by Krishnamurti
Man, throughout history, has been seeking in so many ways something beyond ordinary life. He has done everything possible -- fasted, tortured himself, accepted the authority of others -- engaged in every form of neurotic behavior. Man wants to find something that is both rational and has depth, a full meaning; and he has always, from ancient days, sought it out. You must have observed all this in different ways. Life seems to lack beauty, so we want romantic, mystical legends. Though we may even worship them, all the structures man has built, psychologically as well as physically, have nothing to do with reality.
You have probably heard the word "meditation" or read something about it or you may have followed some guru who tells you what to do. I wish you had never heard that word; then your mind would be fresh to enquire. Some people have been to India but I don't know why they go there. Truth isn't there; there is romance, but romance is not truth. Truth is where you are; it is not in some foreign country. Truth is what you are doing, how you are behaving, not in shaving your head or in those stupid things man has done.
Meditation is not for the immature. The immature can play with it, as they do now, sitting cross-legged, breathing in a certain way, standing on their heads, in order to experience something original. But, using any system, you can never come upon that which is eternal, timeless. There is no short cut to all this. One has to work hard; one has to become very aware of what one is doing, what one is thinking, without any distortion.
You cannot empty the mind of the activity of the self by any method or by saying, "Tell me what to do." Therefore, if you are really interested in this, you have to find out for yourself your own activity of the self -- the statements, the gestures, the habits, the deceptions, the guilt that you cultivate and hold on to as though they were some precious things, instead of throwing them all away -- all the activities of the self. And that demands awareness.
Now, what is being aware? Awareness implies observation in which there is no choice at all, just observing without interpretation, translation or distortion. And that will not take place so long as there is an observer who is trying to be aware. You have heard that statement. You think, "What am I to do? How am I to be aware without the observer?" You want an activity. You are more concerned with action than with listening to the statement. If you listen to it completely, then you are breathing the perfume, the truth of it. And the truth acts, not the "me" who is struggling to act rightly. Have you got it?
You have to find out everything for yourself; nobody can tell you. What has been said in the past may be true, but, if you are serious, you have to find out what it means for yourself. Then, it is your truth and it is a living truth. You, yourself, in your freedom, have to see what is truth, what is false, and how to live a life in which there is no strife whatever. The whole of this is meditation.
For meditation, you must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim. And, the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is. You can do it all day, in the office, with the family, when you say to somebody, "I love you," when you are considering your children. But then, you educate them to become soldiers, to worship the flag, to kill -- to enter into this trap of the modern world. Watching all that, realizing your share in it -- all that is part of meditation. And when you so meditate, you will find in it an extraordinary beauty, you will act rightly at every moment. And, if you do not act rightly at a given moment, it does not matter -- you will pick it up again, you will not waste time in regret.
Meditation is the quality of the mind that is completely attentive -- and silent. Otherwise, you cannot observe, otherwise you cannot listen. When there is no movement of any kind in the mind, when it is naturally still, then there is only observation in silence, not an observer observing. In that quietness, you may see the nature of attachment, you may find out if there is something really sacred, or nothing at all.
If you set out to meditate, it will not be meditation; if you cultivate humility, it ceases to be. Meditation is the breeze that comes in when you leave the window open. But, if you deliberately keep the window open, deliberately invite the breeze to come in, it will never appear. Meditation is not a means to an end; it is both the means and the end.
To understand oneself, there must be observation and that can only take place now. Observation can only take place in the very doing of it -- when you are angry, when you are greedy, when you are in bliss -- to observe it as it is. Which means not to judge it, not to condemn it, but to watch it and let it flower and disappear. Do you understand the beauty of it? The very observation, with no observer in the background, brings about a change. In doing this, one becomes a light to oneself.
Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Meditation. Show all posts
Meditation in Daily Life
(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)
How can we bring meditation out of the meditation hall and into the kitchen and the office? How can the sitting influence the non-sitting time? If a doctor gives you an injection, not only your arm but your whole body benefits from it. If you practice one hour of sitting a day, that hour should benefit all twenty-four hours. One smile, one breath, should benefit the whole day.
Do you practice breathing between phone calls? Do you practice smiling while cutting carrots? Do you practice relaxation after hours of hard work? These questions are very practical. If you know how to apply Buddhism to dinner time, leisure time, sleeping time, I think Buddhism will become engaged in your daily life.
How can we bring meditation out of the meditation hall and into the kitchen and the office? How can the sitting influence the non-sitting time? If a doctor gives you an injection, not only your arm but your whole body benefits from it. If you practice one hour of sitting a day, that hour should benefit all twenty-four hours. One smile, one breath, should benefit the whole day.
Do you practice breathing between phone calls? Do you practice smiling while cutting carrots? Do you practice relaxation after hours of hard work? These questions are very practical. If you know how to apply Buddhism to dinner time, leisure time, sleeping time, I think Buddhism will become engaged in your daily life.
Look into your headache
After seeing Thay's video from yesterday, the mechanism underlying this technique to deal with physical pain, taken from the Orange Book by Osho, can be immediately grasped.
Next time you have a headache try a small meditative technique, just experimentally - then you can go on to bigger diseases and bigger symptoms.
...Sit silently and watch it, look into it - not as if you are looking at an enemy, no. If you are looking at it as your enemy, you will not be able to look rightly. You will avoid - nobody looks at the enemy directly; one avoids, one tends to avoid. Look at it as your friend. It is your friend; it is in your service. It is saying, "Something is wrong - look into it." Just sit silently and look into the headache with no idea of stopping it, with no desire that it should disappear, no conflict, no fight, no antagonism. Just look into it, into what it is.
Watch, so if there is some inner message, the headache can give it to you. It has a coded message. And if you look silently you will be surprised. If you look silently three things will happen. First: the more you look into it, the more severe it will become. And then you will be a little puzzled: "How is it going to help if it is becoming more severe?" It is becoming more severe because you have been avoiding it. It was there but you were avoiding it; you were already repressing it. When you look into it, repression disappears. The headache will come to its natural severity. Then you are hearing it with unplugged ears, no wool around your ears.
First thing: it will become severe. If it is becoming severe, you can be satisfied that you are looking rightly. If it does not become severe, then you are not looking yet; you are still avoiding. Look into it - it becomes severe. That is the first indication that, yes, it is in your vision.
The second thing will be that it will become more pin-pointed, it will not be spread over a bigger space. First you were thinking, "It is my whole head aching." Now you will see it is not the whole head, it is just a small spot. That is also an indication that you are gazing more deeply into it. The spread feeling of the ache is a trick - that is a way to avoid it. If it is in one point then it will be more severe. So you create an illusion that it is the whole head which is aching. Spread all over the head, then it is not so intense at any point. These are tricks that we go on playing.
Look into it and the second step will be that it comes to be smaller and smaller and smaller. And a moment comes when it is just the very point of a needle - very sharp, immensely sharp, very painful. You have never seen such a pain in the head. But very much confined to a small spot. Go on looking into it.
And then the third and more important thing happens. If you go on looking at this point when it is very severe and confined and concentrated at one point, you will see many times that it disappears. When your gaze is perfect it will disappear. And when it disappears you will have the glimpse of where it is coming from - what the cause is. When the effect disappears you will see the cause. It will happen many times. Again it will be there. Your gaze is no more that alert, that concentrated, that attentive - it will come back. Whenever your gaze is really there, it will disappear; and when it disappears, hidden behind it is the cause. And you will be surprised: your mind is ready to reveal what the cause is.
And there can be a thousand and one causes. The same alarm is given because the alarm system is simple. There are not many alarm systems in your body. For different causes the same alarm is given. You may have been angry lately and you have not expressed it. Suddenly, like a revelation, it will be standing there. You will see all your anger that you have been carrying, carrying... like pus inside you. Now this is too much, and that anger wants to be released. It needs a catharsis. Cathart! - and immediately you will see the heachache has disappeared. And there was no need for the aspro, no need for any treatment.
Next time you have a headache try a small meditative technique, just experimentally - then you can go on to bigger diseases and bigger symptoms.
...Sit silently and watch it, look into it - not as if you are looking at an enemy, no. If you are looking at it as your enemy, you will not be able to look rightly. You will avoid - nobody looks at the enemy directly; one avoids, one tends to avoid. Look at it as your friend. It is your friend; it is in your service. It is saying, "Something is wrong - look into it." Just sit silently and look into the headache with no idea of stopping it, with no desire that it should disappear, no conflict, no fight, no antagonism. Just look into it, into what it is.
Watch, so if there is some inner message, the headache can give it to you. It has a coded message. And if you look silently you will be surprised. If you look silently three things will happen. First: the more you look into it, the more severe it will become. And then you will be a little puzzled: "How is it going to help if it is becoming more severe?" It is becoming more severe because you have been avoiding it. It was there but you were avoiding it; you were already repressing it. When you look into it, repression disappears. The headache will come to its natural severity. Then you are hearing it with unplugged ears, no wool around your ears.
First thing: it will become severe. If it is becoming severe, you can be satisfied that you are looking rightly. If it does not become severe, then you are not looking yet; you are still avoiding. Look into it - it becomes severe. That is the first indication that, yes, it is in your vision.
The second thing will be that it will become more pin-pointed, it will not be spread over a bigger space. First you were thinking, "It is my whole head aching." Now you will see it is not the whole head, it is just a small spot. That is also an indication that you are gazing more deeply into it. The spread feeling of the ache is a trick - that is a way to avoid it. If it is in one point then it will be more severe. So you create an illusion that it is the whole head which is aching. Spread all over the head, then it is not so intense at any point. These are tricks that we go on playing.
Look into it and the second step will be that it comes to be smaller and smaller and smaller. And a moment comes when it is just the very point of a needle - very sharp, immensely sharp, very painful. You have never seen such a pain in the head. But very much confined to a small spot. Go on looking into it.
And then the third and more important thing happens. If you go on looking at this point when it is very severe and confined and concentrated at one point, you will see many times that it disappears. When your gaze is perfect it will disappear. And when it disappears you will have the glimpse of where it is coming from - what the cause is. When the effect disappears you will see the cause. It will happen many times. Again it will be there. Your gaze is no more that alert, that concentrated, that attentive - it will come back. Whenever your gaze is really there, it will disappear; and when it disappears, hidden behind it is the cause. And you will be surprised: your mind is ready to reveal what the cause is.
And there can be a thousand and one causes. The same alarm is given because the alarm system is simple. There are not many alarm systems in your body. For different causes the same alarm is given. You may have been angry lately and you have not expressed it. Suddenly, like a revelation, it will be standing there. You will see all your anger that you have been carrying, carrying... like pus inside you. Now this is too much, and that anger wants to be released. It needs a catharsis. Cathart! - and immediately you will see the heachache has disappeared. And there was no need for the aspro, no need for any treatment.
Non-duality
(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)
Non-duality is the key word for Buddhist meditation. The Buddha said that in order to understand, you have to be one with what you understand. A human being is like a television set with millions of channels. If we turn the Buddha on, we are the Buddha. If we turn sorrow on, we are sorrow. If we turn a smile on, we really are the smile. We cannot let just one channel dominate us. We have the seed of everything in us, and we have to seize the situation in our hand, to recover our own sovereignty.
Being in Touch with Oneself
(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)
Being in touch with oneself is the meaning of meditation, to be aware of what is going on in your body, in your feelings, in your mind. Practicing meditation is to be aware of each feeling. If you practice awareness, you suddenly become very rich, very happy. Practicing happiness is available. Please help yourself to it.
Being in touch with oneself is the meaning of meditation, to be aware of what is going on in your body, in your feelings, in your mind. Practicing meditation is to be aware of each feeling. If you practice awareness, you suddenly become very rich, very happy. Practicing happiness is available. Please help yourself to it.
Calming, Smiling, Present Moment
(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)
Smiling is very important. It means that we are ourselves, that we have sovereignty over ourselves, that we are not drowned in forgetfulness. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.
You can feel very happy while practicing breathing and smiling. The conditions are available. You can do it at home. You can do it in a park, along the riverside, anywhere.
Breathing in, I calm body and mind.
Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment
I know this is the only moment.
Calming, Smiling,
Present moment, Only moment.
Smiling is very important. It means that we are ourselves, that we have sovereignty over ourselves, that we are not drowned in forgetfulness. If we are not able to smile, then the world will not have peace. It is with our capacity of smiling, breathing, and being peace that we can make peace.
You can feel very happy while practicing breathing and smiling. The conditions are available. You can do it at home. You can do it in a park, along the riverside, anywhere.
Breathing in, I calm body and mind.
Breathing out, I smile.
Dwelling in the present moment
I know this is the only moment.
Calming, Smiling,
Present moment, Only moment.
Meditation as Peace Work
(from Being Peace, by Thich Nhat Hanh)
Meditation is to be aware of what is going on -- in our bodies, in our feelings, in our minds, and in the world. Practicing meditation is to be aware, to smile, to breathe. In fact, to meditate well, we have to smile a lot. If, in our daily life, we can smile, if we can be peaceful and happy, not only we, but everyone will profit from it. This is the most basic kind of peace work.
Peace work means, first of all, being peace. Meditation is meditation for all of us. We rely on each other. Our children are relying on us in order for them to have a future.
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