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.
A State of Mindfulness
(from Mindfulness in Plain English, H.Gunaratana, Chapter 15, Meditation In Everyday Life)
A state of mindfulness is a state of mental readiness. The mind is not burdened with preoccupations or bound in worries. Whatever comes up can be dealt with instantly. When you are truly mindful, your nervous system has a freshness and resiliency which fosters insight. A problem arises and you simply deal with it, quickly, efficiently, and with a minimum of fuss. You don't stand there in a dither, and you don't run off to a quiet corner so you can sit down and meditate about it. You simply deal with it. And in those rare circumstances when no solution seems possible, you don't worry about that. You just go on to the next thing that needs your attention. Your intuition becomes a very practical faculty.
Mindfulness as Purposeful Awareness
Can conceptual distinctions help our practice?
I believe they can, as long as we don't take them as fixed truths but as guidelines to clarify and sharpen aspects of the practice.
Today I found this article which seems to me useful:
First of all, mindfulness involves paying attention "on purpose". Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes (me included) talk about "mindfulness" and "awareness" as if they were interchangeable terms, but that's not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I'm irritable, but that wouldn't mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully.
Let's take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We're deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We're noticing our mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back. When we're eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we're doing, but we're probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading -- or even all three! So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions.
Because we're only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There's no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There's no purposefulness.
This purposefulness is a very important part of mindfulness. Having the purpose of staying with our experience, whether that's the breath, or a particular emotion, or something as simple as eating, means that we are actively shaping the mind. Left to itself the mind wanders through all kinds of thoughts -- including thoughts expressing anger, craving, depression, revenge, self-pity, etc. As we indulge in these kinds of thoughts we reinforce those emotions in our hearts and cause ourselves to suffer. By purposefully directing our awareness away from such thoughts and towards some "anchor" we decrease their effect on our lives and we create instead a space of freedom where calmness and contentment can grow.
I believe they can, as long as we don't take them as fixed truths but as guidelines to clarify and sharpen aspects of the practice.
Today I found this article which seems to me useful:
First of all, mindfulness involves paying attention "on purpose". Mindfulness involves a conscious direction of our awareness. We sometimes (me included) talk about "mindfulness" and "awareness" as if they were interchangeable terms, but that's not a good habit to get into. I may be aware I'm irritable, but that wouldn't mean I was being mindful of my irritability. In order to be mindful I have to be purposefully aware of myself, not just vaguely and habitually aware. Knowing that you are eating is not the same as eating mindfully.
Let's take that example of eating and look at it a bit further. When we are purposefully aware of eating, we are consciously being aware of the process of eating. We're deliberately noticing the sensations and our responses to those sensations. We're noticing our mind wandering, and when it does wander we purposefully bring our attention back. When we're eating unmindfully we may in theory be aware of what we're doing, but we're probably thinking about a hundred and one other things at the same time, and we may also be watching TV, talking, or reading -- or even all three! So a very small part of our awareness is absorbed with eating, and we may be only barely aware of the physical sensations and even less aware of our thoughts and emotions.
Because we're only dimly aware of our thoughts, they wander in an unrestricted way. There's no conscious attempt to bring our attention back to our eating. There's no purposefulness.
This purposefulness is a very important part of mindfulness. Having the purpose of staying with our experience, whether that's the breath, or a particular emotion, or something as simple as eating, means that we are actively shaping the mind. Left to itself the mind wanders through all kinds of thoughts -- including thoughts expressing anger, craving, depression, revenge, self-pity, etc. As we indulge in these kinds of thoughts we reinforce those emotions in our hearts and cause ourselves to suffer. By purposefully directing our awareness away from such thoughts and towards some "anchor" we decrease their effect on our lives and we create instead a space of freedom where calmness and contentment can grow.
The Life of the Buddha
A BBC/Discovery Channel co-production, this docunarrative film describes the life of Siddharta Gautama, the process by which he arrived at the fundamentals of Buddhism, the archeological findings confirming the traditional account of his life and gives a glimpse of Buddhism today, featuring among others the Dalai Lama.
50 minutes long. Enjoy it!
50 minutes long. Enjoy it!
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.
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