to move from a life based on ideas, which are non-facts, to seeing of fact only. (p.380-381)

With the Buddha there were only two after fifty years - Sariputta and Mogallanna - that may be the lot of man.

Man has starved; sat alone in the mountains; he has everything to have that something; but apparently it does not happen that way. So I say perhaps he should go quickly through with this watching, observing silence, and end it. (p.387)

See what the monks and other human beings have done to get this extraordinary intelligence, and they have not got it? So, I deny all the things that man has tried to do, to get it. So my mind, my brain, is free from experiment.

People have investigated and they have all failed. They have tried getting drunk, tried sex, tried drugs. I see all that. Why should I go through all that ? So I see and I deny. It is not blind denial. The denial has tremendous reason, logic behind it. (p.389)

My brain is the brain of humanity. I am absolutely certain of that. So, being the brain of humanity, my brain has done all this. I don't have to go through it all.

Move out of that circle which man has woven around himself. (p.391)

The words in the Bible and other religious books of the east are that the beginning was chaos and out of that chaos came order. I think it is the other way.

The beginning was order. Man made chaos.

The darkness of chaos has been created by man. (p.394)

As long as there is a center there must be experience and knowledge. When there is no center, there is a state of non-experience, a state of observation, when all the senses are highly awakened and functioning, superbly sensitive, then in that state, there is no center as the 'me' involved. It is this center as the 'me' that creates desire. This state, this center, cannot reach that state - the beginning.

Man cannot aspire or sacrifice or discipline to reach anywhere near it. So what is he to do? It is very important to understand desire. If that is not completely understood, the subtlety of desire is immense and therefore it has extraordinary, immense possibilities of illusion.

Desire, will, time, must come to a complete end. That is, the mind, the brain, must be absolutely pure - not pure as no sex, no ugly thoughts - but the brain must be completely empty of knowledge. A state where thought can never arise - unless necessary. So that thought has its own responsibility, so that it can only act in certain directions.

A brain that is free from all experience, and therefore knowledge, is not in the field of time, therefore has come to the beginning of all things.

The mind which is free from all experience, a mind that has never experienced - is like a vessel, it can receive that. (p.394)

Desire of the senses - desire that comes from the center has to be completely emptied. There is no movement towards 'that' which means an end to time. Any movement in any direction is time. Man has made great struggle to reach that. It is not possible. Desire which is so subtle and therefore the creator of illusion, must end. The brain has to be free of desire. There can be no pattern, no direction, no volition, no desire. (p.394-395)

It means the ending of attachment. That is the beginning.

The mind is full of thought because the senses are not fully flowering. The senses create thought. Senses create experience, which is knowledge, memory - thought. When the senses are fully flowering, what happens? There is no center as desire.

We have never allowed the senses to flower. We have operated with thought as the medium of action. But we have not enquired into the origin of thought deeply. (p.395)

Order is the beginning, the source of an energy that can never diminish. To investigate it there must be an investigation of the senses and desire. That blessedness of order is when the mind does not have a single desire and the senses are operating fully, totally. (p.397)

From the beginning of time, the people of India had something which was genuine, true. They were deeply religious in the true sense of the word. There were the Buddhas and the pre-Buddhas who had left their imprint on the soil of India. The present world of astrologers, gurus - does that indicate that the depth of the real things is going? (p.399)

Do you see that doubt in religious enquiry is one of the most extraordinary things that existed in India? Christianity was based on faith; doubt, scepticism, questioning were denied. They were regarded as heresy. In India and in the Asiatic world doubt was one of the principles of religious investigation. (p.399-400)

Doubt with its clarity, doubt with its immense vitality purges the mind of illusions.

Because it is only through doubt that you come to the Brahman, not through acceptance of authority. (p.400)

I want to find out if in India the mind is being caught and carried away by the materialistic wave. That wave is threatening the Western world, expressing itself through technology, materialism, nationalism. The Western mind is moving in the direction of the outer, and it dominates the world.

India moved from a center and that center spread all over the Asiatic world through inner search, dance, music, and cultural expression. The Western world was centered in belief, which is so superficial. That superficiality , that materialism, is that conquering this?

Can one see the outer manifestation of this in India, through its bureaucracy, technology, science, nuclear energy; following the ways of the West; and so is the pristine, original core of this country gradually withering away? India was centered on one thing. And therefore she had a fire which spread throughout the world. Now what is happening to the Indian core?

I want India to be that. So I say I hope she is not going to lose it. If it is lost, it is lost. I don't want her to lose it, because then it is the end of everything. (p.401)

I am talking about the Indian mind that has produced the Upanishads, the Buddha. India has been the storehouse of something very very great. The West, with its emphasis on faith and its materialism, is destroying that greatness.

Religion in the West is based on faith and belief with all its implications. To be caught in faith or belief is the ending of doubt. Religious enquiry in India was not based on faith, so it could move in any direction. Free of direction, there was a different movement taking place; this is the essence of the Buddhas, the pre-Buddhas. (p.403)

If you see the whole movement of pleasure - sexual, sensual - you have understood the whole content of consciousness.

If you are so attending, all your senses are completely awake. It is not one sense attending, but the totality of all the senses. Otherwise you cannot attend. (p.404)

The brain has an infinite capacity. That immense capacity is being used for material purposes. (p.407)

Many, many years later, after the death of my brother, and many, many years after that - I can't tell you when, but one morning I suddenly saw the face, a most extraordinarily beautiful face, that used to be with me for many years.

I used to see it every day - in sleep, while walking. It was not a vision. It was like that picture, an actual fact.

It is not something imagined. I have tested it out. It is not something that I wanted. I do not say, 'What a beautiful face' - there is no wish to have it. (p.409)

I have seen the face in the dark, in the light, while walking. You may say that this is all cuckoo. But it is so I have never done anything for any spiritual reason. (p.410)

Thought is a material process; thought is the outcome of memory, experience, knowledge, stored up in the brain cells, in the thinking process itself. And it has functioned in a particular direction, continuously evolving. Thought, memory is a part of the brain. The brain is material; this brain contains memory, experiences knowledge, from which comes thought. So thought has its continuity, based on knowledge, which is the past; and that past is operating all the time, modifying itself in the present and continuing. In this continuity, it has found immense security through beliefs, illusion, knowledge. In this faith there is a sense of being protected, of being 'in the womb of God'. This is an illusion. And disturbance in that continuity is the challenge; and when it cannot respond properly, it finds its security is disturbed. (p.412)

You be a light to yourself, not accept the light of another.

Death says to you 'end it', end your attachments completely, because that is what is going to happen when you stop breathing. You are going to leave everything behind.

So death implies the ending of attachment. It is only in the ending that there is a beginning. (p.413)

Knowledge is always limited. So the brain, having found security in the movement of knowledge, clings to it and translates every incident, according to the past. In the movement of ending of continuity is complete order.

It is necessary for a mind, for a brain to become very young, fresh, innocent, alive, youthful. This is only possible when there is no psychological registration.

To come upon love, the whole stream of consciousness must come to an end. Consciousness being your jealousy, your antagonism, your ambition, your desire for becoming bigger, your desire for seeking power. Where there is any sense of egotism, the other is not. And the essence of egotism is the process of registration. The ending of sorrow is the beginning of compassion.

There are several things implied in meditation. There must be space; not physical space only, but space within the mind. (p.414)

The whole world believes in the word 'God'. Could we put away all beliefs? Only then is it possible to investigate.

Human being say they believe in God. God is omnipotent and omnipresent, he exists in all things. There is a traditional acceptance of that word with all its content. Can one be free of the million years of this tradition - consciously as well as unconsciously to be free of that word? (p.416)

Man has tried in several ways to find this (God). He has fasted, he has tortured himself, but he is always anchored to something. (p.418)

We all want to know - which means, to put God into the bay of knowledge. (p.419)

The whole world believes in God. In Ceylon they were very upset when I said the word God is put together by thought.

The whole world believes in God. Unfortunately, I don't know what God is. Probably I can never find out.

And I am not interested in finding out. But what I am concerned with is whether the mind, the brain, can be totally free from all accumulated knowledge, experience? Because if it is not, it will function always within its field, expanding - contracting - vertically, horizontally - but always within that area. It does not matter how much one accumulates, it will still be within that area. And if the mind moves from that area and says, 'I must find out', then it is still carrying the movement, the mind, with it. (p.420)

If we could say 'I know nothing' in the deepest sense of the word - it is there - you don't have to do anything. (p.421)

I come to you and put this question - are you ready to answer or do you hold the question quietly? Hold it, do you understand? And out of that very holding without any reaction, any response, comes the answer.

A cup holds water. A pond is a receptacle that holds water, a holding without any wave, without any motive or movement, without any sense of trying to find an answer. (p.422)

A meditation in which there is no state of achievement, there is nothing. That may be the ground, the origin of all things, a state in which the meditator is not. (p.423)

In that there is absolutely freedom from sorrow. That state of meditation has come with the complete ending of the self. (p.424)

I meet the Buddha. I have listened to him very deeply. In me the whole truth of what he says is abiding, and he goes away. He has told me very carefully, 'Be a light to yourself'. The seed is flowering. I may miss him. He was a friend, somebody whom I really loved. But what is really important is that seed of truth which he has planted - by my alertness, awareness, intense listening, that seed will flower. Otherwise, what is the point of somebody having it? If X has this extraordinary illumination, a sense of immensity, compassion, and all that, if only he has it and he dies, what is the point of it all? (p.431)

Learn to die to yourself completely.

The truly religious mind is concerned with discovery and the understanding of what Truth is. (p.434)

The teachings were not the book. The only teaching were, 'Look at yourself. Enquire into yourself - go beyond. There is no understanding of the teaching, only understanding of yourself. The words of K were a pointing of the way. The understanding of yourself is the only teaching. (p.436)

The probing is with nothing, into wordless endless being.

The enquiry within is infinite. You must be alone, stripped, then you can take a journey into the unknown.

In life there is both creation and destruction - the very act of listening is the miracle, it is light in darkness. In it is mutation and deep uprooting.

Total attention of one thought unfolds the whole nature of thought. (p.437)

The brain is conditioned to a pattern. The very biological necessity makes it to break the pattern. The insight needed to see this does not need training, nor time.

Time makes the brain duller and duller. I question the whole concept of time to get anywhere. I don't accept inner time.

Could you consider denying time? Not time as the linear stream, but psychological time as becoming. Can you so deny time that it ceases in your brain? We are speaking of the psychological process of time as a movement from here to there. Can you accept time as sunrise and sunset and say, there is no other time? (p.438)

Fear attracts evil. To talk about evil is to invite it. (p.442)

Evil is a fact. Leave it alone. Your mind should not play with evil. Thinking about it is to invite it. Hatred, jealousy, attract evil. That is why it is important for the mind and body to be still and silent and not let any strong emotions arise, without watching relentlessly. Deterioration walks one step behind you. No matter who you are.

Have you ever observed a cat watching a hole into which a mouse has hidden? Watch any strong feeling like that, without the eyes moving away.

In India the concern with religion has been deep. Indian tradition has maintained that the understanding of the Self, of the Universe, of the Highest Principle, is the most significant pursuit. (p.444)

The training of the brain and the refinement of the brain, the training of the brain in action, in behaviour, in relationship, and also a process of enquiry that leads to something untouched by thought. I would say that is culture. (p.445)

When one realises that the actor is the action, then the whole outlook changes. (p.446)

If one observes very carefully, facts in themselves bring about a change.

We are always trying to move away from sorrow. Can we understand the depth and meaning of sorrow? Not intellectually understand, but actually delve into the nature of sorrow? (p.447)

Fact is that which has been done and which is being done now. The acting now and that which has happened, is the fact. (p.448)

Attention itself dissipates the movement. (p.449)

Insight is not a matter of memory, knowledge, or time, which are all parts of thought. I would say insight is the total absence of the whole movement of thought, time, and remembrance. So that there is direct perception. (p.450)

Are we aware that we are prisoners of our own fantasies?

If we are aware - they are burnt out. (p.451)

Just be aware, not hold it. It is like a perfume - it is there. You don't hold it. That is why I think one has to understand the whole conditioning of our consciousness. I think that is the real enquiry. The real exploration is into consciousness, which is the common ground of all humanity. And we never enquire into it. We never say, 'I am going to study this consciousness that is "me".'

And to be free of the self is one of the most difficult things, because the ',e' hides under different rocks, in different crevices. (p.451-452)

The brain is conditioned. That conditioning is brought about by knowledge, memory, experience. The brain is limited. So to discover something new there has to be a period, even temporarily, when thought is not in movement, when it is in abeyance. (p.454)

The present is the past and the future. The present is moving. The present is a thousand years of the past being modified, and the future is 'now', the present.

The present is the whole movement of time and thought.

Can one have insight, perception into the fact, that the now is all time and thought? (p.455)

The brain is conditioned by time and thought. So long as conditioning exists, insight is not possible. You may have an occasional insight, but this insight we speak about is the comprehension of totality, a perception of completeness.

This insight is not bound by time - thought.

Insight is possible only with the cessation of thought and time. Thought and time are limited. Therefore in such limitation there cannot be insight.

Time and thought have divided the world. (p.456)

The present is the 'now'. In that is the whole movement of time-thought, the whole structure of time-thought ends. The 'now' then has a totally different meaning. 'Now', then, is 'nothing'. Nothing in the sense that zero contains all the numbers. So 'nothing' contains all. But we are afraid to be nothing. (p.457-458)

The self is a bundle of memories; memories that are dead. They function, but they arise from a past that is over. If I have insight into that, it ends. I see that in the 'now' there is 'nothing'.

It is possible to so listen, when the mind itself is totally still.

When the brain is active, it is noise. It is very interesting to enquire into sound. Pure sound can only exist when there is space and silence. Otherwise it is just noise.

All education, knowledge, is a movement in becoming, psychologically as well as outwardly. Becoming is the accumulation of the memory. This we call knowledge. So long as that movement exists, there is fear of being nothing. But when one sees the illusion of becoming, and that becoming is endless time, thought, and conflict, there is an ending of that. An ending of the movement of the psyche which is time-thought. The ending of that is to be 'nothing'.

'Nothing' then contains the whole universe. Not my petty little fears, anxieties, sorrow.

'Nothing' means the entire world of compassion. Compassion is 'nothing', and that 'nothingness' is supreme intelligence.

But we are frightened of being nothing. Do I see that I am nothing but a walking illusion, that I am nothing but dead memories? So can I be free of memory as time-thought and see the fact that as long as there is this movement of becoming, there must be endless conflict, pain?

There must be no shadow of time and thought. That is real meditation. (p.458)

We offer a hundred commentaries, but the actual fact is, we are 'nothing' except a lot of words. Can one grasp that the zero contains all the numbers? So in 'nothing' all the world exists. (p.459)

If you want to end sorrow there has to be an ending of the 'me'. (p.460)

Do you see that you are a human being related to all human beings? the body does not divide. It never says, 'I am'. It is thought that separates.

Motive distorts perception.

To find out what is the root of chaos, the mind must be free. (p.461)

A good mind has no self. When a mind is in a state of complete attention, attending, listening, then there is no place in it for the self.

A good mind must have compassion. It must have a great sense of beauty and be capable of action; there must be a relationship which is right. (p.462)

The brain extends the physical time into the inner psychological sphere, because the brain is conditioned to linear time in the outer. As it is conditioned to that, it accepts psychological time in the within. I am questioning that illusion that conditions the brain. The brain is accustomed to the movement of becoming. It looks at itself as a movement in time. It operates in this illusion. The brain is evolved in time, and so looks at everything in terms of time. 'I am, I was', modified into, 'I will be'.

There is no time. Physical time we know as movement. There is no way of measuring physical time without movement. If there were no movement in the psyche, as thought, the wheel of time ends. (p.468)

Movement, as we know, is friction. Movement is the deteriorating factor. It is like a piston in an engine. Any movement in the brain physically wears out the brain. It is the psychological process that affects the body and the brain. It is not the other way around.

If there is no psychological movement, then movement is as in absolute space, there is no friction.

If there is no movement as thought, there is no becoming. Becoming creates duality. Therefore there is conflict, deterioration, time. Time is the barrier, is limitation. Only a spaceship that is moving without friction can go to the limitless.

The body has its own intelligence.

The brain is memory. Remorse, guilt, are a constant movement in the brain, as memory. The brain is memory, a movement from the past through the present to the future. (p.469)

The heart beats without remembrance. The brain can function without movement, if allowed to do so by thought. The heart doesn't pump because of knowledge.

The brain has sought security through knowledge.

Knowledge has made the ground of the brain very limited. (p.470)

Any movement means duality.

When the brain is silent, the mind operates. That is the intelligence of the universe.

An insight into the operation of limitation frees the brain from limitation. Insight can only arise when there is no memory, and so no time. When the whole brain is operating, it has no direction. It is free of the past. Insight is mind operating on brain. (p.471)

Love is outside the brain. Love is not a sensation. Insight is not a sensation. It is not a reaction. (p.472)

Evolution is time.

Time is matter. Time is manifested energy. The very manifestation is a process of time. (p.474)

Perception requires an ending of the past. Perception is timeless.

Perception is not of time. It does not contain the past. (p.475)

Perception has no perceiver. Perception is 'now' - therefore it is timeless. Therefore action born of perception is timeless. (p.476)

Listening is not of time. If I listen, it is 'now'. Listening has no time.

In probing the mind rids itself of all concept, all theories, all hopes, desires. It is now in a state of purity. In that state you can enquire. (p.478)

I would like to separate the brain and the mind. The brain is conditioned. The mind is outside the brain. Mind, for me, is something totally unrelated to the conditioned brain and therefore something which is not measurable by words or by thought. Whereas the brain activity and the wastage of the brain activity is measurable and measure is time. Now any function arising from accumulated knowledge is the known - as myself, my ego, my self-centered activity. Now, is it possible not to be self-centered?

The self, the 'me', is the product of time - evolution. It is the activity of the self-centered brain as my position, my power. It is the 'me'. And as long as there is that 'me' which is accumulated knowledge, memory, experience, there is the limitation of time. (p.479)

The moment you acknowledge you are living, you set the whole process of the self in operation.

In attention there is no self. (p.480)

Attention has no background. (p.481)

When there is attention, there is no background.

I say love has no time. Love has no reminiscences. Love is not the activity of desire or pleasure. The activity of desire and pleasure involves time. Love has no time.

If there is an arising and ending, it is not love.

Where love is, time is not. (p.483)

Death has no time. (p.484)

I have lived with death and life together, all the time, all my life. Because I don't own anything, I don't possess anything inwardly. I am dying and living at the same time. There is no separation for me. (p.486)

When you die a part of me is also dying.

I know what it means to die. I have lived my life dying and living, never separating the two. (p.487)

Look what religions have done: concentrated on the teacher and forgotten the teaching. Why do we give such importance to the person of the teacher? The teacher may be necessary to manifest the teaching, but beyond that, what? The vase contains water: you have to drink the water, not worship the vase. Humanity worships the vase, forgets the water. (p.488)

The human tendency is to center everything around the person of the teacher - not on the essence of what he says, but the person. That is the great corruption. Look at the great teachers of the world - Mohammed, Christ, and the Buddha too. Look what their followers have made of it? Buddhists monks are violent, they kill. Contrary to all that the Buddha had said. (p.488-489)

The manifestation has to take place, through a human body, naturally - the manifestation is not the teaching. We must be extraordinarily impersonal about all this. To see that we do not project the teacher because of one's love and affection for the person, and forget the teaching. See the truth in the teaching, the depth in it, go into it, live it, that is what is important.

Words are limited; all experiences are limited. They cover a very small area.

Energy has no past.

When there is that energy, not bound by the self, energy has no time. It is energy. (p.489)

He starts the morning with yogic asanas and pranayam. For thirty-five minutes he does his pranayams, his breathing exercises, and forty-five minutes are spent on yoga asanas. (p.492)

The saffron or ochre robe of the ascetic evokes deep compassion within him. (p.494)

First Page < 1 2 > Last Page