Though my ‘journey’ – if that is what I can call it, seems to be purely unique to me, there are many experiences that I have shared with others I have read about. It is astonishing to experience something of the mind, to relate it to others I know in this life, and have nobody be able to echo my experience.
Then, when reading about Jiddu Krishnamurti, UG Krishnamurti, Buddha, Bhante Henepola Gunaratana, Bhante Vimalaramsi, and others – to see some of my experiences match some of theirs. It is reassuring and gives me hope that I am not completely out of my mind. Flying blind – without a teacher, it is comforting – to be able to relate to the experiences of someone else, even complete strangers.
Things that U G Krishnamurti has said in the past (he passed in 2007) have been particularly amazing to me because they make perfect sense to me, and little sense to most other people. When I read things he says, it is like he makes the most perfect sense, but I think only to myself and others that are in a similar state of mind.
Some of my favorite UG Krishnamurti sayings, and what he seems to be saying (my own ideas).
“Truth is a pathless land.”
This is one I have never understood. Is he saying that the only way to arrive at a vibrant mind free of the past is for it to come on its own? Certainly, his didn’t develop this way. He constantly questioned things and eventually, his mind changed. That’s hardly pathless. Maybe someone else can help me with this one? Comments are open below.
“The moment you ask a question, you have already answered it.”
Here, UG is saying that if you ask a question, you already have the answer you’ll accept, at least partially, in your head. If you hear the wrong answer, you won’t consider the question answered. We are not blank slates when we ask questions, we are already pre-programmed with the answer. This is how most of us ask questions.
“The problem is you are trying to be somebody.”
He was followed by many people trying to be like him. He doesn’t believe any answer lies there. He also followed people when he was younger. Jiddu Krishnamurti for many years. Then he realized, he didn’t have anything that he himself didn’t have. He decided no guru was worth following.
“Thought is the enemy of understanding.”
The truth comes into your mind and goes through a filter, and is thought about. This distorts it. It puts it into your own private logic and you create your own idea about it. This is “understanding” to you, but to UG Krishnamurti, this was distorting the truth and not allowing true understanding.
“The only way to live is to be completely awake.”
Not sure.
“The world is not something to be changed, but to be understood.”
A mind change is needed to understand the true reality. The world is as it is. We are as we are. Only through a change in the mind, perception, he’d say “a destruction of the body” can truth be understood.
“You are the only obstacle to your own happiness.”
We are part of the problem. He thinks the entire problem. Once the mind is able to see the truth of life and reality from a different perspective not clouded by the filter of your experiences, only then can you have happiness.
“The past is no longer, and the future is not yet. There is only the present moment.”
I think obvious.
“Freedom is not something you have to achieve. It is something you have to let go of.”
The idea of being free from something, wanting to be free, yearning for it, is the problem. When you accept things as they are, there is no limitation to your freedom. When your mind is free from that thinking, then you can be free.
“The only thing that is real is the present moment.”
Pretty obvious.