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Beyond Cause and Effect: Insights from Krishnamurti’s Lecture on the Universe

Clyde

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February 15, 2024

Beyond Cause and Effect: Insights from Krishnamurti’s Lecture on the Universe

“There is only attachment; there is no such thing as detachment. The mind invents detachment as a reaction to the pain of attachment. When you react to attachment by becoming “detached,” you are attached to something else. So that whole process is one of attachment. You are attached to your wife or your husband, to your children, to ideas, to tradition, to authority, and so on; and your reaction to that attachment is detachment. The cultivation of detachment is the outcome of sorrow, pain. You want to escape from the pain of attachment, and your escape is to find something to which you think you can be attached. So there is only attachment, and it is a stupid mind that cultivates detachment. All the books say, “Be detached,” but what is the truth of the matter? If you observe your own mind, you will see an extraordinary thing—that through cultivating detachment, your mind is becoming attached to something else.”
~ Jiddu Krishnamurti, The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti

We live our lives attached to things, people, money, power, views, ideas, beliefs and so on. It takes you in a spiral of negativity, overthinking and hopelessness.

Can we live in this world without a simple sense of attachment?

Watched this video by Jiddu Krishnamurti, I was pretty confused until I read the transcript, felt like half my brain was trying to understand the words rather than the meaning. This is perhaps one of the reasons why I have always preferred reading as compared to watching a video.

The Universe has no Cause

Transcript of the Conversation

K: We can give different explanations why human beings don’t change. Ten different explanations. What? They are just explanations.

Q: It’s not so much why they don’t change. Why are we not aware of the destructive tension in our brain?

K: When one puts the question ‘why’, then you’re looking for a cause. Right? The discovery of the cause may take time. You will say one thing, he’ll say another, I’ll say something else, so we’ll all be fighting over the cause.

Q: Twice in our conversation, we’ve come to a question, can there be an instantaneous ending, a cutting of something?
A timeless… We keep wondering off. I don’t know if we know how to even approach a question like that.

K: Don’t approach it.

Q: Well, you ask it and what does one do with it?

K: Just look. You tell me that – what? – attachment is dangerous, corrupts. You tell me that. I see your logic, I accept your logic,
I see what you’re saying is true, but I’m attached at the end of that.

Q: It’s not sufficient.

K: I am still attached.

Q: I think you need some sort of deep crisis to have that…

K: Then I’ll wait for time. I don’t want time to dissolve my problem. Time won’t dissolve my problem.

Q: But this crisis is perhaps not induced by time. It could be induced by some shock – suddenly you understand the thing.

K: All right, why doesn’t it take place now?

Q: It could take place now. Perhaps I’m not sensitive enough.

K: Then what? You follow?

Q: But doesn’t that come back to the question, if I may put it? Doesn’t that come back to what it means to actually be attentive?
I don’t know whether I’m jumping.

K: I’m not seeking a cause. I wonder if you understand that.

Q: Would you say the notion of process is itself disorder?

K: You tell me attachment is corruption. You explain to me very logically, the whole explanation. I listen to it. I don’t ask, ‘Why don’t I change?’ My first question – I won’t ask that. I’m still attached. I don’t ask, ‘Why don’t I let go?’ If I ask why, I am seeking a cause. Therefore, what has a cause has an end. Right?

So, I won’t look at the cause. You will tell me that the cause is that and that and that. I won’t do any of that. I know I am attached. I have listened to you, listened to you logic, your clarity, I say, ‘Yes, that is perfectly true.’ But at the end of it, I am still holding on.
Just listen. I am still holding on.

That’s all I know. Please listen. That’s all I know. I’m not interested in ending it, I’m just holding on to that. I see I’m holding on.
I won’t ask why I am holding on, but it is just I am that.

I think it is disastrous to ask what is the cause – for myself, I’m not telling you to accept this.

The universe has no cause. We have causes. If I can not think in terms of cause, time. Then I am attached. That very reality of ‘I am attached’ operates. I don’t have to do a thing.

Experiencing a Spiral

There’s something profound here to be learned, I paused for a moment and pondered on one of the recent causes that was on my mind.

It was something so simple a thought as to why did someone do that? The outcome of the action had already taken place yet I was attached to knowing “why” would that person do that. Sadly the next step is I begin to judge that person from my perspective the person must have not been good, as to why would that person do this. Going down to the no wonder the daughter behaves like that.

So where did the desire of knowing the cause lead me to? It spiraled me into a place of negativity. But this like I believe any philosophy, can be adapted positively to a situation for self improvement or it could be detrimental.

I do love most of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s stuff and if you’re just hearing about him, this post we have on 7 Empowering Jiddu Krishnamurti Lessons to Live By will get you up to speed on some of his thoughts.

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Jiddu Art

Healing Through Awareness: Lessons I Learned at The Landmark Forum

Self-Development

Aarti Chavan

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February 2, 2024

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Healing Through Awareness: Lessons I Learned at The Landmark Forum

The time was June 2023. I was sitting in front of my laptop trying to work and no one was at home. Suddenly, tears started rolling from my eyes. As if that wasn’t enough, I started screaming my lungs out. Within a moment, there was no voice. Only my mouth wide open and me trying to scream, as if I was trapped!

I had signed up for The Landmark Forum which was to happen 15 days after this incident. Every night I remained wide awake thinking – this was my last chance. What if this doesn’t work too? I don’t know if there is another option to get myself out of this trap. I was scared!

Until now, I had tried counselling and meditation! It helped me cross some barriers. And, all days weren’t bad, some were. All relationships weren’t screwed, some were. All moments were not filled with anger, some were.

So, what was actually wrong?

I was agitated. I had chronic low back pain. I felt distanced with people. I felt no one loved me. I lost my interest in building my career. At the slightest provocation, I’d feel “Why am I always wrong and everyone else is so right about everything?”.

I wanted to go back in time. Be the same healthy, ambitious young girl I was. Minus the stress of that young girl that got me in this situation.

This situation impacted my family and I knew I needed to work upon myself.

“Embrace each challenge in your life as an opportunity for self-transformation.” ~ Bernie S. Siegel

That is when the Landmark Forum happened to me. It exposed me to my own blind spots (things I did not know about myself), and thus opened up every area of my life – career, health and relationships.

I got to know how ‘what we deduce from our experiences gets filed into our future’. I discovered that the source of my stuck career was the thinking – ‘I am incapable’, derived from a certain childhood incident. I also discovered that I grew up as a hard-working and highly disciplined child in order to impress my father.

Knowing the source helped me invent new possibilities in relationships and other areas that weren’t working well. It changed my outlook towards life. It changed the way I communicated with people. Let me tell you a little bit about how all of this unfolded for me in the three and half days of doing the forum.

It is a conversation created in a step-by-step fashion by the Forum Leader, people share the areas of their life that aren’t working. The Forum leader helps us look at these situations from ‘distinctions’. The result is to get answers that you could have never figured out without those ‘distinctions’.

Here are the 10 things that I learnt from The Landmark Forum –

1) Inclusiveness

Being in the forum, I had a profound feeling of inclusivity. I was seeing myself in others who were sharing their life. This created a feeling of oneness that cannot be otherwise experienced unless you are in a state of deep meditation. A life lived making judgements, analysing, blaming and manipulating people around us, seemed useless.

2) There is no good no bad

I would often regret anger, hatred and envy. I realised that no emotion is inherently good or bad. Every emotion arises from a deep-seated thought. For example, I realised that the root of jealousy is an underlying thought that ‘I am incapable’. Once I recognised this, emotions started making sense. I could easily acknowledge my emotions without getting overpowered by them. This gave a sense of me being the creator of my own life.

3) Possibilities

“The domain of possibility doesn’t exist; we need to create it in order for it to exist. Happiness, fulfillment, regard, satisfaction are all states that exist only as a possibility. So is everything else that’s of any value.” ~ Laurel Scheaf, Landmark Forum leader

I came across the concept of ‘human being as a possibility’. I could understand why resolutions hardly work. Creating a possibility of living a ‘healthy, long and an adventurous life’ is much more inspiring than ‘I will exercise everyday from now on’. New actions emerge by creating a new possibility, rather than mere changing of the past actions.

4) Complaints into Possibility

In one of the seminars after sessions, we did an exercise – ‘listing down all the complaints we have, as we go about the day’. As a week passed, 15 pages of my book were filled with complaints. This was true of every other participant. And then we worked to convert these complaints into possibilities that opened up a whole new way of looking at life. Now, every nagging complaint in relationships, health, career, got converted into a possibility. Life is exciting when you live it out of possibilities!

“No one ever cleans the mess in the house. It’s me who cares, everyone else just makes the mess,” was my constant complaint. One day, our family got together at the dinner table and we created the possibility of being a ‘sparkling family’.

A sparkling family not only shines outside but also inside. A sparkling family not only shines outside but also inside. A family that keeps the outdoor (read ‘house’) and indoor (read ‘mind’) clean. As you see, the beauty about creating a ‘possibility’ reflects in several areas of our life.

5) Standing for the other

Until the forum, I knew how to mind my own business. Realising that others’ goals can be my goals, was a complete game-changer. My relationship with others had a different meaning. I started living life with others, like real human beings. Not living life in isolation.

6) Living life out of ‘priorities’ versus ‘everything matters’

I lived life without prioritising – prioritising career over few relationships. While building one area of life, I would lose sight of the other areas of life. The balance was missing. Being associated with Landmark has empowered me to live a life out of ‘commitments’, not my emotions, thoughts and feelings.

There is nothing more and less important than the commitment I give to myself and other people. When I live a life out of commitment, whatever I give my word for becomes most important. Not what I ‘think’ is important.

7) Listening

“Deep listening is the kind of listening that can help relieve the suffering of another person. You can call it compassionate listening. You listen with only one purpose: to help him or her to empty his heart.” ~ Thích Nhất Hạnh

I realised that I hardly listen to people. With the constant chatter going on in my head, it is appalling how bad a listener I was. This chatter would create filters, bias and judgement. No wonder what I said landed completely differently than the way it was supposed to go. I learnt to listen to people, really listen while minimising the constant chatter.

8) Developing people skills

I learnt effective communication. Most times, we are so engrossed in making stories before we actually arrive at a point. We avoid getting straight to the point, because we are already thinking about the reaction that we will receive from the other person. I got that effective communication means coming straight to the point followed by demanding action. This isn’t easy.

9) Life is empty and meaningless

I realised that operating from the space of nothingness gives me power to give my 100 percent to everything. When life is meaningless anyway, the power lies in creating my own meaning. There is no need to search for the meaning of life or its purpose on the outside or within. Because it is meaningless. And you can create just about any meaning that you want.

10) Living an authentic life

“The possibility of fully being ourselves occurs in proportion to our being authentic. Living with a pretense, or being afraid that some aspect of ourselves might be found out, precludes any real freedom. Being authentic requires courage.” ~ Joe DiMaggio, MD, Landmark Forum leader

It taught me to live an authentic life. It gave a structure to discover and deal with my inauthenticity. I would define this experience as ‘meditation on the court’.

Lastly, for those who’d like to know about what happened to the low back pain. The clear difference that the forum made was to turn my aggression into acceptance towards my low back pain.

To accept that a part of my body needs help, needs rest and needs compassion. I have had triggers even after the Landmark Forum, but it doesn’t stop me mentally and emotionally. It might have to physically rest but picking myself up has become a lot easier!

(Everyone should do The Landmark Forum once in life. It is the shortest possible route to transforming our outlook towards life. If you would like to know about this 3 ½ days course, do get in touch with me.)

Image source

Journey of healing

Circling: Connecting with Yourself and Others

Self-Actualization

Lauren

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January 20, 2024

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Circling: Connecting with Yourself and Others

Circling, a relatively new branch of non-duality and zen, brings us into the present moment with grace and knowing. A method that highlights the interactions we have between each other, as well as those more familiar tools used in meditation, such as awareness of sounds, tastes, bodily sensations, and how we are feeling in the present moment, circling is a radical way to ignite that moment.

Circling and the transformational power of Surrendered Leadership are phenomenal tools to deepen and extend our relationships with one another.

I had the opportunity of practicing it in a six week course before Christmas, and found it to be a way to access the same results as meditation but by a different route. In its best moments, I entered a state where my awareness increased, I was seeing or experiencing the present moment as it arose and I was in a state of deep relaxation.

In other words, circling is a new way of talking. In our normal way of conversing we rely on memory, moving back to our past or forward to the future, circling brings us right into the present moment.

How is Circling & Surrendered Leadership done

Circling step one: Gazing

Unlike Vipassana, which focuses on one place under the nostrils for example, circling begins, with eye gazing. Staring deeply into one other person’s eyes for fifteen minutes is a fantastic way to step into the present moment and begin to harness its power.

This can be done with one other person, or in groups of three or four.

Circling helps to open up more to oneself, and access parts that are hidden or gets ignored. It helps them flow with their feelings. It helps them to be more open and lead a more fulfilling life.

Jim Eaton Interview - unravelling the patterns of the mind

Circling step two: Noticing

Bringing the next stage into your practice, is noticing. This is when we verbally ‘notice’ sounds, tastes, and bodily sensations or emotions. For example ‘I’m noticing I have a tightness in my stomach, and I’m feeling a little wary of that.’ Or ‘I’m hearing lots of sounds far away, and am feeling angry about something but I don’t know what.’

Circling step three: Curiosity

Step three, responding to what the other person is saying. With the powerful tool of eye gazing, responding to another person’s ’noticing’ stage can become transformative.

For example. ‘I’m feeling curious about that (what you just said), and I’m wondering how that is for you.’ Or ‘I’m wondering if you could expand on that, it sounds really interesting.’ Or simply, your own emotional/bodily response to that, even if you don’t understand the source.

You can see from these practices how it can be likened to non-duality or zen.

Though circling can get intense and become a journey into the unknown, it brings to the surface parts of ourselves that truly matters.

Surrendered Leadership

Circling can then move on to larger groups. Using the same practises, it can be performed in a group where we are taking our responses to each other with full responsibility – for example ‘I’m feeling really angry about that’, rather than, ‘you made me angry’.

In a larger setting, we take it in turns to have responses, or perhaps we say nothing. Two interactions can break off and become more intense, one or two people may say nothing, or the group may be equal in noticing and curiosity. The eye gazing is key to uphold, being something we continue to do to stay in the now and in our own ‘leadership.’

We then start to see moments of Surrendered Leadership, where the field of leadership is honoured. It’s difficult to describe, but being a leader becomes less about ego, and more about utilising the field, where moments rise. In the gazing/noticing/curiosity bizarre moments can happen, but where we step into our own and become leaders.

The Transformational Potential Of Circling

Reference:

Circling Europe

Image source

Circles of Healing

The 8 Pillars of Joy: A Path to Inner Peace

Life
Premium

Bhavika

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January 13, 2024

1

The 8 Pillars of Joy: A Path to Inner Peace

Each one of us has the ability to write our own story, and our heart and mind are the main characters in it. When we deepen our understanding of the requisites of these characters, we can cultivate joy even during difficult times.

When we manage to cultivate joy in tough times, it acts like a soothing balm on our wounds, they are stepping stones for moving to a higher level of awareness.

Have you noticed that there are certain people who have the power to uplift you, and you feel energised in their presence? Why is that? I have come across mentors who carry a child-like quality that keeps them calm and composed when the times are rough. If we have the power to create most suffering, we also have the power to create more joy.

There are certain qualities that are needed to allow us to experience more joy. These qualities are universal irrespective of the field they belong to, what is a common binding factor is the inner work they have done, the darkness they have overcome to be able to shine like a beacon of light.

Let’s get straight into these qualities of the mind and heart that act like pillars to experiencing true joy, from the Book of Joy by the Dalia Lama and Desmond Tutu.

There are four qualities of the mind: perspective, humility, humor, and acceptance and the remaining four are the qualities of the heart: forgiveness, gratitude, compassion, and generosity.

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The Tree of Life Exercise: A Quick Powerful Tool to Realign

Self-Development

Bhavika

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December 14, 2023

1

The Tree of Life Exercise: A Quick Powerful Tool to Realign

During my days as a teacher, a lot of emphasis was laid on doing inner work. The idea being when the teacher has done work on herself, it reflects in her work with children, as she becomes a role model, an idealistic personality striving towards becoming a better person..

Art – drawing, painting – is a therapeutic way to heal emotions and come to terms with difficult situations or to let go of the baggage that weighs us down.

There was a meaningful exercise which was carried out with the intent to better understand oneself and realign with your beliefs, values etc. and brought me closer to myself.

The Tree of Life exercise

The Tree of Life exercise is based on using the tree as a metaphor to tell stories and experiences about one’s life. I invite you to try this out to reflect on your own life, to gain confidence in your own strengths and abilities, become aware of and acknowledge your dreams, and be okay to talk about difficult experiences and vulnerabilities.

The life of a tree has many parallels to the life of a human. While most of these similarities are physical, there are existential lessons to be learned from the physical as it is how we process and experience life.

Process:

Simply put, you draw a tree that represents you and your life.

You need a piece of paper, a pen, or color pencils / crayons, and a quiet space to carry out the exercise without any disturbance or interference.

Most importantly, let go of any preconceived ideas of how a tree should be, and even if you have qualms about drawing, drop it instantly, this is not a drawing class, but an expression of your life. Dive deep into this stress free, with an open heart and an open mind!

Allow me to guide you through the process –

The Roots

The Roots represent the strong influences, which have shaped you into the person you are. The roots of the tree show your origins – your city, town, village, country, your family name, ancestors, extended family, you can also include the names of people who have taught you the most in life which has shaped you.

The Ground

The ground is the place where you live now, and the activities you are engaged in your daily life – this can include your organizations, work place, movements or any community you belong to.

The Trunk

The trunk is an opportunity for you to write your skills, strengths and abilities, all the things you are good at.

The Branches

Here you write your hopes, dreams and wishes for the direction of your life. This can be personal or general – short or long term.

The Leaves

Write down the names of those who are important to you in your life in a positive, energizing and nourishing way. People, books, music, teachers, friends, family, pets, heroes, role models, everyone who nourishes you and inspires you on your path.

The Fruits

The fruits are our bountiful gifts to the world. It is the expression of nourishment and life force energy. These are your achievements, creations, contributions, sharings and important things. It can be projects or programs you have initiated, groups or organizations you have started or helped to develop, or books or poems you have written.

Flowers and Seeds

Write down the legacy you wish to leave behind for others on the flowers and seeds.

If you chose to make thorns – that represents the obstacles on your path.

In case you struggle to fill in any part, leave it and come back to it later. Take your time to draw this tree of life – it can take you around 20 to 30 minutes.

After completing this exercise for the first time, it left me with a lot of doubts and uncertainty about myself, because when you actually sit and write down all the things, it becomes clearer. I did struggle to write down certain things, and realised that I haven’t met some of the goals I had set for myself.

However, the beauty of this exercise is that you get a deeper insight into your own life – its all in front of you. There are always positives to take back. At the same time, it also made me realise the effort and work that you do is focused on bringing us to the present. The past is done with, the highs and lows, the ebbs and flow, were part of the story, which has shaped you into the person you are today, and the present moment is all you got to make your life worthwhile.

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Tree of life

Fractal Enlightenment