Vinstant

How does the observer come into being?

So how does the observer come into being? When you look at this flower, at the moment you observe it closely, there is no observer, there is only a looking. Then you  begin to name that flower. Then you say, “I wish I had it in my garden or in my house.” Then you have already begun to build an image about that flower. So the image-maker is the observer. Right? Are you following all this? Watch it in yourself, please. So the image and the image-maker are the observer, and the observer is the past. The “me” as the observer is the past, the “me” is the knowledge which I have accumulated: knowledge of pain, sorrow, suffering, agony, despair, loneliness, jealousy, and the tremendous anxiety that one goes through. That’s all the “me”, which is the accumulated knowledge of the observer, which is the past. Right? So when you observe, the observer looks at that flower with the eyes of the past. And you don’t know how to look without the observer and, therefore, you bring about conflict.

J. Krishnamurti/Mind in Meditation, pp 8-9

The thinker must come upon himself through his many aspects

The “I”, the thinker, the observer, watches his opposing and conflicting thoughts-feelings as though he were  not part of them, as though he were above and beyond them, controlling, guiding, shaping. But is not the “I”, the thinker, also these conflicts? Has he not created them? Whatever the level, is the thinker separate from his thoughts? The thinker is the creator of opposing urges, assuming different roles at different times according to his pleasure and pain. To comprehend himself the thinker must come upon himself through his many aspects. 

                             

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol IV, p 45

The “me” and the other “me”

What do you mean when you use the term “myself”? As you are many and ever changing, is there an enduring moment when you can say that this is the ever “me”? It is the multiple entity, the bundle of memories that must be understood and not seemingly the one entity that calls itself the “me”.

    We are ever-changing contradictory thoughts-feelings—love and hate, peace and passion, intelligence and ignorance. Now, which is the “me” in all of this? Shall I choose what is most pleasing and discard the rest? Who is it that must understand these contradictory and conflicting selves? Is there a permanent self, a spiritual entity apart from these? Is not that self also the continuing result of the conflict of many entities? Is there a self that is above and beyond all contradictory selves? The truth of it can be experienced only when the contradictory selves are understood and transcended.

     All the conflicting entities which make up the “me” have also brought into being the other “me”, the observer, the analyser. To understand myself I must understand the many parts of myself including the “I” who has become the watcher, the “I” who understands. The thinker must not only understand his many contradictory thoughts, but he must understand himself as the creator of these many entities.

                             

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol IV, p 45

The dualistic process

Apart from obvious duality as man and woman, black and white, there is an inward psychological duality as the observer and the observed, the one who experiences and the thing experienced. In this division, in which time and space are involved, is the whole process of conflict; you can observe it in yourself. You are violent, that is a fact and you also have the ideological concept of non-violence, so there is duality. Now the observer says “I must become non-violent” and the attempt to become non-violent is conflict, which is a waste of energy; whereas if the observer is totally aware of that violence—without the ideological concept of non-violence—then he is able to deal with it immediately.

     One must observe this dualistic process at work within oneself—this division of the “I” and the “not-I”, the observer and the observed.

J. Krishnamurti/Talks with American Students, p 111

The thinker and the thought

When you observe yourself very clearly, when you are aware choicelessly of every thought, of every feeling, then you will come upon something—which is that there is a thinker and there is the thought; that there is an experiencer, an observer, and there is the experience, the observed. This is a fact, is it not?—there is a censor, an entity which judges, evaluates, which thinks, which observes; and there is the thing which is observed...

      So there is a thinker, there is the thought. There is a division between the thinker and the thought—the thinker trying to dominate the thought, trying to change the thought, trying to modify the thought, trying to control it, trying to force it, trying to imitate and so on. This division between the thinker and the thought creates conflict because the thinker is always the censor, the entity that judges, that evaluates. That entity is a conditioned entity because it has arisen as a reaction to thought, which is itself merely the reaction of conditioning, of memory. You understand, sirs? This is a very simple thing to find out for yourself. 

J Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol XIII, p 90

What is thinking?

All our activities, all the products of  our imagination, all the things written down in the Upanishads—or  whatever the religious book—are put together by thought. Architecture, the technology in the world, all the places of worship, whether they be the temple, the mosque or the church, and the things that are contained therein, are the result of thought. All the rituals are invented by thought: the puja, the worship—everything is based on thought. All our relationships, all our political and economic structures are based on thought. Our national divisions are the result of thought.

    You see, we have always inquired about external things, but have never asked ourselves: What is thinking? What is the root and consequence of thinking? 

J. Krishnamurti/A Timeless Spring, p 161

The state of attention

One begins to discover that in the state of attention, complete attention, there is not the observer, with its old conditioning as the conscious as well as the unconscious. In that state of attention, the mind becomes extraordinarily quiet. The brain cells, though they may react, no longer function psychologically, within a pattern; they become extraordinarily quiet psychologically.

J. Krishnmurti/Talks in Europe, 1967

Exposing the contents of the unconscious

Why do we give such deep significance and meaning to the unconscious?—for after all, it is as trivial as the conscious. If the conscious mind is extraordinarily active, watching, listening, seeing, then the conscious mind becomes far more important than the unconscious; in that state all the contents of the unconscious are exposed; the division between the various layers comes to an end. Watching your reactions when you sit in a bus, when you are talking to your wife, your husband, when in your office, writing, being alone—if you are ever alone—then this whole process of observation, this act of seeing (in which there is no division as the observer and the observed) ends the contradiction.

J. Krishnamurti/The Flight of the Eagle, p 28

This faculty will gather momentum

The more you are aware during the waking hours, the less dreams there are. Dreams are indications of thoughts-feelings, actions not completed, not understood, that need fresh interpretation, or frustrated thought-hope that needs to be fully comprehended. Some dreams are of no importance. Those that have significance have to be interpreted, and that interpretation depends on your capacity of non-identification, of keen  intelligence. If you are deeply aware, interpretation is not necessary, but you are too lazy and so, if you can afford it, you go to a dream specialist; he interprets your dreams according to his understanding. You gradually become dependent upon him; he becomes the new priest, and so you have another problem added to you. But if you are aware even for a brief period, you will see that short, sharp awareness, however fleeting it be, begins to awaken a new feeling, which is not the result of craving but a faculty which is free from all personal limitations and tendencies. This faculty, this feeling, will gather momentum as you become more deeply and widely aware so that you are aware even in spite of your attention being given to other matters. Though you are occupied with necessary duties and give your attention to daily existence, inward awareness continues; it is as a sensitive photographic plate on which every impression, every thought-feeling is being imprinted to be studied, assimilated, and understood. This faculty, this new feeling, is of the utmost importance for it will reveal that which is eternal.

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Work vol III, pp 219- 220

The sleeping hours an intensification of the waking hours

The more you are conscious of your thoughts-emotions, the more you are aware of your whole being. Then the sleeping hours become an intensification of the waking hours. Consciousness functions even in so-called sleep, of which we are well aware. You think over a problem pretty thoroughly and yet you cannot solve it; you sleep over it, which phrase we often use. In the morning we find its issues are clearer, and we seem to know what to do; or we perceive a new aspect of it which helps to clear up the problem. How does this happen? We can attribute a lot of mystery and nonsense to it, but what does take place? In that so-called sleep the conscious mind, that thin layer is quiet, perhaps receptive; it has worried over the problem and now, being weary, is still, the tension removed. Then the promptings of the deeper layers of consciousness are discernible and when you wake up, the problem seemsto have become clearer and easier to solve. 

       So the more you are aware of your thoughts-feelings during the day, not for a few seconds or during a set period, the mind becomes quieter, alertly passive, and so capable of responding and comprehending the deeper  intimations. But it is difficult to be so aware; the conscious mind is not used to such intensity. The more aware the conscious mind is, the more the inner mind co-operates with it, and so there is deeper and wider understanding.

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Work vol III, p 219