J. Krishnamurti - Life begins where thought ends

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LIFE BEGINS WHEN THOUGHT ENDS

Beautiful extract from 'The Only Revolution': J Krishnamurti

"If you pass on through the meadows with their thousand flowers of every color imaginable, from bright red to yellow and purple, and their bright green grass washed clean by last night’s rain, rich and verdant – again without a single movement of the machinery of thought–then you will know what love is.
 
To look at the blue sky, the high full-blown clouds, the green hills with their clear lines against the sky, the rich grass and the fading flower–to look without a word of yesterday; then, when the mind is completely quiet, silent, undisturbed by any thought, when the observer is completely absent–then there is unity.
 
Not that you are united with the flower, or with the cloud, or with those sweeping hills; rather there is a feeling of complete non-being in which the division between you and another ceases.

The woman carrying those provisions which she bought in the market, the big black Alsatian dog, the two children playing with the ball–if you can look at all these without a word, without a measure, without any association, then the quarrel between you and another ceases. This state, without the word, without thought, is the expanse of mind that has no boundaries, no frontiers within which the I and the not-I can exist.

Don’t think this is imagination, or some flight of fancy, or some desired mystical experience; it is not. It is as actual as the bee on that flower or the little girl on her bicycle or the man going up a ladder to paint the house – the whole conflict of the mind in its separation has come to an end. You look without the look of the observer, you look without the value of the word and the measurement of yesterday.

The look of love is different from the look of thought. The one leads in a direction where thought cannot follow, and the other leads to separation, conflict, and sorrow. From this sorrow, you cannot go to the other. The distance between the two is made by thought, and thought cannot by any stride reach the other.

As you walk back by the little farmhouses, the meadows, and the railway line, you will see that yesterday has come to an end: life begins where thought ends.

J. Krishnamurti
The Only Revolution

 

 

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Rumi - ...In Silence

 

A guide has entered this life in silence.
His message is only heard in silence.

Take a sip of his precious wine
And lose yourself.
Don’t insult the greatness of his love,
For he helps all those who suffer, in silence.

Polish the mirror between the breaths.
Go with him, beyond words.
He knows your every deed.
He is the one
who moves the wheel of heaven, in silence.

Every thought is buried in your heart;
He will reveal them one by one, in silence.
Turn each of your thoughts into a bird
And let them fly to the other world.
One is an owl, one is a falcon, one is a crow.
Each one is different from the others
But they are all the same in silence.

To see the Moon that cannot be seen
Turn your eyes inward
and look at yourself, in silence.

In this world and the next,
Don’t talk about this and that;
Let him show you everything,
shining as one . . . in silence.

from Rumi - In the arms of the Beloved - Jonathan Star

 

 

 

Robert Adams - So what is left?

 

Student: It's like when you ask the question, "Who am I?" there's a kind of a blank spot, a blank space before anything comes up is that what you say consciousness is?

Robert: Space is consciousness, correct. The space in between "Who am I?" is the real self. Abide in that. If you continue the practice, after a while, the space will grow longer and longer and longer. You will say, "Who am I?" and pause and you will sooner get lost in consciousness. Then you start thinking again, and you go back to "Who am I?" and there'll be another long space, until "who am I?" stops completely and you become yourself. So as you continue the practice, the space in between becomes longer and longer.

Student: Robert, is the Self clear space or a blank or the perceiver of the space or the blank?

Robert: The space is not a blank. It is not a perceiver. It is nothing that you can qualify. Nothing that you can discuss. Nothing that is known. For space to be known, there has to be a knower. And as long as there's a knower, that's not it. So you have to go beyond that. To silence. Consciousness is silence. Silence is consciousness. They're both the same.

Student: Robert, in a sense the space is not an 'It', but I and that is a problem in a sense, that we see it as it and not I?

Robert: You exist. You exist where there is space and you exist where there is 'I'. So who exists as space? Who exists as 'I'? Ask the question. Who exists? Confer. Follow the existence. Follow the 'I'. And you will come to nothing. You will come to consciousness by itself. But do not believe that the void is it. Many people experience the void and they think the void is it. But don't you exist in the void? (tape break) (Robert continues) ...there is nothing that can be explained. As long as you can explain it, it's not it. So what is left? Silence, quietness.