1. ENERGY

 Summarizing Talks with JD Krishnamurti - Part 1

Covid times has been challenging for everyone. One of the key challenges, has been the time to yourself. All that time with myself has been very illuminating. Maybe access to certain things raised a lot of questions. One of them was this book – Talks and Dialogues, JD Krishnamurti. Oh!! What kind of things he asks from us!!! 

I will attempt to summarize though excerpts on what I understood from this book. But I keep feeling this understanding is like an onion (just like everything else). I peel layers after layers and yet there seem to be more before I could reach the core. If I try to do this in one post, it will end up too long. So I am going to write this as a series of posts, covering each chapter and the topic it discusses. So lets jump into it.

ENERGY

We all want to be free from the psychological structure of society. In order to do that we need to understand our relationship with society and be free from it; we need immense energy and vitality.

But this energy has to be free from any motivation or stimulation. Stimulation can be psychological (achievements, relationships, entertainment, religion, beliefs etc) or drugs. If we are dependent on any stimulation for the energy we need, then that stimulation makes the mind dull. Because, all stimulation leads to dependence eventually, and this dependence will not allow us to have the energy to see clearly for ourselves.

Can we find out why are we so dependent psychologically? If we discover the cause of our dependence, can we be free of it? A mind is freed from dependence in seeing the total picture of this cycle of stimulation and dependence and how this dependence makes the mind insensitive and dull.

But do we know how to see a picture totally? Without fragmenting it into good or bad, love and hate, anxiety and depression. We seem to see things only in duality and never the complete picture. We see in parts, for example, as an Indian, we see the world through a little window with Indian colored glass, with its traditions, ritiuals and culture, and we never see the whole of mankind. In order to see the total picture, mind must be free from fragmentation.

By fragmentation, JD means division, like good or bad, yours or mine, nationalism, religion etc. And division means conflict. If we think that we are not in conflict by just following and accepting the rules and authority, then it is not true. The authority may be good or bad, holy or otherwise. It doesn’t matter, because as long as there is a difference between ‘what is’ and ‘what should be’, there will be conflict. And all conflict leads to waste of energy.

On a parallel note : - We are always comparing what we are to what we should be. We compare ourselves with out neighbour who is richer, more bright, more intelligent, more beautiful, more kind, more affectionate, more and more and more. This measuring of ourselves with something seems so important to us. This measuring is one of the primary causes of conflict.

To understand why we divide everything, we need to see the centre from which one is looking. What is the centre? It is our background, as a Catholic, as a Hindu, as a woman, as a Socialist, as a family, etc. So as long as we are seeing things from a ‘point of view’ based on our experiences as any of the above, we cannot see things in totality. But can we get rid of this fragmentation in our mind? That is a wrong question. Because we see how we are psychologically dependent, and we see intellectually why we are dependent – but this discovery itself is fragmented because it is done by our ‘thought’. Any investigation done by ‘thought’ is fragmented (more in detail on this in the coming posts).

We can see the total picture only when thought doesn’t interfere, and we see things as they are and not intellectually. For example, we see a tree, for a fact, without like or dislike. That is what JD means by saying seeing factually, not intellectually. So the point is when we observe, and observe without any centre (without any point of view, direction etc), observe without any thinking – then we can see the total picture.

And when we see the total picture, there is freedom.

On a parallel thought :- What is this freedom you ask? This is when the mind is free from the psychological structure of the society, for then, there is no conflict, there is no seeking, there is not asking, no desire. Then one can see the truth of a life in which there is no conflict at all. Then one can look at life, neither accepting nor rejecting, not comparing, or condemning or justifying – just look and understand.

This all seems too much. But if you wait, and read through the coming posts, each of the topic touched above is discussed in detail, and explained.