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Jiddu Krishnamurti on Contemplation and meditation
Question: Could you define what is contemplation and what is
meditation?
Jiddu Krishnamurti : The definitions are in the dictionary, but we are not
concerned with definition or explanation. We a concerned with the
understanding of what actually is. So, what is meditation, and what is
contemplation? If you have listened this whole hour attentively, that is
meditation. And that is also contemplation. But if you have listened and
merely heard words, and gathered a few ideas to carry home t think
about, then you have not meditated. You are mere carrying home empty
ashes without any meaning.
Meditation not according to various groups
that exist throughout the world, but actual meditation is a state of
mind which look; regards, observes everything with complete attention;
total not just parts of it. Attention is not fragmentary, it is a total
thing. And no one can teach you how to be attentive. If an system
teaches you how to be attentive, then you are being attentive about that
system and that is not attention; nor attention concentration.
Concentration is exclusion. You can concentrate - it is an effort:
excluding, building a wall around yourself. But attention has no wall,
and such is meditation. That is what meditation is, when the mind is
completely silent
Questioner: (interrupting)
Jiddu Krishnamurti : Madam, I haven't finished. Wait a minute Sir! Because
meditation is one of the greatest arts of life - perhaps the greatest
arts. Because in the understanding of meditation there is love, and love
is not the product of systems, of habits, of following a method. Love
cannot be cultivated by thought. Love can perhaps come in to being when
there is complete silence. And the mind can only be silent when it
understands the nature of its own movement, as thought and feeling. And
to understanding that, there can be no condemnation in observing thought
and feeling. To so observe is discipline. Hence that kind of discipline
is fluid, free, not the discipline of conformity.
So meditation can take
place when you are sitting in a 'bus, or walking in the woods full of
light and shadows, of listening to the singing birds, or looking at the
face of your wife or husband'. Meditation is not something apart; it is
the understanding of the totality of life in which every form of
fragmentation of life has ceased. And also there is contemplation, to
contemplate life, not from a centre, not from your particular
idiosyncrasy, tendency, or inclination, but to contemplate the whole
movement of life: the misery, the conflict, the confusion, the sorrow,
the endless travail of man - to watch that as a total movement. You
cannot watch it if there is any form condemnation. Such contemplation is
meditation. And you cannot contemplate or meditate if there is no
silence.
Yes Sir?
Questioner: It is not possible totally to observe
one's own irrational thoughts..?
Jiddu Krishnamurti: When you say it is not possible you have answered
the question.
Questioner: Could it be possible?
Jiddu Krishnamurti: No Madame. When you say it is not possible you have
already blocked yourself. It is like a man saying It is possible. He has
also blocked himself, prevented himself from observing. Surely one can
observe one's thoughts. Have you ever observed your own anger? Not after
it is over, but actually in the state of anger. Have you observed it? -
in the state of annoyance, in the state of violence. That means, to
observe that, you must be extraordinarily attentive. But most of us are
inattentive, because that is the easiest way t live, and the dullest way
to live, to be inattentive. And that has become a habit. Then we ask,
how am I to break out of that habit. By observing the whole machinery of
habit, because all of us live in habits. The mind lives in habit,
because it is the easiest way. just to be aware of it - not to condemn
it, not to say, it is right or wrong, but just to watch it! and you can
watch it only when you care and you have affection. Love is not habit.
Questioner: If you have to be quiet, how can..?
Jiddu Krishnamurti: You don't have to be quiet, Madame.
Questioner: If you are quiet, you have no thoughts. Ho
can you then with that same mind watch your thoughts..
Jiddu Krishnamurti: Have you ever observed out of silence Please, just
listen. Have you ever observed anything out (silence? Please don't
answer me, I'm just asking you. You have listened for an hour to the
speaker. Have you listen out of silence, or with the noise of opinion,
judgement, evaluation, accepting or denying? Have you listened out of
silence. Then if you have listened out of silence you have understand
the totality of life. If you have not, then you will always be asking,
how am I to do this, or to do that. just watch please.
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