No Violence

If we want 'freedom from violence' as the United Nations recently stated in a link to its web site, I wounder if the enormity of that statement is really understood when it appears such an easy statement to make and an ideal to pursue.

Do we not see that most of us are violent in our ambitions, our relationships, in our workplace, in the corporate companies, the nations and our religions. We may not call it violence but our fear of loosing what we are constantly accumulating makes us aggressive when we have to consider giving something up. Can we have a peaceful life for everybody on this planet if we do not see what we have gained at the expense of others?

Do we think we can carry on as we are, unwilling to ease off on our selfish consumption and magically have peace? That nation states will stop looking after their own interests and we, as self-centred individuals, will stop accumulating material and psychological attachments? Will we stop defending our individual and national possessions that have been acquired often through exploitation in this very unfair and unequal world?

To have no violence requires fundamental change within and without. It cannot be achieved through politics and force of will.

Perhaps we can have peace if we understand what it means to be conditioned by our respective societies and cultures and we can observe our own thoughts and behaviour factually so we can see the competitiveness, aggression and violence we carry out in our daily lives as we strive to achieve and gain what we think is success in our competitive and aggressive societies.

Today we have seen and listened to politicians. There have also been commentaries on world affairs from the media that purports to be global and articles from the UN's publications.

We are told of Polio returning to parts of the world where it had left, due to the conflict in the region, We hear politicians extolling the virtues of Nationhood within or without of the EU. There is a constant bombardment of ones sensibilities, if one allows it, of information about all the horrible things happening in the world yet no one is asking the fundamental question as to why is man, being such a cleaver and so called knowledgeable being, totally incapable of ceasing the conflict, wars, hatred, sorrow and pain that man inflicts upon his fellow being?

Are we no longer interested in asking the question as to why man destroys man anymore because we feel so helpless to stop the suffering? Why do our politicians take sides and destroy lives. Do we ask them to do this in our name, to use nationalism to turn against others to protect our own selfish interests. Are our interests worth killing for if they are threatened? If the answer is yes then we enter into a dark place where we only encourage others to do the same to us and so all the conflict and suffering that we see all around us destroying human beings and the planet continues; man pitched against man forever battling against an hated enemy because they dared to be as self righteous and nationalistic or religiously bigoted as ourselves.

Can we not see this? Are we incapable of of being without hate and anger against another human being because we have too much vested interest in our own self centered desires for success and wealth?

Thought is fragmentary, it is conditioned. If one looks at it do you not see that we think selfishly. Whether it is our religion, our nation, our family, our job, our community or our ethnic group we think in terms of what we may call our protection and security, the 'me' and 'mine'. Do we do this because we are frightened that if we do not protect ourselves we may loose something, even loose our identity as a Christian, as a Muslim, a German or an American, or whatever. In order that we can protect our conditioning, our religious views, our nationality that we have identified with, we enter the aggressive arena that is our everyday living. Look at it and see what is going on, don't take anyone else's words on this, see for yourself what you have built around you to stop the fear, the insecurity that you may feel. To escape the fear of being alone and to feel a sense of belonging many of us have created so many divisions that are destroying our lives and the lives of everybody around us.

Isn't it time to ask the question why we feel so utterly lost as individuals unless we belong to something or continuously gather items that define us which then creates the ugly mess we all see around us.

I would like to share this link with you

http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/krishnamurti-teachings/view-video/organisations-have-not-saved-man-full-version.php

Please copy and paste this into your Internet browser

Right, wrong addiction

Difficult as it may be for us who are brought up on 'this is right, that is wrong' scenarios throughout our lives, isn't there perhaps a different way of looking at issues such as the current problems in the Ukraine.
We can argue the rights and wrongs of either side endlessly but where does that get us? Does it take us any nearer the truth or just further into our entrenched views, beliefs, conditioning, nationalism or in support of our own country's vested interests?

To resolve the many problems that face us we surely have to get beyond taking sides as this will just prolong the conflict or lead us into more deadly action.

Just take a look at other unresolved conflicts throughout the world.

The weather

The scientists have told us climate change is almost certainly due in some part due to human activity. The energy we use, the transport we travel on, the homes and offices we live in and use.

Previously we have been profligate in our use and abuse of the planet because we thought it was correct behaviour culturally to use everything we wanted when we wanted it. We allow our numbers to grow and most of our leaders encourage this so our invention of economic growth can be sustained.

We never think about the planet as a finite resource and we allow ourselves to be selfish as if it is expected and normal behaviour in our societies.

Our wanton destruction of the Earth's resources serve our desire for more and bigger goods, and property to show our status to others because deep inside us there is a disquiet, an insecurity,  that we don't know how to deal with so we try to escape with shows superficial material wealth.

Our conscious actions are surely driven by these deeper feelings that make us feel inadequate without external displays of money and power. It is surely the understanding of these deeper desires and drives that is more important than the clamour for external signs of success.

Without awareness of ourselves at all levels will it be possible to stem our rape of the planet to live here as a species in a sustainable and natural harmony and therefore allow our only real home to support us without the prospect of irreversible climate change?

The choice is not how we can fix the weather with huge technological schemes but can we look to ourselves.

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.”