Fw: [JK] Truth

[Guest guest]

Hi. I ususally don't multiple post, but I actually wrote this with this list, as

well as J_Krishnamurti in mind. If you want to read further posts, you can find

me over there, as well as here. Wry

 

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wry

J_Krishnamurti

Saturday, January 03, 2004 9:58 AM

[JK] Truth

 

 

Hi. (Some) people are talking about truth as if it exists independently of the

observer, on its own side. There creates a conundrum, in that in this approach

there logically follows an attempt to grasp a world which cannot be grasped.

Personally,I have been there, done that, to a degree that is most ridiculous.

There is a Zen poem, by Basho, which goes: " Even when in Kyoto, when I hear the

cuckoo sing, I long for Kyoto, " which characterizes this state of longing, which

comes out of an experience that never is quite balanced, that never can be,

because the view, itself, is wrong. No matter how ethereal the experience, the

experience itself functions as the song of the cuckoo bird. I guess we already

understand this, to one degree or another, but, what to do?

 

The answer is to learn how to drink from the cup to the very last dreg, to

consume the remainder. In the school of Tibetan Buddhism I have been studying

with, there is sometimes given the metaphor of the peacock who can eat poison

berries and still survive, and this is analogous to something concerning what is

called the rainbow body. Also, in certain initiations, a very bitter substance

is placed on the tongue. Without human suffering, there is no Buddhism and no

teaching, and this is very hard to understand. It is also true, that unless a

person realizes he is suffering, he can never consume the bitters, and it should

be noted, that it is against human nature to want to suffer. No one wants to

suffer, and the whole organization of the brain and physical body of any living

creature is designed around this. It thus follows that in order to solve this

conundrum of longing for the cuckoo bird and yet being forever unable to grasp

it, one is going to need to assimilate this unpleasant sense of lack, of hunger,

in some way that fully incorporates it, even though it is against ones own vefy

nature to do so. The method of doing this could be called transcendentalism.

 

I have noticed people beginning to bandy this word around, and recently, one

person making a tentative use of the word " transcendence, " so there is an

interest in this direction. Essentially, transcendentalism is to take the

residue of the whatever is left over--the longing to clutch the song of the

cuckoo bird or whatever, and to roll it back into oneself in such a way so as

to harness a certain force that is leaked in the longing for the cuckoo bird.

To do this is very sad, as it means dying to the hope of ever grasping the song

of the cuckoo bird, and to consciously experience the sorrow of this is the

passage way to becoming fully human. Is the desire to grasp the song of the

cuckoo bird a subtle form of negative emotion? I would say it is. As a young

girl I was consumed with this hunger, which early on became a spiritual search.

It is true that without this hunger there would not have been a search. Many

people do not have this strong a hunger, and, from the perspective of Buddhism,

this is not fortunate, as these people, too, are suffering, but because the

hunger is not strong, they do not have the opportunity to be attracted to a

teaching that enables them to become whole human beings by becoming able to

consciously eat the poison of life, the bitterness of it, and emerging

triumphant, to help others do the same. When I experience a side effect, such as

a rarified " spiritual " state or have a mystical experience, no matter how joyful

or subtle, when I try to reach for it, to continue it, by writing about it,

talking about it or even thinking about it, this is the same as grasping for the

song of the cuckoo.

 

There is no " truth " that is not connected to ones own relative experiencing of

it, and when we talk of truth and think of it as if there is, this creates a

grasping which is the very opposites of liberation. Transcendentalism, is a form

of rolling the fodder back in the field so that the next planting will yield a

good harvest. Of course the way of doing this can be understood by only a human

being, and not by an animal, in that an animal, having a less developed memory

function, does not need to understand this. Fortunately we are people and have

an opportunity to consciously transcend our suffering in a way an animal cannot,

and by transcending our suffering, we can help even animals to suffer less. But

though transcendence is an act of rising above something, it cannot occur unless

there is first a conscious act of assimilation, of incorporation. All the great

religions of humanity address this in some form or other, but sadly, the

understanding of how to do this, is only for a few. Was Krishnamurti able to

address this subject? In my opinion, though his teaching was extraordinary, he

was not, and there are reasons for this, which we have already gone into and can

enquire into further.

 

When we are grasping for what is subjective and relative, for the essence, this

creates a split in our own minds and bodies, out of which arise various material

effects, some of them seemingly blissful and very pleasurable, but, in

actuality, this is just another form of suffering. The solution to this is to

realize that relative truth/reality is ultimately empty of any inherent meaning,

When a person is able to experience relative reality and also to realize it is

empty. AT THE SAME TIME, this is considered to be buddhahood ( omniscience) by

the prasangika madhymaika school of Buddhism. When we begin to understand the

common sense, the simple intelligence of this approach, we work in our daily

lives to become free of negative emotions and to use whatever is happening on

the outside as fodder. In this way, many sentient creatures can be freed from

their suffering.

 

Often there is a school within a school, which is very interesting. I have only

very recently begun to realize the extent to which this occurred in ancient

times, in certain Buddhist schools, even Zen schools, as well as Hindu

schools,and others, such as Taoism, and this school that is within the external

school, is fueling what seems to be happening on the outside, as if by miracle.

One would think a teacher is tapping a cosmic force, and, on a simplistic level,

it is so, but actually this is a result of human transcendentalism, which is

most fascinating. Sincerely, Wry