Cheapness comes at a price

It has been three months since I last posted anything on this blog. The Olympics will have soon come and gone and medals gained and some lost. For some time it was big news but it is transitory for most of us and therefore a temporary distraction, a passing feeling that the people of the world can work together in peaceful harmony. Of course this is not true all the time wars have continued, religious bigotry been maintained and distrust and hatred persisted.

Human endeavour seems to be able to put on a great show when we are dealing with showing off our physical prowess as some undoubtedly did during the Olympics. Surely some of us, even if we do the best we can physically, will only have the ability to come somewhere in the rest of the field as our physical best just doesn't have the right attributes to come first at the highest level.

This is not a problem, looking after our bodies helps the rest of our wellbeing but our most important performance comes from within and we can all be the very best there is of ourselves.

When we can look at what we see without judging, without comparison, without being for or against something, then we can see what is really going on both in ourselves and in the world. When we look with our blinkers on and our selfish vested interests at the forefront, we often only see what our personal desires want to see.

We hear comments like “it is only human nature to be selfish and only thinking for oneself and one's immediate family”, but it is not true that we are only one people on one planet? As this is obviously so (but do check it out for yourself) then to think about our own self-centred ways is fragmented and only partial thinking at best. We are after all from the same source. The chemical atoms and molecules that make up our physiology are either in the Earth's crust or have come from massive explosions of huge stars in the universe.

We regularly see people's inhumanity to other individuals, groups and nations. We have ceased to understand holistically and now use intellectual arguments to make enemies of everyone but our own small group. We deny rights, argue with those who disagree and fight those we cannot persuade. Is this a sane way to go about our lives?

We have all around us a wonderful nature, a dynamic life with innocent humour, compassion and love yet we scurry around saying we have no time for beauty or for understanding, with only time to buy the cheapest products for our own and our families selfish needs. We in the Western World have many good things but we have squandered so much in gaining the wealth from the sweat of poorer people in far off lands. Cheapness comes at a price.

We can only pretend to be happy if we deny what we know to be the truth of our selfish actions.

Something to give your attention to?

The following is an extract from Krishnamurti's book 'Beginnings of Learning' published by Penguin in 1978. I do own a copy of the book and could have typed this extract in but being a two fingered typist I actually found the text at http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-text.php?tid=17&chid=69154&w= and copied and pasted the piece. I thank the J.Krishnamurti Online organisation for making the text available.

If you want to get the context of the following extract I guide you to page 220 and the pages preceeding it from the above publication.

"You have tried to give significance to a life that has very little meaning, that is very shallow and petty, and failing in this you try to expand it on the same level. This expansion can go on endlessly but it has no depth, no profundity. The horizontal movement will lead to all kinds of places that are exciting and entertaining, but life remains very shallow. You may try to give depth to it intellectually but it is still trivial. To a mind that is really enquiring, not merely verbally examining or intellectually putting together hypotheses, to the enquiring mind the horizontal movement has very little significance. It can offer nothing except the very obvious, and so the revolt again becomes trivial because it is still moving in the same direction - outward, political, reformatory and so on. The only revolution is within oneself. It is not horizontal but vertical - down and up. The inward movement in oneself is never horizontal and because it is inward it has immeasurable depth. And when there is really this depth it is neither horizontal nor vertical."

"This you don't offer. Your Gods, your preachers, your leaders are concerned with the superficial, with better arrangements, better systems and organizations which are necessary for efficiency; but that is not the total answer. You may have a marvellous bureaucracy but it inevitably becomes tyrannical. Tyranny brings order to the superficial. Your religion which is supposed to offer depth is the gift of the intellect, carefully planned, recognized and believed in, a thing of propaganda."

"But this has no inward beauty. As long as education is concerned merely with the culture of the outer, specializing, enforcing conformity, the inner movement with its immense depth will inevitably be for the few, and in that also there lies great sorrow. Sorrow cannot be solved, cannot be understood when you are running with tremendous energy along the superficial. Unless you solve this through self-knowing you will have revolt after revolt, reforms which need further reformation, and the endless antagonism of man against man will go on. Self-knowing is the beginning of wisdom and it does not lie in books, in churches or in the piling up of words."

You may find this interesting - The Krishnamurti Foundation

I went to Brockwood Park, Bramdean, Hampshire where Krishnamurti used to speak to audiences in the early 1970's

 I do not remember much about the content of the talks but some time later I bought some of his published books. I may have read one or two of the 8 I have but they did not have a lasting impact. I have however now read Awakening of Intelligence right through and I now know, that, where perhaps I wasn't ready previously, I am now in the right frame of mind to see for myself what he means. In short I get it, so now I live differently. 

Take a look if you want to and see what impact it has for you.

The following is taken from the home page of the The Krishnamurti Foundation http://www.kfoundation.org/. 

Krishnamurti was born in India in 1895 and died in the United States in 1986. He spoke throughout his life in many parts of the world to large audiences as well as with numerous individuals, including writers, scientists, philosophers and educators. Asked to describe what lay at the heart of his teaching, he said,

"Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any organisation, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, nor through any philosophic knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection..."

 Krishnamurti was concerned with all humanity and stated repeatedly that he held no nationality or belief and belonged to no particular group or culture. In the latter part of his life, he travelled mainly between the schools he had founded in India, Britain and the United States, schools that educate for the total understanding of man and the art of living. He stressed that only this profound understanding can create a new generation that will live in peace.

 If you want to see many of the texts of Krishnamurti on line you can find them here: http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/

How Do You See The World, Your World?

Is it someone else who is making the world a bad place? Who is this someone else? Is the world such a bad place and what, if anything, can you do about it?

Do you think our leaders are a different breed not made of the same stuff as you or I, or are they the essentially same with just extra opportunities that helped them get to where they are today? Do you think your goals are different to theirs or are they very similar only you cannot effect such widespread change as they can?

We are driven by many desires and I ask how many of them you are truly aware of. Perhaps you are running on autopilot with automated responses to situations where you call upon your past experience rather than deal dynamically with a situation in the present. Dealing with what is, in the now, requires attention and awareness not relying on past responses that may not be relevant in the current situation.

Have you seen if you understand how you are responding, see how you are use the past in the present just because it may be easier to do that.

Is your response to something following an old pattern or are you coming to it afresh every time? It is easier to have your ready made response but is it the best way to deal with a situation. Do you find yourself being backed into your corner by nobody else other than yourself? If so stop, see, understand and be aware of how you are responding.

Sometimes we 'read' the response we think other people require from us. You may think this helps to keep the peace and build friendships but is it really what you want to say and what is your motive for placating a comment or a behaviour that you may deeply disagree with? It will neither keep the peace or build friendship as you will have a growing resentment to someone you do not tell the truth to and once that process has begun it is difficult to start again, only this time honestly.

The way you see the world, your world, is crucial to how you behave in it. If you see a corrupt human race scheming in the world and the only way to function in it is to be corrupt yourself then you will not want to go any further with what I am saying. See the world as corrupt and you really want to do something about it then you may want to read on. Don't be fooled by thinking it is easy to make change. The type of change required is fundamental and you have to do it for yourself as no other authority can speak for you.

Can you truly change yourself to living in the 'now', reacting to life afresh and not just regurgitating past experiences? I am talking about our relationship with each other and the world; I am not talking about how we have to understand some types of knowledge in the work place. This is about our relationship on the personal level: our true interaction with nature, other sentinel beings and with each other. Are we part of the solution or part of the problem? You have a choice. Which is it to be?

Be aggressive to the aggressors so nothing changes or change yourself and start the process of being truly free at last.


You can view this article on the following link where it was first published: http://EzineArticles.com/6876899

A short Introduction To Starting Personal Development

There seems to me to be a growing consciousness that our current leaders, local and government institutions and corporate organisations are failing to address the human needs of this time. We are unhappy that we have a continuing recession and we are unable to bring those who we largely see as the perpetrators of this situation to account.

Our indignation is fuelled almost daily as news items are revealed as to the depth of the financial crisis we are unwittingly part of.

Perhaps this is not the whole story. Elected members of our governments and investment bankers are all people after all and they are essentially the same as us with their fears and aspirations. So what is going on?

I think we may all be guilty to some degree as we largely bought into the boom periods in the Western World and liked the idea of getting rich without too much effort or responsibility. We borrowed beyond our short term means to pay back our personal and mortgage loans we took out to make our lives more comfortable. We thought that the rising value of our property would go on so we would be able to borrow more money against the property so we could afford our luxury items. We were greedy just as the bankers were who we now vilify. Yes governments could be firmer with financial controls but they are weekend by threats the financiers make about taking their money elsewhere. We too tell the government that we do not want to pay for services we see as a luxury so the government cuts spending as there is less income coming in as the economy slows.

We have got ourselves into a right mess and we don't know how to get out of it. We want more money and to pay less for goods. I don't think we can have it both ways. We want bankers to pay for their recklessness but it would be with our own money in a complicated sort of way. Governments do not seem able to stand up to bankers and seem incapable of telling us the truth of their ineffectiveness. We seem to be unable to hold either of them to account and to look at what we can do.

We need a different paradigm. Perhaps growth is not our God as we are led to believe. We can have good lives in the developed parts of the world if we have less. It's just the way we currently do things which makes us think we need to have lots of goods to survive. Perhaps it is time to step back and see what is really important in life. After all I am not suggesting we eradicate all technological advances. It may be that something simple like having one family car instead of two is a start. Perhaps selling your investment property in negative equity would save you some stress and give you some time back. Perhaps having more time for your children rather than fretting about moving to where the so called best school is. It has all got more and more frenetic to the point of seeming to be verging on pointless. Why are we here? It cannot be for all what we are constantly told surely?

We can re-educate ourselves and find personal solutions, not just by following the crowd and society's dash to external status and wealth. Fear of poverty and worthlessness may be your reason to continually strive in all of this but isn't there a place for internal happiness and love that doesn't require this constant battle to acquire? Of course you need an income and yes everybody knows you care that your family does well. There are however other ways you may be able to measure your growth rather than the financial rate race most of us seem to be in.

So how do you go about this process? The first thing is to just stop. Give yourself some time to see the bigger picture. Stop thinking you have no choice. Start thinking you may have other reasons for being alive. The more you make space for personal thinking in your life the more you may find there is another level of meaning waiting to inspire you with new options.

I believe Spiritual guidance comes from within you.

Before you can love someone it will be necessary that you love yourself first.

Before you can respect someone it will be necessary that you respect yourself first.

Do you wait to be led or are you willing to lead knowing what you are going to do is absolutely right for you and that you are congruent and passionate about it? If so it does not matter what others may say about your actions.

Be self-reliant as a sign of your own affection for yourself. Other people have their own lives to live. They do not want to be coerced into affirming their love and need for you.

You are part of the universe. We really are all made of stars!

A picture from one of my walks in the late summer of 2011