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