33. The Best Way to Live

If I had to sum up the essence of Krishnamurti's teachings in one sentence, I would probably choose "We are the world."

This states that there is no self which is separate from the world. Separateness is an illusion created by the mind. It is an obvious mistake, but one that we do not recognize as such.

The reason is clear: we don't see the world as it really is. We don't see that I and the world are inextricably intertwined.

Our mind misinterprets the information it receives from the world. K saw this very clearly and tried to help others to see it too. He himself admitted that his message did not get across too well.

The reason was not in the content, but in the reception. Our mindset is wrong. We hear what we think, not what is actually said. And the truth is not revealed by words alone.

Krishnamurti wanted to change the program of our brains, wanted us to connect with the world. This is only possible if we see the world as it is: the image we have of ourselves is something we have created in our mind.

Living in 'What is'

Krishnamurti used a wonderful term 'what is' to describe the world. It is what he wanted us to see, and that is exactly what we don't see. And we don't see that we don't see when our inner world takes control of us.

There is only one world. 'My world' is an insignificant strip in the infinity of life. We see only a small part of the whole, and even that is heavily filtered. Our consciousness plays a trick on us. It creates an image of the world that seems and feels right, but is not. We live according to those distorted images, and they ruin our lives.

Our ancestors believed that the sun circles the flat earth, but that mistaken belief did not pose much of a danger to them. At that time, most people never travelled very far from their home village, let alone to the edge of the earth. They had other worries in life than their perceptions of the world. They spent their time trying to survive at the mercy of nature.

However, it can have fatal consequences when we think of other people as separate beings. We fail to understand how dependent we are on how we treat others and relate to them.

Unfortunately, Krishnamurti's message about the dangers of separation was not heard. His words did not lead to a mutation in the minds of his listeners.

He knew, for sure, that the mind cannot be changed with words alone; a more powerful tool is needed. The self does not possess such a tool. It lives in time and thought.

In order to change, we need intelligence and insight. They silence the noise in our minds and help us to address thoughts before they cause harm.

David Bohm said that we lack proprioception of thought. We don't see directly what thinking is: a reaction of memory. Thinking is needed for acquiring knowledge and skills, but it can cause havoc when it runs rampant in the psyche.

The 'I', the self, is the source of all human problems. Self-centredness is a mental disability, and we suffer the consequences of this.

The Self Is Our Own Creation

Many people do not see the self as something that needs to be overcome. On the contrary, for most people, their whole life revolves around the self. For many of us, it is enough to try to deal with it, accept, and improve the self.

This view of life leads to problems.

We talk a lot about the importance of self-knowledge. But what exactly is the self that we try to know? According to K, there is no self to know; there is only thinking, no thinker.

The self is born when we identify with our own thoughts and start to think them as our own.

When the self is experienced, there must also be the not-self, that is, others and the rest of the world. We draw a mental line between the inner and the outer worlds. We can try to influence
the inner world directly with our will, and the outer world only indirectly through our actions.

K encouraged us to realise that the boundary between the inner and the outer worlds is imaginary and self-imposed. There is no actual boundary.

It is important to bear in mind that K talked about the psychological realm of the mind. Of course, we have separate bodies, different knowledge, and personal skills, as well as our own memories and friends. Problems arise from the meaning we give to these differences.

Individual differences are emphasized in the modern world. We are raised to be individuals and encouraged to "be ourselves". It's somewhat ironic because we can never be anyone other than who we are.

Self-acceptance is a fine concept, but K does not agree with it. For him, the self is a fiction created by a limited mind and is not worth settling for. It consists of memories and knowledge that limit life and exclude what is essential to life: connection with others and the world.

When you realise that there is only one world, shared by all, the boundaries of the self lose their meaning.

New Dimension

When we free ourselves from the self, another reality opens up before us: a timeless and boundless dimension that cannot possibly be contained within our minds.

Liberation comes through insight, direct seeing. It is not a trick that can be learned, nor a goal to strive for. Either we are free or we are not.

Insight changes the way our brain cells work. It silences the movement of the brain. This happens when we connect directly to the miracle of life, without intermediaries.

Thinking about all this disconnects us and prevents us from being one with the world. It creates boundaries and divides the world into separate parts. It also assumes that the perceptions it creates are true.

In direct connection, there is only one kind of movement. It does not happen in time but in a timeless moment.

Krishnamurti led people to the threshold of direct connection and unity, but even he could not take anyone across the threshold. We must take the pivotal step by ourselves — or perhaps it is too

concrete to speak of crossing a threshold, because direct seeing is an action that does not involve time. Life just happens.

K often spoke of the sacredness of life. On a few occasions, he used the word mystery. According to the dictionary, a mystery is something beyond understanding, an enigma, an inexplicable phenomenon. It is something that cannot be explained in words.

Life is a mystery. Yet, the 'me' lives imprisoned in a world of words and concepts. It wants to know, understand, and explain the world and itself.

There is another way to live. Living directly means that we live without the self and are surrounded by the wonders of life.

It may be the best way to live.