I read the news today

We listen to the news and we are outwardly appalled. We shake our heads in disbelief and wring our hands as if to say what can I, the individual, do about it all.

What is the answer we ask ourselves to the horror we are told about going on all around us most of the time. I, the individual am not powerful or strong enough to do anything alone so we join a group, an organisation, an instiutution that will have a leader, a team dedicated to promoting their ideas. They may be saying "end slavery", "eradicate poverty" and other worthy objectives but do they see that they are perpetuating these global problems with their comfortable life styles, cheap imports of food and goods?

Why do we think the solution to our problems lie elsewhere? Surely our selfishness, greed, escapism, nationalism, desire for security need to be understood before real change can take place. Our need for gratification and complements, our pursuit of recognition from authority, our craving to be liked and loved by people in our 'group' lead us into constant conflict and compromise whilst we still have so little understanding of ourselves.

We have made society the way it is by our activities yet we want it to change to our ways so we cointinue to feel safe and comfortable; a place where we can escape from our fears and insecurities.

Are we capable of seeing the whole picture, of all the human misery created by us, the humans, or can we only try and fix our own tiny self-centered corner of existence disregarding the fundamental personal change required?

Before action can be taken, that understands and is truly intelligent, don't we have to be aware of our background and beliefs and the society which we support for our own reasons of security and comfort?

We want change without moving from our comfort zones so we continue to support the status quo even when we think we are doing something different and continue to shake our heads and wring our hands saying what can I do about all the hatred in the world.

Here  are some reflections from J Krishnamurti’s writings and talks. Many of these can be found on the internet if you want to understand more:

“Ignorance is the lack of self awareness; and knowledge is ignorance when there is no understanding of the ways of the self.”

“What is important is to understand desire and not to overcome one desire with another.”

“It is difficult to recognise an illusion for, having created it, the mind cannot be aware of it.”

“Experience is not an approach to truth; there is no ‘your experience’ or ‘my experience’, but only the intelligent understanding of the problem.”

“The problem is the important thing and not the answer”.

“Thought can never penetrate into the unknown; it must cease for the unknown to be. The action of the unknown is beyond the action of thought.”

“Respectability is a cloak for the hypocrite.”

“Whatever choice you make in the state of confusion can only lead to further confusion.”

“Understanding is of far greater importance than arriving at an end.”

Peace on Earth

What do we mean by the phrase peace on earth when many places around us are at war? We may not be directly involved in a war but are we not all involved in the terrible things that human beings do to one another. All the time we take sides with our country, our religion, our family, our beliefs are we not at war, with or without the actual killing of another, with others?

Peace is not about comfort in our cosy little lives. How can we have peace when army's are killing one another even if it is in far off lands? Can we be content that this is done in the nation's name, and therefore our names if we perceive ourselves as belonging to that nation?

Can any religion that has set humanity against humanity call it self peaceful. Why do we join up to the various religions and their dogmas believing it to be the only right one?  As soon as we do that surely we are in conflict. Once we have the feeling of righteousness filling our thoughts we are close to warring with those who do not agree with us. 

Is everybody thinking they are right, whether it be the individual, the family, the community, the nation, the religion? How do we learn from each other with open and honest dialogue if we already have a conclusion to argue for or against?

Surely it really doesn't matter whether I am a Christian, Muslim, Hindu, Buddhist or any other religious group. Neither, does it matter if I am Chinese, Indian, American, and African? Are we not all separating ourselves from each other with my right beliefs so you must have the wrong beliefs and so I must protect my religion and my nation from you so my beliefs stay firm? Are we then not all at war with each other until we change that attitude?

This cannot be done through religious dogma or national pride but only when the individual is truly free from their conditioning from both within and without.

Knowledge

It is not important to know all the minute details of each and every injustice taking place in the world. It is surely enough to know that our inhumanity to each other and our insensitivity to the needs of others is what are destroying us and our world.

Our cult of the individual, family, community, national, religious and ethnical selfishness keeps us separated. We are drawing boundaries between us when we need to be cooperating. We pursue our own beliefs as 'right' and condemn the so called 'wrongs' of others. The fact that we are all doing this surely causes our numerous problems? 

If I call what you do and believe is wrong, then surely you have the right do the same to me and nothing is resolved. This soon leads to conflict with jealousies, envy and condemnation. Hatred follows and all this is violence toward the other which leads to feuds and wars and so our human conflict and misery continues.

To hide behind any nation, religion or system for our own safety, because we ultimately feel insecure, only continues the injustices we are surrounded and involved in every day of our lives.

Can we understand why we do this and in the understanding stop doing it?

At this time of the year the trees are slowly shedding their leaves in an array of colours vivid to the eye. On a clear day there is brightness all around far greater than the low sun may indicate. Even in the northern hemisphere as winter approaches there is a beauty we may miss, as our thoughts are on other visions relayed to ourselves, as we blindly go about our busy business; with thoughts running in all directions, but never seeing what is. 

Scurrying amongst the autumn scrub a Squirrel skits about in playful mode. Unseen birds sing loudly almost able to block out all other noise, so rich is their song. The shrubs are full of berries of many descriptions and the animals will be happy while stocks last.

Are we free to see all this without comparison or are we tied to our thoughts psychologically and cannot free ourselves to see the beauty in everything in our sphere? We cannot be still by thinking about how to be still, we cannot be still by using knowledge to solve our constant chattering and activity, we cannot be still by referring to the text of a so called 'wise one'. Stillness cannot be forced by will or invited through desire. It is only when we cease to search for stillness do we have any change of it being with one.

Where are we now?

We have built a monstrous society where people do not come first. The needs of people are secondary to the desire for conformity, power, wealth and economically run institutions. Why is it any surprise to us when we see abuses in the system from programmes on the media telling us of the horrors of this or that particular tragedy.

Is it not us that has created this society? Is it right that we should always look for someone other than ourselves to blame?

We are surely, in our daily lives, creating this situation we find so horrible by putting money first with conformity and society paramount and the nourishment and care of human beings much lower down the list of priorities.

We have accepted all this as normal. We do not openly question this and we want to keep our petty lives safe and comforting. We go to our work to acquire our selfish possessions and think nothing of the mess we are continuing to promote by our activities.

Here in the west and the north of the planet we are selfishly exploiting people on other parts of the earth and again we think nothing of it and continue to justify it with statements like 'It is human nature', 'we have to be practical', and 'my family comes first'.

It is strange that we can mobilize a huge number of people and resources, of machinery and weapons of mass destruction, but when it comes to understanding how we live, condition ourselves and worship the structures of our destructive society over the understanding of ourselves, we have no appetite for it.

Is not the whole structure of society built around economics and rules which deny any real psychological freedom to its people. We are imprisoned in our insular societies so acting with love and caring for others outside our immediate family or group is so often compromised and the wider population is only ever secondary.

To have all people really equal surely requires fundamental change of ourselves and not just to blame the latest wrongdoer. Each one of us has created the society that allows the problems of mismanagement and economic decisions that overrule the whole care of humans. This does lead to errors in the care of others that we throw our arms up in horror over rather than seeing the real reason why they take place.

What is and what one would like

There had been a conflict in the morning and it centred around what is, what the real situation was and what one wanted the situation to be. The what is was uncomfortable to the one with an ideal of how one things should be; what one would like the situation to be rather than what it was actually was which was in conflict with the ideal. Whilst the true situation was understood the mind still desired the ideal and so there was conflict in the person and this was apparent in the feelings being expressed.

Outside on the same morning the movement of the bus and later the colour of the leaves and the movement of the body through the autumn woodland made a difference and the mind fell quieter. The darkening clouds did not deter one and with little breeze and mild temperatures the voices of the children and adults in the play areas and coffee shop seemed very clear with a calming effect. The crunch of sticks under the feet, the rustle of the small grey squirrel scurrying through the undergrowth was calming too.

How foolish it is to desire something that is an illusion, to hanker after it as if it is real. Why the mind plays these games is difficult to understand. Why our conditioning rules our lives bringing the trials of the past into the present and projecting them into the future as if there is no escape is a mystery until we can observe ourselves without condemnation.  Dealing in untruths however desirable, however socially acceptable, however comforting it seems is of little lasting value and conflict arises and makes its home in each one of us.

The rain started eventually but much of the walk was done and in any event the rain was neither heavy nor prolonged. After the rain the skies brightened and there were glimpses of a warming autumnal sun. Everything glistened and the world was alive. The previous conflict of the morning had dissolved with the understanding that whatever is, is the only truth and self-centred desires and justifications only cloudy the view of the truth.