Life 33 (May 19 - Sep 19)

[winston]

Memory clouds perception

Are you speculating, or are you actually experiencing as we are going along?

You do not know what a religious mind is, do you?

From what you have said, you don’t know what it means; you may have just a flutter or a glimpse of it, just as you see the clear, lovely blue sky when the cloud is broken through;

But the moment you have perceived the blue sky, you have a memory of it, you want more of it and therefore you are lost in it;

The more you want the word for storing it as an experience, the more you are lost in it.

The Book of Life, May 16, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

Why is it that we are unable to concentrate in our spiritual practices longer? How and why should we fix it?

Many of you sit in meditation (dhyana) and after sometime start complaining, "Why am I unable to concentrate? Please help me fix my mind on the Divine!"

Do not get impatient and bewail. Feel rather that you must make your mind pure and clean, so that the Divine Himself will be attracted to take it.

He is "The Stealer of Pure Hearts". When thieves enter the house, they select things of value; they will not bother about firewood or charcoal bags! He too when He comes in the role of a thief, looks for the most precious thing, the thing He values most, the thing you must take most pains to foster.

He carries away pure thoughts, deeds soaked in the sweetness of empathy and compassion, and the feelings of Love that do not crave revenge.

If you succeed in offering such a purified heart to the Divine, know that you will grow richer in happiness, serenity and self-esteem!

- Divine Discourse, Jul 10, 1974.

When the mind is pure, unselfish and unwavering, the Divine appears in all His purity and fullness.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Listening to yourself

"Questioner: While I am here listening to you, I seem to understand, but when I am away from here, I don’t understand, even though I try to apply what you have been saying.

Krishnamurti: You are listening to yourself, and not to the speaker. If you are listening to the speaker, he becomes your leader, your way to understanding which is a horror, an abomination, because you have then established the hierarchy of authority.

So what you are doing here is listening to yourself. You are looking at the picture the speaker is painting, which is your own picture, not the speaker’s.

If that much is clear, that you are looking at yourself, then you can say, “Well, I see myself as I am, and I don’t want to do anything about it” and that is the end of it.

But if you say, “I see myself as I am, and there must be a change,” then you begin to work out of your own understanding which is entirely different from applying what the speaker is saying. ...

But if, as the speaker is speaking, you are listening to yourself, then out of that listening there is clarity, there is sensitivity; out of that listening the mind becomes healthy, strong.

Neither obeying nor resisting, it becomes alive, intense and it is only such a human being who can create a new generation, a new world."

The Book of Life, January 7, Harper San Francisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

A mind that is learning

What do we mean by learning? Is there learning when you are merely accumulating knowledge, gathering information?

That is one kind of learning, is it not? As a student of engineering, you study mathematics, and so on; you are learning, informing yourself about the subject. You are accumulating knowledge in order to use that knowledge in practical ways.

Your learning is accumulative, additive. Now, when the mind is merely taking on, adding, acquiring, is it learning?

Or is learning something entirely different? I say the additive process which we now call learning is not learning at all. It is merely a cultivation of memory, which becomes mechanical;

And a mind which functions mechanically, like a machine, is not capable of learning.

A machine is never capable of learning, except in the additive sense. Learning is something quite different, as I shall try to show you.

A mind that is learning never says, “I know,” because knowledge is always partial, whereas learning is complete all the time. Learning does not mean starting with a certain amount of knowledge, and adding to it further knowledge.

That is not learning at all; it is a purely mechanistic process. To me, learning is something entirely different. I am learning about myself from moment to moment, and the myself is extraordinarily vital; it is living, moving; it has no beginning and no end.

When I say, “I know myself,” learning has come to an end in accumulated knowledge. Learning is never cumulative; it is a movement of knowing which has no beginning and no end.

The Book of Life, September 20, HarperSanFrancisco, 1995

Source: jkrishnamurthi.com

[winston]

How should we tend to our body and why?

The body is a precious gift that must be carefully tended and fostered. It’s a very complicated but well coordinated machine, gifted for achieving a laudable task.

Its exterior too must be clean and full of goodness and charm. The skin of the fruit of Ananda (divine bliss) is the physical body; the succulent flesh is the muscle, bone and nerve; the hard inedible seed is the evil that gets presented in life; and the juice which the fruit offers, for which the tree was planted and nourished, is the bliss it shares with all.

The body will shine if the character is fine; service of man and worship of the Divine will preserve its charm.

The Divine will be watching with a thousand eyes the least activity of man to discover any small portion of selfless love sweetening it.

Having known that you are embodiments of the Divine Atma, crave to win the Grace of the Divine in this very birth.

- Divine Discourse, Oct 16, 1974.

The spiritual path is the path of detachment, of sense control, and of rigorous mind training.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

What can grant us everlasting joy?

Like the monkey which could not pull its hand from out of the narrow-necked pot, because it first held in its grasp a handful of groundnuts which the pot contained, people too are suffering today, as they are unwilling to release their hold on the handful of pleasurable things they have grasped from the world.

One is led into the wrong belief that the accumulation of material possessions will endow them with joy and calm.

But Divine Love alone can give that everlasting joy.

- Divine Discourse, Oct 16, 1974.

There is no nobler quality in the world than love. It is wisdom. It is righteousness. It is wealth.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Why is silence a necessary Spiritual Practice for all spiritual aspirants?

Silence is the only language of the realised. Practice moderation in speech. That will help you in many ways.

It will develop unconditional love (prema), for most misunderstandings and factions arise out of carelessly spoken words.

When the foot slips, the wound can be healed, but when the tongue slips, the wound it causes in the heart of another will fester for life.

The tongue is liable to four big errors: uttering falsehood, scandalising, finding fault with others, and excessive articulation.

These have to be avoided if there has to be peace (shanti) for the individual as well as for society.

The bond of universal brotherhood will be tightened if people speak less and speak sweet. Hence, silence was prescribed as a vow for spiritual aspirants by the spiritual texts.

You are all spiritual aspirants at various stages of the road, so this discipline is valuable for you also.

- Divine Discourse, Jul 22, 1958.

True devotion lies in accepting both pleasure and pain with equal-mindedness.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Why is silence a necessary Spiritual Practice for all spiritual aspirants?

Silence is the only language of the realised. Practice moderation in speech. That will help you in many ways.

It will develop unconditional love (prema), for most misunderstandings and factions arise out of carelessly spoken words.

When the foot slips, the wound can be healed, but when the tongue slips, the wound it causes in the heart of another will fester for life.

The tongue is liable to four big errors: uttering falsehood, scandalising, finding fault with others, and excessive articulation.

These have to be avoided if there has to be peace (shanti) for the individual as well as for society.

The bond of universal brotherhood will be tightened if people speak less and speak sweet. Hence, silence was prescribed as a vow for spiritual aspirants by the spiritual texts.

You are all spiritual aspirants at various stages of the road, so this discipline is valuable for you also.

- Divine Discourse, Jul 22, 1958.

True devotion lies in accepting both pleasure and pain with equal-mindedness.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

Why is silence a necessary Spiritual Practice for all spiritual aspirants?

Silence is the only language of the realised. Practice moderation in speech. That will help you in many ways.

It will develop unconditional love (prema), for most misunderstandings and factions arise out of carelessly spoken words.

When the foot slips, the wound can be healed, but when the tongue slips, the wound it causes in the heart of another will fester for life.

The tongue is liable to four big errors: uttering falsehood, scandalising, finding fault with others, and excessive articulation.

These have to be avoided if there has to be peace (shanti) for the individual as well as for society.

The bond of universal brotherhood will be tightened if people speak less and speak sweet. Hence, silence was prescribed as a vow for spiritual aspirants by the spiritual texts.

You are all spiritual aspirants at various stages of the road, so this discipline is valuable for you also.

- Divine Discourse, Jul 22, 1958.

True devotion lies in accepting both pleasure and pain with equal-mindedness.

Source: radiosai.org

[winston]

How should we constantly upgrade and fine-tune our quality of life?

Every single thing in Nature has its Dharma (nature); water has its Dharma, the nature and obligation to move; fire, the Dharma to burn and consume; the magnet, to attract and draw unto itself.

And, every one of these is keeping up its Dharma unchanged, including the Solar system and the stars of the Universe.

Amongst things endowed with Consciousness, plants and trees, insects and birds, born out of eggs or the mammals – all have managed to treasure their Dharma unaffected by the passage of time.

But humanity, whose intelligence sweeps from the inert and the infinitesimal to the Super-conscious and the Universal, is the only living thing that has slipped, and is sliding down.

Religion prescribes "Speak the truth and practice righteousness". Examine every moment of your waking time whether you are observing Dharma or straying away? Fill every moment with thoughts, words and deeds that reflect your understanding of Dharma.

- Divine Discourse, Apr 15, 1964.

To secure the Divine’s grace one must adhere to right conduct and observe purity in thought, word and deed.

Source: radiosai.org