Swanwick Star Issue No. 10 (2017)
The Brute Within
Krishnamurti Study Group
Saturday, January 21, 2017
The subject of study for this session was Q & A # 5 “On Discipline” in The First and Last Freedom by J. Krishnamurti. A questioner had asked K if self-discipline was necessary for moderating the “instincts of the brute in man” in order to realize God. K asked if these tendencies in the human being can be dealt with by suppression, sublimation, control, or by attempting to approximate one’s behavior to an ideal. Is there not a need for a more intelligent response to the issue, a creative response which does not involve the deadening of self-discipline as control.
The five participants were asked at the beginning if we could look into the question without preconceived ideas and be open to fresh and new ways of seeing. This was done very effectively and one person commented that we were in fact doing what K suggested as we inquired into the question. There was a sense of discovery and a feeling of wholeness in the group members. A very enjoyable session.
David Bruneau /Ralph Tiller
This interesting topic discussed at a Swanwick group meeting proved highly evocative for me. It triggered a stream of thoughts in the context of the violent society in which we live, today.
The brutish side of human nature is ever-present in us; our constant work is its sublimation* through Awareness.
This brute also causes madness and incoherence; this brute is the ego.
This brute is accepted by society and everyone seems to make apologies & excuses when it does terrible things.
What if this brute were totally rejected by society?
In fact, David Bohm often talked about “suspending” our opinions, judgements, reactions when interacting with others. Like K, he maintained that these mechanical exchanges are so often a result of past feelings and memories,
not a spontaneous response to the present situation. So, this seems like a very healthy exercise to undertake in these modern times when tempers flare and shootings take place within seconds and the threat of nuclear war looms.
Can we suspend our actions and reactions, momentarily, to recognize the brute within?
I dare to go even one step further and mention “the wrong turn” K and Bohm thought humanity had taken. It seems this wrong turn is inherently related to “the brute within” and, if we cannot successfully curb its destructive tendencies,
that brute will lead our species to its doom.
*even though K. did not like this word, scientifically-speaking, “sublimation” means transforming a substance from one form to another via a chemical reaction and is eminently applicable.
Chanda Siddoo-Atwal