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