Notes on J Krishnamurti

Note: One of the rare pictures of K’s younger days, taken in Greece.

These are my notes. They maybe right or wrong. I'll leave that to you. 

Images

Hurt and flattery creates images.  When someone hurts you, or flatters you that image is stored in the brain.  

You don't store what you ate 10 days ago for breakfast. However, if someone had made a vile remark while you were eating breakfast 10 days ago, you would remember that incident in great detail for years to come.

Also, you remember the compliments of your school teacher for years. Good things and bad things create images.  

You have many images of your loved ones: Your spouse and, parents. These images become you. You are these images. These images block ‘What Is’.

When someone hurts you, or praises you, if you are totally aware, you don’t create an image of that situation. When you are NOT attached to these things, your mind becomes free, and you face every situation, without your past knowledge or judgement.

Mind

Human beings are compulsive thinkers. We think all the time. You are thinking something while you read this. Many people don’t realise this. We think about the past incidents and worry. Mind re-plays and exaggerates past negative events and blows them  out-of-proportion.

The solution to this problem is to start living in the PRESENT. You had problems in the past. You might encounter issues in the future. But right NOW, you are peaceful. The more and more you live in the PRESENT, you become AWARE, and eventually enlightened. Children live in the present. They don’t have the concept of Time: Past and Future. So does animals: Dogs and Cats. Only adult human beings have the concept of Time.

Choiceless Awareness

When you enter a room, you notice the things without paying attention. Later, you could probably recall most of the things in the room.

However, if you want to describe the things in writing, notice you end-up writing pages of information. Or, if you were to explain the things in the room to a third person, you would end-up taking long time to explain.

In Choiceless Awareness, you just notice the things without labelling them. You are aware of the things happening around you, but you don’t judge them. When you do that, everything is new.

Psychological Time

Time by the clock is chronological time. Other type of time is psychological time. Psychological time is ‘becoming’. I'm a bad person now, I'll become a good person tomorrow. This becoming creates conflict. A division between 'what is' and 'what should be'.

When you don't have psychological time, you are content with what you are. Your mind fills with space. With this space you'll be more peaceful and aware.

Death

Death is ending.  It is the end of your house, bank account, car. We get identified with material things: You are your bank account, your knowledge, your jewelry.  Death stops all these attachments.

If you don't get attached to these things——it is like dying to these things everyday. And, everyday becomes fresh. You face everyday with new energy.

Pick one thing that is closest to you. Stop its attachment. Do this for as many things as possible.  You'll end-up with bare minimum things. Dying become easier.

Theory of pendulum

Pendulum is most stable at the center. With a stimulus, it moves to the extremes. But cannot be in that state for long. Only at the center it can stay longest.

This is how you should be. When someone hurts you, see yourself drifting from the center. Balance yourself, and come back to the center as soon as you can.

Window Theory

We have many likes and dislikes: You love cars; you hate certain people.

These energies live in you. You are these energies. Your judgements are biased by these convictions.

When you let go these attachments, you become like a window. You face everything without judgement.

Why we can’t find God?

When you seek something, you already have an idea, what you are seeking. For e.g. if you are searching a lost wallet, you already know what you are looking for——the color of the wallet, texture etc. So, when you find the wallet under the dining table, you recognize it immediately.

Can you search a thing that you haven’t seen before?

Let’s say you are looking for Qfwfq. You don’t know what it is. How it looks like? Its color etc. How would you recognize Qfwfq when you find it? Similarly, human mind cannot find God.

We learn about God from Parents, religious leaders, and holy books. What if they are wrong?

Life after death

Many people cannot digest the fact, death ends everything. It is such a devastating reality.

On the other hand, if there’s a hope for continuity, facing death becomes easier. Hence the need for soul, karma, heaven, life after death.

If one really believes in next life——which depends on the deeds of your current life——one would start living a good life, in the current life itself. Fear of becoming a low life creature in the next life, would keep you on toes.

Because this is just a concept, people don’t take it seriously. They continue leading their mundane life.

Thinking

People do not want to think: Who is God? Why we have different religions? What is death? Why we have so many wars?  

These are difficult questions.

People delegate these questions to ‘set-answers’ or gurus. God is like a ocean, where all rivers meet. We have such definitions for most questions. These we got from holy books or parents. These definitions may be incorrect. When we think on these things, there’s a possibility for finding out.

Labelling

Brain is a great repository of information. This information becomes us. We are these convictions.

When we see a object brain immediately labels it, and pushes that away.You see a tree, a house, a bird; the brain labels it  and ignores it. By doing this, you ignore the finer qualities of objects. You miss the nuances: What kind of tree, bird, house?

We generalize things.