Freedom... J.Krishnamurti & Ramana

[Guest guest]

Hello.

 

For a long time, I wanted to summarise my impressions about

the " School of Wisdom " course I attended at Madras in Jan/Feb this

year. It was a very meaningful course for me & the teacher left

strong impressions on me. The impressions are still fresh in me & are

give me a different sense of freedom.

 

The theme of the course was " Teachings of J.Krishnamurti in light of

Indian tradition " and I am sharing with you quotes from J.

Krishnamurti from his various works that have been striking me most

following this course.

 

The theme of freedom is what I find most intriguing... what is the

possibility of freedom in our lives. Many words strike deep...

 

....Freedom is not the act of decision but the act of perception

....not that you are free but there is freedom

....for freedom lies beyond the field of consciousness

....looking is the freedom from the weight of yesterday

 

I am unable to guage what these would mean to you in the present

moment, but my impression is that pondering over then may slowly lead

to a different kind of freedom. Peace be with you.

 

Sundeep

 

 

 

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Action & Idea

 

Now the action creates the actor. That is the actor comes into being

when action has a result, an end in view. If there is no result in

action, then there is no actor; but if there is an end or a result in

view, then action brings about the actor.

 

If there is no actor, and if there is no action towards an end, there

is no becoming; but life as we know it is a process of becoming.

 

Now this becoming is strife, this becoming is pain, is it not? It is

a constant struggle: I am this, and I want to become that.

 

There is a state of action, a state of experiencing, without the

experiencer and the experience.

 

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Freedom

 

Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not choice. It is man's

pretence that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure

observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward.

Freedom is without motive; freedom in not at the end of the evolution

of man but lies in first step of his existence. In observation one

begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the

choiceless awareness of our daily existence. Thought is time. Thought

is born of experience, of knowledge, which are inseparable from time.

Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on

knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past.

When man becomes aware of the movement of his own consciousness he

will see the division between the thinker and the thought, the

observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience. He

will discover that this division is an illusion. Then only is there

pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past.

This timeless insight brings about a deep radical change in the mind.

Total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is negation

of all those things which are not love -- desire, pleasure -- then

love is, with its compassion and intelligence.

 

" There is no freedom in choice. You choose according to the

background you have been brought up in, according to to your social,

economic, religious conditioning. Choice invariably strengthens this

conditioning; there is no escape from this conditioning, it only

breeds more suffering. [...] Choice is always breeding misery. Watch

it and you will see it, lurking, demanding, insisting and begging,

and before you know where you are you are caught in its net of

inescapable duties, responsibilities and despairs. Watch it and you

will be aware of the fact. Be aware of the fact; you cannot change

the fact; you may cover it up, run away from it, but you cannot

change it. It is there. If you will let it alone, not interfering

with it with your opinions and hopes, fears and despairs, with your

calculated and cunning judgements, it will flower and show all its

intricacies, its subtle ways and there are many, its seeming

importance and ethics, its hidden motives and fancies. If you will

leave the fact alone, it will show you all these and more. But you

must be choicelessly aware of it, walking softly. Then you will see

that choice, having flowered, dies and there is freedom, not that you

are free but there is freedom. You are the maker of choice; you have

ceased to make choice. There is nothing to choose. Out of this

choiceless state there flowers aloneness. Its death is never ending.

It is always flowering and it is always new. Dying to the known is to

be alone. All choice is in the field of the known; action in this

field always breeds sorrow. There is the ending of sorrow in

aloneness "

 

" Freedom can only come about naturally, not through wishing, wanting,

longing. Nor will you find it by creating an image of what you think

it is. To come upon it the mind has to learn to look at life, which

is a vast movement, without the bondage of time, for freedom lies

beyond the field of consciousness. "

 

" Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. It is man's

pretense that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure

observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. "

 

" To seek is to deny the truth that is right in front of you.Your eyes

must see that which is the nearest; and the seeing of that is a

movement without end....Not to seek is to find; and the finding is

not in the future - it is there, where you do not look.The looking is

ever present, from which all life and action takes place. Meditation

is the blessing of this action...Seeking is a personal drive from the

centre - to attain, to belong, to hold. In inquiry there is freedom

from the very beginning; looking is the freedom from the weight of

yesterday "

 

" When you live with facts as they are, not with data produced by the

computer, but observing them, watching your own activity, your own

egotistic pursuits, then out of that grows marvellous freedom with

all its great beauty and strength "

 

" Every decision to control only breeds resistance, even the

determination to be aware. Meditation is the understanding of the

division brought about by decision. Freedom is not the act of

decision but the act of perception. The seeing is the doing "

 

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Ramana Maharshi: The only freedom man has is to strive for and

acquire the jnana, (Self-Knowledge) which will enable him not to

identify himself with the body. The body will go through the actions

rendered inevitable by " prarabdha, " (karma that must be worked out in

the present life) and a man is free either to identify himself with

the body and be attached to the fruits of its actions or to be

detached from it and be a mere witness of its activities.