28. Meeting Life

Meeting Life is an excellent collection of Krishnamurti's writings, talks, and discussions spanning several decades.

The book is divided into three sections. The first section contains nineteen short pieces dictated by Krishnamurti. The second section comprises his responses to questions posed to him at his talks. The third section comprises extracts from his talks in Switzerland, India, England, and California.

The book was first published in 1991.

It Is Everywhere

In the first dictation, K describes the great sense of affection he felt while standing in a well-kept park on the shores of a beautiful lake.

This affection was "not for anything or for anyone, but the fullness of what may be called love. The only thing that matters is probing the very depth of it, not with the silly little mind with its endless mutterings of thought, but with silence. Silence is the only means, or instrument, that can penetrate into something that escapes the mind, which is so contaminated."

We don't know what love is. We recognise its symptoms: pleasure, pain, fear, and anxiety. We try to solve the symptoms, which leads us to wander in darkness.

"There it was, on the water, all about you, in the leaf, and in the duck that was trying to swallow a large piece of bread, in the lame woman who went by. It was not a romantic identification or a cunning rationalised verbalisation. It was there, as factual as that car, or that boat."

K continues: "It is the only thing which can give an answer to all our problems. No, not an answer, for then there will be no problems."

There is no way to approach or hold onto love. Sometimes it is there when you stand by the roadside or by the lake and watch a flower, a tree, or the farmer tilling his soil. If you are silent and not dreaming, not collecting daydreams, then perhaps it will come to you.

"We are domesticated animals, revolving in a cage which we have built for ourselves. In the cage you can have anarchy or order, which in turn gives way to disorder, and this has been going on for many centuries – exploding, and falling back, changing the patterns of the social structures, but if you place all these as the most essential, then you will miss the other."

If you are lucky, love might come to you on a falling leaf or from that solitary tree in the distance, standing alone in an empty field.

Do Nothing!

The problem of living is the subject of the fourth chapter.

"The world around us is changing rapidly – its values, its morality, its wars and peace. One is utterly lost before the immediacy of action. One has lost faith in most things – in the leaders, in the teachers, in beliefs, and one often wishes there were some clear principle that would light a path, or an authority to tell one what to do."

We have always acted from a centre that contracts and expands. K says that we humans are like animals tethered to a post, our actions depend on the length of the tether. Such activity is never free; there is always pain, mischief, and confusion.

The question of what to do is always asked from a centre. We call the centre the self, and we experience it as existing. But is it possible to live without a centre?

In the absence of a centre, every action is free and joyous, without pain or pleasure. This space and freedom is not a product of effort or achievement. When the centre ends, the other is.

It is only natural to ask how the centre could cease to exist, and what needs to be done to stop it.

Nothing, K replies.

"Only see without choice the activities of the centre, not as an observer looking inward, but just observe without the centre. Be aware of looking with the eyes of the past, and remain with that. Whatever you try to do will only strengthen the centre and is a response of your own desire to escape."

Therefore, there is no escape, no effort and no despair. Then you can see the full meaning of the centre, and the immense danger of it. That is enough.

The Healthy Ones Are Strong

"The sane need no discipline, only the unbalanced need the restraint, the resistance and are tempted", states K.

"The sane are aware of their desires, their urges, and temptation does not even occur to them. The healthy are strong without their knowing it."

Sane and healthy people may have desires, but these are not a problem for them.

"The problem arises only when the idea turns desire into pleasure by thought. It is the search for pleasure against which man sets up resistance, for he is aware that there is pain involved in it, or else the environment, the culture, has bred into him the fear of continued pleasure."

Resistance in any form is violence. Discipline is based on learning, not on drill, not on imitation, conforming to someone else's standards.

"It is strange that we have not gone above and beyond the narrow field of suppression, control, obedience, and the authority of the book. For in all this, the mind can never flourish. How can anything flourish within the darkness of fear?"

We must have order, but the order of discipline is the death of love. One must be punctual, considerate, but if it is compelled, it becomes superficial, a formal politeness.

Order cannot be found in obedience. Only freedom brings order. Without love, established order is anarchy.

Love is the one thing that brings exquisite order. You cannot cultivate love or order. You cannot drill love into a human being. Aggression and fear come out of this drill, not of love.

In the Grip of Culture

"Is there individuality at all, or only a collective mass of varied forms of conditioning? After all, the so-called individual is the world, the culture, the social and economic environment. He is the world and the world is him."

All mischief and misery begin when we separate ourselves from the world and pursue our particular talents, ambitions, inclinations, and pleasures.

"We are not only slaves to the culture in which we have been raised; we are also slaves to the cloud of misery and sorrow of all humanity."

Outward changes or social reforms will not solve problems because the cause of the problem is inward. The perception of this is intelligence, seeing the danger and reacting to it instantly. Will is thought and prevents us from finding the right solution.

"Intelligence is neither yours nor mine. It doesn't belong to the politician, the teacher or the saviour. This intelligence is not measurable. It is really a state of nothingness."

Drops Like a Bad Penny

There were four sannyasis on the riverbank, "each selling his own wares: gods. They were shouting, and the biggest crowd attracted "the one who shouted most".

"Religions have offered a counterfeit of the real. The most earnest are aware of all this and of the mischief that has come through the false."

There is a state which is neither imagination nor romantic fancy. To reach it, all counterfeit coins that we have treasured must be thrown away and buried so deeply that no one will ever find them again.

"To deny them needs no effort, no strong will nor the attraction of something greater; you put them away very simply because you their futility, their danger, their inherent nuisance value and vulgarity."

The mind is a current: very deep at the centre, but very shallow at the periphery. The deep current has the volume of memory behind it, and this memory is the continuity that passes through the town, becoming sullied and clear again. Only when this vast volume of memory ceases to exist can a new one begin.

"It is this memory that has to come to an end."

Happiness Is Selfish

K was watching people at the airport. In their faces he saw hardness and ambition, ancient pride of race, imagined importance and extreme self-centredness. He asks:

"How can two neurotic people, living in the same house, calling themselves husband and wife, have any kind of relationship? How can one have any relationship if the 'me' is all-important?"

Some people are so absorbed in each other that they don't notice anything else. However, there is something that is "vastly beyond the self-satisfying movement of happy relationship".

To be really related is rare, but without it, life is caught in trivialities. The bored people sitting in the waiting room, annoyed at the flight delay, didn't want a different kind of relationship.

The Bourgeois Emptiness

K looks at the people in a shopping district, and comments on their endless hunger for goods, pondering the nature of being bourgeois.

Generally speaking, a bourgeois person is someone whose life revolves around property, money and self-interest. This pursuit of self-interest is also evident among religious people, as well as among artists and intellectuals. This narrows the mind, causing it to lose its flexibility and its quick, precise capacity for action.

Ask yourself if you are bourgeois. If you have any kind of self-interest in your relationships with others, your mind is narrow and petty and unable to go beyond the walls and barriers that humans have built around themselves.

Fear Hinders Wisdom

In the second part, K answers questions about meditation, confusion, love, and sex, authority, beauty, and the capacity to listen.

In an interview with the BBC in December 1970, K discusses the destructive effect of authority. The interviewer is confused and asks if all wisdom should be thrown away.

"Authority has crippled the mind because it destroys the discovery of reality. We rely on authorities because we are afraid to stand alone."

The interviewer asks whether the wisdom of the human race should be totally thrown away.

"Wisdom comes only when suffering ends. It is not in books, nor is it in accumulated knowledge of other's experiences. Wisdom comes in self-understanding, in self-discovery of the whole structure of oneself.

How can the mind be wise when it is caught up in fear and sorrow? It is only when sorrow – which is fear – ends, that there is a possibility of being wise."

Don't Waste Your Life!

In California in 1974, someone said they had been listening to K for some time, but there had been no change.

"Then don't listen anymore", K replies. If nothing happens, there is something wrong with the speaker, the message, or the listener. The speaker may point the way, but you have to walk yourself, get involved, learn on your own.

Listening can also lead to the listener to change their own lifestyle. Of course, the speaker cannot be responsible for that.

"It is our mutual responsibility – maybe more yours than that of the speaker – perhaps, sir, you have not given your life to it. We are now talking about life, not about ideas, not about theories, practices, not even techniques – but to look at this whole life, which is your life, and to care for it. And that means not to waste your life. You have a very short life to live, maybe ten, maybe fifty years, but don't waste it. Look at it, give your life to understand it."

This Is Transformation

In Madras in 1981, K was asked what the transformation is and what it means to be transformed. He gave a beautiful answer:

"When you are observing, seeing the dirt on the road, seeing how the politicians behave, seeing your own attitude towards your wife, your children and so on, transformation is there. To bring about some kind of order in daily life, that is transformation, not something extraordinary, out of this world.

When one is not thinking clearly, objectively, rationally, be aware of that and change it, break it. That is transformation.

If you are jealous, watch it, don't give it time to flower, change it immediately. That is transformation.

When you are greedy, violent, ambitious, trying to become some kind of a holy man, see how it is creating a world of tremendous uselessness. I don't know if you are aware of this. Competition is destroying the world. The world is becoming more and more competitive, more and more aggressive, and if you change it immediately, that is transformation.

And if you go very much deeper into the problem, it is clear that thought denies love. Therefore, one has to find out whether there is an end to thought, an end to time, not philosophise over it and discuss it, but find out. Truly that is transformation, and if you go into it very deeply, transformation means never a thought of becoming; it is being absolutely nothing."

The Message Is You

A student of chartered accountancy said he understands every word yet K's message remains vague and he does not fully understand it.

K answers: "Don't understand his message! He is not bringing a message. He is pointing out your life, not his life, not his message. He is pointing how you live and one is unwilling to face that. We want to be led by somebody, including the speaker. The speaker acts as a mirror in which you can see the activity of your own self."

The book of mankind is you. We are unwilling to read that book. The brain must be alert and active to see the whole book with one glance. When you read it, you will see that there is nothing in it.

"That means, be nothing, don't become. The book is the history of becoming. You may read the book from the first page to the last page and you may find that there is nothing in it."

If you look at that book, you want to live in this world being nothing.

"To bring about a complete understanding in oneself is far more important than anything in life, because we are destroying the world; we have no love, no care. So, the speaker has no message; the message is you. The speaker is just pointing out."

Where Does Life Begin?

The book's title – Meeting Life – comes from a talk given at Brockwood Park in September 1981. In it K says:

"I know how to meet it for myself: not by escaping or with effort, but by living in this world as it is. To have no conflict at all in our life. Then there is no tomorrow, there is only the worship of today."

We are all responsible for the whole world, and we are all part of what happens in it. No one person can eliminate terrorism alone, nor can governments. Although we are not responsible for the actions of our ancestors and the brutality of empires, we are still part of it all.

K suggests that we should be extraordinarily alert to our reactions, to our confusion, "work like fury on them". That is the only thing we can do, and if we don't, there really is no future for humanity.

"The tragedy is that we don't seem to care. We don't get together, think together, work together. We are too willing to join institutions, organisations, hoping that they will stop wars, stop butchering each other. They have never done it. But if we care, and live our daily life rightly, then I think there is some hope for the future."

The True Religion

The first talk at Saanen in August 1961 dealt with the religious mind.

This question of the religious mind must be approached through denial and negation, negative thinking. The mind must be completely cleansed of the known before it can realise anything. Denial is often merely a reaction to something. True denial is based on observation, on seeing something as it is. It does not involve illusions or desires.

The religious mind does not operate in the world of ideas. It does not classify ideas, does not compromise, pursue anything, conform, believe or belong to a church. It does not live in time.

"To find reality, to find God, or whatever name you like to give it, the mind must be alone, uninfluenced. Such a mind is dying every minute, that's why it is completely living."

The brain must function in this world with reason, with sanity, with clarity, but inwardly it must be completely quiet, yet fully alive.

For the religious mind, there is no time. It has destroyed the authority of the past, its traditions, the values imposed on us. You will find that destruction is creation, and that in creation there is no time. Only a religious mind can be in a state of creation.

"Going to church every morning and worshipping this or that does not make you a religious person. What makes a person religious is the total destruction of the known."