Life 07 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Thu Jun 10, 2010 12:36 pm

Are you not yourself a guru?

Question: In spite of your emphatic denial of the need of a guru, are you not yourself a guru? What is the difference?

Krishnamurti: Sir, what do you mean by a guru? Why do you need a guru? Whether you make me one or not, I am not making myself a guru to you. That is why a follower is a curse. The follower is the destroyer, the follower is the exploiter. (Laughter.)

Do not laugh it away, think about it very earnestly and see the consequence of it. Let us examine this question. Now, what do you mean by a guru? You generally mean, do you not?, one who will lead you to reality. Your guru is not the man of whom you can ask the direction to the station.

You would not call the professor a guru, the man who teaches you the piano. Obviously, you mean by the guru one who will lead you to truth, give you a mode of conduct, one who will provide the key or open the door, give you nourishment, sustenance and encouragement - that is, one who will gratify you profoundly.

You already know the superficial gratifications, and you want a deeper gratification, a deeper satisfaction, so you turn to someone who will assist you; you seek a guru because you yourself are confused, and you want direction, you want to be told how to act and what to do.

So, all these things are involved in this; but by a guru we mean primarily one who will help us to unravel life's problems - not the technical problems, but the more subtle, the hidden, psychological problems. Now, has truth an abiding place? Has truth a fixed point? Has truth an abode, or is truth a dynamic, living thing, and therefore without a resting place?

Truth is in constant movement; but if you say it is a fixed point, then you will have to find a guru who will lead you to it, and the guru becomes necessary as a pointer. That means that both you and the guru must know that truth is there, in a fixed place, like the station.

Then you can ask the way, then you can approach the fixed point; and in order to achieve that, you need a guru who will direct and lead you to that fixed thing. But is truth a fixed thing? And if it is fixed, is it true?

Also, if you want truth and you go to a guru, you must know what truth is, must you not? When you go to a guru you do not say, `I want to discover reality', on the contrary, you say, `Help me to realize truth'.

Therefore, you already have an idea of what it is, you already know its content, its beauty, its loveliness, its fragrance. Do you know what it is? How can a confused man know clarity? He can only know confusion, or think of clarity as the opposite of what is.

- Poona India 6th Public Talk 3rd October, 1948

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com
It's all about "how much you made when you were right" & "how little you lost when you were wrong"
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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Fri Jun 11, 2010 11:37 am

What is the purpose of aphorisms ?

An aphorism enshrines in a few words, vast expanses of meaning, vast depths of fundamental significance.

Each aphorism can be elaborated and explained in a number of learned ways, according to one's understanding, faith, preference, experience and pleasure.


Source: radiosai.org
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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Fri Jun 11, 2010 7:55 pm

Why are we influenced ?

Why are we influenced? In politics, as you know, it is the job of the politician to influence us; and every book, every teacher, every guru - the more powerful, the more eloquent the better we like it - imposes his thought, his way of life, his manner of conduct, upon us.

So life is a battle of ideas, a battle of influences, and your mind is the field of the battle. The politician wants your mind; the guru wants your mind; the saint says, do this and not that, and he also wants your mind; and every tradition, every form of habit or custom, influences, shapes, guides, controls your mind.

I think that is fairly obvious. It would be absurd to deny it. The fact is so.


- J. Krishnamurti Poona 5th Public Talk 21st September 1958

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com
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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Sat Jun 12, 2010 7:25 am

Solitude indicates a fresh mind

In the life we generally lead there is very little solitude. Even when we are alone our lives are crowded by so many influences, so much knowledge, so many memories of so many experiences, so much anxiety, misery and conflict that our mind become duller and duller, more and more insensitive, functioning in a monotonous routine.

Are we ever alone? Or are we carrying with us all the burdens of yesterday? There is a rather nice story of two monks walking from one village to another and they come upon a young girl sitting on the bank of a river, crying. And one of the monks goes up to her and says, `Sister, what are you crying about?'

She says, `You see that house over there across the river? I came over this morning early and had no trouble wading across but now the river has swollen and I can't get back. There is no boat.'

`Oh,' says the monk, `that is no problem at all', and he picks her up and carries her across the river and leaves her on the other side. And the two monks go on together. After a couple of hours, the other monk says, `Brother, we have taken a vow never to touch a woman.

What you have done is a terrible sin. Didn't you have pleasure, a great sensation, in touching a woman?' and the other monk replies, `I left her behind two hours ago. You are still carrying her, aren't you?'

That is what we do. We carry our burdens all the time; we never die to them, we never leave them behind. it is only when we give complete attention to a problem and solve it immediately - never carrying it over to the next day, the next minute that there is solitude.

Then, even, if we live in a crowded house or are in a bus, we have solitude. And that solitude indicates a fresh mind, an innocent mind.

- Freedom from the Known Chapter 14

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com
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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Sat Jun 12, 2010 1:40 pm

Why is it important to strengthen devotion and dedication in young children and families?

A tree can spread its branches wide; its branches can bring forth blossoms which yield fruit, but this happens only when water is fed to the roots. Instead, if the water is poured on branches, fruits or flowers, can the tree grow and spread?

Society has as its root of peace and prosperity, the virtues of devotion and dedication. Hence the educational system must pay attention to the promotion and strengthening of these virtues amongst the people.

Source: radiosai.org
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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Sun Jun 13, 2010 6:27 am

Do you think a bird lives in fear of dying?

Do you think a leaf that falls to the ground is afraid of death? Do you think a bird lives in fear of dying?

It meets death when death comes; but it is not concerned about death, it is much too occupied with living, with catching insects, building a nest, singing a song, flying for the very joy of flying.

Have you ever watched birds soaring high up in the air without a beat of their wings, being carried along by the wind? How endlessly they seem to enjoy themselves! They are not concerned about death.

If death comes, it is all right, they are finished. There is no concern about what is going to happen; they are living from moment to moment, are they not? It is we human beings who are always concerned about death - because we are not living. That is the trouble: we are dying, we are not living.

- Think on These Things Chapter 17

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com
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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Sun Jun 13, 2010 7:19 pm

How critical is our yearning for the Divine? Why?

The cow secretes milk for the sustenance of the calf; the calf is its chief beneficiary. But, as we see, others too benefit from this milk.

So too, though the devotees are the primary cause and their sustenance is the prime purpose; other incidental benefits such as fostering of righteousness, suppression of evil and the wicked also happen in the mission of an Avatar.

The Divine is above and beyond all the limits of time and space, and no list of characteristics and qualities can describe Him completely. The place and the Form of the Avatar are chosen such that they promote the purpose of fulfilling the yearning of the devotees.


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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Mon Jun 14, 2010 8:13 am

Why should one not take drugs?


Questioner: Why should one not take drugs? You apparently seem to be against it. Your own prominent friends have taken them, have written books about them, encouraged others to take them, and they have experienced with great intensity the beauty of a simple flower.

We, too, have taken them and we would like to know why you seem to be opposed to these chemical experiences. After all, our whole physical organism is a biochemical process, and adding to it an extra chemical may give us an experience which may be an approximation to the real.

You yourself have not taken drugs, have you? So how can you, without experimenting condemn them?


Krishnamurti: No, we have not taken drugs. Must one get drunk to know what sobriety is? Must one make oneself ill to find out what health is? As there are several things involved in taking drugs, let us go into the whole question with care. What is the necessity of taking drugs at all - drugs that promise a psychedelic expansion of the mind, great visions and intensity?

Apparently one takes them because one's own perceptions are dull. Clarity is dimmed and one's life is rather shallow, mediocre and meaningless; one takes them to go beyond this mediocrity. The intellectuals have made of the drugs a new way of life. One sees throughout the world the discord, the neurotic compulsions, the conflicts, the aching misery of life.

One is aware of the aggressiveness of man, his brutality, his utter selfishness, which no religion, no law, no social morality has been able to tame. There is so much anarchy in man - and such scientific capacities. This imbalance brings about havoc in the world. The unbridgable gap between advanced technology and the cruelty of man is producing great chaos and misery.

This is obvious. So the intellectual, who has played with various theories - Vedanta, Zen, Communist ideals, and so on - having found no way out of man's predicament, is now turning to the golden drug that will bring about dynamic sanity and harmony. The discovery of this golden drug - the complete answer to everything - is expected of the scientist and probably he will produce it.

And the authors and the intellectuals will advocate it to stop all wars, as yesterday they advocated Communism or Fascism. But the mind, with its extraordinary capacities for scientific discoveries and their implementation, is still petty, narrow and bigoted, and will surely continue, will it not, in its pettiness?

You may have a tremendous and explosive experience through one of these drugs, but will the deep-rooted aggression, bestiality and sorrow of man disappear? If these drugs can solve the intricate and complex problems of relationship, then there is nothing more to be said, for then relationship, the demand for truth, the ending of sorrow, are all a very superficial affair to be resolved by taking a pinch of the new golden drug.

Surely this is a false approach, isn't it? It is said that these drugs give an experience approximating to reality therefore they give hope and encouragement. But the shadow is not the real; the symbol is never the fact.
As is observed throughout the world, the symbol is worshipped and not the truth. So isn't it a phoney assertion to say that the result of these drugs is near the truth? No dynamic golden pill is ever going to solve our human problems. They can be solved only by bringing about a radical revolution in the mind and the heart of man.

This demands hard, constant work, seeing and listening, and thus being highly sensitive. The highest form of sensitivity is the highest intelligence, and no drug ever invented by man will give this intelligence. Without this intelligence there is no love; and love is relationship.

Without this love there is no dynamic balance in man. This love cannot be given - by the priests or their gods, by the philosophers, or by the golden drug.

- The Only Revolution Europe, Collected Works Volume 13


Source: jkrishnamurthi.com
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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Mon Jun 14, 2010 1:13 pm

How can we leverage the Knowledge of the Self to live in joy every day?

The world is unreal, non-existent, and the mistaken notion that it is real has to be renounced. The understanding that the idea of world is a superimposition by our mind on the Reality is Spiritual Wisdom.

Though the objective world appears real, one must be aware that it is deluding us. Therefore, one has to give up the yearning for deriving pleasure from the objects that appear and attract, both here and hereafter.

Thus, one is liberated as soon as one renounces all attachment and desires. The ignorance can be destroyed only with knowledge of the Divine Self.

When this illusion disappears, the ups and downs that one faces in the ever-changing world also gets destroyed.


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Re: Life 7 (Apr 10 - Jun 10)

Postby winston » Wed Jun 16, 2010 12:44 pm

Why should we change our direction in the fast-hurried-pace towards seeking pleasure?

People today believe that they are the body, the senses, etc. and crave for objective pleasures. They convince themselves that this pleasure is wanted by them and under this mistaken notion, they seek to fulfill their cravings.

They delude themselves that they can secure bliss by catering to the body and the senses. Such attempts cannot earn bliss. The pleasure obtained from external objects brings grief along with it and such attempts to obtain pleasure is rewarded with disillusionment, defeat and disaster.

The spiritual texts clearly call out that YOU are the very embodiment of bliss. They help people attain the highest wisdom.


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