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Jiddu Krishnamurti on Awareness and
Introspection
Questioner: What is the difference between awareness
and introspection, and who is aware in awareness?
Jiddu Krishnamurti : The examination of oneself in order to modify or
change is generally called introspection. To look within with an
intention to change the responses of the self is what most people
indulge in. In this process, there is always the observer and the
observed, the observer having an end in view. In this process is
involved not the understanding of what is, but only the transformation
of what is. When that end, that transformation is not achieved, there is
depression, there is frustration, that peculiar moodiness that goes with
introspection. In this there is always the accumulating process of the
'me', the dualistic conflict from which there is no release. In this
introspective action, there is a battle of the opposites in which there
is always choice and the endless strife that it breeds.
Awareness is entirely different. Awareness is observation without
choice, condemnation, or justification. Awareness is silent observation
from which there arises understanding without the experiencer and the
experienced. In this awareness, which is passive, the problem or the
cause is given an opportunity to unfold itself and so give its full
significance. In awareness there is no end in view to be gained, and
there is no becoming, the 'me' and the 'mine' not being given the
continuity.
In introspection there is self-improvement which causes
self-centeredness. In the process of awareness there is no
self-improvement; on the contrary, it is the ending of the self, the
'me' and the 'mine' with its idiosyncrasies, memories, demands, and
pursuits. Self-introspection implies identification and condemnation,
choice and justification. In awareness there are none of these things.
Awareness is direct relationship without the intermediary of persuasion,
like, or dislike. Awareness is being sensitive to nature, to things, to
relationship of people and of ideas. It is an observation of every
feeling, thought, and action as they arise from moment to moment.
Awareness is not condemnatory; there is no accumulation of memory as the
'me'. Awareness is the understanding of the actions of the self, that of
the 'me' and the 'mine' in its relationship to things, people, and
ideas. This awareness is from moment to moment and so it cannot be
practiced; so awareness is not the cultivation of habit. A mind that is
caught in the net of habits is insensitive. A mind that is functioning
within a pattern of action is not pliable. Awareness demands constant
alertness and pliability.
Introspection leads to frustration, to conflict, and misery. Awareness
is a process of release from the activities of the self. To be aware of
your daily actions, your movements of thought and feeling, to be aware
of another, there must be that sensitive pliability which can only come
with inquiry and interest. To know oneself fully - not just one or two
layers of oneself - there must be that alert, expansive awareness and
freedom so that the hidden intentions and pursuits are revealed.
Who is aware in awareness? In the state of experiencing, there is
neither the experiencer nor the experience. It is only when the state of
experiencing has gone, there emerges the experiencer and the experience,
which is the division in memory itself. Since most of us live in memory
with its responses, we invariably ask who is the observer and who is it
that is aware. Surely, this is a wrong question, is it not? At the
moment of experiencing, there is neither the 'me' which is aware nor the
object of which he is aware. Most of us find it extremely difficult to
live in a state of experiencing as it demands easy pliability, swift
movement of thought and feeling, a high degree of sensitivity. All this
is denied when we are pursuing a result, when achievement becomes far
more important than understanding. Only a man who is not seeking an end,
who is free from that bargaining spirit, who is not becoming - such a
man is in a state of constant experiencing. You can experiment with this
yourself and observe that, in experiencing, the experiencer and the
experience do not exist.
The improvement of the self-expansion process can never bring truth.
This self-expansion is ever self-enclosing. Awareness is the
understanding of what is - the what is of your daily existence. It is
only when you understand the truth of your daily existence that you can
go far. But to go far, you must begin near. Without understanding the
near, we look to the dim, distant future, which only brings confusion
and misery.
Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Tenth Talk in Bombay 1948
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