Life 30 (Jun 18 - Oct 18)

[winston]

The untethered mind

The transformation of the world is brought about by the transformation of oneself, because the self is the product and a part of the total process of human existence.

To transform oneself, self-knowledge is essential; without knowing what you are, there is no basis for right thought, and without knowing yourself there cannot be transformation.

One must know oneself as one is, not as one wishes to be, which is merely an ideal and therefore fictitious, unreal; it is only that which is that can be transformed, not that which you wish to be.

To know oneself as one is requires an extraordinary alertness of mind, because what is is constantly undergoing transformation, change; and to follow it swiftly the mind must not be tethered to any particular dogma or belief, to any particular pattern of action.

If you would follow anything, it is no good being tethered. To know yourself, there must be the awareness, the alertness of mind in which there is freedom from all beliefs, from all idealization, because beliefs and ideals only give you a color, perverting true perception.

If you want to know what you are, you cannot imagine or have belief in something which you are not.

If I am greedy, envious, violent, merely having an ideal of non-violence, of non-greed, is of little value.... The understanding of what you are, whatever it be—ugly or beautiful, wicked or mischievous—the understanding of what you are, without distortion, is the beginning of virtue. Virtue is essential, for it gives freedom.

The Book of Life, January 24, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What is the purpose of devotional worship?

Devotion is referred to as upasana, which means dwelling near, feeling the Presence, or sharing the sweetness of Divinity.

The yearning for upasana prompts you to go on pilgrimages, to construct and renovate temples, and to consecrate images.

All this is karma of a high order; they lead to spiritual wisdom.

First, start with the idea, “I am in the Light.” Then the feeling, “The light is in me,” becomes established, leading to the conviction, “I am the Light.” That is supreme wisdom.

A dog caught in a room of mirrors sees all its myriad reflections as not itself but as rivals, competitors, and other dogs that must be barked at. So it tires itself out by jumping on these reflections, and when the images also jump, it becomes mad with fury.

A wise person, however, sees oneself everywhere and is at peace, even happy that there are so many reflections all around. That is the attitude you must learn to possess, that will save you from needless bother.

- Divine Discourse, Jul 7, 1963.

See yourself in all; love all as yourself.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Can happiness be found through anything?

We seek happiness through things, through relationship, through thoughts, ideas. So things, relationship, and ideas become all-important and not happiness.

When we seek happiness through something, then the thing becomes of greater value than happiness itself.

When stated in this manner, the problem sounds simple and it is simple. We seek happiness in property, in family, in name; then property, family, idea become all-important, for then happiness is sought through a means, and then the means destroys the end.

Can happiness be found through any means, through anything made by the hand or by the mind? Things, relationship, and ideas are so transparently impermanent, we are ever made unhappy by them...

Things are impermanent, they wear out and are lost; relationship is constant friction and death awaits; ideas and beliefs have no stability, no permanency.

We seek happiness in them and yet do not realize their impermanency. So sorrow becomes our constant companion and overcoming it our problem.

To find out the true meaning of happiness, we must explore the river of self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is not an end in itself.

Is there a source to a stream? Every drop of water from the beginning to the end makes the river. To imagine that we will find happiness at the source is to be mistaken. It is to be found where you are on the river of self-knowledge.

The Book of Life, July 5 Harper San Francisco, 1994

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What is the root cause for all our misery?

When you touch a hot iron ball, you say that your hand is singed by it. But it is not the ball that burnt your hand. The fire present within the ball scorched your hand.

The world, like the iron ball, is not the cause, either for the pain or the pleasure you experience.

You wail over your sufferings and difficulties only because you do not recognise the Divine power present within you!

Sunlight illuminates the entire world and helps the people to carry out their tasks. But Sun has nothing to do with the pleasure and pain of human beings. Hence, the problems you face are related only to your senses and your mind; your consciousness has nothing to do with them.

The innumerable worldly affairs you indulge in can give you ephemeral pleasures and never true, everlasting bliss.

Develop your inner vision. To experience real joy, purify your feelings and cultivate unwavering and selfless intellect.

- Divine Discourse, Mar 5, 2000.

The Divine is Love, Peace and Strength.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What is the secret recipe for peace?

Today, desires are growing at an alarming pace. Even if people are about to die in a couple of minutes, they still express some desire or the other!

What are these desires? What are you gaining from these? Nothing!

On the other hand, if you had no desires, you would be so very peaceful.

When you have no desires, your heart will be blissful. When desires go down, automatically the mind is turned towards the Divine. Desires only imprison you; they don't set you free as you think.

Today, controls are being exercised on everything except the mind and desires. It is the desires that must first be controlled. This will give you a great deal of peace.

You will be surprised to see so much peace in yourself. Peace is natural to you and will arise on its own, once desires are controlled.

- Divine Discourse, May 24, 2002.

When the Divine enters your mind, desire (kama) should have no place therein.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Aloneness is not loneliness

Though we are all human beings, we have built walls between ourselves and our neighbors through nationalism, through race, caste, and class—which again breeds isolation, loneliness.

Now a mind that is caught in loneliness, in this state of isolation, can never possibly understand what religion is.

It can believe, it can have certain theories, concepts, formulas, it can try to identify itself with that which it calls God; but religion, it seems to me, has nothing whatsoever to do with any belief, with any priest, with any church or so-called sacred book.

The state of the religious mind can be understood only when we begin to understand what beauty is; and the understanding of beauty must be approached through total aloneness. Only when the mind is completely alone can it know what is beauty, and not in any other state.

Aloneness is obviously not isolation, and it is not uniqueness. To be unique is merely to be exceptional in some way, whereas to be completely alone demands extraordinary sensitivity, intelligence, understanding.

To be completely alone, implies that the mind is free of every kind of influence and is therefore uncontaminated by society; and it must be alone to understand what is religion—which is to find out for oneself whether there is something immortal, beyond time.

The Book of Life, December 2, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What should we do to earn the Divine’s grace?

The Divine is so full of Grace that He will willingly guide and guard all who surrender to Him.

To win Grace, you must become permeated with dharma so that every act is Divine-worthy.

With the sharp chisel of intellect, shape the mind into a perfect image of the embodiment of dharma.

Then, the rough-hewn idol of humanity that you now are, will shine with the splendour of Divinity itself. That is the task to which you should dedicate yourself today.

- Divine Discourse, Jan 11, 1966.

Know that the purpose of human birth is to reach the Divine through worship.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Freeing intelligence

The very first thing to do, if I may suggest it, is to find out why you are thinking in a certain way, and why you are feeling in a certain manner.

Don’t try to alter it, don’t try to analyze your thoughts and your emotions; but become conscious of why you are thinking in a particular groove and from what motive you act.

Although you can discover the motive through analysis, although you may find out something through analysis, it will not be real;

It will be real only when you are intensely aware at the moment of the functioning of your thought and emotion; then you will see their extraordinary subtlety, their fine delicacy.

So long as you have a “must” and a “must not,” in this compulsion you will never discover that swift wandering of thought and emotion. And I am sure you have been brought up in the school of “must” and “must not” and hence you have destroyed thought and feeling.

You have been bound and crippled by systems, methods, by your teachers. So leave all those “must” and “must nots.”

This does not mean that there shall be licentiousness, but become aware of a mind that is ever saying, “I must,” and “I must not.” Then as a flower blossoms forth of a morning, so intelligence happens, is there, functioning, creating comprehension.

The Book of Life, May 3, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Face the fact and see what happens...

We have all had the experience of tremendous loneliness, where books, religion, everything is gone and we are tremendously, inwardly, lonely, empty. Most of us can’t face that emptiness, that loneliness, and we run away from it.

Dependence is one of the things we run to, depend on, because we can’t stand being alone with ourselves.

We must have the radio or books or talking, incessant chatter about this and that, about art and culture. So we come to that point when we know there is this extraordinary sense of self-isolation.

We may have a very good job, work furiously, write books, but inwardly there is this tremendous vacuum. We want to fill that and dependence is one of the ways.

We use dependence, amusement, church work, religions, drink, women, a dozen things to fill it up, cover it up. If we see that it is absolutely futile to try to cover it up, completely futile—not verbally, not with conviction and therefore agreement and determination—but if we see the total absurdity of it...then we are faced with a fact.

It is not a question of how to be free from dependence; that’s not a fact; that’s only a reaction to a fact. ... Why don’t I face the fact and see what happens?

The problem now arises of the observer and the observed. The observer says, “I am empty; I don’t like it,” and runs away from it. The observer says, “I am different from the emptiness.”

But the observer is the emptiness; it is not emptiness seen by an observer. The observer is the observed. There is a tremendous revolution in thinking, in feeling, when that takes place.

The Book of Life, March 10, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What is the root-cause of all restlessness?

The greatest defect today is the absence of inquiry into the nature of the Self. That is the root cause of all this restlessness.

If you are eager to know the truth about yourself, then, even if you do not believe in the Divine, you will not go astray.

All agitations must cease one day, isn’t it? Inquiry into the nature of your Self is best explained in the Scriptures.

Just as a river’s flow is regulated by bunds and flood waters, and is directed to the sea, so too the Scriptures regulate and restrict the senses, the mind, and the intellect and help one to reach the sea and merge one’s individuality in the Absolute.

Will scanning a map or turning over a guidebook give you the thrill of the actual visit? Will it even give you a fraction of the joy and knowledge of a journey through that land?

The Scriptures are your maps and guidebooks. Study them with the goal to put the advice into practice and experience them.

- Divine Discourse, Feb 23, 1958.

When you think, speak and do good, peace alone will ensue

Source: radiosai.org