j krishnamurti | Being a Lotus in the Mud: The Art of Living with Awareness

March 24, 2014

Ethics and Interdependence – The Shift from /I==It/ to ((I==Thou))

With the plurality of worldviews, religions, philosophies, and interpretive frameworks easily accessible through technology, it is clear that we need to reexamine our position on ethics in relation to the present, global age. It seems that many people have taken a relativistic stance on ethics, perhaps primarily due to the fact that being able to Dialogue across worldviews and frameworks is not a common skill, and therefore few know how to coherently integrate and understand multiple perspectives, particularly where religion is invovled.

What I would like for us to examine together is whether we can have secular ethics based on the common ground of experience, without relying on any religious, philosophical, or abstract metaphysical proposition. Let us start completely clear, with no motive to prove one idea over another or arrive at any particular conclusion.

Ethics is not an isolated abstract idea, but occurs in relationship. Life is constituted of relationships: to people, nature, objects, ideas, images, thoughts, emotions, and so on. As Krishnamurti says, “to be is to be related.” Ethics, therefore, is the conduct we embody within these roles and relationships.

So, if we are to examine the way in which we conduct ourselves in relationship, a natural starting point would be to first observe who is the self that is in these relationships. If we consider the image we have of ourselves, what is it that we find? Is it not the accumulation of memories, conditionings, and knowledge about ourselves? This is not according to the philosophy of someone else or of the author; you can see this for yourself if there is curiosity to inquire, without forcing oneself to arrive at an answer. If the image we have of ourselves is the collection of memories and details about ourselves, is this not a definition? This is an attempt to define ourselves.

However, to define oneself involves cutting oneself off from everything that one is not, or at least, it appears that there is a separation. If I want to define myself, to wear all kinds of religious, political, national, economic, racial, ethnic labels, do I not need to create a gap between that which is ‘me’ and that which is not ‘me’? If I call myself a Catholic or a Buddhist, or a Democrat or a Republican, doesn’t this separate myself from all others who are not wearing the same label? It is this process of separation that is the cause of conflict and violence. We are not saying that politics, or religion, or some other thing is the cause of problems. The real troublemaker is the habit of our mind to buy into the illusion of definition, of separation.

In order to define something, one needs to separate oneself from the thing one is trying to describe. Definition requires some thing is singled out in an attempt to classify it. But this process involves objectifying that which is on the screen of awareness, thereby creating a distinction between the observer and the observed. This division causes further conflict, however, we shall not go into detail of that at the present time, but if one is interested, Jiddu Krishnamurti has much to say on that subject.

In other words, we are using a mental software that is programmed to objectify all experience and life in an attempt to classify and analyze it. We can call this an /I==It/ way of minding. Of course this has its use, but we have been conditioned to apply this to all aspects of our life, particularly our psychological life, and this creates much suffering and mental anguish. When something is seen as separate from us, as an ‘other,’ and something lesser, do we not mistreat, misuse, or act against it? If one looks at this habit of mind closely, one will realize that it is when we objectify, that we cause harm to others. Thus, this /I==It/ technology of mind is destructive in our relationships.

When we become aware and understand this process, that is the very action needed to ((rehabilitate)) the mind. In the understanding that the image of ourselves, definitions, and the objectifying nature of our /mind/ is an illusion brought on by thought and conditioning, we begin to develop a sense that all things are interconnected. To break that /cycle/ not through force or discipline but by awareness, sensitivity, and understanding, we ((See)) Life and Reality as undivided from ourselves. Is this not echoed throughout our wisdom teachings from across the ages? To love one another as oneself…is this not one of the crux of the teachings of many of our great teachers?

By breaking this conceptual prison through awareness, understanding, and curiosity to look at ourselves, we shift from an /I==It/ technology to an ((I==Thou)) technology of mind. Such a ((transformation)) is to see the Sacredness of all Life, of all Reality. In that way, how could we possibly even think of harming another? When you are aware that you are the world and the world is you, one directly perceives that to cause harm to another is to cause suffering to oneself. To make the leap from /I==It/ to ((I==Thou)) is to affect the entire web of relationships.

If one inquires into what real relationship is very seriously, one will find that one’s individual consciousness is in fact, not at all individual! If we know how to look at the anger, frustration, desire, hope, jealously, greed, confusion, uncertainty, insecurity, acquisitiveness, competitiveness, comparison, conflict, loneliness, the craving to become something, the search for something greater, moments of joy, the clinging to those memories of happiness and wanting to repeat it, and so on, within ourselves, we can recognize that this is the ground of the human experience…it is a shared experience common to all humankind. So, when we inquire into these matters, we are really looking into the consciousness of all humankind.

Ethics, therefore, is when ((right relationship)), ((I==Thou)), is one’s being, and it affects all of our relations. One understands, not intellectually, but through one’s heart-and-mind, that any separation between oneself and anything or anyone else is only an illusion of thought. Therein lies the foundation of compassion. That which is unethical comes to be when live from a place of /I==It/, whereby we perpetuate conflict, violence, division, and and so on.

2 Comments

January 22, 2014

Making the Ordinary Extraordinary – The Desire to Become – Life as it is

“A mind that is becoming can never know the full bliss of contentment; not the contentment of smug satisfaction; not the contentment of an achieved result, but the contentment that comes when the mind sees the truth in what is and the false in what is. The perception of that truth is from moment to moment; and that perception is delayed through verbalization of the moment.” -Jiddu Krishnamurti, The First and Last Freedom

What begins to happen as we grow out of childhood? Many of us become more and more controlling do we not? We are conditioned and led to believe that happiness exists outside of us, and that if we can control as many external factors as possible, then we shall be happy. There develops an incessant drive to shape life according to our own projections and desires. Society floods us with people who should be idolized and become our role models. Whether those people are celebrities, spiritual figures, politicians, businessmen, gurus, the rich, intellectuals, saints, and so on, it is conditioning us to seek something outside of ourselves and become someone else. This leads us to feel inadequate with ourselves, and that we should strive to become like another. We then go through life constantly seeking, trying to change ourselves, not seeing or understanding our own life. Life becomes a series of elaborate escapes from what is and who we are. And of course, when desire is obstructed, when we realize that we can never be another, we react with anger, or sadness, or jealously, and feel hurt in someway. This leads to deep suffering, because not only do we have difficulty looking or understanding ourself, but we realize that we have been wasting our time trying to be like another.

We are taught to believe that once we can control things, or fulfill our ambitions, or get this or that job or position, or have unparalleled wealth, or reach enlightenment, or find inner peace, or have this or that experience, or become virtuous, or transform our life, and so on, then we shall be happy. And how many times have we reached our goal and happiness has not yet come? Or conversely, we realize that we cannot achieve our goal, and we feel depressed because we could not live up to or become this image we had of ourselves or of another.

Whether inwardly or outwardly, the process of becoming, of searching for something greater, leads us further and further away from ourselves. We become interested in self-projected abstractions than in reality and how we are living. For one reason or another, we are afraid, or unsure of how to look and understand ourselves, and so constantly indulge in escapes instead of really facing life as it is. Thus, the challenges of everyday life are seen as boring and insignificant. Instead, we try to find comfort by projecting or imagining some greater reality that will entertain and gratify our desires.

One might argue, “why not strive to emulate figures like the Dalai Lama, the Pope, Mother Theresa, or some other religious figure? They embody very admirable virtues. Should we not follow their example?” However, if you try to live up to a virtue, is it not because you are the exact opposite of it, and are trying to escape from it? That is, if I am trying to be non-violent, isn’t it because I myself am violent? Or if I am trying to be generous, is it not because I am greedy? We create ideals, virtues, based on our own image of what we think it is, and use it as a way to escape from our own mental habits. This creates a conflict within ourselves, as we are now torn between what is, and this projected ideal we strive towards. In this division, fear (of failure), guilt, shame, regret, and various emotions take root.

This kind of becoming, the pursuit of virtues, is an elaborate form of escapism, and very self-deceptive. We deceive ourselves through such ideals because we convince ourselves and others that although we may be violent, greedy, jealous, angry, and the like, we strive to live up to this or that ideal or virtue. And a theme in our current education system, particularly the way history is taught (at least in America), is that of progress. We are continuously fed this idea that we are ever improving, developing, cultivating, progressing, etc., which thereby encourages us to become. And though we have advanced technologically, we are still psychologically immature. So, instead of really looking at ourselves with an interest in Self-knowledge, we try to seek and strive towards something else.

It is not a matter of being content or passively (or perhaps, apathetically) accepting these states. We must first be willing to understand ourselves, to look at the violence, anger, jealous, greed, and the rest of it in ourselves, and how it arises. Through observing our mental habits, through non-judgmental awareness, we can understand these reactions and this desire to become. As I said in Changing the World Starts with Understanding Yourself, this understanding naturally brings about action in accordance with that understanding. Therefore, a ((transformation)) does not come about through any effort of the /self/, or the /ego/, which desires some result or achievement, but naturally through Self-knowledge.

Certainly, we can learn from others, and let their actions be a wake up call to reflect on ourselves and our own mental life. However, to follow them is to give up one’s own responsibility for understanding oneself. In this way, we disempower ourselves to another. No one can give you Self-knowledge. Understanding comes from oneself, when the mind is quiet without force, and you are non-judgmentally aware from moment-to-moment without interfering. Dropping the desire to become does not mean laziness or apathy or submission. This too is a conditioned thought our society ingrains in us. If people understood themselves, and were comfortable with who they are, think about how many professions (from the celebrity magazines and cosmetic stores to the psychiatrist and plastic surgeon) would be out of business! Think about how many corporations make a profit by exploiting this desire to become.

Through awareness, we can see this desire to become within ourselves. And the desire to drop it is also a desire to become. Being, abiding, learning to be…this comes by itself when we understand this desire to become in our own inner life as a fact, not as a theory or a belief. But again, this is not does imply apathy or laziness. Out of ((Being)) comes integrated action and right thinking, because now, our actions are no longer according to some ideal, idea, or belief motivated out of becoming. Action based on becoming is conflict, because it creates a separation between the actor, the action, the reason for acting, and the ideal for which we are trying to achieve through our action. But action out of ((Being)) is ((integrated action)); it is whole, complete, and co-arises with understanding.

In ((Being)), we see life in a whole new way. The everyday activities that we once saw boring and insignificant, and the day-to-day challenges that may seem frustrating and monotonous are encountered in a new light. It is not that the ordinary becomes extraordinary, but rather, we see that our idea of the extraordinary was a self-projected illusion, and that the ordinary is extraordinary. Life is then a beautiful movement; a dance of a warrior who is free, joyous, creative, and not controlled by fear. That is the meaning of the Zen expression, “Before enlightenment, chop wood and carry water. After enlightenment, chop wood and carry water.”

It is because we lack Self-knowledge that we suffer. And it is because we are taught to follow and become like others that we are distracted from understanding ourselves. And it is because we don’t know how to live that we are taught to emulate others. And it is because we were not educated to observe and understand our fears and insecurities that we don’t know how to live.

There is much to say on the role of fear and the desire to become, but we shall discuss this topic at another time. The following posts cover some of the topics in this article: fear, boredom, happiness.

On Boredom

On the Nature of Happiness

On Free Will – Awareness and the Power of Choice

On Destiny, Meaning, Purpose, and Fear (Part 1)

On Destiny, Meaning, Purpose, and Fear (Part 2)

On Conformity, Fear of the Known, and Discussing Matters of Life

On Uncertainty

Here is a great book by my good friends Martha Randolph and Elizabeth Campbell that discusses spiritual evolution in a clear and simple manner. I highly recommend it, especially to young persons interested in these topics. It is called, That Which Is.

I also recommend reading the book Navigating the Mazeway: Fulfilling our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society, by my good friend and colleague Tony Parrotto. Here is a link to his website, The Mazeway Project.

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy

Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Book, The First and Last Freedom – On Amazon or Online

2 Comments

January 8, 2014

On Free Will – Awareness and the Power of Choice

For centuries, free will has been a widely debated subject. However, for our purposes, abstractions are not helpful. We can debate free will at length, and see how it is affected depending on one’s worldview and such, but we are not here to discuss philosophical theories. Our purpose here is to discover if there is a way of living that is radically different from the self-centered, ego-oriented, fragmented, and objectified way of minding that is the cause of suffering, inwardly and outwardly, on a planetary scale.

So, putting aside all theories, abstractions, ideologies, belief systems, philosophies, etc., what is free will? Clearly, it is not reaction is it? A reaction is not free of the initial stimulus which caused it, so obviously, reactions cannot be free. But that is how most of us are living is it not? We are constantly reacting to all the challenges and experiences of life. Your opinions, judgments, prejudices, comparisons, behaviors, emotions, inclinations, and thoughts…they are all reactions to your experience. Because we are operating from our conditionings and memories, which are of the past, we encounter new challenges and experiences with the same old habits and patterns. There is nothing new in those reactions; they are stuck in the past, in your memory, in your conditionings. Your reactions are your ego, your self-image, trying to control, shape, label, and categorize experience based on certain dispositions and judgments, all of which are of the past. Surely, this cannot be freedom or acting out of free will.

It seems to me that free will is the power to ((choose)) and ((change)) our way of minding, of how we process experience. This is not an abstraction, as we can clearly see this for ourselves in everyday life. We can choose to face a challenge or situation with our typical habits and reactions, or we can choose to see if the problem can be encountered in a different way. If something does not go your way, you can get angry, or you can watch what happens when your mind’s inclinations are not satisfied, and discover if there is a different way you can approach the situation through your awareness.

Freedom doesn’t mean license, being able to do whatever you want. Being free means being completely open and receptive to each and every challenge and experience of life and responding to it creatively and in the present, without the filter of the past. Free will is our ability, our power, to choose how we wish to conduct our mind. We can empower ourselves this way by being aware each and every moment. Watch and observe your mind, reactions, judgments, opinions, behaviors, language, etc., and you will discover for yourself how much baggage we carry over into the present such that we never really experience it; we never truly experience life that way. Living from the past, operating based on reactions, prejudices, and judgments, and never being creative, responsive, joyous…that does not seem like living in its highest sense.

It is important to understand that the ((power of choice)) of which I am speaking means being aware of our way of minding. Through an awareness that is non-judgmental and choiceless (as Jiddu Krishnamurti would say), our mental habits begin to drop, thereby freeing us to be responsive and creative, but this is not something that we can choose to do. ((Transformation)) takes place when the ground is fertile for it to come by itself, it cannot be invited or induced. Any such action that tries to force such things is ego-centric action based on self-centeredness and the desire to escape from what is. Furthermore, any kind of “transformation” or “realization” one believes to have experienced in trying to induce such a thing is self-projected, and therefore an illusion.

The greatest power we have is our awareness. Mindfulness of our mental habits can cause a ((shift)), but this ((change)) is not something that can forced, induced, or controlled. Trying to change in that way means one has difficulty facing what is; they do not want to look at themselves as they are, so they set up some ideal, some virtue, some belief that says “If I transform, meditate, do this or that, then I will be happy” or “then I will be enlightened” or some other wishful thinking leading to a feeling of accomplishment and gratification. Action based on /ego-mentalism/ is self-centered, fragmented, and objectifies, and leads to further conflict, inwardly and outwardly. /Ego-mentalism/ is not to be put down, judged, rebuked, or escaped from, for only by understanding it fully is change possible. Be aware, see what is; inquire and be open to understanding yourself. Once there is understanding, ((right action)) will follow.

If these posts are helpful and interesting, please share them with others. There are links to share this on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and others below. Also, if you have suggestions on topics or questions, feel free to leave comments below. Many thanks!

Related Links:

Home Page

Link to Last Week’s Post: Changing the World Starts with Understanding Yourself

I also recommend reading the book Navigating the Mazeway: Fulfilling our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society, by my good friend and colleague Tony Parrotto. Here is a link to his website, The Mazeway Project.

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy

Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Book, The First and Last Freedom – On Amazon or Online

3 Comments

December 18, 2013

Changing the World Starts with Understanding Yourself

Courtesy of http://www.flower-images.net/purple-water-lily

As we saw in the post, A Call to ((Action)), there are a number of issues that humanity faces today that threatens our survival, and some which will have cataclysmic effects on our planet. In several ((Dia-blog)) posts, we investigated that the cause of our problems is /ego-mentalism/, that is, we are conducting our mind from a self-oriented, self-centered, objectifying, and fragmented framework. When we use this mental operating system, we take ourself to be the center of existence and the basis for experience, and contrast it with everything outside of us. We objectify and cut ourself off from everything else. This creates the distinction between “I” and “not I,” which leads to constantly comparing, judging, evaluating, and creating more and more divisions. Thus, all dialogue, experience, interaction, relationship, ideas, and emotions are filtered through our conditionings, memories, thoughts, prejudices, opinions, beliefs, judgments, reactions, and experiences (all these things which comprise the /self/, the /ego/, the /“me”/, our /story/). Because of that, we rarely encounter moments when we are free of our /self/. But through this ((Dia-blog)) we are discovering together if there is a way we can encounter and experience things ((as they are)) in a fresh, present, and creative way.

We have also been investigating the fact that we are as we mind. That is, the world is a reflection of how we are conducting our minds. Our way of minding is projected into the outer world. Therefore, if we wish to change the world, we must start with ourself, with our own inner life. Why? Because without understanding ourselves, our psychological process, our actions will perpetuate the cycle of /ego-mentalism/, of /objectification/ and /violence/. If you are full of conflict, jealously, anger, hatred, self-centeredness, whatever it is, could your actions in the world reflect differently? We will be stuck in /reactions/, not creatively responding to the experience, interaction, or problem. (For more on this, please refer to the posts On Psychological Freedom and On Relationships).

But how does one go about doing this? To change ourselves, don’t we need to understand what it is we’re changing from? It is vital to understand the /ego-mental patterns and habits/ within ourselves. Through non-judgmental awareness, we can watch our reactions, thoughts, emotions, clinging, anger, hatred, and the rest of it. We can simply watch unobtrusively; once we start judging, condemning, justifying, and interfering, it means we are trying to escape the fact of what we are because we are afraid to look at ourselves. If you learn to observe yourself in this non-judgmental manner, with an interest and an openness to see what you are, then you begin to understand yourself, and a change happens naturally. I recommend a book by Osho called Awareness: The Key to Living in Balance.

Changing oneself is not a matter of creating ideals or following a belief system. When you have ideals (non-violence, compassion, courage, kindness, temperance, etc.) and try to live up to them, doesn’t that mean you are in conflict because you are the opposite of that ideal? If I am trying to be non-violent, doesn’t that mean I am trying to change myself because I am violent? Creating this ideal in your mind puts you in conflict with your idea (which is really just an image rooted in your thoughts and memories of what you believe it is), and your actual, everyday experience. That is why I am not an idealist. Ideals create conflict, and are an elaborate way to escape from what you are by trying to live up to some belief in your mind. Instead, through awareness we begin to understand our psychological process and our /ego-mental habits/, and with understanding, one naturally changes. Then, there is no striving to live up to or become some ideal, but rather, one is kind, non-violent, creative, compassionate, courageous, etc. These qualities become the very presence of the person; it is their very being.

If you truly understand, not as an ideal or a thought or a belief, but clearly see what /ego-mentalism/ is as a fact, and how it creates divisions, objectifies, fragments, creates conflict, and leads to suffering, loneliness, and a chaotic inner and therefore outer life, no one in their right mind would continue to live with way of minding! Naturally, you would inquire whether there is a profoundly different way of living and experiencing life and optimizing your relationships with people and the world around you. This means that understanding is not merely intellectual, but is empathetic, intelligent, creative, and active. ((Understanding is action)). You can believe that everyone is interconnected, that we can be non-violent, that we can break free of /ego-mentalism/, whatever it is…but belief does not lead to integrated action. Integrated action comes from understanding, from seeing what is. And such ((action)) is, by its very nature coherent, moral, creative, and intelligent. I suggest reading Jiddu Krishnamurti’s book, The First and Last Freedom for more on this subject.

Through this awareness and understanding yourself, you begin to interact different in your relationships. Your nature of ((Being)) creates ripples and affects others. Society, the world, is not independent of you relationship between you and me, between you and other people, the world, ideas, etc.; it is the relationships we have. Understanding ourselves, our psychological process, leads to a ((transformation)) of our being, not through discipline, force, effort, control, authority, or fear, but through Self-knowledge. This ((inner revolution)) creates a change in our relationships. And if the vast network of relationships and interconnections is the world, we thereby affect the entire ((Field of Reality)). If you want to end conflict and violence in the world, end the conflict and violence in yourself. If you want to end misery in the world, end the misery in yourself. If you want to eliminate self-centeredness in the world, self-centeredness must be eliminated within yourself. No one can be forced to change, but you are responsible for creating and holding the ((space)) for a ((radically transformed Humanity)) through your own ((inner revolution)).

So, if you want to change the world, start with understanding yourself. If you want to understand yourself, become aware of how you are conducting your mind. For awareness and transformation to flourish, you must inquire whether a ((total revolution of our being)) is possible, not through force, discipline, or desiring to change, but through openness and willingness to see what is.

If these posts are helpful and interesting, please share them with others. There are links to share this on Facebook, Twitter, WordPress, and others below. Many thanks!

Related Links:

I also recommend reading the book Navigating the Mazeway: Fulfilling our Best Possibilities As Individuals and As a Society, by my good friend and colleague Tony Parrotto. A link to the book and the his website, The Mazeway Project are below:

The Mazeway Project website: http://mazeway.org

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy

Link to Last Week’s Post: On Conformity, Fear of the Known, and Discussing Matters of Life

Jiddu Krishnamurti’s Book, The First and Last Freedom – On Amazon or Online

Osho’s Book, Awareness: The Key to Living in Balance

4 Comments

November 20, 2013

On Freedom (Reaction vs. Response)

Freedom can be discussed at many different levels, but in this inquiry, we shall be discussing the nature of psychological freedom. Now, most people say they want freedom, but what they really want is license, that is, the “freedom” to do whatever they want. Is that really freedom? Let us inquire and see if there is such a thing as psychological freedom.

In my previous posts, we have taken up the fact of conditionings. That is, since our birth we have been conditioned by our parents, schools, religions, politicians, and other influences of society. These conditionings set up parameters for how to think, act, behave, what to like and not like, and how to process experience in our life in order to conform to the same mental patterns of the culture. Now, can such a mind that is operating based on conditioned patterns that one is unaware of be free? For example, if someone hurts your ego, insults you, slashes your pride, what do you do? Many of us would react with some negative remark about the other person perhaps, and some of us would restrain ourselves maybe because we’ve been told to have self-control. We’re not discussing here what is the right or wrong answer, we are simply using this scenario to look at psychological freedom; I’m sure you can think of many other examples. In either of these cases, if one is reacting to the person, based on our patterns of mind we have been conditioned into, is one engaging in this scenario with psychological freedom? Perhaps this is not a very good example, but the point is: if we react, aren’t we being controlled by some initial action? That is the definition of reaction isn’t it? An action that comes about as a result of some initial stimulus.

Therefore, as Jiddu Krishnamurti once said, “there is no freedom in reaction.” And that is how the vast majority of us go through life, just reacting to stimuli, reacting to experiences that come across our path. If one is all the time just reacting to things, we are merely passive victims of our experience. Can such a life really be the extent of living? Is that living? Our conditionings, which define and shape how we function in the world, give us established patterns as to how one ought to judge and react to experiences. But if we’re unconsciously operating from these mental patterns, there is no freedom in our action. In fact, there is no creative action or appropriate response at all, for creative response requires a mind that is not limited or blinded by any conceptual imprisonment. Such a mind encounters experience in the present moment, it sees what is, and does not process experience through the filter of conditionings.

Is this making sense? Let me summarize: Our mental habits, which have been instilled in us since birth, lay out the so-called “appropriate” or “right” way to think about and experience events in our life, whether major or minor. We are inquiring whether there is any psychological freedom in this or if there is such a thing. If we look at examples in our own life, it becomes clear that we are reacting to stimuli happening to us based on these mental habits. And reaction, as we have said, is not free; firstly because it depends on an initial action, and secondly, because it stems from thought, memory, and conditionings, which are based in the past.

In previous posts, I have discussed that we can rehabilitate our mind through non-judgmental awareness and observation of our reactions and fears in order to understand and dissipate our conditionings. Now, many of us will be tempted to ask how; how does one do this? How does it work? The moment you ask the how question, you are no longer interested in understanding or inquiry, you want a method, a system, a practice, something you can depend on to help you so you don’t have to go through the work of finding out or understanding the process yourself; you just want an answer, you’re no longer interested in the question. Either that, or you doubt such a thing is possible without giving it any thought for yourself, so you want someone else to provide you with an answer that you can argue with; in that case, you are no longer interested in inquiry, and communication between us has broken down. This is not a mono-centric debate (or an egologue) between your position and my position and one trying to convince the other of being right. This is an inquiry, a dialogue, which requires openness, attentiveness, curiosity, and interest in understanding.

Jiddu Krishnamurti also said, “there is no such thing as freedom of thought.” Wherefore? Because not only is thought of the past and based on memory, but it is limited to whatever conditioning/framework one is using to process experience. Therefore, our conditionings are a conceptual imprisonment aren’t they? Those patterns of thought came from others, not from ourselves, and if we’re just repeating those words, those actions, those patterns, without any critical inquiry, awareness, or experience of our own, aren’t we just secondhand, mechanical human beings? So what we are discovering here is that if we wish to have psychological freedom, it requires stepping out of our conceptual imprisonment.

Now, if we can in fact become aware of our reactions and conditionings and rehabilitate our mind, would this not lead to psychological freedom? If we can encounter our experiences in the moment, and see what is, without processing it through the filter of our conditioned patterns of mind, we can respond. Response is not reaction. Response is in the moment; it is pure action coherent with what is, and not dependent on an initial stimulus. The event and the action are interconnected, are coterminous. We can encounter the event as it is, rather than the image constructed in our mind based on the past. For more on this, please refer to the post:

On Relationships:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/on-relationships-encountering-others-in-the-moment/

and you may also be interested in watching my youtube video on Meeting Each Other in the Moment (which was made quite some time ago and by no means professionally done, but it gets the point across – I was still discovering how to use Youtube and speaking to a camera instead of an audience, so be easy on me):

http://youtu.be/ICPS6S9ieQo

Thus, response is creative, as it is not confined by conceptual boundaries. It is like a Zen kōan. Think of the martial artist. If she reacts to an attack, she must think about what to do, and then take action, but it is too late. But if she responds to the opponent, it is like a dance; she flows and takes the appropriate and necessary action to stop the attacker. Therefore, if we are at all interested in psychological freedom, we must become aware of our conditioned habits of mind and our reactions. This awareness will allow us to rehabilitate our mind so that we can live and respond in a creative, attentive, open, presencing manner to everything we experience. We no longer are victims of life’s experiences or sufferings, but become ((R-evolutionary co-creators)) of a new humanity guided by compassion, wisdom, awareness, and understanding.

If you find this or other posts/links here to be helpful, I ask you to please share with others whom you think would be interested. I would very much appreciate your support. Thank you!

Other Links:

About: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/about/

Other Posts/Home Page: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy: http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Zen-Martial-Arts-Philosophy/dp/1105797317

Link to my (old) youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WvSC3gztbbKOEkyztw3jw

Link to other essays: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1837756

6 Comments

November 6, 2013

On Destiny, Meaning, Purpose, and Fear (Part 1)

What are we really asking when we talk about meaning and purpose and destiny? If we really look deeply at these terms it would appear that we’re really asking about functionality, that is, the purpose of a thing. For those of you who are familiar with Ludwig Wittgenstein, the German philosopher, this idea resonates with his idea that when we ask for the meaning of the term we’re really asking for it’s use. Therefore, what we are really asking when we ask about our meaning or our purpose, is actually what is our use; what purpose do we serve? Living beings, however, that are changing and learning, are not objects created for such specific instances, as objects to be used in this or that situation. Beings are not the same as tools in a toolbox, where each item is an object that has a particular function. Objects are static, beings are flowing.

Before we can seriously consider this question regarding the meaning of our lives, we must first understand why this question arises at all. Having an answer with no real understanding is not intelligence. But that is what has been happening worldwide for centuries. We are given all sorts of answers, from the priests, teachers, politicians, parents, and society, that we begin to rely on their words. Their so-called answers become the foundation of our life, and we live according to others’ words. Our life becomes mechanical, because we go on repeating answers and beliefs we have been given but never thought about. We are living according to a reality someone else has promised us. If we see this, then we can really begin to understand why we feel so empty inside. We realize the illusion of it all, and start asking questions like what is my purpose, why am I here, who am I? This is vital, because it is when we feel groundless that we can see the situation without all this baggage we have been carrying. If we ask these questions from a ego-mental standpoint (defined here as a standpoint of objectification wherein all experience and testimony is filtered through our own lens created by accumulated biases, prejudices, opinions, beliefs, memories, and conditionings thereby creating the illusion of a permanent self), our inquiry will be distorted. So long as you carry all that baggage with you, you will only find a projection of what you hope to find, not actually what is.

Therefore, to deeply inquire into these questions without distorting your search requires one to move against the patterns of society, which takes tremendous courage and awareness. The society since you were born has been saying who you should be, what you should do, what to believe in, and so on, and if you want to find the truth, you will have to reject any ready-made answers they give you. Some of their answers might sound appealing or ideal, but if you don’t find an answer for yourself and always depend on another’s answer, you will never have psychological freedom. So here is the problem: the answers and conditioning that society has imposed no longer satisfies us, and we seek to find some other way; but, there is fear because one must go against the whole movement of society. Thus, we are stuck in a kind of purgatory. We don’t wish to move back, because that would mean accepting beliefs and answers that are not coherent with our experience, and we don’t want to move forward because the fear of standing alone against this movement. Therefore, we find ourselves in a groundless, nihilistic state and full of fear. Nihilism is nothing but the rejection of society’s patterns and conditionings, and the fear to stand alone and inquire for oneself what is beyond that. This is an important step to finding out what is beyond all the conditionings, because we must first realize that we are stuck within these ego-mental patterns before we can understand how to be free. However, the fear which holds one back from exploring the depths of our being, our psychological process, stems from our conditionings, and so even when we reach this point, we are still falling back into these same mental patterns.

But let us return to this question regarding the purpose of life. As we go through our lives, we encounter all kinds of experiences and emotions: boredom, anger, sadness, loneliness, happiness, fear, lust, and all the rest of it. It would seem to me that people desire happiness and wish to avoid pain.

You can read my post “On the Nature of Happiness” here: https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/on-the-nature-of-happiness/

However, in wanting to pursue pleasure and avoid pain, fear arises doesn’t it? It is our sense of self, the “I”, the ego, the sense of “me” which is really just a collection of memories and conditionings that just appears to persist through time, that has this fear. It wants its own separate space because it believes itself to be self-sustaining, thereby cutting itself off from what is. There is not only fear of that pain, but also fear of losing pleasure, fear of not reaching pleasure at all, and this fear, in turn, leads to anger and suffering when our hopes, desires, and dreams don’t come to fruition. And isn’t it the case that certain experiences that cause fear and resistance in ourselves repeat, but when we open up to them and we eliminate that fear, that we no longer encounter those experiences? It would seem then that whenever we encounter fear and resistance in our psyche, there is clearly a lesson that must be learned so that we can assimilate that experience into our psychological process and be free of that fear. Wouldn’t that imply then that life is a journey of accepting, facing, and letting go of the fears and resistance, and understanding our psychological process? This is, in essence, learning to lose fear of what is.

Link to Part 2:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/11/13/on-destiny-meaning-purpose-and-fear-part-2/

Links to previous posts, essays, and my book:

On Relationships:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/29/on-relationships-encountering-others-in-the-moment/

On Happiness:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/24/on-the-nature-of-happiness/

On Boredom:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/22/on-boredom-102213/

On Dialogue and Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/17/reflections-on-dialogue-and-education-10162013/

On Education:

https://jasonkunen.wordpress.com/2013/10/14/reflection-on-education-10142013/

Link to my book, Meditations on Zen and Martial Arts Philosophy:

http://www.amazon.com/Meditations-Zen-Martial-Arts-Philosophy/dp/1105797317

Link to my youtube channel:

http://www.youtube.com/channel/UC1WvSC3gztbbKOEkyztw3jw

Link to other essays:

http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/cf_dev/AbsByAuth.cfm?per_id=1837756

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October 22, 2013

On Boredom

Boredom is a profound feeling. If we have awareness, if we really pay attention, boredom can be a transformative experience that can lead to tremendous insight. But most of us cannot handle boredom. We try to avoid it as much as possible, and it has such a negative connotation.

We can all relate with the feeling of boredom. Perhaps you’re a teenager that lives in an area with few peers and few attractions and have nowhere to go (I’m thinking of the song Subdivisions by Rush). Or maybe you’re an adult who has time off and you’re stuck at home with nothing to do. Or perhaps we see the workaholic who finds himself on vacation or without work and becomes stir-crazy, and deliberately attempts to find any possible work to do.

I’m sure we can all think of examples when we have felt this way, but what to do? Usually, we take up some mindless activity that keeps this feeling at bay. We might go obsessively cleaning, surf the internet for hours, watch TV, and all kinds of escapes; anything we can do to get away from boredom.

Why do we do this? It is fear is it not? We are afraid and unwilling to face our mind and our thoughts. We cannot stand to have this built-up energy and no external outlet to direct it to. In the midst of an activity, only part of our attention can be directed towards our thoughts, we don’t have to face them in full force. But when we are bored, we have to face our thoughts, our fears, our insecurities, and we have no external activity that can take our attention away from it. Don’t take my word for it, but see if you can observe it for yourself. I am not here to give you some other escape in the guise of some meditative or philosophical practice. Let us try to see what boredom actually is.

First, we must understand boredom. Solving any problem requires understanding and patience. No issue can be resolved by running away from it or trying to eliminate it. We have tried that numerous times and yet we still find ourselves bored; so clearly, trying to escape from boredom has not worked. Observe boredom; try to really see what is happening in your body and your mind when you feel bored.

It seems to me that boredom occurs when we are fed up with the activities we direct our attention to. Our mind is always looking in this and that direction, and finally, it gets tired of such activities. The mind no longer feels satisfied, and we become restless. We seek something that can catch and hold our attention. It is at this point when fantasizing and thoughts of lust grow strong, for example, because they have the power to keep our mind occupied and hold its attention. But let us stick with the issue of boredom for now.

So, boredom is when our mind no longer finds satisfaction in our activities, and our energy and attention have no place to go. If we can observe this in a non-judgmental way, and we avoid escaping from it, we can begin to understand boredom. In doing so, we begin to direct our attention inwards; we start to observe our mind.

Certainly, one can take up the practice of meditation, but even this too can become an escape if one is not aware. What I am suggesting can be called a meditation, but this is not a formal practice or method. Any method, any system can be turned into another form of escape and conditioning. I am offering no method here, but saying that we must be aware. Be mindful of your body and mind; what are their reactions to events? How do you react to boredom?

What comes of this non-judgmental observation you might ask? In becoming aware of boredom and seeing what it is and how we react to it, we no longer feel uncomfortable about being bored. We no longer try to escape through mindless activities, and we begin to relax with what is, the present moment. Instead of pacing throughout the house, we can sit and enjoy the breeze, or the light entering the window, or eating our food. We start to discover simplicity, and a great happiness arises, because we can enjoy every breath, every moment. We are no longer seeking something other than what is. We are content with that very moment.

Once we understand this, then we can take up any activity we choose, because we go into with awareness, with mindfulness. We are not afraid to stop this activity because we not afraid of the feeling of boredom. The fear of boredom no longer has a hold on us, and therefore, the fear of being present, of presencing, of letting ourself go with what is, also fades.

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Tag: j krishnamurti