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Ignorance And
Conditioning K'S
TEACHINGS: Sensation
is ever a reaction and it wanders from one reaction to another. The
mind is memory which alters all in reaction.... As you know and as
I know every sensation comes to an end and so we proceed from one
sensation to another and every sensation strengthens the habit of
seeking further sensation....cause and effect are inseparable ; in
the cause is the effect. To be aware of the cause-effect of a problem
needs certain swift pliability of mind-heart for the cause-effect
is constantly being modified, undergoing continual change...ever changing
cause-effect....Karma is this bondage to cause-effect. Karma is not
an ever enduring chain....there's no permanent continuance of anything....conditioning
itself is impermanent.... -KFT
CD-ROM So long as I do not know myself, the ways and compulsions of my own mind, unconscious as well as conscious, there must be suffering. After all, we suffer because of ignorance - ignorance in the sense of not knowing oneself. -Talks by Krishnamurti in Europe 1956 p. 103 By your own acts you are being conditioned, but at any moment you can break the chain of limitation. So you are a free agent at all times but you are conditioning yourself through ignorance, fear.... -K,
7th talk Ommen, Aug 1936 We
are conditioned and that conditioning is our consciousness. -K,
1st public Talk, San Francisco May 1984 This
consciousness which is conditioning itself through it's own volitional
activities, this ''I''-process of ignorance, wants, fear, illusion-is
the centre of action. This centre is continually reforming itself,
and creating anew it's own limitations through it's own volitional
activities and so there is always conflict, pain, sorrow. There must
be a fundamental change in consciousness, in this very centre of action...,
you have to discern that the "I" process, with it's fear
and illusion is transient, and so can be dissolved. -K,
8th Talk, Ommen, Aug 1936 And
what is consciousness? To be conscious of something, to be aware of,
to be able to recognise, to understand, that is the whole field in
which the mind is in operation, and that is more or less what we mean
by consciousness. -K,
Q/A, Brockwood Park, Sept 1980 We
began with the words consciousness, thought, brain, and mind. We discussed
consciousness, and K asked, "How do you define it?". I said
that consciousness was the sense of existing, of being. The sense
that one "is." We then explored the relationship of thought
to consciousness. "Thought is not concerned with the totality
of consciousness, but with parts of it," Krishnaji said. "But
is it through thought that consciousness reveals itself ? The part
is revealed in the 'now' as the fragment," I responded. "But
that is a thought formation," I said. "The
name-the form-the envirorment are the structure of the 'I.' Thought
does not say it is hurt." "Who
says it?" I queried. "Look
at it factually," said Krishnaji. "I am hurt-in explaining
that hurt, thought thinks it is different from the structure it has
built, which
is hurt. Thought can never be aware of the total content of consciousness.
It can only be aware of the fragment. What is the total content of
consciousness? You say consciousness implies existence-what will give
holistic meaning to consciousness?" Krishnaji asked. ''Has
it a holistic meaning?" "Consciousness
is the totality of life. Not only my life, your life, but the life
of the animal, the tree; the totality of all life,'' said Krishnaji.... Do
you mean consciousness is the whole phenomenon of life-of existence?" ''What
do you mean by phenomenon?" Krishnaji was still looking into
the question. "That
which can be perceived by the senses." "That
is only part of it," said Krishnaji. "What is the other part?" I asked. "All
accumulated knowledge, experience, the psychological agonies of man
which you cannot touch or taste. Psychological turmoil, anxiety can
affect the organism of man and plant. That is the process of mankind.
It is global. It is the common fate of man.''.... ''You
are using mind as if it were an instrument. You say it can perceive.
Is the mind an instrument or a field?'' "Is
the mind the field? Is it the whole field-or part of the field?" ''Does
the mind include intellect, and what part do the senses play?"
I asked. I
don't think emotions-sensation-can possibly bring about a perception
of the whole." "Would
you rule out the place of the senses as such?" "No,
I don't rule them out." "Are
they being wrongly used?" I asked. "When thought identifies itself with sensation, then it becomes the 'me'," said Krishnaji. "You say the mind is the field, the matrix. A field circumscribed. The mind includes the brain. thought, emotion, intellect. Is time part of the field-part of the mind?" Krishnaji
was extending the area of investigation. "If time is not part
of my mind, is sensation part of mind?" "Yes.
I see the germ of what it is. To observe with all your senses-in that
there is no identification, The question is, can you look with all
your senses awakened?" ''Can
you look and listen in one instant of time?" I asked. "Is
it possible to observe with all your senses, and in that state is
there any movement of thought at all?" Krishnaji
continued to probe as he questioned. "When there is movement
of thought, then it is one particular sense operating. Can I find
out if there is a totally different dimension? A state where consciousness
as we know it ceases?" ''You
have examined and negated all the known instruments we have. The only
instrument you do not negate is the movement of the sensory.'' "How
can I negate the senses?" Krishnaji spoke. "It
is the senses that may have the capacity to be free from illusion." "This
is only possible when the sensory as identification with thought is
understood. Then the senses do not produce the psychological structure,
as the 'me'. The movement of thought, emotions, as fear, hate, attachment,
are going on in the brain endlessly. We want to bring about order
in it. What instrument or quality is necessary to move out of this
enchaining circle of consciousness?" Krishnaji asked. "The
last question is very valid." "I
am trying to convey that there must be total order for the cosmic
to be. I see that there is total disorder in everyday life. Order
is necessary. What will bring order?" "There
is only one instrument which has a possibility of being free of taint." "The
senses?" asked Krishnaji. "Otherwise
you have blocked every instrument the brain has." "Have
we not also blocked the senses?" asked Krishnaji. -dialogue between K and Pupul Jayakar, Summer 1978, Brockwood Park. (Pg 376-379 Biography of K by Pupul Jayakar) What
is sensation? If one may go into it now. The actual meaning of that
word is "the activity of the senses" Right? -
touching, tasting, seeing, smelling, hearing, mind is part of the
senses. So
what is the origin of desire? We live by sensation Right? We live
by sensation. If I observe the whole process of desire in myself I
see there is always an object towards which my mind is directed for
further sensation. There is perception, contact, sensation and desire
and the mind becomes the mechanical instrument of all this process.
So sensation becomes monstrously important and it's problems overwhelming
and if we do not penetrate deeply and comprehend its processes our
life will be shallow and utterly vain and miserable ...and the habit
of seeking further sensation....and is there an end to sorrow?. So
I am saying when there is time in between sensation and thought....an
interval, you understand the nature of desire, the way desire begins-then
you know what to do with it. This identification through recognition
sets going a process of thinking like a vibration or a wave which
has its own continuity. Thought continues as a vibration which may
manifest itself afterwards. The vibration of the word takes time to
reach your ear and the nervous response as well as the brain response
have a split second. -Collection
of K teachings from the KFT CD-ROM (Please
refer to the K teachings quoted under ''Sensations-the root of misery
and sorrow and the key to insight and freedom'') Face
the fact don't move away from the fact. Thought identifies itself
with that sensation and through identification the 'I' is built up,
the ego and the ego then says "I must'' or "I will not".
Thought has given shape to sensation. Desire is born when thought
gives shape to sensation, gives an image to sensation. If there is
no identification is there a self ? You understand sir ?. So you examine
this very carefully not to identify yourself with anything....with
sensation...with an experience. Thought tries to take over to make
it permanent. Permanent ? That's right which means memory, a rememberance.
It is now conditioned. Why it cannot give it up. That's our whole
problem. Thought wants to hold on to memories which have created the
image. Why has it made the image so valuable ? The whole process of
identification-my house, my name, my possessions, what I will be,
the success, the power, the position, the prestige-the identification
process is the essence of the self. Thought
creates the thinker. Thought is always seeking a permanent state seeing
its own state of transition or flux or impermanence, thought creates
an entity which it calls the thinker, the atman, Paramatman, the soul-a
higher and higher security. That is thought creates an entity which
it calls the observer, the experiencer, the permanent thinker as distinct
from the impermanent thought and the wide distance between two creates
the conflict in time. -KFT
CD-ROM Everything
about us, within as well as without-our relationships, our thoughts,
our feelings-is impermanent in a constant state of flux. Being aware
of this, the mind craves permanency, a perpetual state of peace, of
love, of goodness, a security that neither time nor events can destroy;
therefore it creates the soul, the Atman, and the visions of a permanent
paradise. But this permanency is born of impermanency, and so it has
within it the seeds of the impermanent. There is only one fact impermanence. -Commentaries
on Living (Third Series) p.253 Is
there a permanent thing in you? You are changing, your body changes,
unless you are dead. Everything is in a movement, but you refuse to
accept that movement. And to say there is a soul, an atman, means
that thought has thought about it, or has invented it. -Talks
by Krishnamurti in India 1966 p.97 There is a life in which there is no centre as 'me', a life, therefore, walking hand in hand with death ; and out of that sense of ending totally, time has come to an end. Time is movement, movement is thought, thought is time. When one asks: "Can one live in that eternity?" -one cannot understand. See what one has done. "I want to live in eternity, to understand immortality" -which means the 'I' must be part of that. But what is the 'I'? A name, a form, and all the things that thought has put together; that is what the 'I' actually is, to which one clings. And when death comes, through disease, accident, old age, how scared one is.
-K, Q/A, Saanen, July 1980 ...The
idea of becoming arises only when there is a sense of insecurity...,
the inward void. If you are aware of that process of thought and feeling,
you will see that there is a constant battle going on, an effort to
change, to modify, to alter what is. This is the effort to become,
and becoming is a direct avoidance of what is. Through self-knowledge,
through constant awareness, you will find that strife, battle, the
conflict of becoming, leads to pain, to sorrow and ignorance. It is
only if you are aware of inward insufficiency and live with it without
escape, accepting it wholly, that you will discover an extraordinary
tranquillity, a tranquillity which is not put together, made up, but
a tranquillity which comes with understanding of what is. Only in
that state of tranquillity is there creative being..... -Pg
70, First and Last freedom If
you become fully aware of one hindrance, whether it be a guru, memory,
or class consciousness, that awareness will uncover the creator of
all hindrances, the creator of illusions, which is self-consciousness,
the ego. When mind awakens intelligently to that creator, which is
self-consciousness, then in that awareness the creator of illusions
dissolves itself. Try it, and you will see what happens. -Verbatim
Reports of Talks and Answers ...Adyar, India, 1933-34 p.84 When
a machine is revolving very fast, as a fan with several blades, the
separate parts are not visible but appear as one. So the self, the
me, seems to be a unified entity but if its activities can be slowed
down then we shall perceive that it is not a unified entity but made
up of many separate and contending desires and pursuits. These separate
wants and hopes, fears and joys make up the self. The self is a term
to cover craving in its different forms. To understand the self there
must be an awareness of craving in its multiple aspects. -Authentic Report of Sixteen Talks given in 1945 & 1946 ... p.99-100 The
self is put together, made up, and the self is not when the parts
are dissolved. But in illusion the self separates itself from its
qualities in order to protect itself, to give itself continuity, permanency.
It takes refuge in its qualities through separating itself from them.
The self asserts that it is this and it is that; the self, the I,
modifies, changes, transforms its thoughts, its qualities, but this
change only gives strength to the self, to its protective walls. But
if you are aware deeply you will perceive that the thinker and his
thoughts are one; the observer is the observed. To experience this
actual integrated fact is extremely difficult and right meditation
is the way to this integration. -Authentic
Report of Sixteen Talks given in 1945 & 1946 ...p. 114-115 The
self, the "me" and the "mine", is very strong
in most of us ; sleeping or waking, it is ever alert, always strengthening
itself. But when there is an awareness of the self and a realization
that all its activities, however subtle, must inevitably lead to conflict
and pain, then the craving for certainity, for self-continuance comes
to an end. -Education
and the Significance of Life p. 60-61 The
mind seeing it's own impermanency, it's own transiency, craves a permanent
state and the very craving creates the symbol, the sensation, the
idea, the belief to which we cling. -9th
public Talk, Ojai 1952 All
craving and any experience born from it, makes up the self sustaining
process of the ''I''...so first begin to discern for yourself the
process of craving which distorts perception and maintains the ''I''
process and nourishes fear....when you deeply discern that the ''I''
process is maintaing itself through it's own limitations, it's own
volitional activities of craving, then your action, your morality,
your whole attitude towards life undergoes a fundamental change. In
that there is reality, bliss. -3rd Talk, Pennysylvania, June 1936 Every
living thing is force, energy-unique to itself. This force or energy
creates it's own materials which can be called the body, sensation,
thought or consciousness. This force or energy in it's self acting
development becomes consciousness. From this there arises the ''I''
process, the ''I'' movement. Then begins the round of creating it's
own ignorance. The ''I'' process begins and continues in identification
with it's own self created limitations. The ''I'' is not a separate
entity, as most of us think, it is both the form of energy and energy
itself. But that force, in it's development, creates it's own material
and consciousness is a part of it; and through the senses, consciousness
becomes known as the individual. This ''I'' process is not of the
moment-it is without a beginning. But through constant awareness and
comprehension, this ''I'' process can be ended. -2nd
public Talk Ojai, April 1936. So
from birth to death we are caught in an endless struggle and we have
accepted this battle of becoming as worthwhile, as noble, as an essential
part of existence. -8th
public Talk,, Bombay, 1948 I
think there is a way of understanding the whole process of birth and
death, becoming and decaying, sorrow and happiness....we see around
us this continual becoming and decaying, this agony and transient
pleasure, but we cannot possibly understand this process outside of
ourselves. We can comprehend this only in our own consciousness, through
our own ''I'' process and if we do this, then there is a possibility
of perceiving the significance of all existence. -3rd
public Talk,, Ojai, 1936 What
is our consciousness? It is to be conscious of, to be aware of, what
is going on, not only outside but inside; it is the same movement.
Our consciousness is the product of our education, our culture, racial
inheritance and the result of our own striving. All our beliefs, our
dogmas, rituals, concepts, jealousies, anxieties, pleasures, our so-called
love - all that is our consciousness. It is the structure which has
evolved through millenia after millenia - through wars, tears, sorrow,
depression and elation: all that makes up our consciousness.... Without
the content, consciousness, as we know it, does not exist. -K,
Q/A, Saanen, July 1980 The
brain has been registering for millennia. Therefore, registering has
become part of it. The brain has become mechanical. I say: Can that
mechanical process stop? That is all. If it cannot be stopped it becomes
merely a machine, which it is. This is all part of tradition, part
of repetition, part of the. constant registration through millennia.
I am asking a simple question which has great depth to it, which is:
Can it stop? If it cannot stop, man is never free. -Pg
167, exploration into insight Cause
and effect are inseparable; in the cause is the effect. To be aware
of the cause-effect of a problem needs certain swift pliability of
mind-heart for the cause-effect is constantly being modified, undergoing
continual change. What once was cause-effect may have become modified
now and to be aware of this modification or change is surely necessary
for true understanding. To follow the ever changing cause-effect is
strenuous for the mind clings and takes shelter in what was the cause-effect;
it holds to conclusions and so conditions itself to the past. There
must be an awareness of this cause-effect conditioning; it is not
static but the mind is when it holds fast to a cause-effect that is
immediately past. Karma is this bondage to cause-effect. As thought
itself is the result of many causes-effects it must extricate itself
from its own bondages. -Authentic
Report of Sixteen Talks given in 1945-1946, ...p.62 Karma
is not an ever-enduring chain; it's a chain that can be broken at
any time. What was done yesterday can be undone today; there's no
permanent continuance of anything. Continuance can and must be dissipated
through the understanding of its process. -Commentaries
on Living (Third Series) p.280 You
say action is the outcome of the past. Such action is not action at
all, but only a reaction, is it not? The conditioning, the background,
reacts to stimuli; this reaction is the response of memory, which
is not action, but karma. For the present we are not concerned with
what action is. Karma is the reaction which arises from certain causes
and produces certain results. Karma is this chain of cause and effect. Is
the background, the past, a static state? Is it not undergoing constant
modification? You are not the same to-day as you were yesterday; both
physiologically and psychologically there is a constant change going
on, is there not?. One
form of conditioning can be substituted for another, but it is still
conditioning. The response of this conditioning is karma, is it not?.
The response of memory is called action, but it is only reaction;
this 'action' breeds further reaction, and so there is a chain of
so-called cause and effect. But is not the cause also the effect?
Neither cause nor effect is static. To-day is the result of yesterday,
and to-day is the cause of tomorrow; what was the cause becomes the
effect, and the effect the cause. One flows into the other. There
is no moment when the cause is not also the effect. With
the understanding of its conditioning, with the choiceless awareness
of its own responses as thought and feeling, tranquillity comes to
the mind. This breaking of the chain of karma is not a matter of time;
for through time, the timeless is not. -Pgs.
79-81, Commentaries of Living Vol II. Are
cause and effect fixed, stationary? When you use the word "and"
between cause and effect, does it not imply that both are stationary?
But is cause ever stationary? Is effect always unchangeable? Surely,
cause-effect is a continuous process, is it not? Today is the result
of yesterday, and tomorrow is the result of today; what was cause
becomes effect, and what was effect becomes cause. It is a chain-process,
is it not? One thing flows into another, and at no point is there
a halt. It is a constant movement, with no fixation. There are many
factors that bring about this cause-effect-cause movement. -Pg 180, Commentaries of Living VOL I (Please refer to the K teachings quoted under'' Journey from sensations to sacred-state beyond mind and matter'' and ''Nibbana-sacred-freedom'' in this study) IMPORTANT: Please refer to the Teachings as quoted in PART III |
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