Chapter 4: The Teachings: The Pathless Path
J. Krishnamurti asks question about basic societal setup. He points out that we are too conditioned and live by the rules defined in the past, instead of living consciously in present.
Conditioning
People live their lives by a set of rules. These ideals are the ideas that a person’s religion, belief, faith, nationalism, ideology, philosophy, way of life, etc. has given them. Because the rules are based on past events, people are forced to live in the past. Why should we live in the past, in an old world? We are too “conditioned” and shaped by society, which means we don’t get to experience anything new. Instead, we only get to do things that have been proven to work in the past, usually by someone else.
Fear
The “conditioning” tries to make our lives run more smoothly. It sets up a path that is based on a certain idea, which then leads to violence, hatred, greed, etc. People who don’t believe in that philosophy are met with violence and hate. All of these feelings come up because of the worry that uncertainty brings into our lives, which upsets the state that we have come to know and expect.
Fear is the change from (conditioned) confidence to not knowing what will happen next.
Freedom from Fear
How can we avoid living in fear?
Freedom from fear means freedom from the certainty, i.e. freedom from the known. Krishnamurti suggests that the world should be seen as one whole and not in parts or in fragments. Our response to anything should be free from the time dimension. Time makes us think, and our thoughts are never new because they come from what we’ve learned in the past.
J Krishnamurti does not directly prescribe a solution because then it will be another defined path, a new belief system. He talks about how important it is to learn about oneself and to feel everything fully and consciously, which means with full attention. To do this, you have to take away the conflict from everything. When one is looking for pleasure, pain comes along as complementary because one cannot exist without the other. People look for pleasure because of the thoughts and desires accumulated in the past.
As soon as we stop putting our events into categories of “likes” and “dislikes” in our minds and pay full attention to them, they will become joyful instead of pleasurable. A mind that is empty and focused will not use the thoughts it already has to experience the moment without wanting to own it. Krishnamurti says that once the “I” comes out of an exchange or experience, the observer and the observed are not two different things but just one. He calls this “seeing things as they are,” and seeing is something you do.
Love
Love is not the same as belonging. For example, a person loves his wife as long as she does what he says and lives with him. If she leaves him for someone else, he feels anger, hate, pain, and anxiety. This is more about belonging than love. Love is seeing things as they are. It is neither based on nor tied to conditions. This is the state we should all try to reach.
Love is about the present, not the past or the future. You never say, “I will love you” or “I have loved you.” Love doesn’t listen. When someone loves, there is no respect or lack of respect. Can we love without hate, jealousy, anger, getting in the way, comparing, feeling responsible, or feeling like we have to? Can it be called love when we do what we need to do to make sure our kids have the best? With our duty, we try to shape them according to how our minds have been shaped and what we think is best for them and how they can fit into a shaped society. Is this love?
When we lose someone, we shed tears for ourselves because we will miss that person. We can’t call this love. Love and sadness don’t go together. Religions have done this for hundreds of years by putting Jesus on the cross and praising his pain. It is not just about Christianity, every faith and religion has tried to shape us by telling how to think about love in its own way.
So what is love?
Krishnamurti says that one should not try and learn this from anyone else because that will be another conditioning. To understand love, you have to get rid of things like jealousy, anger, ego, greed, etc. It is also conditioning to rebel against an idea, an ideology, an establishment. So, these can’t be washed away by a rebellion or a force; they have to be washed away the way rainwater cleans a dusty leaf, which is to say, easily. Love should help get rid of these. This is the experience every human should strive for.
It is necessary to have passion to achieve this state, but a passion that is without any motive. A flower blooms and shares the fragrance to everyone. It does not need an observer for it to be observed. It spreads the fragrance irrespective of thinking about who it will benefit. The passion of doing something without any thought and purpose, and by not seeking it is the way to come upon love.
Love has to be new, fresh and alive, everyday without any boundaries of time. Where there is no conflict in the duality, that is when love is experienced. If one doesn’t know what love is then another way to experience is to stop seeking, pursuing and looking for it. This is when the mind stops thinking and goes quiet. When love is felt, silence is the state.
Meditation
If the human mind can receive things as they are, and in full attention and consciousness, it is in the state of meditation. Reading a book with full attention is also meditation. Krishnamurti says, meditation is not about reciting a word, e.g. Om, and getting transcendental experience by getting rid of all the thoughts. It will work and give you a kick as mind falls silent when the same word is recited whether it is Om or Coca-cola. Mantra yoga has been known for centuries in India, but that is not the true form of meditation. It is not about watching the movement of your big toe either. Meditation is not about following a system of repetition and imitation, it is also not about concentration.
Meditation is about independently seeing the thoughts passing by without getting involved. It is a state when the thoughts are observed without any duality, e.g. good vs. bad, like vs. dislike, etc, and being aware of where it has originated from and its nature. It is about knowing that all thoughts are old and of the past.
J Krishnamurti further says that no one can teach us meditation, as it will again be another type of conditioning. Meditation is all about knowing your “true” self. When you clearly see and become aware of your own hatred, jealousy, greed, likes, dislikes, fractional behaviour, belongingness, etc, it becomes part of meditation. He asks to build a discipline that is fluid, free and not conformed to anything, as meditation can be understood only via love, and love is not a product of any habit, systems or a method. With love, the mind and thoughts fall silent, which is required for meditation.
It is interesting to note that Krishnamurti in his early life defined a path to truth that he found from his master, and later renounced the position of World Teacher and called out that finding truth is about walking on a pathless path.
Please go to Page 4 for concluding remarks and to know what Osho (Bhagwan Rajanish) said about the entire event and incident.
Bhavin Shukla 
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