Organisations succumb to dictators

Let [society] band together into groups and organizations as much as it likes - it is just this banding together and the resultant extinction of the individual personality that makes it succumb so readily to a dictator.

Carl Jung in "The Undiscovered Self" page 39

The body has its own intelligence

When some difficulty arises we can always find a different movement, since the body is suprisingly able to adjust itself. It has its own intelligence and is willing to cooperate in finding a solution to any problem. One has only to approach problems with patience, care and attention.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41

Awareness and Consciousness

There is an essential difference between consciousness and awareness, although the borders are not clear in our use of language. I can walk up the stairs of my house, fully conscious of what I am doing, and yet not know how many steps I have climbed. In order to know how many there are I must climb them a second time, pay attention, listen to myself, and count them. Awareness is consciousness together with a realization of what is happening within it or of what is going on within ourselves while we are conscious.

Moshe Feldenkrais, in "Awareness through movement" page 50

Stay Centred

Stay centred, do not overstretch. Extend from your centre, return to your centre.

Jack Kornfield in "Buddha's Little Instruction Book" page 69

What you judge you cannot understand

Do you want to change the world? How about beginning with yourself? How about being transformed yourself first? But how do you achieve that? Through observation. Through understanding. With no interference or judgement on your part. Because what you judge you cannot understand.

Anthony de Mello in "Awareness" page 37

To be aware of inattention

Attention is this hearing and this seeing, and this attention has no limitation, no resistance, so it is limitless. To attend implies this vast energy: it is not pinned down to a point. In this attention there is no repetitive movement; it is not mechanical. There is no question of how to maintain this attention, and when one has learnt the art of seeing and hearing, this attention can focus itself on a page, a word. In this there is no resistance which is the activity of concentration. Inattention cannot be refined into attention. To be aware of inattention is the ending of it: not that it becomes attentive. The ending has no continuity. The past modifying itself is the future - a continuity of what has been - and we find security in continuity, not in ending. So attention has no quality of continuity. Anything that continues is mechanical. The becoming is mechanical and implies time. Attention has no quality of time. All this is a tremendously complicated issue. One must gently, deeply go into it. 

J. Krishnamurti Letters to the Schools vol II, p 31

Light of the world

Let those who have no light in themselves light candles!...

You are the light of the world, you are the tree ever green...

Tertullian

Body carriage

Also let your bodily carriage be firm, and without contortions, whether in motion or at rest. As the mind reveals itself in the face, by keeping the features composed and decent, so the same should be required of it in respect of the whole body. All this, however, must be ensured without any sort of affectation.

Marcus Aurelius

You are unique

Remember you are unique

Just like everyone else

Wake Up!

Waking up is unpleasant, you know. You are nice and comfortable in bed. It's irritating to be woken up. That's the reason the wise guru will not attempt to wake people up. I hope I'm going to be wise here and make no attempt whatsoever to wake you up if you are asleep. It is really none of my business, even though I say to you at times, "Wake up!" My business is to do my thing, to dance my dance. If you profit from it, fine; if you don't, too bad! As the Arabs say, "The nature of the rain is the same, but it makes thorns grow in the marshes and flowers in the gardens."

Anthonoy de Mello in "Awareness" page 6

Native American Prayer

May the sun bring you new energy by day.

May the moon softly restore you by night.

May the breeze blow new strength into your being.

May you walk gently through the world and know its beauty all the days of your life.

Knowledge and Wisdom

"One who understands others has knowledge;

one who understands himself has wisdom.

Mastering others requires force;

mastering the self needs strength."

33rd Verse of the Tao te ching

A Tao-orientated life focuses on understanding yourself, rather than on the thinking and behaviour of others. You shift from the acquisition of information and the pursuit of status symbols to understanding and mastering yourself in any and all situations.

 Wayne Dyer in "Change Your Thoughts Change Your Life" page 160-161

 

Knowledge and understanding

The positive advantages of knowledge, work specifically to the disadvantage of understanding.

Jung in "The Undiscovered Self" page 6

Die today

Take it that you have died today, and your life's story is ended; and henceforward regard what further time may be given you as an uncovenanted surplus, and live it out in harmony with nature.

Marcus Aurelius, trans Maxwell Staniforth

Just be aware

Just be aware; that is all you have to do, without condemning, without forcing, without trying to change what you are aware of. Then you will see that it is like a tide that is coming in. You cannot prevent the tide from coming in; build a wall, or do what you will, it will come with tremendous energy. In the same way, if you are aware choicelessly, the whole field of consciousness begins to unfold. And as it unfolds, you have to follow; and the following becomes extraordinarily difficult—following in the sense to follow the movement of every thought, of every feeling, of every secret desire. It becomes difficult the moment you resist, the moment you say, "That is ugly", "This is good", "That is bad", "This I will keep", "That I will not keep."

J. Krishnamurti The Collected Works vol XV, p 85

The map is not the place.

- Korzybski

Meditation helps release patterns of behaviour

We all have deeply embedded patterns of behaviour that we act on unconsciously. We tense when the telephone rings, eat without tasting our food, or jog through the park while our mind is back in the office replaying the conversation we had with our boss or coworker. Meditation is a way of bringing these habitual behaviours to consciousness so that we can, if it's appropriate, gently release them. It helps us relax into our bodies more fully so that we are more aware of what we do and how we feel while we're doing it.

Pragito Dove in "Lunchtime Enlightenment" page 18

Paying Attention

Central to White Buffalo Woman's message, to all native spirituality, is the understanding that the Great Spirit lives in all beings, enlivens all forms, and gives energy to all things in all realms of creation - including Earthly life...

...Ancient teachings call us to turn primary attention to the Sacred Web of Life, of which we are a part and with which we are so obviously entangled. This quality of attention - paying attention to the whole - is called among my people 'holiness'.

Brooke Medicine Eagle, quoted in "The Little Book of Native American Wisdom" by Steve McFadden page 21

The Great Saints Were Eccentric

Many of the great saints were eccentric in the extreme. The fact of the matter, however, is that this has nothing to do wth anything. From all great beings you learn that personality is irrelevant. You're not with them to understand why they do the things they do, but to tap into the power from which they do them. If you try to figure out what they're doing or why, your brain will just get broken - which is not entirely a bad thing, of course. This, too, can be a stage in the process, if you keep going.

Swami Chetanananda in "The Breath of God" page 200

Liberation

It is bondage, when the mind desires anything or grieves about anything, rejects or welcomes anything, feels angry or happy about anything. Liberation is attained when the mind does not desire or grieve or reject or accept or feel happy or angry. It is bondage when the mind is attached to any particular sense organ. It is liberation when the mind is not attached to any sense organ. When there is no 'I' there is liberation; when there is 'I' there is bondage. Considering this, refrain from accepting or rejecting anything.

Kashyapa in the Ashtakavra Samhita, VIII quoted in "Forgiveness" by Gillian Stokes, page 31

The Silence of Supreme Intelligence

So in meditation there is no controller, there is no activity of will, which is desire. Then the brain, the whole movement of the brain apart from its own activity, which has its own rhythm, becomes utterly quiet, silent. It is not the silence cultivated by thought. It is the silence of intelligence, silence of supreme intelligence. In that silence that which is nameless comes, nameless is. That is sacred, immovable, it is not touched by thought, by endeavour, by effort. It is the way of intelligence which is the way of compassion. Then that which is sacred is everlasting. That is meditation. Such a life is a religious life. In that there is great beauty.

J. Krishnamurti in "Mind Without Measure"

Silence

If we can end the swing of thoughts collected by memories in the past, and the ones that have been shaped through fantasy and projected by imagination into the future, we will find silence. Invite silence, welcome silence, and slowly silence will become part of you.

In that silence we will be able to recieve hints of intuitions and sparks of perceptions from which creativity can arise.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 125

Smile

A smile costs nothing, but gives much. It enriches those who recieve, without making poorer those who give. It takes but a moment, but the memory of it sometimes lasts for ever.

Some people are too tired to give you a smile; give them one of yours, as none needs a smile so much as he who has no more to give.

Author unknown

The point of life

The point of life is life.

Goethe

 

Words are indicators

Words (and concepts) are indicators,

not reflections, of reality.

But, as the mystics of the East declare,

When the sage points to the moon

all that the idiot sees is the finger!

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page 80

Just Listen

Just listen, because if you are capable of listening and seeing the truth of what is being said, then thought will not act. If you are in that state of listening, the fact, the truth, will act. If a seed is planted in the earth and has vitality, it will grow. In the same way, the act of listening is the soil. The act of listening is only possible when there is attention, and attention does not exist if there is interpretation, evaluation, condemnation, or judgement of that to which you are listening. If you listen completely, attentively, without any observer who is the thinker, then that very act of listening will put away what is false, and you will listen only to what is true. The act of listening is the field. In that field every kind of seed is sown, and only the seed that has vitality, energy, strength, will come up, will flourish. That’s what we are doing now. We’re actually listening, neither accepting nor disagreeing nor judging. We’re actually listening so completely that the very act of listening destroys what is false and lets the seed of truth take root.

J. Krishnamurti  The Collected Works vol XVI, pp 146-147

The human makeup

Human beings consist of a material body built from the food they eat. Those who care for this body are nourished by the universe itself.

Inside this is another body made of life energy. It fills the physical body and takes its shape. Those who treat this vital force as divine experience excellent health and longevity because this energy is the source of physical life.

Within the vital force is yet another body, this one made of thought energy. If fills the two denser bodies and has the same shape. Those who understand and control the mental body are no longer afflicted by fear.

Deeper still lies another body composed of intellect. It permeates the three denser bodies and assumes the same form. Those who establish their awareness here free themselves from unhealthy thoughts and actions, and develop the self-control necessary to achieve their goals.

Hidden inside it is yet a subtler body, composed of pure joy. It pervades the other bodies and shares the same shape. It is experienced as happiness, delight, and bliss.

from the Taittiriya Upanishad. Translated by Linda Johnsen

We cannot eat money

Only when the last tree has died and the last river has been poisoned and the last fish has been caught will we realise that we cannot eat money.

19th century Cree Indian

Words of the Buddha

Do not believe a thing simply because it has been said.
Do not put your faith in traditions only because they have been honoured by many generations.
Do not believe a thing because the general opinion believes it to be true or because it has been said repeatedly.
Do not believe a thing because of the single witness of one of the sages of antiquity.
Do not believe a thing because the probabilities are in its favour, or because you are in the habit of believing it to be true.
Do not believe in that which comes into your imagination, thinking that it must be the revelation of a superior Being.
Believe nothing that binds you to the sole authority of your masters or priests.
That which you have tried yourself, which you have experienced, which you have recognised as true, and which will be beneficial to you and to others; believe that, and shape your conduct to it.

An arduous task

To look at oneself without an attitude, without any opinion, judgement, evaluation, is one of the most arduous tasks.

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 54

World is a mental contruct

We almost never see reality.

What we see is a reflection of it

in the form of words and concepts

which we then proceed to take for reality.

The world we live in

is mostly a mental construct.

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page 80

Do it now

Do not think about doing it, but actually do it now. That is, be aware of the trees, the palm tree, the sky; hear the crows cawing; see the light on the leaf, the colour of the sari, the face; then move inwardly. You can observe, you can be aware choicelessly of outward things. It is very easy. But to move inwardly and to be aware without condemnation, without justification, without comparison is more difficult. Just be aware of what is taking place inside you—your beliefs, your fears, your dogmas, your hopes, your frustrations, your ambitions, and all the rest of the things. Then the unfolding of the conscious and the unconscious begins. You have not to do a thing.

J. Krishnamurti The Collected Works vol XV, p 85

Objects are events

Objects are also events,... our world is a collection of processes rather than entities.

Alan Watts in "The Way of Zen" page 25

As the sun opens the flowers

As the sun opens the flowers delicately, unfolding them little by little, so the yoga exercises and breathing open the body during a slow and careful training.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41

The power of observation

A famous Viennese surgeon told his students that a surgeon needed two gifts: freedom from nausea and the power of observation.

Then he dipped a finger into some nauseating fluid and licked it, requesting each of the students to do the same. They steeled themselves to it and managed it without flinching.

With a smile, the surgeon then said, "Gentlemen, I congratulate you on having passed the first test. But not, unfortunately, the second, for not one of you noticed that the finger I licked was not the one I dipped into the fluid."

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page55

The job of the skeleton is to counteract gravity

It follows that any posture is acceptable in itself as long as it does not conflict with the law of nature, which is that the skeletal structure should counteract the pull of gravity, leaving the muscles free for movement. The nervous system and the frame develop together under the influence of gravity in such a way that the skeleton will hold up the body without expending energy despite the pull of gravity. If, on the other hand, the muscles have to carry out the job of the skeleton, not only do they use energy needlessly, but they are then prevented from carrying out their main function of changing the position of the body, that is, of movement.

In poor posture the muscles are doing a part of the job of the bones.

Moshe Feldenkrais in "Awareness through movement" page 68

Importance of complete understanding in oneself

To bring about a complete understanding in oneself is far more important than anything else in life, because we are destroying the world; we have no love, no care.

J. Krishnamurti in "How to meet life" page 103

Silence of Silences

This zone, this zone of no-thing, of the silence of silences, is the source. We forget that we are there all the time.

R.D.Laing

Unconscious Infuence

Anyone who has insight into his own actions, and has thus found access to the unconscious, involuntarily exercises an influence on his environment...

It is an unintentional influence on the unconscious of others, a sort of unconscious prestige, and its effect lasts only so long as it is not disturbed by conscious intention.

C.G.Jung in "The Undiscovered Self" page 76

Force not converted into movement causes damage.

If you rely mainly on your will power, you will develop your ability to strain and become accustomed to applying an enormous amount of force to actions that can be carried out with much less energy, if it is properly directed and graduated.

Both these ways of operating usually achieve their objective, but the former may also cause considerable damage. Force that is not converted into movement does not simply disappear, but is dissipated into damage done to joints, muscles, and other sections of the body used to create the effort. Energy not converted into movement turns into heat within the system and causes changes that will require repair before the system can operate efficiently again.

Moshe Feldenkrais in "Awareness Through Movement" page 58

Healing

Healing is a continual movement away from fragmentation towards wholeness and connection.

Dawna Markova

Siddhis are like candlelight

You do all kinds of things to come upon this strange beauty of silence. Do not do it, just observe. Look, sirs, you know in all this are various powers of clairvoyance, reading somebody's thought. There are various powers, you know what I am talking about, don't you? You call them siddhis, don't you? Do you know all these things are like candles—candlelight in the sun? When there is no sun, there is darkness, and then the light of the candle is very important; but when there is the sun, the light, the beauty, the clarity, then all these powers, these siddhis are like candlelight. They have no value at all. And when you have the light, there is nothing else—developing various centres, the chakras, kundalinis, you know all that business. You need a sane, logical, reasoning mind, not a stupid mind. A mind that is dull can sit for centuries breathing, concentrating on its various chakras, and you know all that playing with kundalinis—it can never come upon that which is timeless, that which is real beauty, truth and love.

Krishnamurti in India 1970-71, pp 180-181

Sound and Fury

We know that even the biggest guns and the heaviest industry with its relatively high living standard are not enough to check the psychic infection spread by religious fanaticism.

The West has unfortunately not yet awakened to the fact that our appeal to idealism and reason and other desirable virtues, delivered with so much enthusiasm, is mere sound and fury. It is a puff of wind swept away in the storm of religious faith, however twisted this faith may appear to us. We are faced, not with a situation that can be overcome by rational or moral arguments, but with an unleashing of emotional forces and ideas engendered by the spirit of the times, and these, as we know from experience, are not much influenced by rational reflection and still less by moral exhortation.

C.G.Jung in "The Undiscovered Self" page 25 Published 1957

Look

"Look, at those clouds and the trees as though you were looking for the first time. Look at them without thought interfering or wandering off. Look at them without naming them as a cloud or a tree. Just look with your heart and eyes."

J. Krishnamurti in "Meeting Life" page 42

Self-image

We act in accordance with our self-image. This self-image - which in turn, governs our every act - is conditioned in varying degree by three factors: heritage, education, and self-education.

The opening words from the preface of "Awareness Through Movement" by Moshe Feldenkrais

Meditation is hard work

Meditation is hard work. It demands the highest form of discipline—not conformity, not imitation, not obedience—but a discipline which comes through constant awareness, not only of things about you outwardly, but also inwardly. So meditation is not an activity of isolation but is action in everyday life which demands co-operation, sensitivity and intelligence. Without laying the foundation of a righteous life, meditation becomes an escape and therefore has no value whatsoever. A righteous life is not the following of social morality, but the freedom from envy, greed and the search for power—which all breed enmity. The freedom from these does not come through the activity of will but by being aware of them through self-knowing. Without knowing the activities of self, meditation becomes sensuous excitement and therefore of very little significance.

J. Krishnamurti in "Meditations" page 6

Self-knowledge

Most people confuse "self-knowledge" with knowledge of their conscious ego personalities. Anyone who has any ego-consciousness at all takes it for granted that he knows himself. But the ego knows only its own contents, not the unconscious and its contents.

 

Carl Gustav Jung in "the Undiscovered Self" page 3

Technical hitch!

Apologies that there haven't been posts for the last couple of days. I've had a few problems accessing Blogger. I hope that normal service will soon be resumed!

November 11th

From Poppies

The earth on which we live is our earth - right? It is not the British earth, the French earth, or the German, Russian, Indian, Chinese, it is our earth on which we are all living. That is a fact. But thought has divided it racially, geographically, culturally, economically. That division is causing havoc in the world... It is our earth on which we are all living but we have divided it - for security, for various patriotic, political, illusory reasons, which eventually bring about war.

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 73

God's home

Once upon a time there was a forest where the birds sang by day and the insects by night. Trees flourished, flowers bloomed and all manner of creatures roamed about in freedom.

And all who enterd there were led to Solitude which is the home of God who dwells in Nature's silence and Nature's beauty.

But then the Age of Unconsciousness arrived when it became possible for people to contruct buildings a thousand feet high and to destroy rivers and forests and mountains in a month. So houses for worship were built from the wood of the forest trees and from the stone under the forest soil. Pinnacle, spire and minaret ponted towards the sky; the air was filled with the sound of bells, with prayer and chant and exhortation.

And God was suddenly without a home.

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the frog" page33

Freedom from Convention

To be free from convention is not to spurn it but not to be deceived by it. It is to be able to use it as an instrument instead of being used by it.

Alan Watts in "The Way of Zen" page 31

Showing Off

Showing off does not reveal enlighenment.

Boasting will not produce accomplishments.

He who is self-righteous is not respected.

He who brags will not endure.

All these ways of acting are odious, distasteful.

from the 24th verse of the Tao in Wayne Dyer's "Change your thoughts change your life"

Bad Taste

To be proud of our yoga positions is bad taste. To be able to do the poses "successfully" means nothing, nothing at all. Yoga should not become a circus. It must not be done as a refuge from life.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41

Watching

You learn a great deal by watching, watching the things about you, watching the birds, the tree, watching the heavens, the stars, the constellation of Orion, the Dipper, the Evening star. You learn just by watching not only the things around you but also by watching people, how they are dressed. You not only watch that which is outside but also you watch yourself, why you think this or that, your behaviour, the conduct of your daily life, why parents want you to do this or that. You are watching, not resisting. If you resist you don’t learn. Or if you come to some kind of conclusion, some opinion you think is right and hold on to that, then naturally you will never learn. Freedom is necessary to learn, and curiosity, a sense of wanting to know why you or others behave in a certain way, why people are angry, why you get annoyed.Learning is extraordinarily important because learning is endless. Learning why human beings kill each other for instance. Of course there are explanations in books, all the psychological reasons why human beings behave in their own particular manner, why human beings are violent. All this has been explained in books of various kinds by eminent authors, psychologists and so on.  But what you read is not what you are. What you are, how you behave, why you get angry, envious, why you get depressed, if you watch yourself you learn much more than from a book that tells you what you are.

J. Krishnamurti Letters to the Schools vol II, pp 75-76

To be enlightened

To know things is to be learned.

To know others is to be wise.

To know the self is to be enlightened.

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the Frog" page 192

A Way of Liberation

A way of liberation can have no positive definition. It has to be suggested by saying what is not.

Alan Watts in "The Way of Zen" page 23

Returning to the Source

You are part of the law of form in time and space, composing and decomposing. Everything in nature is returning to its Source... The question is, do you wish to participate consciously with this natural goodness, or would you rather spend your moments in anxiety and failure?

Wayne Dyer in "Change your thoughts change your life" page 110

From Arne

Theory

Before you've practiced, the theory is useless. After you've practiced, the theory is obvious.

David Williams

Words

Words can be communicative only between those who share similar experiences.

Alan Watts in "The Way of Zen" page 24

The Astonishing Light

One day the sun admitted

I am just a shadow.

I wish I could show you

The Infinite Incandescence

That has cast my brilliant image!

I wish I could show you

When you are lonely or in darkness

The Astonishing Light

Of your own Being!

Hafiz

To be Nothing

The ending of the self, the "me": to be nothing. The word nothing means "not a thing". Not a thing created by thought. To be nothing; having no image of yourself. But we have a great many images of ourselves. To have no image of any kind, no illusion, to be absolutely nothing. The tree is nothing to itself. It exists. And in its very existence it is the most beautiful thing, like those hills: they exist. They don't become something, because they can't. Like a seed of an apple tree, it is apple; it doesn't try to become the pear, or another fruit - it is. You understand? This is meditation. This is the ending of the search, and truth is.

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 93

Sadhana

Your sadhana, or practice, is your spiritual path. In yoga class you learn with your teacher and enjoy the company of like-minded souls. The real magic of yoga, however, begins when you integrate what you learn into your daily life...

Remember that practice continues off your mat and throughout your day.

Marsha and Donald Wenig

Forced Action

If heaven and earth cannot sustain a forced action,

how much less is man able to do?

from the 23rd verse of the Tao in Wayne Dyer's "Change your thoughts change your life"

Forcing leads nowhere

Yoga has nothing to do with acrobatics or spectacular exhibitionism, even though some poses rather look like it. Students are sometimes inclined to force the flexibility of their bodies to the maximum, but this leads nowhere.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 41

Conventional Knowledge

The reason why Taoism and Zen present, at first sight, such a puzzle to the Western mind is that we have taken a restricted view of human knowledge. For us, almost all knowledge is what a Taoist would call conventional knowledge, because we do not feel that we really know anything unless we can represent it to ourselves in words, or in some other system of conventional signs such as the notations of mathematics or music.

Alan Watts in "The Way of Zen" page 24

A Good Mind

Even the worship of gurus, teachers, priests is over. Denial is the result of a good mind that is not afraid to explore.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 88

Words become extraordinarily important

We use words to measure the immeasurable. So one must be aware also of the network of words, how words cheat us, how words mean so much: communism, to a capitalist, means something terrible. Words become extraordinarily important.

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 92

Happiness

Happiness involves taking part in the game of life, not standing on the edge of things and frowning.

Today's entry on my Brahma Kumaris calendar

A love like that

Even after all this time the sun never says to the earth 
"You owe me".

Look what happens with a love like that,

It lights the whole sky.

Hafiz

Chinese Proverb

One showing is worth a hundred sayings.

Alan Watts in "The Way of Zen" page 29

A New Attitude

Is it possible to have a different attitude in which a new intelligence, not imposed by authority, but born from interest, attention and sensitivity, will emerge and in which body and mind, fused in one single action, are collaborating together?

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 88

Awareness of yourself

If you actually are not aware of yourself, of your words, your gestures, your walk, the way you eat, why you drink and smoke, and all the rest of the things human beings are doing, how can you be aware of what is going on profoundly?

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 91

Human Nature

Human nature is more often than not a conglomeration of habits, addictions, opinions, beliefs, prejudices and social conditionings that we cobble together in order to try and make sense of life and fit its demands. But it is not fixed.

Sally Morningstar

Simply exist

Why is it that we cannot simply exist? Why can we not do things for the sake of doing them? 

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 88

Listen

Before you speak, it is necessary for you to listen, for God speaks in the silence of the heart.

Mother Teresa

Silence

Silence is something that comes naturally when you are watching, when you are watching without motive, without any kind of demand, just to watch, and see the beauty of a single star in the sky, or to watch a single tree in a field, or to watch your wife or husband, or whatever you watch. To watch with a great silence and space. Then in that watching, in that alertness, there is something that is beyond words, beyond all measure.

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 92

God just listens

Dan Rather, CBS anchor, once asked Mother Teresa what she said during her prayers. She answered, "I listen." So Rather turned the question and asked, "Well then, what does God say?" To that Mother Teresa smiled with confidence and answered, "He listens”.

Stand Alone

To stand alone in the world is one of the most difficult things: not to belong to any nation, except perhaps having a passport; not to belong to any ideology, any particular kind of activity of the left or right; not to repeat a single word that you yourself have not known, so that there is integrity. Because if you belong to any organization, any group, or follow any guru, anyone, you are not being honest. So, in a world that is so disorderly, divided, full of antagonism, bitterness and falsehood, can you stand completely alone? Sorry, either you do this or you don’t. You can’t say, “Well, I do belong to a particular little group, but I am really free from all that.” You know, when there is no integrity, when there is no honesty and virtue, systems and organizations become tremendously important. Haven’t you noticed this? Then the organizations, systems, control the mind. But if the mind is really honest, straight, clear, then no system is required because it is totally virtuous.

From J. Krishnamurti’s first public talk at Saanen, 16 July 1972.

Yoga must not be organised

BE CAREFUL, VERY CAREFUL about organisations. Yoga cannot be organised, must not be organised. Organisations kill work.

Vanda Scaravelli in "Awakening the Spine" page 110

Devil helps organise the truth

You know there is a story of the Devil and a friend walking along the street. And the friend picks up something from the pavement, looks at it and says: 'I've found the truth. Here it is!' So the Devil replies ''I'll help you to organize it.'' All the world has tried to organize truth and therefore has destroyed it.

J. Krishnamurti Talks in Europe 1968 Rome 3rd Public Talk 17th March 1968

Truth is a truth until you organise it

Lao-tzu might say that  truth is a truth until you organise it, and then it becomes a lie. Why? Because the purposes of the organisation begin to take precidence over that with it first attempted to keep in order.

Wayne Dyer in "Change your thoughts - change your life" page 90

Give up sainthood

Give up sainthood, renounce wisdom, and it will be a hundred times better for everyone.

Throw away morality and justice and people will do the right thing.

Throw away industry and profit and there will be no thieves.

All of these are outward forms alone;

they are not sufficient in themselves.

It is more important to see the simplicity,

to realise one's true nature,

to cast off selfishness and temper desire.

19th Verse of Tao Te Ching. Wayne Dyer "Change your thoughts change your life" page 88

It's our earth

The earth on which we live is our earth - right? It is not the British earth, the French earth, or the German, Russian, Indian, Chinese, it is our earth on which we are all living. That is a fact. But thought has divided it racially, geographically, culturally, economically. That division is causing havoc in the world... It is our earth on which we are all living but we have divided it - for security, for various patriotic, political, illusory reasons, which eventually bring about war.

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 73

Listen to your body

You have to learn how to listen to your body, going with it and not against it, avoiding all effort or strain and centering your attention on that very delicate point, the back of the waist (where the spine moves in two opposite directions). You will be amazed to discover that, if you are kind to your body, it will respond in an incredible way.

Vanda Scaravelli "Awakening the Spine" page 16

Wisdom and Love

Wisdom is knowing that I am nothing,
Love is knowing I am everything,
and between the two my life moves.

                      Nisargadatta Maharaj

Take notice

When a book literally falls into your lap or is sent to you by several different people - or even when you keep seeing the title and having it refered to by others over and over - you need to notice, stop your resistance, and surrender.

Wayne Dyer in "Your Ultimate Calling" page 51

Nature and Humanity

If you lose touch with nature you lose touch with humanity.

Krishnamurti's Journal 4th April 1975

May your troubles be less

May your troubles be less,
your hapiness more
and nothing but blessings come through your door.

Renee Locks

Need for practice

People do need to do some sort of practice in order to really integrate this so that is really becomes something they're embodying rather than just an experience they had.

Bill Harris in conversation with Genpo Roshi

Your duty is to be

Your duty is to be. Not to be somebody, not to be nobody - for therein lies greed and ambition - not to be this or that - and thus become conditioned - but just to be.

Anthony de Mello in "The Prayer of the Frog" page 192

To become non-greedy is still a form of greed

If you are greedy, what matters is to understand your greed and not try to become non-greedy; because the very desire to become non-greedy is still a form of greed.

J. Krishnamurti "Life Ahead" page 136

He that plants trees

He that plants trees loves others besides himself.

Thomas Fuller

Butterfly or man?

Once upon a time, I, Chuang Tzu, dreamt I was a butterfly,

fluttering hither and thither,

to all intents and purposes a butterfly.

I was conscious only of following my fancies as a butterfly,

and was unconscious of my individuality as a man.

Suddenly I awakened, and there I lay, myself again.

Now

I do not know whether I was then a man dreaming I was a butterfly,

or whether I am now a butterfly dreaming I am a man.

in Spectrum Summer 1991

Hear the Silence

Hear the Silence.

Touch, taste and smell the silence.

Silence is peace.

Silence is God.

Silence is the music of the soul.

Swami Nada Brahmananda

Be alert

Be alert to all your thoughts and feelings, don't let one feeling or thought slip by without being aware of it and absorbing all its content. Absorbing is not the word, but seeing the whole content of the thought-feeling. It is like entering a room and seeing the whole content of the room at once, its atmosphere and its spaces. To see and be aware of one's thoughts makes one immensly sensitive, pliable, alert. Don't condem or judge but be very alert. Out of seperation, out of the dross comes pure gold.

J. Krishnamurti "Letters to a Young Friend" Page 9

Posture

Posture is the position assumed by the body either by means of the integrated action of muscles working to counteract the force of gravity, or when supported during muscular inactivity. Many postures are assumed by an individual during the course of 24 hour, and at any given moment posture comprises the positions of all the joints of the body.
Dynamically and statically, an efficient posture:

1. is stable
2. minimises stress and strain on the tissues
3. minimises energy cost

Subtle departure from an optimal posture is common and subjects the body to routine, eccentric and increased mechanical stress.

Alison Middleditch & Jean Oliver "Functional Anatomy of the Spine" page 327

Practice

Practice transforms us. We need to eat less, because we assimilate more and therefore there is loss of unneccessary weight. We become more beautiful, our faces change and our walk gains in elasticity. Our way of standing is steady and poised, our legs are firmer, and our toes and feet spread out, giving us more stability. Our chests expand, the muscles of the abdomen start to work, the head is lighter on the neck (like the corolla of a flower on its stem moving easily with flexibility while the wind blows). To watch these enchanting changes is amazing.
A different life begins and the body expresses a happiness never felt before.

Vanda Scaravelli "Awakening the Spine" page 36

Soar into the skies

The trees were so stately and strangely impervious to man's tarred roads and traffic. Their roots were deep down, deep in the earth, and their tops stretched to the skies. We have our roots in the earth, which we have and must have, but we cling or crawl to the earth; only a few soar to the skies. They are the only creative and happy people. The rest spoil and destroy each other on this lovely earth, by hurt and likewise gossip.

J. Krishnamurti "Letters to a Young Friend" page 9

Sacred Season of Autumn

O sacred season of Autumn, be my teacher,
For I wish to learn the virtue of contentment.

As I gaze upon your full coloured beauty,
I sense all about you
an at-homeness with your amber riches.

The cycle of growth has ceased,
and the busy work of giving life
is now completed.
I sense in you no regrets:
you've lived a full life.

I live in a society that is ever-restless,
always eager for more mountains to climb,
seeking happiness through more and more possessions.

As you, O Autumn, take pleasure in your great bounty,
let me also take delight
in the abundance of the simple things in life
which are the true source of joy.

From the Taize Community