Krishnamurti - The Meditative Mind

The Meditative Mind

Copyright 1989 Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd. and Krishnamurti Foundation of America

The Meditative Mind

A Selection of Passages from the Teachings

of J. Krishnamurti

Contents

Foreword

The passages in this volume have been directly copied from books by Krishnamurti. These books include public talks, questions and answers, conversations and writings.

Krishnamurti always spoke from such a large perspective that his whole vision was implied in any extended passage. But if one wishes to see how a statement flows out of his whole discourse, one can find the context by referring to the book indicated. So doing may be invaluable for deeper comprehension of the passages.

Talking things over together as two friends...

In a few days we are going to have discussions, and we can start those discussions this morning. But if you assert and I assert, if you stick to your opinion, to your dogma, to your experience, to your knowledge, and I stick to mine, then there can be no real discussion because neither of us is free to inquire. To discuss is not to share our experiences with each other. There is no sharing at all; there is only the beauty of truth, which neither you nor I can possess. It is simply there.

To discuss intelligently, there must also be a quality not only of affection but of hesitation. You know, unless you hesitate, you cant inquire. Inquiry means hesitating, finding out for yourself, discovering step by step; and when you do that, then you need not follow anybody, you need not ask for correction or for confirmation of your discovery. But all this demands a great deal of intelligence and sensitivity.

By saying that, I hope I have not stopped you from asking questions! You know, this is like talking things over together as two friends. We are neither asserting nor seeking to dominate each other, but each is talking easily, affably, in an atmosphere of friendly companionship, trying to discover. And in that state of mind we do discover, but I assure you, what we discover has very little importance. The important thing is to discover, and after discovering, to keep going. It is detrimental to stay with what you have discovered, for then your mind is closed, finished. But if you die to what you have discovered the moment you have discovered it, then you can flow like the stream, like a river that has an abundance of water.

Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti, Vol. XV

Saanen, Switzerland, 10th Public Talk, 1 August 1965

I. An Original Ground from Which All Things Arise

There is an origin, an original ground, from which all things arise...

It is immensely important to know and to understand the depth and beauty of meditation. Man has always been asking, from timeless time, whether there is something beyond all thought, beyond all romantic inventions, beyond all time. He has always been asking: Is there something beyond all this suffering, beyond all this chaos, beyond wars, beyond the battle between human beings? Is there something that is immovable, sacred, utterly pure, untouched by any thought, by any experience? This has been the enquiry of serious people, from the ancient of days. To find that out, to come upon it, meditation is necessary. Not the repetitive meditation, that is utterly meaningless. There is a creative energy which is truly religious when the mind is free from all conflict, from all the travail of thought. To come upon that which has no beginning, no endthat is the real depth of meditation and the beauty of it. That requires freedom from all conditioning.

There is complete security in compassionate intelligencetotal security. But we want security in ideas, in beliefs, in concepts, in ideals; we hold on to them; they are our security, however false, however irrational. Where there is compassion, with its supreme intelligence, there is security if one is seeking security. Actually where there is compassion, where there is that intelligence, there is no question of security. So there is an origin, an original ground, from which all things arise, and that original ground is not the word. The word is never the thing. And meditation is to come upon that ground which is the origin of all things and which is free from all time. This is the way of meditation. And blessed is he who finds it.

The Flame of Attention , chapter 2

New Delhi, 8 November 1981

Meditation was like that river, only it had no beginning and no ending...

It was really a marvellous riverwide, deep, with so many cities on its banks, so carelessly free and never abandoning itself. All life was there upon its banks, green fields, forests, solitary houses, death, love, and destruction; there were long, wide bridges over it, graceful and well-used. Other streams and rivers joined it, but she was the mother of all rivers, the little ones and the big ones. She was always full, ever purifying herself, and of an evening it was a blessing to watch her, with deepening colour in the clouds and her waters golden. But the little trickle so far away, amongst those gigantic rocks which seemed so concentrated in producing it, was the beginning of life, and its ending was beyond its banks and the seas.

Meditation was like that river, only it had no beginning and no ending; it began and its ending was its beginning. There was no cause and its movement was its renewal. It was always new, it never gathered to become old, it never got sullied for it had no roots in time. It is good to meditate, not forcing it, not making any effort, beginning with a trickle and going beyond time and space, where thought and feeling cannot enter, where experience is not.

Krishnamurtis Notebook

Rajghat, Benares, 18 December 1961

Meditation is a movement in and of the unknown...

Meditation is a movement in and of the unknown. You are not there, only the movement. You are too petty or too great for this movement. It has nothing behind it or in front of it. It is that energy which thought-matter cannot touch. Thought is perversion, for it is the product of yesterday; it is caught in the toils of centuries and so is confused, unclear. Do what you will, the known cannot reach out for the unknown. Meditation is the dying to the known.

KFA Bulletin , # 4, 1969, p. 9

Without meditation the heart becomes a desert...

The sun came up in a clear sky; you couldnt see it for there were many chimneys in the way, but its radiance filled the sky; and the flowers on the little terrace seemed to come to life, and their colour became more brilliant and intense. It was a beautiful morning, full of light and the sky became a marvellous blue. Meditation included that blue and those flowers; they were part of it; they wound their way through it; they were not a distraction. Theres no distraction really, for meditation is not concentration, which is exclusion, a cutting off, a resistance, and so a conflict. A meditative mind can concentrate, which then is not an exclusion, a resistance; but a concentrated mind cannot meditate. Its curious how all-important meditation becomes; theres no end to it, nor is there a beginning to it. Its like a raindrop; in that drop are all the streams, the great rivers, the seas and the waterfalls; that drop nourishes the earth and man; without it, the earth would be a desert. Without meditation the heart becomes a desert, a wasteland. Meditation has its own movement; you cant direct it, shape it, or force it; if you do, it ceases to be meditation. This movement ceases if you are merely an observer, if you are the experiencer. Meditation is the movement that destroys the observer, the experiencer; its a movement that is beyond all symbol, thought, and feeling. Its rapidity is not measurable.

Krishnamurtis Notebook