Friday, April 30, 2010

Illumination

A lightning flash of awareness that comes in an instant and is gone just like that. What does it reveal, another piece of the cosmic puzzle? Perhaps so, but even more important is the moment of insight when it makes sense if only for that moment alone, before dissolving back into the empty sky of mind from which it arose.

Intuition is essentially having insightful thoughts without having to think or process information. It is this empty awareness of mind, where simplification of life situations is what matters and not creating or getting caught up in endless streams of thinking and infinitely further abstraction.

Open awareness receives cosmic wisdom and is particularly characteristic of the human-divine consciousness, because unlike the computer this human brain is not meant to function and calculate every second it is on... moreover it doesn't need to. The computer can only memorize and process, using linear lower brain functions. Human Beings can intuit simply by turning off the brain, being fully alive, present and conscious, which is really what makes us truly transcendent, highly intelligent spiritual beings.

Where mind is still, quiet and unoccupied, empty of all self conscious and delusional thoughts about self and others, here divine grace descends, often uninvited and unexpected, onto the horizon of human consciousness spontaneously.

No thoughts, No baggage, No problem...

JDZ

Tuesday, April 27, 2010

Do It Now

To see is to do, like supposing I were to see a poisonous snake inside of a 10 foot radius, only an immediate action/response would exist for me at this moment, with not even a microsecond to sit stop and think. With the perception the immediate thought, intuition/insight, arises as to what I do next... the intelligence to act directly, instinctively, without calculating, reflecting or planning of any kind.

Spontaneous doing means the moment you see or think about some particular thing it is done immediately! It is this affirmation alone that interests me, an earthly existence where every little detail is accounted for and everything gets done. This means not merely to make a long of list of to dos and a system to get them done but getting it done the moment it pops up onto the surface of conscious awareness.

It is bringing the analytical detail oriented mind, which handles all routine practical affairs, into the red hot moment. That which I can do immediately need not get put on the list of unmet responsibilities, and this level of efficiency is at a higher level than all systems we devise for long term planning and task mastery.

There is no need for affirmation where the Heart is concerned, this Truth is already and needs no further mental contrivance. Though the vision be already present, it is ultimately a matter of implementation, of getting the job done so the manifestation is complete and a real masterpiece is created.

JDZ

Monday, April 26, 2010

Effortless

Must not a definite practice be adopted to put an end to this deterioration, this inefficiency and laziness of the mind?", asked the government official. Practice or discipline implies an incentive, the gaining of an end; and isn't this a self centered activity? Becoming virtuous is a process of self-interest, leading to respectability. When you cultivate in yourself a state of non-violence, you are still violent under a different name.

Besides all this, there is another degenerating factor: effort, in all its subtle forms. This doesn't mean that one is advocating laziness. "Good heavens, sir, you are certainly taking everything away from us!" exclaimed the official. "And when you take everything away, what's left of us? Nothing!" Creativeness is not a process of becoming or achieving, but a state of being in which self-seeking effort is totally absent. When the self makes an effort to be absent, the self is present. All effort on the part of this complex thing called the mind must cease, without any motive or inducement. "That means death doesn't it?" Death to all that's known which is the `me'. It is only when the totality of the mind is still, that the creative, the nameless, comes into being.

"What do you mean by the mind?", asked the artist. The conscious as well as the unconscious; the hidden recesses of the heart as well as the educated bits. - J. Krishnamurti Commentaries On Living Series III

Sunday, April 25, 2010

Heart of Being

It is most important to know and see clearly, experience and feel most concretely, the basic essential components of Being (Self), and what is at the Heart of it all. For to know the parts is also to know the error of too often identifying too much with one or the other polarity, with mind or matter. To know a connecting all inclusive factor, that excludes neither polarity (yin/yang), is to find instant correction of all errors, misconceptions, toxic actions and emotional addictions.

The Heart is Master, the Head is Executive Director, the Body is Servant... When the Heart rules all is unfolding in perfect harmony, however hard and long the road ahead may be... when the Head or Body (the intellect or emotions) takes over to try running the show, this is where all mischief and troubles begin.

The Body is also the brain, the physiological/sensory/perceptual faculties, and the imagination born of sense experience perceived and received. What we experience humanly as pleasure, physical love and affection, simple joys of earth and with others, particularly the "significant other".

The Head is that aspect of the brain which is mind, the ... psyche, formed out of bodily/physical experience, in the form of memory, dreams, fantasy and imagination (the Freudian Id)... playing the Ego role, the Man in charge, with Left Brained Capacities to make snap (and long term) decisions, clear headed and present, logical and rational. It is also the *processing* of one's innate cognitive and philosophical capacities in action. The Intellect I equate here with the Head, the rational and functional, clearheaded and cognitive (left) side of human thinking.

Emotions I equate here with Body, b/c the psychological aspect of feeling is always a physically felt awareness, because the very brain that generates emotional response is itself physical, as are our fantasies, dreams, memories based upon previous sensory or earthly experience(s).

"Live from your heart, you will be most effective" - yogi tea proverbs

JDZ

Saturday, April 24, 2010

Keep it Real

To assert arrogantly the superiority of one's own wisdom, compassion, spiritual development, etc, is really the same as the judging of another as inferior. The moment ego enters the picture *you* have already lost or gone astray. The more I truly learn about life, humankind and all there is in cosmic consciousness to know, the more it becomes clear how much I do not know.

The self-conscious ego has no place here, in fact it is only in the way, just as it is irrelevant during those industrious moments where efficiency (not vanity) is all that is really needed. If I am thinking about myself, then clearly I am neither aware nor connected. In this light, to replace the "lower mind thinking" with "higher thoughts" is the greatest potential delusion of all, for such an individual is merely hiding (not facing) what is real in himself. As Chogyam Trungpa points out in "Meditation in Action", this "manure of consciousness" is the very essence of Bodhi, the Enlightened Mind itself.

So without getting into self-justification and rationalizations of all kinds, truly I have a greater sense of "the God or Goddess in you" with people who are genuine, who keep it real and whom are not full of shallow platitudes to continue hiding the truth, the reality. I may post and read many writings from teachers who've gone way beyond anything I've known or experienced, and yet the underlying truth behind all of it is true *self-awareness*, the antithesis of egoic consciousness and all forms of deluded spiritual materialism.

Better to acknowledge that I am full of the kind of violence that a Lion would display in response to an attack on her cubs... who would un-cinematically rip to shreds anyone that dares threaten me or those I love (in self-defense only of course). While there is nothing enlightened in feeling or thinking this way, I never for a moment claim to be enlightened or beyond the violence within, however well controlled and restrained I remain.. and if I am to say that I love everyone equally and value the welfare of every single sentient being alive, this would be a most obvious (and ridiculous) lie.

I acknowledge, observe and gradually vigilantly chip off pieces of this rock, not by escape into positive thinking but through a direct and honest understanding. All of my shortcomings and imperfections go right to the surface, with nothing to hide.

Joel

Awareness

Yoga exercises are excellent; the speaker does them every day, for an hour or more; but that is merely physical exercise, to keep the body healthy, and so on. But through them you can never come upon the other - never! Because if you give them all importance, you are not giving importance to the understanding of yourself which is to be watchful, to be aware, to give attention to what you are doing, every day of your life; which is to give attention to how you speak and what you say, to what you think, how you behave, whether you are attached, whether you are frightened, whether you are pursuing pleasure and so on.

To be aware of the whole movement of thought; for if you are and you are really serious about it, then you will have established right relationship, obviously. Relationship becomes extraordinarily important when all things about are chaotic - when the world is going to pieces, as it is. But when there is this establishment of total relationship, whole relationship, not between you and me, but human relationship with the whole of the world, then you have the basis. From there you can go on to behavior - how you behave.

If your behavior is based on pleasure or on reward, it is not behavior. It is merely the pursuit of pleasure from which fear arises. Relationship, behavior and order, these are absolutely essential if you want to go into the question of meditation. If you have not laid this foundation, then do what you like - stand on your head, breathe in for the next ten thousand years and repeat words, words - there will be no meditation.

Total Freedom
-------------------------------------------------------------

Why is it that we are always asking, begging, wanting, stealing? Because in ourselves there is nothing; inwardly, psychologically we are like an empty drum. Being empty, we try to fill ourselves not only by stealing things, but by imitating others. Imitation is a form of stealing: you are nothing but he is somebody, so you are going to get some of his glory by copying him. This corruption runs right through human life, and very few are free of it. So what is important is to find out whether the inward emptiness can ever be filled. As long as the mind is seeking to fill itself it will always be empty. When the mind is no longer concerned with filling its own emptiness, then only does that emptiness cease to be.

Think on These Things

Wednesday, April 21, 2010

Enlightenment

Zen master Suzuki Roshi spoke of the "enlightenment before enlightenment" which is the state of mind when mindfulness is present, when there isn't a grasping at things being any way at all except the way they are. It's just seeing the present moment, patient and straightforward.

When we employ some method to get us clear, we often dwell in the concept of an enlightened or unenlightened mind. We're still separated from our wholeness, we're still not in the moment. Enlightenment isn't enlightenment. Enlightenment is a word. One of the things that blocks us from whatever this enlightenment might be is our hunger for what we imagine en-light-enment to be. Enlightenment can become our greatest cause of suffering, because it's our greatest longing. It's our greatest "being elsewhere," our greatest vacuum. Enlightenment is freedom, the thought of enlightenment is prison. The truth exists in the moment. If we're anywhere else, seeking something outside of the moment, we're in prison.

I used to think that peak experiences were a sign of attainment. I'd have some new experience and sometime later have some other insight and think, "Oh, it's really paying off, I'm getting closer now!" And then there's be a floating experience and then an intense light experience... and each time the thought "Oh, here it comes!" And then there'd be the "unsurpassable wisdom world" and then "no me at all, anywhere," and then another experience and another and I'd be saying "Boy, it can't be far now!" Then I started to realize that I had thought there were going to be a few dozen experiences and that would be it, all finished, pure awareness twenty-four hours a day. But it turns out there are hundreds and hundreds of so-called "peak experiences." And they're all just experiences.

The value of depth experiences is the purification, the penetration into what is, that occurs in the moment. But clinging to any experience as an accomplishment or captured truth diverts the attention from the reality of the next moment.

No one who wants to be enlightened will ever be enlightened because what we are enlightened from is that someone wishing to be enlightened. Wishing to be enlightened is like the ego wanting toe be present at its own funeral. The imagined self, in attempting to possess enlightenment, doesn't realize that it's committing suicide, for it's the falling away of this separate "I" which allows the experience of our universal nature.

It's a gradual awakening, but, even knowing this, we may at times notice our conditioning snap at a moment of deep peace or clear insight, much like a fish jumping out of the water to catch a bug. We can say to ourselves, don't reach for peak experience because we know they're just part of the passing show, but nevertheless at times we notice the conditioned mind grasping to be something other than it is. But it's only this grasping, this constant becoming, that makes the mind seem unenlightened. When there's no grasping anywhere, that's it--that's the original mind, the essence of mind. Already pure. Already luminous. When we experience that for even a millisecond, it stops the world and allows us to let go of any need to be anywhere but in the perfection of the moment.

Stephen Levine "A Gradual Awakening" (Chapter 14 Snaring Enlightenment pp.76-79)

Death & Detachment

As one looked at that dead leaf with all its beauty and colour, maybe one would very deeply comprehend, be aware of, what one's own death must be, not at the very end but at the very beginning. Death isn't some horrific thing, something to be avoided, something to be postponed, but rather something to be with day in and day out. And out of that comes an extraordinary sense of immensity.
- Krishnamurti to Himself

"To philosophize is to learn how to die" - Cicero

"Life is solitary, poor, nasty, brutish and short" - Hobbes

"One who no longer is can no longer suffer" - Lucretious

With all this in mind, there is no regret over past struggles and failures, and the sense that "this physical life" is really nothing more than a training for "eternal life" in Spirit. It is not what this life brings me so much as it is what I bring to life, beginning with courage, creative enthusiasm and fullest presence. My primary life purpose, though rooted here and now amidst the beauty of Planet Earth, extends infinitely beyond this individual lifetime...

Only death itself (psychological or actual) provides this clarity of understanding.

Suggested Reading: Living in the Light of Death - Larry Rosenberg

JDZ

Monday, April 19, 2010

Purpose ~ The Central Point of Focus

Preliminary (Inner) Purpose is an attunement with the present momentum, matter at hand and immediate point of focus. Primary (Outer) Purpose means Life passion, work, vocation and earthly mission. A fully devotional involvement that becomes a consistent point of outward focus.

Preliminary Purpose: Self Surrender, Spiritual Heart Consciousness, Ground of Awareness, Being and Eternal Now. The thinker/experiencer and ego equals the past, of all accumulated thoughts, feelings, images, and ideologies that make up myself; Conversely, worldly interests, ambitions and aspirations embody the imagined future. There is a time gap between self and world that must be bridged often by an act of surrender... by removing conscious attention from the subject (as well as just the object) self ceases to exist as a separate individual entity. Letting go of self consciousness, the separate and subjective sense of self, is freedom from the past, a most key component to the most fundamental and essential Life Purpose, which I refer to here as Spiritual Awakening, Conscious Presence, Freedom, Bliss, Deep Meditation or Inner Peace.

Primary Purpose: Resolution, Mission or Central Motivation....done immediately and naturally, arising out of an empty surrendered state of being. To be performed regularly, frequently, with devotion and a disciplined sense of direction, switching the focus momentarily to ordinary tasks like making a phone call or running an errand. With this established, the next action step is as small and simple as the next word, the very first thought...

Incidentally, the same principle be true of preliminary purpose, that simple awareness and one pointed attention/action keeps a concrete focus and forward moving flow of positive expression, the momentum changes yet the now is eternal, so remaining focused in presence means also an attention to the very specific form this moment takes, which is not quite the same as an hour a minute or a second ago, and which will not repeat itself, exactly as it is now, anytime in the future.

Secondary Purpose: All mundane matters pertaining to survival, work and regular supplementary income, where obligations and commitments must be made and kept, financial, social and otherwise, for the primary purpose of survival. Whereas the primary purpose indicates "what do I want to do?" the secondary purpose is "what do I have to do". This also includes all forms of exercise and proper nutrition to maintain and nourish the physical body.

Tertiary Purpose: Pertains to responsibilities relating to jobs, relationships, citizenship, and general service to mankind. Learning the Art of Right Relationship is the primary tertiary purpose. Group activities of all kinds, spiritual and mundane... rules of social conduct, living within social parameters.

Evolutionary Purpose: Universal Empowerment, Manifesting and Unfolding, Taking the Leap, Sticking to Purpose (no matter what), transformation, regeneration. Doing something that I rarely do or have never done before, like giving gifts to loved ones without thought of anything in return or contributing wholeheartedly, body and soul, to a worthwhile cause.

Thoughts on Sticking to Purpose - Being and Doing, One-pointed Focus, Eternal Flame

This train travels far and wide, making many stops and covering much ground, and goes places on the condition that it remain steadily, reliably, predictably on track. Be organized and efficient, not dull and mechanical... as a stream runs in ordinary rhythmic fashion, sure and steady, it also bends and swerves around the big heavy boulders, is fluid and malleable while remaining fixed in it's flow..

All *secondary/tertiary purpose* activities will continue to hang over my head, all mundane matters of everyday maintenance, surviving and thriving, so long as the *primary purpose* of creative expression becomes in any way dormant. Your main creative thrust or passion in life motivates all levels of spontaneous activity, so it is what keeps alive the enthusiasm needed to do all the rest of it as well.

For the first time it makes sense to me... Do what you love and the money will (eventually) follow. It does not mean that you literally have to be working at your dream job already, but rather it's what you accomplish create and do with most of your free time.. Where energy and devotion go, the abundance flows... Take the thought of money out of the picture and imagine/feel what true wealth feels like from the inside out... knowing my purpose, and sticking to it, is true wealth.

The forming of a life purpose or mission arises out of an awareness of what does not come natural or easy. Ego in its highest sense is centrality, an anchor for the soul in an endless sea of unconscious phenomena. Acting from a solid place where creative joy arises with the discovery of the missing link; while the rest... (and totality) of life is already present and effortlessly manifesting out of the heart of being.

JDZ

Sunday, April 18, 2010

First Thought ~ Best Thought

It is not that self and world are to be renounced, just removed from command and seen as they truly are, in unity, the creations (not the creator) of all life. So when thoughts and emotions, ideas and ideals, previously cultivated come to the fore they are seen only as creative building blocks, not coming from me personally but from the very creative and pure presence of life that flows within (and without) me. First thought is the right thought, that which I've acknowledged to be true and relevant comes immediately as insight, not to be gathered or owned but simply allowed and acted upon...

Q - What will I do with this day to mark it as a personal milestone? What actions and experiences will help make the most of today's potential positive energy and lead to a clear understanding of a mysterious magic power that keeps this inspirational fire burning strong, consistent and bright??

A - Perhaps it is not a question of what to do or how to do it, rather it is a way of inspired doing which arises spontaneously as the world and its deceptions, including the self created subject or *sense of self* (thinker and experiencer) ceases to be. Removing both ego and others from position of command, the individual... surrenders to become a pure vessel of presence that allows creative energy to flow free and easy...

Purpose, Resolution, Mission or Central Motivation.... what I do immediately and naturally, arising out of an empty surrendered state of being. To be performed regularly, frequently, with devotion and a disciplined sense of direction, switching the focus momentarily to ordinary tasks like making a phone call. With this... established, the next action step is as small and simple as the next word, the very first thought..

JDZ

Saturday, April 17, 2010

The Observer is the Observed

One image, as the observer, observes dozens of other images around himself and inside himself, and he says, `I like this image, I'm going to keep it' or `I don't like that image so I'll get rid of it', but the observer himself has been put together by the various images which have come into being through reaction to various other images. So we come to a point where we can say, `The observer is also the image, only he has separated himself and observes. This observer who has come into being through various other images thinks himself permanent and between himself and the images he has created there is a division, a time interval. This creates conflict between himself and the images he believes to be the cause of his troubles. So then he says, "I must get rid of this conflict", but the very desire to get rid of the conflict creates another image. Awareness of all this, which is real meditation, has revealed that there is a central image put together by all the other images, and the central image, the observer, is the censor, the experiencer, the evaluator, the judge who wants to conquer or subjugate the other images or destroy them altogether. The other images are the result of judgments, opinions and conclusions by the observer, and the observer is the result of all the other images - therefore the observer is the observed. - Commentaries On Living Series II Chapter 50 Convictions--Dreams

Thursday, April 15, 2010

Silence

To be with me, you have to be in silence. If you talk, you miss the chance, because words become barriers. Words are not means of communication, they are means of avoiding communication.

Whenever you want to be with someone, you want to be silent: only in silence there is communion. Only in deep silence there is a merger and a meeting and the boundaries dissolve. Something of me enters you, and something of you enters me.

If you come to me and talk, and talk, and talk, you don't allow me to enter. And you don't allow yourself to be vulnerable. But it is natural when you come to see me for the first time and suddenly you feel that you cannot talk, that you cannot communicate through words.

You feel as if you are not communicating at all, because all your life you have been communicating through words and you don't know that there is another dimension of communion, there is another way. With me words are useless.

To be with me, the only way is to be in deep silence, deep receptivity, in a deep opening so that I can pour myself into you. If you are too full of words and talking too many things, you will miss me. Silence is the language with me.

OSHO...♥

WONDERFUL JOURNEY...IN LOVE AND BLISS...WITHIN.

Wednesday, April 14, 2010

Resistance, Attitude, Opinions

I wonder what we mean by attitude. Why do we want an attitude? What does attitude mean? Taking up a position, coming to a conclusion. I have an attitude about whatever it is, which means I have come to a conclusion after study, after examining, after planning, after probing into the question. I have come to this point, to this attitude, which means that very assumption of an attitude is resistance; therefore that in itself is violence.

We cannot have an attitude towards violence or hostility. That means you are interpreting it according to your particular conclusion, fancy, imagination, understanding. What we are saying is: is it possible to look at this hostility in oneself, this creating enmity in oneself, this violence, this brutality in oneself without any attitude, to see the fact as it is? The moment you have an attitude you are already prejudiced, you have taken a side and therefore you are not looking, you are not understanding that fact within yourself.

So, Sir, to look at oneself without an attitude, without any opinion, judgment, evaluation, is one of the most arduous tasks. In this looking there is clarity and it is that clarity which is not a conclusion, not an attitude, that dispels this total structure of brutality and hostility.

- Talks in Europe 1968 Amsterdam 5th Public Talk 22nd May 1968

Saturday, April 10, 2010

Surrendered Action

Positive Thinking, an ancient healing mental science, has become yet another modern western world escape from facing the real and the actual. A ripe example of Spiritual Materialism, this living within the same capitalistic acquisitive money dominated society, using psychic/mental powers for personal gain alone. The new age perspective is just another more avant garde take on evangelical gospel abundance preaching; and even more to the point, of the legendary invulnerable macho capitalist mentality.

Many years of ruthless unrestrained self-aggrandizing destruction to the very planet that sustains and gives us joy, the current economy collapsing, and the mental illness rate of those who are unable to live up to the present standard... self-condemnation and loathing just for having limits and negative thoughts, in other words, seeing, feeling and acknowledging this unkind highly imperfect world as it is. The consequence of all this negligent careless optimism, of thinking we can get away with anything we please and it will all be alright, is the current world situation of today. Where "The Secret" and other such ideas are concerned, there is really nothing more wasteful and destructive than thinking that the Earth's resources are inexhaustible.

In the end, using psychic powers for material gain is bound to create conflict and disharmony, if only in the sense of increasing the alienation and rampant consumerism of the present age. What you resist persists, so fighting negativity creates only greater inner conflict. The only positive attitude one needs is a total acceptance of the present moment, regardless of what goes on and how one is feeling. Yet in the acceptance of less than positive feelings that arise one learns to shine most affirmatively from within.

Surrendered Action is the willingness to let go of all plans, all self-centered motivations and desires, for the simple purpose of a wholehearted engagement with the present moment. Though plans and desires for fulfillment are not erased entirely, these remain in the background of consciousness, manifesting in good time as one becomes increasingly grateful for the wealth and abundance that already is. It is saying... I choose connection over separation, and the next action step is always the most essential and primary.

Joel

Thursday, April 8, 2010

River of Life

I don’t know if on your walks you have noticed a long narrow pool beside the river. Some fishermen just have dug it, and it is not connected with the river. The river is flowing steadily, deep and wide, but this pool is heavy with scum because it is not connected with the life of the river, and there are no fish in it. It is a stagnant pool, and the deep river, full of life and vitality, flows swiftly along.

Now don’t you think human beings are like that? They dig a little pool for themselves away from the swift current of life, and in that little pool they stagnate, die; and this stagnation, this decay we call existence. That is we all want a state of permanency; we want certain desires to last forever, we want pleasures to have no end. We dig a little hole and barricade ourselves in it with our families, with our ambitions, our cultures, our fears, our gods, our various forms of worship, and there we die, letting life go by – that life which is permanent, constantly changing, which is so swift, which has such enormous depths, such extraordinary vitality and beauty.

Have you not noticed that if you sit quietly on the bank of the river you hear its song – the lapping of the water, the sound of the current going by? There is always a sense of movement, an extraordinary movement towards the wider and the deeper. But in the little pool there is no movement at all, its water is stagnant. And if you observe you will see that this is what most of us want: little stagnant pools of existence away from life. We say that our pool-existence is right and we have invented a philosophy to justify it; we have developed social, political, economic and religious theories in support of it, and we don’t want to be disturbed because, you see, what we are after is a sense of permanency.

Do you know what it means to seek permanency? It means wanting the pleasurable to continue indefinitely, and wanting that which is not pleasurable to end as quickly as possible. We want the name that we bear to be known and to continuous life in the stagnant pool; we don’t want any real changes there, so we have built a society which guarantees us the permanency of property, of name, of fame.

But you see, life is not like that at all, life is not permanent. Like the leaves that fall from a tree, all things are impermanent, nothing endures; there is always change and death. Have you ever noticed a tree standing naked against the sky, how beautiful it is: All its branches are outlined, and in it its nakedness there is a poem, there is a song. Every leaf is gone and it is waiting for the spring. When the spring comes it again fills the tree with the music of many leaves, which in due season fall and are blown away; and that is the way of life.

But we don’t want anything of that kind. We cling to our children, to our traditions, to our society, to our names and our little virtues, because we want permanency; and that is why we are afraid to die. We are afraid to lose the things we know. But life is not what we would like it to be; life is not permanent at all. Birds die, snow melts away, trees are cut down or destroyed by storms, and so on. But we want everything that gives us satisfaction to be permanent; we want our position, the authority we have over people, to endure. We refuse to accept life as it is in fact.

The fact is that life is like the river: Endlessly moving on, ever seeking, exploring, pushing, overflowing its banks, penetrating every crevice with its water. But, you see, the mind wont allow that to happen to itself. The mind sees that it is dangerous, risky to live in a state of impermanency , insecurity, so it builds a wall around itself: the wall of tradition, of organized religion, of political and social theories. Family, name, property, the little virtues that we have cultivated – these are all with the walls, away from life. Life is moving, impermanent, and it ceaselessly tries to penetrate, to break down these walls, behind which there is a confusion and misery. The gods within the walls are all false gods, and their writings and philosophies have no meaning because life is beyond them.

Now, a mind that has no walls, that is not burdened with it own acquisitions, accumulations, with its own knowledge, a mind that lives timelessly, insecurely – to such a mind, life is an extraordinary thing. Such a mind is life itself, because life has no resting place. But most of us want a resting place; we want a little house, a name, a position, and we say these things are very important. We demand permanency and create a culture based on this demand, inventing gods which are not gods at all but merely a projection of our own desires.

A mind seeking permanency soon stagnates; like that pool along the river, it is soon full of corruption, decay. Only the mind which has no walls, no foothold, no barrier, no resting place, which is moving completely with life, timelessly pushing on, exploring, exploding – only such a mind can be happy, eternally new, because it is creative in itself.

Then you won’t try to fulfill yourself through anything, seeing that the pursuit of fulfillment only invites sorrow and misery. That is why you should ask your teachers about all this and discuss it among yourselves. If you understand it, you will have begun to understand the extraordinary truth of what life is, and in that understanding there is great beauty and love, the flowering of goodness. But the efforts of a mind that is seeking a pool of security, of permanency, can only lead to darkness and corruption. Once established in the pool, such a mind is afraid to venture out, to seek, to explore; but truth, God, reality or what you will, lies beyond the pool.

Do you know what religion is? Religion is the feeling of goodness, that love which like the river, living, moving everlastingly. In that state you will find there comes a moment when there is no longer any search at all; and this ending of search is the beginning of something totally different. The search for God, for truth, the feeling of being completely good – not the cultivation of goodness, of humility, but the seeking out of something beyond the inventions and tricks of the mind, which means having a feeling for that something, living in it, being it – that is true religion.

But you can do that only when you leave the pool you have dug for yourself and go out into the river of life. Then life has an astonishing way of taking care of you, because then there is no taking care on your part. Life carries you where it will because you are part of itself; then there is no problem of security, of what people say or don’t say, and that is the beauty of life.

J.Krishnamurti on "The River of Life" (Think on these Things Ch. 17).

Wednesday, April 7, 2010

The State of Negation

Krishnamurti: Religion is not separate from life; on the contrary it is life itself. It is this division between religion and life which has bred all the misery you are talking about. So we come back to the basic question of whether it is possible in daily life to live in a state which, for the moment, let us call enlightenment?

Questioner: I still don't know what you mean by enlightenment...

Krishnamurti: A state of negation. Negation is the most positive action, not positive assertion. This is a very important thing to understand. Most of us so easily accept positive dogma, a positive creed, because we want to be secure, to belong, to be attached, to depend. The positive attitude divides and brings about duality. The conflict then begins between this attitude and others. But the negation of all values, of all morality, of all beliefs, having no frontiers, cannot be in opposition to anything. A positive statement in its very definition separates, and separation is resistance. To this we are accustomed, this is our conditioning. To deny all this is not immoral; on the contrary to deny all division and resistance is the highest morality. To negate everything that man has invented, to negate all his values, ethics and gods, is to be in a state of mind in which there is no duality, therefore no resistance or conflict between opposites. In this state there are no opposites, and this state is not the opposite of something else.

Questioner: Then how do you know what is good and what is bad? Or is there no good and bad? What is to prevent me from crime or even murder? If I have no standards what is to prevent me from God knows what aberrations?

Krishnamurti: To deny all this is to deny oneself, and oneself is the conditioned entity who continually pursues a conditioned good. To most of us negation appears as a vacuum because we know activity only in the prison of our conditioning, fear and misery. From that we look at negation and imagine it to be some terrible state of oblivion or emptiness. To the man who has negated all the assertions of society, religion, culture and morality, the man who is still in the prison of social conformity is a man of sorrow. Negation is the state of enlightenment which functions in all the activities of a man who is free of the past. It is the past, with its tradition and its authority, that has to be negated. Negation is freedom, and it is the free man who lives, loves, and knows what it means to die.

-Freedom, Love and Action Eight Conversations

Tuesday, April 6, 2010

Presence of Being

Where no self-clinging exists, no preference for pleasure over pain nor for winning over losing, no reminiscence of good old days now gone, nor for the unrestrained anticipation of days to come*, here is Presence. A common theme of "going with the flow" most would agree on, although even as the stream pushes up against many a boulder it still goes "with the flow". To express preference for anything other than what is, really goes "against the flow". To observe and confront life immediately, without choice or mental manipulation, is to go with and be "in the flow".

When the moving stream stops to form a little stagnant pool it is akin to us using the spiritual path as an escape and excuse to not face and go with what IS. The cocoon or sanctuary self-created, a resistance to the natural and joyous flow of creation, because reality has "become too hard" and one would rather hide out in a fantasy world of one's own. The only way past is through, to go beyond something means to be with it, giving total attention, not repressing or replacing the current reality view, with its pain sadness or depression, with something else more positive or pleasant. Distraction is what we do naturally and easily, it is not a way out or forward but only a quick fix (necessary at times for saving face or staying calm and cheerful at work).

Presence free from pleasure and pain, ideation and mental creations, yet at the root of them all. Seems that joy or pleasure through the senses and psyche flow freely when there's no preference for these over pain or hardship. The beauty of a setting sun is fleeting and transient, inner awareness alone remains always constant, assuming many diverse shapes colors and forms, dissolving and recreating endlessly...

Much of what we call pain or suffering is really just an addiction or attachment to pleasure and comparing the present with golden moments of the past; and/or always planning for or looking forward to pleasurable times ahead. "Living for the weekend and vacations", so to speak.

Beyond the Bliss Sheath is Pure Presence only, which is another way of saying Pure Peace & Positivity.

Joel

*Reminiscence (at times) is a part of immediate presence and being, as is having exciting future plans. The point is to not be stuck in the potential mind traps of memory and anticipation.. and sentimentally or nostalgically always wanting to repeat the experiences (actually just memories now) of the past.

Saturday, April 3, 2010

Simple Observation

Life is a very complex problem and you can't forget the complexity of it by saying 'I won't look at it'. One has to approach it extraordinarily simply, and no formula must be there, no ideology, no choice - mere observation.
- Talks in Europe 1967 -

To search after something is not to search; to seek truth is not to find it. We escape from ourselves through search, which is illusion; we try in every way to take flight from what we are. In ourselves we are so petty, so essentially nothing, and the worship of something greater than ourselves is as petty and stupid as we are. Identification with the great is still a projection of the small. The more is an extension of the less. The small in search of the large will find only what it is capable of finding. The escapes are many and various but the mind in escape is still fearful, narrow and ignorant. The understanding of escape is the freedom from what is. The what is can be understood only when the mind is no longer in search of an answer. The search for an answer is an escape from what is. This search is called by various names, one of which is devotion; but to understand what is, the mind must be silent. - Commentaries On Living Series II Chapter 10 Devotion And Worship

Friday, April 2, 2010

Written Collage: Spring Musings

CLARITY - PERSPECTIVE - POSITIVITY
In adjusting the lens through which I look at certain things/people/situations and events, those seen as unpleasant or undesirable, suddenly it all becomes clear. It was only the distortion and fogging of the lenses that kept me confused and disillusioned for so long... I now make it a priority to clean and shine these regularly.

In a discussion w/ friends on facebook: It is true that a change of perspective works wonders, if truly one can get a solid and serene perspective on why things happen as they do. At work I can continue to look up on situations as part of that service to others (however difficult at times) which I agreed on, signed up for, and have made no effort as of yet to walk out on it. I can endure the painful emotions that come up just a marathon runner would endure that last mile... without complaining or becoming reactive.

The important point to realize here is not to blame either oneself or the environment, but to see the crises or conflicts that come up as the inner-outer karmic phenomena that it is, it originates from BOTH and from neither exclusively. The Inner is the Outer and vice versa... Truth and Falsehood rely entirely on the Unity versus Separation factor (respectively), of the inner self & outer world.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WHOLEHEARTEDNESS - DEVOTION - COMMITMENT & PURPOSE
*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.

Where survival and mundane concerns are concerned, for most of the world 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 seek shortcuts or to win the lotto so that we never have to work 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.

Subject: Do it now!
"Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative, there is one elementary truth, the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and endless plans.

That the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. All sorts of things occur to help one that would never otherwise have occurred. A whole stream of events issue from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings and material assistance which no man could have dreamed would come his way.

Whatever you can do, or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it. Begin it now!"

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749-1832)
-----------------------------------------------------------------------
WORK - DISCIPLINE - PRACTICE & SERVICE
Everything is really simple but nothing worthwhile in life ever comes easy.. So many Americans equate the word 'work' with their crappy jobs or as something to be done out of duty alone. So far as I'm concerned, alongside relationships and friendships and learning about life (reading, writing, travel), *my work*, not my job or "duty to society", is the only thing worth living and struggling for. Wilhelm Reich said man has three fundamental needs, "Work, Love and Knowledge".

With regard to this present job at the public library, it is falls under the "right livelihood" category and is of service (however little) to the community; so the fact that I am overworked and underpaid is an opportunity for me to give back what has been given to me, especially in harder times. An opportunity to serve others, impersonally, is a part of the overall "work"... just not all of it! Also the will to survive and have basic comforts, yet this motive is only at the base of a man's working existence, for he lives for a much greater purpose than survival alone.

**Note: My Work and Practice are the concrete practical extensions of my Innermost Pure Devotion and Wholehearted sense of Purpose, of Joy & Love & Meaning.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
GRATITUDE - CONTENTMENT - ABUNDANCE & INNER PEACE
In spite of all the minor setbacks that do and will occur, I really could not be happier (or luckier) than I am right now... For this I am grateful, very fortunate and quite content. Because I have all that I need to live and the potential (or choice) to expand, to do and have more... I have learned in better moments to be happy with what I have, without need for outside comparisons and beyond all forms of measurement, be it material wealth or otherwise. This most **central desire and intention** is in fact already manifesting, in such a positive way that I need not have anything external "to show for it", content with the unfolding creative evolutionary process as is...

JDZ