Krishnamurti Study Session Saturday, April 19, 2014 Nine people gathered to study the second half of chapter 10 in Freedom From the Known.   Some of the challenges posed by K in this segment are:  what it means to really care about our children or other human beings, seeing not with our minds but from “the very bottom of your heart” that our sorrow is self-created or created by thought, the importance of “passion without a motive” and of an “innocent mind”, as well as other equally significant issues.   In addition to exploring these issues, the group looked into the question of what, if anything, can be “done” in order to come upon the love which is not of time, not of the self.  Krishnamurti’s “negative” approach was discussed, whereby that in ourselves which is not love is clearly seen and discarded, leaving what remains as the “positive”, the direct knowing of the reality of love.   It was asked whether it is possible for us to know this love given that we are so strongly conditioned by society and habitual ways of thinking and feeling.  This produced some interesting dialogue and questioning of assumptions concerning such a possibility, including the possibility that we are convincing ourselves of the difficulty of any real knowing by our very ways of thinking about it.    There was a keen participation by all present.  These meetings do seem to be attracting a group of regular and serious inquirers.

This morning this poignant inquiry into a perennial favorite emerged from cyberspace and struck a chord: “Do you know what it means to love another? Have you ever loved anybody? Is love dependence? Is love desire? Is love pleasure? I don’t love my wife; she doesn’t love me. We are two separate individuals. We may meet sexually, otherwise we carry on in our own particular way. Do you understand, sirs? Does love exist in this country? Don’t ask, `Does it exist in Europe?’ When the speaker is in Europe, he talks about it there. But we are talking about it here as we are in this country, in this part of the world. Is there love in this country? Do you love anybody? Can love exist with fear, when each one is becoming something? Can love exist when I am becoming a saint and she is not, or she is becoming a saint and I am not, when each one is becoming? Please understand all this. It is your life. When each one is becoming something, how can there be love? Is it possible to love another without wanting a single thing from another, either emotionally, physically, in any way, not ask my wife for anything? Psychologically, she may care for my need, for I may bring money. I am not talking about that. But inwardly, love cannot exist where there is attachment. If you are attached to your guru, there is no love in your heart. This is very, very serious. Without love, there is no right action. We talk about action. We do so many kinds of social work. But when there is love in your heart, in your eyes, in your blood, in your face, you are a different human being. Whatever you do then has beauty, has grace, is a right action. All this may be excellent words you hear. But will you have this quality? It cannot be cultivated, it cannot be practised, it cannot be bought from your guru, from anywhere. But without that, you are dead human beings. So what will you do? Please do ask this question, find out for yourself why this flame does not exist, why you have become such paupers. Unless you put your house in order, your house, which is yourselves, there will be no order in the world. You may meditate for the rest of your life; but without that, your meditation has no meaning. So, please, most respectfully we are asking, what is your response?” J. Krishnamurti  

A friend sent this K quote yesterday. At one time I seemed to be totally in love with his teaching or non-teaching, which I am sure he would prefer. I think I read almost all of his books and watched many hours of his recorded video talks. But I, like a lot of other so-called seekers, really didn’t understand exactly what he was saying or pointing to. And I still don’t! Now I know there are lots of so-called K experts that attempt to explain what he was saying, and I am in no way belittling anything they might say. However, I think the very fact that he couldn’t really be understood was what seemed so compelling about what he said… that, and the fact that there was finality to his words that somehow seemed irrefutably true. It’s funny, but Wikipedia and others classify his non-teaching as philosophy. And I think he might cringe at that label. For me his words were more like good poetry, or Leonard Cohen’s songs:; one didn’t really understand what’s being said but somehow loved to listen to or read it anyway. – J. Krishnamurti Commentaries on Living Series I Chapter 41 Awareness “Problems will always exist where the activities of the self are dominant. To be aware which are and which are not the activities of the self needs constant vigilance. This vigilance is not disciplined attention, but an extensive awareness which is choiceless. Disciplined attention gives strength to the self; it becomes a substitute and a dependence. Awareness, on the other hand, is not self-induced, nor is it the outcome of practice; it is understanding the whole content of the problem, the hidden as well as the superficial. The surface must be understood for the hidden to show itself; the hidden cannot be exposed if the surface mind is not quiet. This whole process is not verbal, nor is it a matter of mere experience. Verbalization indicates dullness of mind; and experience, being cumulative, makes for repetitiousness. Awareness is not a matter of determination, for purposive direction is resistance, which tends towards exclusiveness. Awareness is the silent and choiceless observation of what is; in this awareness the problem unrolls itself, and thus it is fully and completely understood. A problem is never solved on its own level; being complex, it must be understood in its total process. To try to solve a problem on only one level, physical or psychological, leads to further conflict and confusion. For the resolution of a problem, there must be this awareness, this passive alertness which reveals its total process.”  

A Gathering with Ravi   Murmurs hover over steaming mugs of tea in the main house as people gather for the next adventure in truth (a path less land according to Krishnamurti)   It’s tough going at times, listening to Krishnamurti’s recordings – a compact yet intensely vehement man from another era, so brisk in his delivery. The complimentary dimension that Ravi Ravindra brings offers a gentle intelligence and humble insight into how Krishnamurti’s words have impacted his own awareness and perceptions.   The implications I take away are simple but not obvious. Integrating Krishnamurti’s pointers with my own experience I take the following away from this exceptional retreat:   Give authority to nobody when it comes to spiritual intelligence – my inner senses will take me to a natural essential experience of truth   Freedom comes when I am able to detach from my mental/emotional history – the stories, feelings and symbols that enshroud my pure essence   Release from these entanglements is effortless, through quiet observation of my inner world and fearless acknowledgement of the thoughts and judgements I hold about the ‘me’ I think I am   In the light of awareness the false sense of self dissolves – leaving me here in the now with truth and divinity   Thank you to Ravi Ravindra, to Krishnamurti and to Swanwick for this oasis of reflection and insight!     Other musings emerging during the retreat…     Still Embrace   God finds his way through the stillness   Emerging drenched in life in the chatter of a songbird – or — in the new rings of an old oak tree   Stillness waits, expecting nothing, but revelling in its gentle dance with love-imbued forms   Like the earth under Buddha’s tender feet after finding enlightenment, the creations around us can only thrive and blossom when gazed upon from our still awareness   Even the nest of old bricks – men’s work – reverberate with life in the quiet embrace of Swanwick’s hidden places