Man has built in himself images as a fence of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships, and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all humanity. So he is not an individual.
There are lots of things to explore in this paragraph, including (but not limited to):
Images used for security
Symbols, ideas, beliefs
The problem with images
Content of consciousness
Superficial individuality, tradition, environment
True uniqueness of man
Freedom
Man has built in himself images as a fence of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs.
For Krishnamurti the term ‘image’ refers to a mental construct that is stored in memory and retrieved/deployed when triggering thoughts and events occur. These constructs can manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs, usw. We create the images we live with. Why? Out of insecurity and fear in all arenas: religious, political, personal.
The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships, and his daily life.
By burden Krishnamurti means psychological weight. It’s exhausting to carry around so many mental constructs and keep retrieving them from memory, referring to them, relying on them, trying to satisfy/justify them. It’s like having to refer obsessively to a map when you are taking a nice simple walk through the woods.
These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man.
Our reliance on images in all their forms (symbols, ideas, beliefs, religious, political, personal) is not only burdensome, it doesn’t only sap energy/passion/joi-de-vivre! It also divides us, keeps us feeling isolated and disconnected, fuels war and hatred and prejudice and anger.
We create - and then become attached to - the images we live with, because we find security in them. The brain is then afraid to let go of the security it has found in these images. An illusory security is still experienced as security for the brain.
The human brain can spin reality to meet its needs. I wonder if it’s the "false step’ in mental evolution, the point where the line between actuality and fantasy became blurred, where wishful thinking began being confused with/for reality. Witness conspiracy theorists!
The brain is conditioned from infancy to practice the black art of maintaining a false sense of security, i.e., self-deception, and persists in this practice even though actuality constantly demonstrates the falseness of it. So why doesn’t the brain awaken to the error of its way?
The brain makes images unconsciously to protect itself from danger. But as K said the problem is that the burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships, and his daily life.
(Man’s) perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind.
Krishnamurti uses the term ‘concept’ here instead of ‘image,’ but they are intimately related, perhaps even synonymous: images, concepts, symbols, ideas, beliefs. All mental constructs that are stored in memory and retrieved (consciously or unconsciously) at triggering thoughts and events. These constructs, he says, have great power, they shape how we perceive life. Another way of saying this is that the images and ideas and concepts we draw upon limit and distort how we see reality.
The content of his consciousness is his entire existence.
Then he makes a dramatic and even shocking statement: The content of our consciousness (the sum total of thoughts, emotions, memories, beliefs, perceptions, feelings, ideas, theories that make up our conscious experience at any given moment) is our entire existence. All those mental constructs we store and retrieve, they’re not only a key part of our existence, they’re the whole of it. Aye karumbaa!
The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment.
Here Krishnamurti is addressing conventional individuality, the feeling we have that we are unique, separate from others, special. This superficial individuality arises from conditioning: names/forms, tradition, environment, culture.
The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all humanity.
He refutes the authenticity of superficial individuality by saying a human’s true uniqueness lies not in conditioning, but in freedom from it, freedom from the content of consciousness (sum total of thoughts, emotions, memories, beliefs, usw).
So he is not an individual.
Though we feel unique, since we are dependent on our content of consciousness, we are in fact not true individuals. It’s a bit of a slap in the face to those who value their individuality, a wake-up call!
Every brain is unique and individual, but the individual human brain’s image of itself as superior to all other species makes our species the most unintelligent and antibiotic species. This means that the human brain can only make things worse for life an Earth until/unless it awakens to what it is doing.
What would need to happen for the brain to be more aware of what it is doing? Relatively content brain, enjoys the illusions it has painstakingly built and nurtured, suffers but finds ways to make the suffering part of its grand Story of Me. It may be a house of cards, but it’s MY house of cards.
When I am content, all seems well. But contentment can switch to outrage, anger, annoyance or discontent at any moment because it’s conditional, fragile, volatile.
The pursuit of contentment is Sisyphean, a futile endeavor, but the brain is conditioned to live this way, torn between what should and should not be, because there is no conceivable alternative.