Life 04 (Aug 09 - Sep 09)

[winston]

Knowledge is not comparable with intelligence

There is a distinction between intellect and intelligence.

Intellect is thought functioning independently of emotion, whereas intelligence is the capacity to feel as well as to reason; and until we approach life with intelligence, instead of intellect alone, or with emotion alone, no political or educational system in the world can save us from the toils of chaos and destruction.

Knowledge is not comparable with intelligence, knowledge is not wisdom. Wisdom is not marketable, it is not a merchandise that can be bought with the price of learning or discipline.

Wisdom cannot be found in books; it cannot be accumulated, memorized or stored up. Wisdom comes with the abnegation of the self.

To have an open mind is more important than learning; and we can have an open mind, not by cramming it full of information but by being aware of our own thoughts and feelings, by carefully observing ourselves and the influences about us, by listening to others, by watching the rich and the poor, the powerful and the lowly.

Wisdom does not come through fear and oppression, but through the observation and understanding of everyday incidents in human relationship.

Education and the Significance of Life, pp 65-66

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What are some inadvertent actions that traps us? What is the right attitude to cultivate love for the Divine?

Your mind speeds fast, pursuing wrong actions. Without letting it in a hurry like that, remember the Name of the Divine at that time or attempt to do some good deed or other. Those who do thus, will certainly become fit for the Divine's Grace.

Give up the evil tendency to feel impatient at the prosperity of others and the desire to harm them. Be happy that others are happy. Sympathize with those who are in adversity and wish for their prosperity. That is the means of cultivating the love for the Divine.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

The Literature of Truth by Alexander Green, Spiritual Wealth

According to Dr. Jon D. Miller, Director of the Center for Biomedical Communications at Northwestern Medical School, the number of scientifically literate adults in the U.S. has doubled over the past 20 years.

The bad news? That only gets us up to 20%.

Polls show that only 48% of Americans know that humans didn't live at the same time as dinosaurs. Less than half know that electrons are smaller than atoms. Only small minorities know what DNA is or can define a molecule.

(Citizens of other nations don't fare much better, incidentally. Members of the European Union, for example, actually score worse.)

Science has been called the literature of truth, the systematic classification of experience, the antidote to enthusiasm and superstition.

We live in a world highly dependent on the fruits of science. Yet polls show that most of us have little scientific knowledge and lack even a superficial understanding of the enterprise itself.

Does this matter?

Yes. Without some minimal scientific understanding, we can't possibly have informed opinions on important issues. We surrender our ability to participate as responsible citizens in society.

Uncle Sam, for instance, spends more than $100 billion annually on science agencies, university laboratories and grants for independent research. Most of us - including our elected representatives - know very little about where this money is going or why.

Yet there is an even more compelling reason we should remedy our ignorance in this area: Scientific illiteracy diminishes the quality of our lives.

For most of human history, our ancestors looked up at the sky at night and never realized the twinkling lights were other suns unimaginably far away.

We created myths to explain the phases of the moon, the appearance of comets, meteor showers and solar eclipses. Floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, plagues and volcanic eruptions were attributed to angry gods.

Our ancestors hadn't the slightest inkling that the universe is nearly 15 billion years old or that our sun is one of 400 billion stars in the Milky Way, itself one of hundreds of billions of galaxies.

Of course, few scientific truths are self-evident. Many are counterintuitive. It is by no means obvious, for example, that empty space has structure or that everything is made of the same basic elements.

Science writer Isaac Asimov once noted that we are among the tiny fraction of one percent of human beings fortunate enough to live in the era where science finally got the big questions right.

Until Einstein worked them out between 1905 and 1916, we didn't know the basic rules that govern the universe.

We didn't realize the universe itself is expanding before Edwin Hubble discovered it in 1923.

We didn't understand the mind-bending rules that govern subatomic particles until the advent of quantum theory around the same time.

Of course, science makes no claim to truth with a capital T. All scientific knowledge is provisional, subject to revision.

But science is successful, in part, because it acknowledges human failings. It knows that pride, ignorance, and prejudice can send us off the rails.

Yet the scientific method - with its error-correcting mechanisms - advances knowledge through reason and evidence, rejecting authority, overturning misconceptions and revealing successive approximations of the truth.

Today the basic picture is complete. No future scientist, we can safely say, will disprove the principles of chemistry, the germ theory of disease, or the interrelatedness of all life on earth.

Yet despite all that science tells us - knowledge that would astonish our ancestors just a few generations removed - many smart, talented people can't be bothered to learn.

We appreciate the countless medical and technological benefits that extend and improve our lives. But most of us know very little about the history of the cosmos... or life on earth.

And that can't help but diminish our awareness and understanding.

Fortunately, it isn't hard to change that. Here are just a few suggestions:

Subscribe to Scientific American. I read this magazine years ago and, quite frankly, found it tough sledding. But today the magazine is much changed and improved. It is written primarily for non-specialists. Jargon is minimal or concisely explained. Most articles begin with a short summary of the key concepts and findings. And the terrific monthly columns by science historian Michael Shermer and physicist Lawrence Krauss alone justify a subscription.

Rent or collect the fabulous BBC documentaries with naturalist David Attenborough, especially "Planet Earth," "The Trials of Life," "Blue Planet," "Life On Earth," and "The Living Planet." (Astronomer Carl Sagan's "Cosmos" series is still a classic too, nearly 30 years on.)

For a crash course, read The Canon: A Whirligig Tour of the Beautiful Basics of Science by Natalie Angier or - if you prefer your science served with hilarity - A Short History of Nearly Everything by the best writer alive, Bill Bryson.
Science, in essence, is just a tool, a window on the truth.

There are, of course, other forms of human intellectual endeavor - religion, art, philosophy and literature - whose expressions of human truth can be neither confirmed nor denied by scientific methods.

But without critical thinking, without the skeptical evaluation of claims, we become susceptible to pseudoscience, quack medical advice, nonsense and mumbo jumbo. Carl Sagan often referred to science as our "baloney-detection kit."

And there are other benefits. Science teaches us wonder, community, oneness... and humility.

Paleontologist Stephen Jay Gould once remarked that the one common feature of all scientific revolutions is the dethronement of human arrogance.

Without natural science, we may also miss great beauty and understanding.

In Unweaving the Rainbow, Oxford biologist Richard Dawkins writes:

"After sleeping through a hundred million centuries we have finally opened our eyes on a sumptuous planet, sparkling with color, bountiful with life. Within decades we must close our eyes again. Isn't it a noble, an enlightened way of spending our brief time in the sun, to work at understanding the universe and how we have come to wake up in it?... Who, with such a thought, would not spring from bed, eager to resume discovering the world and rejoicing to be a part of it?"

[winston]

Our Spiritual Connection Isn't Diminished by Our Having Sex...

Being physical does not separate you from Source, and having sex does not diminish your Spiritual connection. It is pushing against unwanted, and learning patterns of Vibration that are different from the Vibration of Source, that disconnects you from Source.

There is nothing more Spiritual than to allow the true spirit that is you to flow through you into your physical life. The absence of Spirituality is not about the subject or the activity. It is about the Vibrational choices that you are making.

--- Abraham

Excerpted from Abraham's newest book, The Vortex, Where the Law of Attraction Assembles All Cooperative Relationships

Source: abraham-hicks.com

[winston]

What are some common rules that we must always observe?

It is easy to conquer anger through love, attachment through reasoning, falsehood through truth, bad through good and greed through charity.

No reply should be given to the words of the wicked. Be at a great distance from them.

That is for your good. Seek the company of the good people, even at the sacrifice of your honour and life. But do pray to the Divine to bless you with the discrimination needed to distinguish good people and the bad.

You must also endeavour with the intellect given to you. Whatever acts a good or bad person may do, the fruits thereof will follow him and will never stop pursuing hm.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Intellect is not the way

Most of us are so unconcerned with this extraordinary universe about us; we never even see the waving of the leaf in the wind; we never watch a blade of grass, touch it with our hand and know the quality of its being.

This is not just being poetic, so please do not go off into a speculative emotional state. I say it is essential to have that deep feeling for life and not be caught in intellectual ramifications, discussions, passing examinations, quoting, and brushing something new aside by saying it has already been said.

Intellect is not the way. Intellect will not solve our problems; the intellect will not give us that nourishment which is imperishable. The intellect can reason, discuss, analyse, come to a conclusion from inferences and so on, but intellect is limited, for intellect is the result of our conditioning.

But sensitivity is not. Sensitivity has no conditioning; it takes you right out of the field of fears and anxieties. The mind that is not sensitive to everything about it—to the mountain, the telegraph pole, the lamp, the voice, the smile, everything—is incapable of finding what is true.

The Collected Works vol XI, p 42

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

If we are experiencing a dull moment, how do we overcome them?

Bear with fortitude both loss and grief. Try and search for plans to achieve joy and gain. When you are invaded by anger, practice silence or remember the Name of the Divine. Do not remind yourself of things which will inflame the anger more; that will do incalculable harm.

For faults and sins committed in ignorance, repent sincerely. Try not to repeat the faults and sins again. Pray to the Divine to bless you with the strength and the courage needed to stick to the right path.

From this moment, avoid all bad habits. Do not delay or postpone. They do not contribute to the slightest joy.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

The intelligence in operation in the universe

The skill of intelligence is to put knowledge in its right place. Without knowledge it’s not possible to live in this technological and almost mechanical civilization but it will not transform the human being and his society.

Knowledge is not the excellence of intelligence; intelligence can and does use knowledge and thus transforms man and his society. Intelligence is not the mere cultivation of the intellect and its integrity. It comes out of the understanding of the whole consciousness of man, yourself and not a part, a separate segment, of yourself.

The study and the understanding of the movement of your own mind and heart give birth to this intelligence. You are the content of your consciousness; in knowing yourself you will know the universe. This knowing is beyond the word for the word is not the thing.

The freedom from the known, every minute, is the essence of intelligence. It’s this intelligence that is in operation in the universe if you leave it alone. You are destroying this sacredness of order through the ignorance of yourself.

This ignorance is not banished by the studies others have made about you or themselves. You yourself have to study the content of your own consciousness.

Krishnamurtis Journal, pp 81-82

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

What can we do today to make a difference in our lives?

Try as far as possible within your means, to satisfy the needs of the poor, who are really the Divine in the form of the poor. Share with them whatever food you have and make them happy at least at that moment.

Do not allow anything that will destroy your eagerness and enthusiasm for the Divine to come near you. Lack of eagerness will cause the decay of your strength. Do not get swelled up when people praise you. Do not feel dejected when people blame you.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Memory is responding all the time

Observe for yourself how the brain operates. It is the storehouse of memory, of the past. This memory is responding all the time, as like and dislike, justifying, condemning and so on; it is responding according to its conditioning, according to the culture, religion, education, which it has stored.

That storehouse of memory, from which thought arises, guides most of our life. It is directing and shaping our lives every minute of every day, consciously or unconsciously; it is generating thought, the “me”, which is the very essence of thought and words.

The Impossible Question, p 71

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com