Jiddu - No more discussions on this subject!

[Guest guest]

List Moderators' Note: No more postings on Jiddu please! This list appreciate

members' cooperation not to discuss on JK's philosophy and especially personal

matters. There are specialized lists on this subject matter who will certainly

entertain such posts. If you any of you want to discuss JK's philosophy in the

context of Sankara's advaita Vedanta, you can post your view points. This is

certainly not a place for discussing the merits/demerits of JK or his

philosophy.

========================

 

Dear Steve and Ramasam

 

>I hope members reading these messages can make their

own balanced

assessment

 

 

This is what I get from Jiddu:

 

Absurdity: The French novelist, Albert Camus says that an absurd

condition conveys a sense of disproportion, a mismatch, a

contradiction between a man's true strength and the aim he has a

mind. For example a man, armed with only a sword, attacking a group

of machine guns, is doing an absurd thing; and so is a man seeking a

meaning, a purpose for this absurd human condition that starts with

birth and ends with a certain death.

 

Can you live with absurdity and not 'settle' it , not try to make it

go away by finding solutions. That is the question Camus asks and

that is what Jiddu asks with him. Can you live with uncertainty, by

not seeking unity, any absolute (not forming any 'images' as Jiddu

puts it), any 'models', any 'solutions' provided by science,

religion or hope (as in , hope for a better future etc.); -- and

suicide being the final way of 'settling' absurdity.

 

Camus says that the only things he can be certain about is this:

that he lives – his breathing, his beating heart, his intense

feeling that he lives, all tell him that he is alive; and that the

world outside, which he can touch and feel, exists. Anything else,

he cannot know with the same certainty like the intense feeling of

being alive. Science, with its constructions, models and hypothesis;

religion with its promises of a higher life; and hope with its rosy

dreams of the future; are all ways with which one can chase away

the absurdity of the human condition. But such solutions, accepted

by relying on the words of others, or as articles of faith, make

him a stranger to himself. They are like colored eye-glasses ,

wearing which he thinks of himself as a belonging to a certain

religion, a certain nation, or as a machine manipulated by his

selfish genes. Refusing to wear such glasses, he comes face to face

with his real self; and then he realizes that everyone has that same

self.

 

Jiddu Krishnamurthy asks the same questions. Recently we had a

discussion ' HOW FAR DOES VEDANTASPEAK TAKE US' where the initiator

of the debate thinks Vedanta would not take him to far – but science

would. Now the question that Camus and Jiddu ask is not how far

either science or Vedanta can take them; but that, knowing that

there is absurdity in being born and dying, hunger and suffering

etc, etc – is it possible to NOT try to 'settle' the absurdity by

accepting the 'models' provided by science, or take the 'leap of

faith' required by religion, and still live (and live happily) WITH

the absurdity.

 

So, this is the message I get from Jiddu – a very profound message.

But it has to be put into practice.

[Guest guest]

Dear Sri Ramesam and other members:

 

Your message (#39809) is definitely not in the context of Sankara's

Advaita Vedanta. We all greatly respect Jeddu for his scholarship,

spiritual contributions and ingenuity of expression. Everyone would

love to discuss about every great spiritual masters of the world but

given our limited time and resources, we have chosen to focus only

Sankara's Advaita Vedanta.

 

List's flexibility with respect to permitting a message with subject

matter indirectly related to Vedanta and with spiritual content has

the following implication: In order to accommodate such messages

posted by the members, the list may be willing to 'bend' the list's

scope and moderation guidelines but will not agree to 'break' the

stipulated policies.

 

It is quite possible for members not to know in advance whether their

message is within the context of the subject matter of Vedanta. When

the members are in doubt, they should check with the list moderators -

(several members have asked for permissions and we do appreciate it

very much) before sending their message to the list. As we have said

before, the list prefers to stay as unmoderated (primarily to help

members to enjoy the freedom of expression) with members taking full

responsibility to keep the focus on Vedanta. We do not want to

impose unnecessary restrictions but we do want to keep the

discussions focusing on the subject matter of Sankara's Advaita

Vedanta. The primary goal of the list is serve the members by

allowing them to exchange the view points in a friendly atmosphere.

 

Please feel free to contact the list moderators at the email address –

advaitins with your questions, comments and suggestions.

 

Advaitin List Moderators

 

advaitin , " ramesam " <ramesam wrote:

>

> advaitin , " idealistkumar " <idealistkumar@>

> wrote:

> ....If you any of you want to discuss JK's philosophy in the

context

> of Sankara's advaita Vedanta, you can post your view points.