The thoughts of J. Krishnamurti Prt. 2

In his later years Jedu Krishnamurti saw the implications of the rise of the computer age an its remifications for the human race. He focused his talks on the persisting incapacity of the human race in dealing with the global state of affairs such as the end to global conflicts and the gloom of wars. Despite our claim to have achieved advancement in every aspect of our human endeavour Krishnamurti felt that man is still ignorant of himself, man has yet to discover his true nature or identity which is inevitable if he is to save himself and mankind as a whole. We have the tendencies to look without for our solutions to our misgivings rather than looking within for answers. We fail to utilize our greatest asset and that being the mind when confronted with challenges and we resort to looking for help from the external sources thus empowering others to make the decissions and find the solutions for us. With the introduction of the computer this has been further excerbated and a threat of complacency is eminant over the fate future generation.
Krishnamurti asked us to look deeply without fear or favours , without judgements or prejudices into our mode of thinking, our ways of dealing with whatever that the mind lay before us in our dailly affairs. He emphasizes our need to follow through each and every thought that arises in our minds and follow its course till it is fully comprehended from the beginning, the middle and the end of its course, just as the Buddha taught in his teachings of Dyana or meditation. The methods may differ to each and every spiritual or religious practices but the aim is still the same and that is to understand the processes of the human mind, to look with clarity and detached observation of how our thoughts arises and what makes them disappear. Why we think what we think and how to put an end to this ever prescence of thoughts in our conciousness or at the very least minimizing it to the best of our ability.
What is wrong with having thoughts? According to Krishnamurti, thought is of the past, thought is a product of time anything and everything that we think of is from our memories or from our past expereinces and thus of the past. Being of the past, being subject to time, thought will always be limiting and as such ideas and projections anything having dependance on thought will remain limited, of the past.
As an artist I often ask myself what of originality? How does one strive to create something not a product of the past or an imitation of what has been done before? Or as a Buddhist would ask, "What is the original Buddha nature?" Or who am I before I was conceived by my parents? The answer to these questions has to be realized not through the process of thinking or thoughts, the answers will have to be realized out of the box where thoughts operates, like one looking for answers to a Zen Koan. For example,"Has dog Buddha Nature?" or "What is the sound of one hand clapping?"
Remember, Krishnamurti would advice you, the word is not the thing! Thus deliberating out the answers through the thought processes is futile to say the least and in some Zen schools one would receive a stick on the head from a master even before one can open one's mouth to answer. So we find ourselves in a conundrum, die if you do die if you dont, not being able to think has its disadvantages, we think, how to survive with no thoughts?

The Thoughts of J. Krishnamurti.

Jedu Krishnamurti's lifelong works has been considered highly controversial by many and simply and easily understood and acceptable by some. In most of his talks Krishnamurti invited everyone present to participate in the 'Discussions' rather than listen to one man's lecture or point of views. Krihnamurti did not consider himself a spiritual 'Guru' or an exponent of any particular teaching or philosophy, he was more into taking his audiences for a Stroll through the maze of the human mind. Picking it to pieces and putting them back together in every which way like a jig saw puzzle, that often seemed impossible yet fits and makes sense. Jedu Krishnamurti offered a peek into the workings and the trappings of thoughts, the hidden truths of our reliance on it and the dangers of not recognizing our ignorance of its functions.
Throughout his life Krishnamurti tried in every which way to expose the falacies of organized religion. the education system and the institutions that deals with them, he tried to free the human mind and spirit from the bonds of 'follow the leader' mentality simply through having a thorough understanding of 'Who you are' or who am I.Through self discovery and right understanding of relationship man can eleviate himself from manyof the man made horrors such as wars and oppressions. 'You are the World', 'The world is You', he emphasized time and again and change for the better can only come through your each and every individual self realizations.
"What you are , the world Is."
For those who have studied him with greater depth and insight krishnamurti's thoughts and reflections runs a whole lot deeper in meaning than meets the eye especially when put into practice on a daily basis. From the simplest act of watching your mind in action to understanding the workings of your neurosystems in the brain in relation to these actions, you may gain an insight into the hows and whys of the human conflicts, and an insight even unto the process of death and dying itself.
"...to die...an ending to all things of memory - that is death, a death not seperable from living."
Krishnamurti spoke of Intelligence ...
" Intelligence is the capacity to discern, to understand, to distinguish, it is also the capacity to observe, to put together all that we have gathered and to act from that. That gathering, that discernment, that observation can be prejudiced; and intelligence is denied when there is prejudice. If you follow another intelligence is denied, the following of another however noble denies your own perception, denies your own observation - you are merely following somebody who will tell you what to do, what to think. If you do that, than intelligence does not exist, because in that there is not observation and therefore no inttelligence. Intelligence demands doubting, questioning, not being impressed by others, by their enthusiasm or their energy..."
Most of his thoughts and lectures were not too far from the teachings of the great teachers of old such as The Buddha, Christ and the Rishis of India, but it is the manner in which he laid them down that made Krishnamurti a man unto himself. I came to know the man sometime in the late seventies when I was at the University of Wisconsin in Green Bay. I stumbled upon a small book of his entitled "The Way of Intelligence" and the rest was history. I was hooked and from then on I made it my mission to fully understand the man and his teachings as it challenged my own intelligence. His words evoked from within me my own thoughts came alive from his words like sparks from a flintstone triggering wildfires within my mind, I was never the same after this chance encounter.
It was after my introduction to J. Krishnamurti's works that I decided to change my University course and designed my own program till I graduated with a BA degree of my own design. I remember being in a quagmire of college life with very little meaning other than the waste of time and money while not learning very much from the studio classes I was in. Krishnamurti shouted in my mind one night "Change!! Now!!" and I did the very next morning when I woke up from the dream I was having. I opted to do my studies off campus with my first trip to London and Wales in 1979. The trip further opened my eyes and my mind and art took a whole new dimension in my life, I became a full time artist living on the street as one and I still do.
"A man who is passionate about the world and the necessity for change, must be free from political activity, religious conformity and tradition - which means free from the weight of time, free from the burden of the past, free from the action of the will; this is the new human being. This only is the social, psychological, and even political revolution."
Pg.147.."The Urgency of Change"

The Mahabaratta- A Reflection

Space is a 'mind field'...While Time tells 'His-story', And God sang His song of Truth and Untruth...thus was the story told, MAHABARATTA!! You Tube has over a hundred videos of this epic Hindu story that is today still considered the longest epic ever written; the Mahabaratta! To have a good understanding of Hinduism and the socio cultural as well as political back ground that has laid the foundation for the hindu religion the Mahabaratta is still a great point of refference. Loyalty, fidelity, faith and devotion, jealousy, anger and revenge, this epic story that had led to the "Greatest War" was all about human values, human frailites and devine interventions. The Story unfolds with the conflict set upon by the ambitious and arrogant prince of the Kauravas, prince Duryodhan whose obsessive crave for power was fueled by his uncle whose sole purpose for existance was to destroy the Kuru dynasty. Relationship implies existence; and so nothing can live in isolation, to be is to be related.Our conflict is in relationship of all levels of our existence, and the understanding of this relationship, completely and extensively is the only problem that each of us have. Each of us has to start anew, afresh; for what we are the world is. This little world of our problems extended becomes the world and the problem of the world. We despair of our understanding in relation to the vast problems of the world. We do not see that it is not a problem of mass action but of awakenning of the individual to the world in which he lives and to resolve this problem of his world however limited. The mass is actually you and I and another- an abstaraction which is being exploited by the politicians or by one who has an ideology. The individual then is important, not his idea or whom he follows, his country or his beliefs. You are important, not to what ideology or nation you belong, to what color or creed; the ideology is only a projection of our conditioning. The purification of the brain is necessary. The brain is the center of all the senses: the more the senses are alert and sensitive the sharper the brain is; its the center of remembrance-the past; its the storehouse of experiences and knowledge-tradition. So its limited, conditioned. Its activites are planned, thought out, reasoned but it functions in limitation, in space-time. The complete, the whole is the mind; it is empty, totally empty and because of this emptiness the brain exist in space-time... only when the brain has cleansed itself of its conditioning, greed envy, ambition, then only can it comprehend that which is complete. LOVE is the completeness. Self critical awareness is essential . Imagination and illusion distort clear observation. Illusion will always exist, so long as the urge for the continuation of pleasure and the avoidance of pain exist; the demand for those experiences which are pleasurable to continue or be remembered; the avoidance of pain, suffering. Both these breed illusion. To wipe away illusion altogether, pleasure and sorrow must be understood, not by control or sublimation, identification or denial. To be satisfied is ugly but to be discontented breeds hatred. To be virtuous in order to gain heaven or the approval of the respectable of society, makes of life a barren field which has been ploughed over and over again but has never been sown. This doing somethingfor the sake of somehting else is in essence an intricate series of escapes from oneself, from what is. Without experiencing the essence there is no beauty. Beauty is not merely in the outward things orin the inwards thoughts, feelings and ideas,there is beauty beyond thought and feeling. Its this essence that is beauty,But this beauty has not opposite. Control in any form is harmful to total understanding. A disciplined existence is a life of conformity there is no freedom from fear. Habit destroys freedom; habits of thought, habit of drinking and so on makes for superficial and dull life. Organized religion with its beliefs dogmas and rituals denies the open entry into the vastness of mind. It is the entry that cleanses the brain of of space-time. Being cleansed the brain can then deal with space-time. Based upon Krishnamurti's teachings.