Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A life of fullness

Is there a way by which we can end conflict and sorrow without destroying creative intelligence and integral completeness? Can there ever be choiceless living, that is, can there ever be action without denial or aggressive want? Can there be action which is spontaneous and thus free of the conflict of opposites? Can there ever be a life of fullness without the withering process of discipline, denial, fear and frustration? Is such a state of deep comprehension ever possible? I wonder how many of you are vitally conscious of this conflict in the battlefield of the mind. A life of fullness, a life of choiceless action, a life free from the withering process of subjugation and substitution, is possible. How is this state to be realized? Systems and methods cannot produce this happy state of mind. This condition of choiceless life must come about naturally, spontaneously; it cannot be sought after. It is not to be understood or realized or conquered through a discipline, through a system. One can condition the mind through training, discipline, and compulsion, but such conditioning cannot nourish thought or awaken deep intelligence. Such a trained mind is as the soil that is barren.
Collected Works. Vol. III Ommen Camp, Holland, 1st August, 1936

A life of fullness | Daily Quotes Arquive - J. Krishnamurti Online

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

The First Step

This freedom is not an ideal, a thing to take place eventually. The first step in freedom is the last step in it. It is the first step that counts, not the last step. What you do now is far more essential than what you do at some future date. Life is what is happening this instant, not an imagined instant, not what thought has conceived. So it is the first step you take now that is important. If that step is in the right direction, then the whole of life is open to you. The right direction is not towards an ideal, a predetermined end. It is inseparable from that which is taking place now. This is not a philosophy, a series of theories. It is exactly what the word philosophy means - the love of truth, the love of life. It is not something that you go to the university to learn. We are learning about the art of living in our daily life. - J.K. Letters to the Schools Vol. 1

Friday, October 8, 2010

The Anxiety/Stress Management Myth

This one is the most damaging, fueled by the culture of feel good-ism. These conventions set up emotional physical pain as barriers to a life lived well. The message is "in order to live better, I must first think and feel better. And once I start thinking and feeling better, my life will improve for the better". This is a trap.

The bait for the trap is the emotional and psychological pain you experience with anxiety, panic, unwanted thoughts, or memories. In your mind, this pain isn't just pain. It's bad pain Your mind has judged it as unacceptable and has linked it with not being able to do what you care about. When anxiety and pain show up you go after it to make it go away or to weaken it. You also do this or that to prevent that bad pain from showing up in the future, and on it goes.

Time spent trying to manage and control anxiety is time and energy away from doing things that you care deeply about... So "anxiety management" and control actually double your pain: on top of the pain of more anxiety (the relief from it only very temporary), you also get the pain of loss or regret. You get the other pain when you fail to do something that really matters to you. Both forms of pain are a natural consequence of fighting a battle with your unpleasant thoughts and feelings.

Research studies have shown as much too: when you don't want anxious thoughts and feelings, you'll get more of them. And the more you don't want them, the more you're stuck with them.

Exercises in this book are designed to help you recognize the anxiety management and control myth for what it is -- a rigged, no-win game that has brought much unnecessary suffering to your life. You can avoid getting sucked into the anxiety trap by learning not to take the bait. You can learn to live better without first having to think and feel better. You can learn to bring comfort to the unpleasant experiences your mind and body are serving up and do what matters to you.

The Mindfulness and Acceptance Workbook for Anxiety ~ John P. Forsyth & Georg H. Eifert (Myths about Anxiety and its Disorders pp.62-64)

Tuesday, October 5, 2010

Negation, Affirmation, Implementation, Expression, Integration

Elementally I associate Negation with Water, Affirmation with Fire, Implementation with Earth, and Expression with Air. First (and last) there is the washing away of all previous experiences (psychologically, emotionally) originally created by affirmation (vision, will & intention), implementation (attention & devotion) and yesterday's resultant manifestations, experience and mental expressions (memory).

Water returns to its natural state, clean and clear, reflecting the inherent clarity and beauty of all that surrounds it. Water collects all earthly experience/substance as memory and must in so doing be willing/able to release and let it all go, to ceaselessly move forward just as a stream flows and cleanses itself in the process. Negation is a purification by Water.

Fire is that affirmation, the vision, the insight, hope and idealism that is behind all creative actions and individual ventures. It is spark of creation and vitality that follows deep meditation (thought negation), allowing for new birth and enthusiasm in the process. The affirmation process is renewed and revitalized via the negation process, which purifies and makes fresh creative perspective a continuous possibility... Affirmation is a positive purification by fire.

Earth is the external implementation of the practical, onto immediate physical reality and the total devotion (full attention) to implementing the ideal or vision, focusing one pointedly on the immediate matter at hand. It is the manifesting process that makes it all possible on Earth... practice makes perfect, efficient productivity the natural complement to an expansive creativity.

Air is the outward mental expression by which the vision and implementation of Fire & Earth can be communicated, articulated, seen and appreciated by others. The images that make up the experiences we share collectively and communicate lingual-ly. Appearance and aesthetics, friends and relationships, activities and experiences by which the inner Fire finds outer expression.

JDZ