'Freedom from The Known' Mindfulness-Meditation

This is the beautiful force of Krishnamurti from a talk based on one of my favourite books ‘Freedom from the Known’. Prolific writer, guru, teacher. His words always hit me right in the gut, especially when we sit in righteous indignation about something that life has dealt us, or something someone has done ‘to’ us or some path we think we ‘know’ we are on.

Especially on the couch & in the work I’m doing with clients right now; through guided visualisations, breath-work and mindfulness-meditation practise in trying to acknowledge thoughts without judgement, one of the hardest things to do but, such a worthwhile practise and the results are remarkable. This kind of a more holistic approach in therapy helps us develop greater awareness and acceptance of our current thoughts, feelings and, how indirectly this impacts our behaviours. By acknowledging them, objectively, non-judgementally and seeing that they aren’t who we are, they are just our thoughts, sometimes habitual reactive patterns of behaviour, we become more of an observer in our stories. Then, through cognitive behavioural Socratic questioning & reframing, we start unpacking, identifying and challenging unhelpful thought patterns and behaviours. This leads us to greater self-understanding and emotional resilience. It helps us cope better with anxiety, grieve, stress, loss and emotional life challenges. This becomes a tool to utilise in everyday life, a walking meditation of life, it helps us stay grounded in the present and creates space between thoughts and reactions. Reach out for a free first consult if you would like to see what it is about and start to do the work: www.thevirtualcouchcounselling.com

I always go back to this passage, it is a long in depth passage, so read it when you can sit with it and absorb it, over time, it takes concentration to hear it. I love this idea of demystifying meditation, it is not about emptying the mind, having a silent quiet mind is a misconception about this practise. Observing our thoughts, whatever comes up, without resistance, not allowing the negative ones to flower, that’s allowing objectively ourselves to see and ultimately let go.

‘Look sir, listen to this carefully. I am sitting quietly in my room, trying to be quiet, trying my mind the mind trying to be quiet. I want a peace of mind - that's what you all want, a piece of mind. You understand? (Laughter) I am glad you laugh. And sitting quietly, suddenly a thought arises, 'I hate that man, I dislike that man'. Immediately my reaction is, 'I am meditating, I must be kind, I mustn't think of disliking the poor chap and I must control'. Now, I dislike him - why? He said something to me which I don't like. He insulted me. The past - please listen to this - the past, which has not been resolved, comes at the moment of quietness and flowers. You have understood? At the moment of quietness, my dislike of that man or that woman takes shapes and becomes a reality. Now, that is, the past, in the present flowers and I control it, thought controls it, which means I have smothered it, therefore it will occur again. Now, so I say, thought wanting to be quiet, thought brought this out of the past and I try to smother it. I smother it and then another thought arises, and I go on like this, spend twenty minutes playing this game, and I have meditated.

Now, the dislike of that person took place in the past, and I am sitting quietly in the room - sitting quietly - under the tree, in the room, on the beach, and suddenly that dislike flowers in the present. Let it flower. You've understood? The moment you are aware that it is flowering, it withers away. But if you control it you are giving life to it. Have you understood this simple fact? Look, sir, do it. The mind for the moment is quiet. That quietness is the present. It may last two seconds but that's the present. In those two seconds, a thought flowers, comes into being from the past. We generally put a lid on it, suppress it, control it. Let it blossom, but be aware that it is blossoming. Give your care, attention to the flower of dislike (laughs) - you understand? - and you will see what takes place. In that there is no control whatsoever. Have you understood this simple fact? So, in the same way, every day of your life, every minute of your life, watch. If you are tired let go, but the next minute watch. Be quiet, let things come out and let them flower, and in the flowering of it is the ending of it, if you don't want to shape it, control it, justify it, just to observe it. Have you have you understood this? Not verbally but actually in your blood.

So, in meditation there is no control whatsoever, totally contrary to everything that you know. In meditation there is no direction. Please understand this. How do you know where you are going? You know where you are going in daily life. You take the road to go to your home - you know the direction. You know the direction in the office. In the office or in the factory you have to do certain things in order to get more money, climb the ladder of success and all the rest of it. So you know the direction. You are following all this? Do please. And do you know in meditation where you are going? Who has set the direction? The direction is peace of mind. Your mind is in pieces anyhow, so you want a little piece of that pieces. Laughter No, no, please, do see all this. Who has set the direction? Your guru, your masters, your books? Other people's experiences? 'Yes, I know, I have reached god, I know all about god and I'll tell you what to do'. So somebody has set your direction or you have set the direction. Right? Logically, watch it logically. This demands reason, not superstition that you are all living in. All the rituals that are superstitious, they have no meaning.

So, direction means a fixed point. Right? I know the direction from this place to the place I live because that house is fortunately fixed. Now you say enlightenment, truth, is fixed. Therefore there is a direction. But you never enquire if truth has a fixed point. You understand? Is enlightenment something like a tree fixed, taken a root somewhere? Or is it a living thing, therefore, moving? Therefore no direction, therefore no path. You understand? If you see that, then there is no system. You understand, sir? No method, no practice. See what you have done? And there is no control, no practice, no system to be followed, no slogans repeated as the mantras, all for a direction which is fixed. If there is no fixed point then there is no need for practice.

That means the whole movement of desire as will comes to an end in meditation. You understand? Oh, for god's The freedom from will, which is the concentration of desire, totally must come to an end as directive in meditation. So the mind has no control. It is no longer caught in a routine of meditation, practicing, practicing, repeating. Have you ever been to any of these gatherings where they worship some idiotic person, repeat his name or Ram, Ram, Sita, Govinda or whatever they repeat, and mesmerise themselves into some kind of idiotic state, and say they are religious? This is what you are doing. That's nothing to do with religion, it is hypnosis through idea, through words. So, the mind is no longer directed and there is freedom of will, therefore there is great space.

And is it necessary to sit in a certain way, to breathe in a certain way, to keep your eyes closed, is all that necessary? When you don't do it in daily life, why do it here? You understand? You are living in different departments, utterly unrelated to each other. You are crooked in one way, in your business, in your politics, in your whatever you are doing, corrupt and try to be moral and be immoral, and sexual and trying to be chaste, and in meditation. So you live in sections, in departments, all contradicting each other, and that is the very essence of corruption - not passing money under the desk. So, when you have understood the nature of control, there is no direction. Then why sit in a particular way? It is obviously physically necessary to sit straight. You know, the blood goes more to the head and all that business. I won't go into all that. If life is a if life is the whole movement of meditation, daily life, not just sitting in a corner and having a little peace of mind, but the whole of life is a movement in meditation, then you live freely every minute of your life.

And when you are when this meditative process is going on, there are certain powers you have, naturally, powers of healing, and if you are unfortunate enough to perform some miracles, all these things take place - of which the speaker knows something about, which doesn't mean he is vain about it, he is just stating it. But there are many people in the world who are producing miracles. Right? You have seen them, probably you all go to them - miracle-mongers. And how a human mind, like a reasoned mind, can go to that kind of childish performance is unthinkable. A religious person completely denies all that. Yes, sir! That's not religion, worshipping a person, doing a puja to somebody who does some kind of idiotic miracles. You are all very silent. Probably you go to them, don't you? (Laughter) And you don't see how extraordinarily childish it is. When the house is burning you go and worship a person. You understand what I am telling you? Caught in miracles when your whole house is afire. Are you listening to all this?

And the next problem, question in meditation is: what is silence? Why is it necessary for the mind to be silent? Not at peace - that's a dreadful word to use in meditation, when in your daily life you are not peaceful. In your daily life you are violent, ambitious, greedy, envious, anxiety, fearful, and you want peace. So, as in daily life you have no peace, don't seek in meditation peace. That has no meaning. That's just pretension. It's like my talking about not being corrupt, having my hand in another man's pocket. So what is silence and why is it necessary for the mind to have completely quiet, silent mind? Please, find out, sirs. Why should you have a silent mind, a really quiet mind? A mind that's not occupied with god, with unhappiness, with your job, with your wife, husband, a quiet, unoccupied, totally silent mind - why should you have it? (Sound of barking) Do you listen to that dog? Wait, wait. Silently? Listen to it completely silently, which means without any resistance, without any irritation, just listen to it. When you listen quietly there is no resistance, there is no irritation, you do not identify yourself with the dog and the barking of it, your mind is quiet.

Now, when you are listening, I hope as you are listening to the speaker, to hear what he is saying, your mind must be quiet. That's ordinary courtesy, ordinary politeness, and ordinary rational necessity if you want to listen to what the speaker is saying. So a quiet, silent mind is necessary to listen. To see something, a tree, to see the movement of the breeze and the leaves, you have to look, and if your mind is not looking wholly then you can't look. You understand? So, a quiet mind and a silent mind are necessary. A mind that is not filled in with words, with ideas, with speculations, conclusions, fears, a mind must be silent without any invitation. You understand this? If you invite silence, it's not silence, is it? Do you see this? I have heard you say to me, only when you are silent you can hear the dog, when your mind is quiet you can see the leaves moving. So I have heard that and I want to see the tree, leaves moving, so I practice to be silent. And such practice of silence is no silence, is death. And that is what has taken place with all of you. You are dead people because you are secondhand people. You repeat endlessly what others have said, and perform puja, rituals galore and your life is utterly unhappy.

Therefore, meditation is all through the whole days of our life. And when there is order, which is virtue, a behaviour which is not contradictory, which is whole, then a mind that's completely quiet, completely still, without direction, without control, such a mind has immense energy because in it there is no friction. And then only, because - please listen - because in space there is no direction, there is no time. I wonder, have you understood it, sir, somebody? There is space between here and the place I live. To get from here to there in that space, time is necessary. Right? Time is necessary. But when in space there is no direction, there is no time. Oh, get this, please! Therefore in that space there is only the present, and time then is a mere physical fact - catch a train, catch a bus, go from here there, and so on. But when there is no controller and the controlled, when there is no direction, space is beyond the content of consciousness. No, you don't don't agree, don't nod your head in agreement, you don't understand this.

You know what consciousness is? You are conscious, aren't you? When you are hurt you become conscious of your hurt, or when you are enjoying something tremendously, you are conscious that you are. Your consciousness contains the consciousness is its content. Right? Don't learn this, observe it. Now, the content of consciousness is ambition, violence, greed, envy, power, seeking power, position, cheating, corrupt, all that is the content of your consciousness, as your furniture, as your house, as your name, that's the content. In that content, we move, all thought moves. That is, thought is the movement of the known. The movement of the known is time. Now, in meditation there is the complete emptying of the mind of the known. The known is the 'me'. You understand? Have you ever thought? Must I go into all this?

Sir, you can know yourself very well, can't you, if you applied your mind - your greeds, your envies, your purposes, your attachments and detachments and fears and the pleasures, the past experience, remembrances, you know, the memories are the known. Right? The known is the 'me', isn't it. The 'me' is the content of my consciousness. It's very simple, don't complicate it. You don't have to study fat books about this. You can see it yourself. My consciousness is my struggles, my conflicts, my purposes, my technique, my talent, my desires - that's the content of my consciousness. All thought is within the boundaries of that consciousness. And in meditation, when you come to the real beauty of it, the depth of it, is the freedom from the totally known, though operating in the known. Ah, you won't get this. It doesn't matter.

So, in that quality of mind, time has come to an end. Thought is not projecting anything, therefore there are no visions, no gods, no - nothing. That nothingness is not emptiness. That nothingness is the creative flowering of life, of total life. That is the very essence of something that is unnameable. But the mind cannot come to it with any kind of will, with any kind of desire, through any kind of ritual, slogans, mantrams and Ramas and Sitas and god knows what else. It can only come when you lead a righteous life, now, not tomorrow, every day of your life. When there is no friction between you and another, that is, when you have relationship with another, not through your images of it, but relationship, and when you have this immense feeling of compassion, love, that is beauty, when that is there as a root, as a tree has its root deep in earth, unless your feet are firmly in there, unshakable, then in that out of that grows the beauty of silence which is not cultivable, which is timeless and therefore something beyond all words.’