Transformation of Man

Religion has become superstition and image-worship, belief and ritual. It has lost the beauty of truth; incense has taken the place of reality. Instead of direct perception there is in its place the image carved by the hand or the mind. The only concern of religion is the total transformation of man. And all the circus that goes on around it is nonsense. That's why the truth is not to be found in any temple, church or mosque, however beautiful they are. Beauty of truth and the beauty of stone are two different things. One opens the door to the immeasurable and the other to, the imprisonment of man; the one to freedom and the other to the bondage of thought. Romanticism and sentimentality deny the very nature of religion, nor is it a plaything of the intellect. Knowledge in the area of action is necessary to function efficiently and objectively, but knowledge is not the means of the transformation of man; knowledge is the structure of thought and thought is the dull repetition of the known, however modified and enlarged. There is no freedom through the ways of thought, the known. - Krishnamurti Journal Brockwood Park 13th Entry 27th September 1973

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The Truly Religious Spirit

The truly religious man is not the one who practices so-called religion, who holds to certain dogmas and beliefs, who performs certain rituals, or pursues knowledge, for he is merely seeking another form of gratification. The man who is truly religious is completely free from society, he has no responsibility towards society; he may establish a relationship with society, but society has no relationship with him. Society is organized religion, the economic and social structure, the whole environment in which we have been brought up; and does that society help man to find God, truth it matters little what name you give it - , or does the individual who is seeking God create a new society? That is, must not the individual break away from the existing society, culture, or civilization? Surely, in the very breaking away he discovers what is truth, and it is that truth which creates the new society, the new culture. - The Collected Works Vol. IX Bombay 1st Public Talk 16th February 1955

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On the Necessity of Solitude

Now, must we not be alone? At present we are not alone - we are merely a bundle of influences. We are the result of all kinds of influences - social, religious, economic. hereditary, climatic. Through all those influences, we try to find something beyond; and if we cannot find it, we invent it, and cling to our inventions. But when we understand the whole process of influence at all the different levels of our consciousness, then, by becoming free of it, there is an aloneness which is uninfluenced; that is, the mind and heart are no longer shaped by outward events or inward experiences. It is only when there is this aloneness that there is a possibility of finding the real. But a mind that is merely isolating itself through fear, can have only anguish; and such a mind can never go beyond itself. With most of us, the difficulty is that we are unaware of our escapes. We are so conditioned, so accustomed to our escapes, that we take them as realities. But if we will look more deeply into our selves, we will see how extraordinarily lonely, how extraordinarily empty we are under the superficial covering of our escapes. Being aware of that emptiness, we are constantly covering it up with various activities, whether artistic, social, religious or political. But emptiness can never finally be covered: it must be understood. To understand it, we must be aware of these escapes; and when we understand the escapes, then we shall be able to face our emptiness. Then we shall see that the emptiness is not different from ourselves, that the observer is the observed. In that experience, in that integration of the thinker and the thought, this loneliness, this anguish, disappears. - The Collected Works Vol. IX Paris 5th Public Talk 7th May 1950

Pure Devotion

*Pure Devotion* transcends the time devoted to various interests and activities. A wholehearted involvement with the work at hand, without awareness of time passing. A love of something becomes so powerful that "finding the time for it" is not even an issue; this in contrast to all other acts performed out of necessity for survival.

Mindful care and attention come natural, without needing to be externally or willfully enforced. Where survival and the mundane are concerned, for most working people at least, there is an abundance of "I have to do this" in a poverty stricken world. Therefore, we try to devote as little time to this hard reality as humanly possible... we may seek shortcuts or to win the lotto so that we never have to work for a living again.

This is not the case with PURE devotion, which means "I want to devote as much of my life as humanly possible to this person, thing, project, etc, that I love so dearly. A spiritual path of pure devotion is one that resonates most perfectly at the Heart of Being, the manifest differences in belief(s) and outwardly socialized expressions are not what ultimately matter but rather an vibrational energy and feeling state, a quality of consciousness that is beyond all constructs of little ego mind.

"Live from your Heart, you will be most effective"

JDZ

Revolution in Consciousness

For me, revolution is synonymous with religion. I do not mean by the word 'revolution' immediate economic or social change: I mean a revolution in consciousness itself. All other forms of revolution, whether Communist, Capitalist or what you will, are merely reactionary. A revolution in the mind, which means the complete destruction of what has been, so that the mind is capable of seeing what is true without distortion, without illusion- that is the way of religion. I think the real, the true religious mind does exist, can exist. I think if one has gone into it very deeply, one can discover such a mind for oneself. A mind that has broken down, destroyed, all the barriers, all the lies which society, religion, dogma. belief have imposed upon it, and gone beyond to discover what is true, is the true religious mind.
JK - Meeting Life

Means and end are not separate

We may study history and translate historical fact according to our prejudices; but to be certain of the future is to be in illusion. Man is not the result of one influence only, he is vastly complex; and to emphasize one influence while minimizing others is to breed an imbalance which will lead to yet greater chaos and misery. Man is a total process. The totality must be understood and not merely a part, however temporarily important his part may be. The sacrificing of the present for the future is the insanity of those who are power-mad; and power is evil, These take to themselves the right of human direction; they are the new priests. Means and end are not separate, they are a joint phenomenon; the means create the end. Through violence there can never be peace; a police State cannot produce a peaceful citizen; through compulsion, freedom cannot be achieved. A classless society cannot be established if the party is all-powerful, it can never be the outcome of dictatorship. All this is obvious. - Commentaries on Living Series I Chapter 32 Separateness

The Flame

If you find the garden that you have so carefully cultivated has produced only poisonous weeds, you have to tear them out by the roots; you have to pull down the walls that have sheltered them. You may or may not do it, for you have extensive gardens, cunningly walled-in and well-guarded. You will do it only when there is no bartering; but it must be done, for to die rich is to have lived in vain. But beyond all this, there must be the flame that cleanses the mind and the heart, making all things new. That flame is not of the mind, it is not a thing to be cultivated. The show of kindliness can be made to shine, but it is not the flame; the activity called service, though beneficial and necessary, is not love; the much-practiced and disciplined tolerance, the cultivated compassion of the church and temple, the gentle speech, the soft manner, the worship of the saviour, of the image, of the ideal - none of this is love. - Commentaries on Living Series I Chapter 59 How am I to Love?

On Fear and Escape

Question:Why should I not escape from myself? I have nothing to be proud of, and by being identified with my wife, who is much better than I am, I get away from myself.

Krishnamurti: Of course, the vast majority escape from themselves. But by escaping from yourself, you have become dependent. Dependence grows stronger, escapes more essential, in proportion to the fear of what is. The wife, the book, the radio, become extraordinarily important; escapes come to be all-significant, of the greatest value. I use my wife as a means of running away from myself, so I am attached to her. I must possess her, I must not lose her; and she likes to be possessed, for she is also using me. There is a common need to escape, and mutually we use each other. This usage is called love. You do not like what you are, and so you run away from yourself, from what is. - Commentaries on Living Series I Chapter 75 Fear and Escape

Questioner: ...why does one run away? What is one escaping from?

Krishnamurti: "From your own loneliness, your own emptiness, from what you are. If you run away without seeing what is, you obviously cannot understand it; so first you have to stop running, escaping and only then can you watch yourself as you are. But you cannot observe what is if you are always criticizing it, if you like or dislike it. You call it loneliness and run away from it; and the very running away from what is fear. You are afraid of this loneliness, of this emptiness, and dependence is the covering of it. So fear is constant; it is constant as long as you are running away from what is. To be completely identified with something, with a person or an idea, is not a guarantee of final escape, for this fear is always in the background. It comes through dreams, when there is a break in identification; and there is always a break in identification, unless one is unbalanced.

Questioner: Then my fear arises from my own hollowness, my insufficiency. I see that all right, and it is true; but what am I to do about it?

Krishnamurti: You cannot do anything about it. Whatever you do is an activity of escape. That is the most essential thing to realize. Then you will see that you are not different or separate from that hollowness. You are that insufficiency. The observer is the observed emptiness. Then if you proceed further, there is no longer calling it loneliness; the terming of it has ceased. If you proceed still further, which is rather arduous, the thing known as loneliness is not; there is a complete cessation of loneliness, emptiness, of the thinker as the thought. This alone puts an end to fear. - Commentaries on Living Series I Chapter 75 Fear and Escape

Meditation is an end in itself

The end of meditation is meditation itself. The search for something through and beyond meditation is end-gaining; and that which is gained is again lost. Seeking a result is the continuation of self-projection; result, however lofty, is the projection of desire. Meditation as a means to arrive, to gain, to discover, only gives strength to the meditator. The meditator is the meditation; meditation is the understanding of the meditator. - J.Krishnamurti Commentaries on Living Series I Chapter 61 The Desire for Bliss

Additional Comments - The meditator as referred to here is the sense of ego consciousness as separate from the meditation itself (i.e. "I am meditating").
Jdz

Initiative, Gratitude & Responsibility

It is very good news when no longer do I stand and wait in false anticipation of a better future world... being grateful for what already IS good and for all that is possible to create and have right here and now, not waiting for what is out of my range and control to change for the better. Too many people wait a lifetime for the world to get better before taking any positive action in their own lives.

To no longer wait and expect is allowing oneself the freedom to GO and the impetus to move, not motivated by social ambitions but by (inter)personal progress; and this comes not from viewing the world with rose colored specs on but in seeing that life on Earth as we know/experience it is presently in a state of emergency... and whenever there is danger of any kind, at various times in life, there is no hesitation to act. Really it is to cease standing still entirely, when not at rest, yet without losing inner alignment and calm under all circumstances, is key to any and all possibilities of success.

To live this present moment that transcends both yesterday (and history) and tomorrow (projected hopes & fears), is the only place where life happens and real progress, from the inside out, can begin... not with the promise of a better world from the outside in.

JDZ

Afterthoughts/Clarifications to Reader:

Discussing these not so pleasant subjects is not to scare myself or others with predictions of doomsday, for truly I know nothing of the future. I know to some extent what has been, where it has lead us to today, and how I honestly feel about what I see, hear and observe around me. I hope that "future events" unfolding will prove me wrong, as I have no special need to be right but only a desire to know and understand the nature and unfolding of reality.

I have thought and written much in the past about the dawning of the Aquarian Age, and belief in December 20l2 as (contrary to Nostradamus' predictions) marking the beginning of this. Now I find that holding onto such high expectations as these, based upon speculation and wishful thinking alone, makes it that much easier to get bitter, disappointed and disillusioned. So I am happiest seeing things as they are, by immediate observation, and working with this reality, the present moment, in the best way I know how.

JDZ

The Good Old Days Are Gone

The last two decades of the last millennium, the eighties and nineties, were the beginning of the decline of those wondrous days of innocence. From the Roaring Twenties to the Sixties and Seventies, this was the hey day of real stardom and entertainment when cinema and music had the genuine feeling of human creativity, before the home computer, microwaves, vcrs and cell phones took over what was once the role of natural and organic functioning. Can we even trust what they call "organic food" today?

Back in the days of innocence baseball players weren't pumping themselves with steroids to win the home run title, back then the game meant something.. now it is hard to take seriously. If you lived through the sixties and seventies as an adult, you maybe got to goto Woodstock or see Jimi Hendrix live in concert... thus you got to see more than I ever got to. Back in the heyday of human society we had some real superstars, inventors and creators, and now we have celebrities full of nothing but glitter and ego.

In noticing my younger brother, who turned 22 yesterday, I see in his expression alone what the new millennium is... not the beginning of anything wonderful but the realization that all of that has come and gone. Never can we go back in time and see the greatest of the greats. Kids today bring guns with their lunch boxes to school, disillusioned, desensitized and rightly mistrustful of their elders and authorities. There is nothing but chaos and destruction descending upon the Earth, morality in action has reached an all time low... It seems to me that we had our chance for a golden age and blew it, now it is too little too late, nothing is really getting better (the illusion of the matrix) and those good old days are gone forever.

So what does it mean for me as an individual? To see beyond the external, not looking to the place and time for my own cue to shine. I can live this life to the fullest, for as long as this ongoing earthly moment lasts, even as the world is crumbling all around me... and do my part (even if in vain) to leave this Earth a better place than I (upon losing collective-personal innocence) originally found it, growing up in my teens, twenties and thirties over the past three decades.

JDZ

Afterthoughts/Clarifications to Reader:

Discussing these not so pleasant subjects is not to scare myself or others with predictions of doomsday, for truly I know nothing of the future. I know to some extent what has been, where it has lead us to today, and how I honestly feel about what I see, hear and observe around me. I hope that "future events" unfolding will prove me wrong, as I have no special need to be right but only a desire to know and understand the nature and unfolding of reality.

I have thought and written much in the past about the dawning of the Aquarian Age, and belief in December 20l2 as (contrary to Nostradamus' predictions) marking the beginning of this. Now I find that holding onto such high expectations as these, based upon speculation and wishful thinking alone, makes it that much easier to get bitter, disappointed and disillusioned. So I am happiest seeing things as they are, by immediate observation, and working with this reality, the present moment, in the best way I know how.

JDZ

This Is It

Lately I have grown weary with all the new age talk, the notion of this being the precursor to a more enlightened age... both socially and individually I have found all such teachings and ideas leading me astray from the only reality there is, here and now.

The teachers of Law of Attraction talk to you about "the now" as a moment of great opportunity and power, and in the same breath they also say to ignore your present conditions and imagine your life how you would like it to be. Am I missing something here or is this an oxymoron? If you are really living in the now then all thoughts and planning about the future, lest they be instantaneous insight or visions, are only distractions from the actual/real which IS the present moment.

Those who speak of the Age of Aquarius (or a new Golden Age), and admittedly I have been one, are again missing the point of presence. Maybe it is the last really bad period before something breaks through for humanity, but then maybe it isn't!! Some astrologers say the Age of Aquarius is another 100 or so years in the future still. The point is that right NOW there is little evidence of anything changing for the better, so to be constantly waiting for this to come is only aggravating, only a distraction from dealing with *what is* in a sane and serene manner, mindful and accepting, going with the flow...

It has been positively noted (by myself and many others) that too much fear and negativity, regarding anxiety over the future and/or depression/anger over the past, is detrimental and potentially harmful. Yet all talk of a utopia or dreamy future, that is an escape from the present, is setting up conflict between the real and ideal and just another trap the mind sets up for itself. In fact, the only plans, ideals and visions for the future that are of any substance and actuality are those that are or can be experienced or acted upon immediately, for THIS IS IT, and this life is not to be wasted building castles in the air, or in imagining that 2012 (or whenever) will be the beginning of those golden years we are all waiting and yearning for in vain.

"Whatever will be will be", and so I put it in God's hands knowing that my individual action and will must first be surrendered entirely before any good can come out of these. In other words, the Doing flows naturally out of the Being which is in the essence and nature of Seeing and Feeling, without struggle and conflict or wasted effort, acting in unity with this present moment.

JDZ

FAITH IN MIND

The Supreme Way is not difficult

If only you do not pick and choose.

Neither love nor hate,

And you will clearly understand.

Be off by a hair,

And you are as far apart as heaven from earth.

If you want it to appear,

Be neither for or against.

For and against opposing each other-

This is the mind's disease.

Without recognizing the mysterious principle

It is useless to practice quietude.

The Way is perfect like great space,

Without lack, without excess.

Because of grasping and rejecting,

You cannot attain it.

Do not pursue conditioned existence;

Do not abide in the acceptance of emptiness.

In oneness and equality,

Confusion vanishes of itself.

Stop activity and return to stillness,

And that stillness will be even more active.

Only stagnating in duality,

How can you recognize oneness?

If you fail to penetrate oneness,

Both places lose their function.

Banish existence and you fall into existence;

Follow emptiness and you turn your back on it.

Excessive talking and thinking

Turn you from harmony with the Way.

Cut off talking and thinking,

And there is nowhere you cannot penetrate.

Return to the root and attain the principle;

Pursue illumination and you lose it.

One moment of reversing the light

Is greater than the previous emptiness.

The previous emptiness is transformed;

It was all a product of deluded views.

No need to seek the real;

Just extinguish your views.

Do not abide in dualistic views;

take care not to seek after them.

As soon as there is right and wrong

The mind is scattered and lost.

Two comes from one,

Yet do not even keep the one.

When one mind does not arise,

Myriad dharmas are without defect.

Without defect, without dharmas,

No arising, no mind.

The subject is extinguished with the object.

The object sinks away with the subject.

Object is object because of the subject;

Subject is subject because of the object.

Know that the two

Are originally one emptiness.

In one emptiness the two are the same,

Containing all phenomena.

Not seeing fine or course,

How can there be any bais?

The Great Way is broad,

Neither easy nor difficult.

With narrow views and doubts,

Haste will slow you down.

Attach to it and you lose the measure;

The mind will enter a deviant path.

Let it go and be spontaneous,

Experience no going or staying.

Accord with your own nature, unite with the Way,

Wander at ease, without vexation.

Bound by thoughts, you depart from the real;

And sinking into a stupor is bad.

It is not good to weary the spirit.

Why alternate between aversion and affection?

If you wish to enter the one vehicle,

Do not be repelled by the sense realm.

With no aversion to the sense realm,

You become one with true enlightenment.

The wise have no motives;

Fools put themselves in bondage.

One dharma is not different from another.

The deluded mind clings to whatever it desires.

Using mind to cultivate mind-

Is this not a great mistake?

The erring mind begets tranquility and confusion;

In enlightenment there are no likes or dislikes.

The duality of all things

Issues from false discriminations.

A dream, an illusion, a flower in the sky-

How could they be worth grasping?

Gain and loss, right and wrong-

Discard them all at once.

If the eyes do not close in sleep,

All dreams will cease of themselves.

If the mind does not discriminate,

All dharmas are of one suchness.

The essence of one suchness is profound;

Unmoving, conditioned things are forgotten.

Contemplate all dharmas as equal,

And you return to things as they are.

When the subject disappears,

There can be no measuring or comparing.

Stop activity and there is no activity;

When activity stops, there is no rest.

Since two cannot be established,

How can there be one?

In the very ultimate,

Rules and standards do not exist.

Develop a mind of equanimity,

And all deeds are put to rest.

Anxious doubts are completely cleared.

Right faith is made upright.

Nothing lingers behind,

Nothing can be remembered.

Bright and empty, functioning naturally,

The mind does not exert itself.

It is not a place of thinking,

Difficult for reason and emotion to fathom.

In the Dharma Realm of true suchness,

There is no other, no self.

To accord with it is vitally important;

Only refer to "not-two."

In not-two all things are in unity;

Nothing is not included.

The wise throughout the ten directions

All enter this principle.

This principle is neither hurried nor slow-

One thought for ten thousand years.

Abiding nowhere yet everywhere,

The ten directions are right before you.

The smallest is the same as the largest

In the realm where delusion is cut off.

The largest is the same as the smallest;

No boundaries are visible.

Existence is precisely emptiness;

Emptiness is precisely existence.

If it is not like this,

Then you must not preserve it.

One is everything;

Everything is one.

If you can be like this,

Why worry about not finishing?

Faith and mind are not two;

Non-duality is faith in mind.

The path of words is cut off;

There is no past, no future, no present.


by Jianzhi Sengcan

Fourth Patriarch of Chan

Sensitivity is Essential

The so-called saints and sannyasis have contributed to the dullness of mind and to the destruction of sensitivity. Every habit, repetition, rituals strengthened by belief and dogma, sensory responses, can be and are refined, but the alert awareness, sensitivity, is quite another matter. Sensitivity is absolutely essential to look deeply within; this movement of going within is not a reaction to the outer; the outer and the inner are the same movement, they are not separate. The division of this movement as the outer and as the inner breeds insensitivity. Going within is the natural flow of the outer; the movement of the inner has its own action, expressed outwardly but it is not a reaction of the outer. Awareness of this whole movement is sensitivity. - Saanen 1st Public Talk 6th July 1980 Krishnamurti Notebook

Man is the only animal that is to be dreaded

One saw a bird dying, shot by a man. It was flying with rhythmic beat and beautifully, with such freedom and lack of fear. And the gun shattered it; it fell to the earth and all the life had gone out of it. A dog fetched it, and the man collected other dead birds. He was chattering with his friend and seemed so utterly indifferent. All that he was concerned with was bringing down so many birds, and it was over as far as he was concerned. They are killing all over the world. Those marvellous, great animals of the sea, the whales, are killed by the million, and the tiger and so many other animals are now becoming endangered species. Man is the only animal that is to be dreaded - Krishnamurti to Himself Ojai California Tuesday 26th April, 1983

Recent Reflections ~ On Being & Becoming

ON BEING - HERE & NOW

I See ~ I Feel ~ I Do -- Fill in the blanks with your ideas, without letting the thinking itself take command and create more mischief and deception. Conscious thought is the servant, not master, of these three most primal functions. What I think depends upon what I see, feel and do and must guide by remaining humble simply performing functions of reality navigation and interpretation or intuition...

In conjunction with "I Do" comes "I Will" (present to future), with "I See" comes "I Know" and with "I Feel" comes "I Believe"... Thought is simply an activity of Spirit (Seeing) of Psyche (Feeling) and of the Body (Doing), which by its very creatively material nature becomes the manifest outer conditions/formations and experiences of my here/now existence.

Having brought the brain-mind into subservience and cooperation, I am most grateful to have this most efficient and creative (intuitive in conj with seeing and feeling) and devoted servant as a guide through the the inner and outer realms of this psychic-physical existence.

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ON BECOMING - DOING & HAVING

Questions to ask myself today - How much do you really want it? How *truly serious* are you about getting down and doing the job till it is done?? What kinds of people and experiences will work well in association with immediate and longer term goals?? Finally, how much are you willing to *allow* a new joyful vision of positive creation into your life, by trusting and aligning with the very Source from which all (good) things come???

Also remembering now and again to simply be and breathe, exhaling feeling gratitude for what already is, inhaling new life and creative potential...
Three things I am most grateful for today... Personal freedom, excellent physical health and much potential/opportunity to create/expand my world intuitively and imaginatively. "Happiness is not in having what you want but in wanting what you have"...

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ON SELF CONFIDENCE

A simple yet profound description of true confidence (below)... I would add courage and a willingness to take bold action, without hesitation....

"With the realization of ones own potential and self-confidence in ones ability, one can build a better world. According to my own experience, self-confidence is very important. That sort of confidence is not a blind one; it is an awareness of ones own potential. On that basis, human beings can transform themselves by ...increasing the good qualities and reducing the negative qualities."
- His Holiness the Dalai Lama

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ON EGO versus HIGHER SELF - CONSCIOUSNESS

JDZ ~ In this life I am born alone, as time progresses playmates and peers become part of my world, but still it is self centered throughout early adulthood. The more selfish I can be in the accomplishing and fulfilling of personal ambition/desire, the closer I become to others, having less left to do, more to give.

Dr Wayne Dyer ~ "In the ego state you generally experience yourself as a separate entity. To move past this conditioning you want to begin to see yourself as humanity itself rather than as a separate form in a body. Very simply put, if you feel disconnected from the rest of humanity, and truly a separate entity needing to prove yourself and compete with others, you will be unable to manifest your heart's desire."

** We can be positively self-centered without having to be separate from humanity, the earth and the vast universe all around us...

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ON POSITIVE ASSERTION & AFFIRMATIVE ACTION

"Some people think, great God will come from the sky, take away everything and make everybody feel high, but if you know what life is worth you will look for yours on Earth, so now you see the light stand up for your rights!" Bob Marley & the Wailers

The more you advocate for yourself, the more you potentially have to give others and humanity at large. So while (obviously) it doesn't serve to be a greedy prick neither does it serve anyone or anything to deny oneself the abundance and the freedom to do as one pleases (within ethical bounds).

Reading Wayne Dyer's "Manifest Your Destiny" is most inspiring to me right now, affirmative yet spiritually aware, taking the whole picture into account yet the primary focus is on positive creation, taking affirmative action aligned with my true nature and heart's desire.

Demand is a strong word... yet for those (not unlike myself) who have difficulty with self assertion it can be an empowering idea... Like Abraham Hicks speaking of anger or desire for revenge as the next step beyond powerlessness, which will then lead to the what you refer to above as calm assertiveness, and of course living within ethical bounds respectful of the rights and feelings of others.

Meaning, sometimes the contrast of going from non-assertive to demanding, or from powerlessness to a feeling of rage, is just the next step which in turn will die out and be replaced by a generosity of spirit that is in no way self-denying or joyless nor is it withholding from others.
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ON EMPTINESS INNOCENCE & ENERGY:

And walking on that road, there was complete emptiness of the brain, and the mind was free of all experience, the knowing of yesterday, though a thousand yesterdays have been. Time, the thing of thought, had stopped; literally there was no movement before and after; there was no going or arriving or standing still. Space as distance was not; there were the hills and bushes but not as high and low. There was no relationship with anything but there was an awareness of the bridge and the passer-by. The totality of the mind, in which is the brain with its thoughts and feelings, was empty; and because it was empty, there was energy, a deepening and widening energy without measure. All comparison, measurement belong to thought and so to time. The otherness was the mind without time; it was the breath of innocence and immensity. Words are not reality; they are only means of communication but they are not the innocence and the immeasurable. The emptiness was alone. - Krishnamurti Notebook 20th October to 20th November 1961

JDZ

Beyond the Thinker

Knowing that the thinker not only determines but actually IS the thought he/she is thinking, that they are one, is empowering and liberating when the thinker decides to uplift and change the story (by changing himself)... because the thought in turn becomes manifestation.

Even more liberating and empowering is that the awareness of power to change and grow comes from neither thinker nor thought and its manifestation as thing. Detached (yet inseparable) from all Creation is the Inner Creator, Energy Source and Light of Being. Mind alone cannot aid in the mastery of itself... its imagined authority must surrender entirely, to alignment with its Source.

Here alone it is possible to remain a deliberate and conscious creator, beyond the mind itself (thinker and thought), otherwise remaining in a whirlpool of repetitive thinking... manifesting perhaps in a million different ways but not going anywhere, stuck in the past and subject to knee jerk negative thoughts & reactions plus alternatively painful and pleasurable emotional responses to adverse conditions created by the mind itself. To simply let go, let body and mind drop (not disappear) out of command, releasing all identification with body-mind vessel it is no longer a struggle or heavy karmic burden but a friend and ally.

True religion is not belief, the search for truth is a search for lost or forgotten ideals. Truth is what remains when all belief(s) (which are fixed & thought-based), both positive and negative, cease to be... where only Beingness, a wondrous sense of aliveness and beauty, remains. The relative being of self awareness and inquiry, knowing thyself, and in this awareness letting the self (as individual body and mind, not Spirit) go entirely... leading one beyond the relative to embrace the infinite and timeless.

JDZ

Religion and Truth

Religion, surely, is the uncovering of reality. Religion is not belief. Religion is not the search for truth. The search for truth is merely the fulfillment of belief. Religion is the understanding of the thinker; for what the thinker is, that he creates. Without understanding the process of the thinker and the thought, merely to be caught in a dogma is surely not the uncovering of the beauty of life, of existence, of truth. If you seek truth, then you already know truth. If you go out seeking something, the implication is that you have lost it, which means you already know what it is. What you do know is belief, and belief is not truth.
Krishnamurti -On Self Knowledge