Extract taken from a thesis on Krishnamurti I came across published online:
It may be helpful to offer a taste of Krishnamurti’s philosophy in his own words. From
1983 to 1985, Krishnamurti recorded some of his thoughts on tape. These were published as J.
Krishnamurti: Krishnamurti to Himself. In an entry dated April 20, 1983, while in Ojai,
California, Krishnamurti recorded, in part:
There was an eagle flying high in the air, circling without the beat of the wings, carried
away by the air current beyond the hills and was lost … Listen to that thunder in the
skies, the thunder rolling among the hills … Watching and listening are a great art -
watching and listening without any reaction… When there is this simple, clear watching
and listening, then there is an awareness… that leads us to an awareness without
choice; to be aware without any like or dislike… When one is attentive to all this,
choicelessly aware, then out of that comes insight … You see with absolute clarity, all the
complications, the consequences, the intricacies … This is pure, clear insight; perception
without any shadow of doubt … This whole movement from watching, listening, to the
thunder of insight, is one movement; it is not coming to it step by step. It is like a swift
arrow. And that insight alone … will bring about total freedom from conditioning.
As you climbed, leaving the little village paths down below, the noise of the earth, the crickets, the quails and other birds began their morning song, their chant, their rich worship of the day. And as the sun arose you were part of that light and had left behind everything that thought had put together. You completely forgot yourself. The psyche was empty of its struggles and its pains. And as you walked, climbed, there was no sense of separateness, no sense of being even a human being.
What does it even mean, “No sense of being even a human being.” ? Can’t get more esoteric than that.
I have been trying to make a point of difference clear. It seems to me there is a way of phrasing “what is” which is a mistake. It has nothing to do with my perception, my involvement, my actions. It is not the interaction of what we think is the observer, and a working mind. It is not the idea of a reality, or a reasoning. Think of the empty mind, and the untouched, and there is an integration of all that is living.
I find it interesting to experiment with this. When the ‘psyche’ is empty, silent, not disturbed, etc there is a possibility of an awareness of when the relatively ‘calm water’ is roiled by thought and again, when the calmness returns. Along with the arising of whatever thought it is, there is the question of “Is this thought necessary, is the movement necessary now? Is it necessary to disturb the quiet?” Then it lets go of what it was going to ‘chew on’…until the next one.
K talks about this as the thoughts/ images that arise are the past and the ‘watcher’ can either watch them go by or the mind can become “occupied “ with them. Watching them “choicelesly “ is not becoming occupied by them. Being free of the past.
Does this relate to his ‘not minding what happens’?
I don’t think that this analysis/question is necessary. A conscious decision/choice being just more thought.
Isn’t the simple realisation that one is caught up in some mental narrative/thought enough? Either it ends in that moment or it doesn’t.
Thinking about this further : one of the things that keeps us enslaved to the thought process is the idea that solutions necessarily arise out of thought.
If I am particularly invested/chagrined by some problem/conundrum, I might mull over it, concentrate my mental acumen : logic, analysis, memory etc on said problem over and over again. As adults we seem to think that this is the only way to obtain a solution.
Unfortunately, not only are we highly incompetent logicians and analysts (I personally, for example, can now only carry out simple maths calculations from lack of use of my math neurons) but many problems may not be solvable via our personal conscious mental effort.
It is interesting to note however, that the urgent need/desire for a solution itself can (seemingly magically) invite the arising of insight. Also, if we are too caught up in the thought process, this actually hinders the ability for insight to arise. Thats why sometimes “sleeping on it” helps.