r/Krishnamurti

Science, self, and if one person's inquiry can actually change the world

Science, self, and if one person's inquiry can actually change the world

I recently listened to the "Ojai 1982- Discussion with Scientists" videos between JK and scientists David Bohm, Rupert Sheldrake, and John Hidley. As someone who has high regards for the scientific method, I feel these conversations broke a great fundamental assumption I didn't even realize I was holding... that merely knowing scientific facts translates to a better or freer life. I am beginning to see this alone as insufficient.

For example, in one of the videos Dr. Sheldrake describes conflict in nature, such as plants competing for light or predators hunting prey and they discuss whether this form of "disorder" also causes human psychological suffering. JK beautifully questions whether these natural phenomena are truly "disorder" that leads to psychological suffering or simply the way nature functions.

I'm starting to think that questioning something empirically observable in the outside world like JK does, if it's necessarily something one must be bound by, doesn't come by science alone. Maybe it is something that comes from a real thirst to end the conflict in our minds. Without that thirst why would we even try to go into the images we hold of ourselves?

In the present day world when we already know so much about the world through science, and are still suffering with so many social problems, animal exploitation, and most importantly climate change, I find this question very important. If we go into the reality of our experiences, would it lead us out of all this? Would one person's inquiry also somehow help others? In this video with Acharya Prashant, Dr. Sheldrake brings up his previous conversation with JK in which he says JK believed that if one human being became enlightened, it would lead to the enlightenment of humanity.

But it makes me wonder if "total" freedom from our illusions (seems like some sort of final destination) even possible? Or is it an ongoing, moment-to-moment thing? And if the ego fundamentally lives in illusions and chooses whether or not it wants to inquire, can individual transformation ever truly be predicted to affect the collective, or does it remain entirely an individual responsibility and their love for freedom?

u/Brilliant_Hair_7272 — 7 days ago

To end the ‘ stand point ‘.

Thought creates the thinker. The energy required, the physical ‘ resources ‘ as the sensation which is this, what is, “ mental self masterbation as an idea of who I am “ necessarily is the conflict we are. The maintaining of the ID is always a struggle and always taxing to the body. So thought seeking a way to end this turmoil comes upon K ( those that at least have the ability to go beyond belief ). K talks about this structure which is what we merely are consciously while we are consciously merely that ( consciousness is its content ). K talks about an ending. We read,  we see to an extent which is the intellectual logic of what he is saying and so the thinker seeks to end but ! thought as the thinker IS thought continuing as it’s supposed end.

K said this about a thousand times in his lectures he gave over the period of about sixty years and there were people who followed him around for sixty years still treating his teachings from some standpoint. There are people here in this subreddit treating K discussions as if they are this mere discussion from that individuals standpoint of view. What is the standpoint ?  It is the self trying to work out the self from the standpoint of the self and which has nothing to do with the cold hard fact of actually seeing the nature of the ‘ standpoint’ nor the structure of the standpoint and is it all merely the standpoint ( thinker thought has created ) looking after and continuing as  it’s own safe space ? 

It’s the whole action that’s the problem ( but don’t look at it ( thought ) as it is a problem… that needs a looker ). What can one do. K has mentioned again a thousand times nothing which is not nothing from some ‘ standpoint ‘ of some idea of nothing. It’s to see the whole movement, all that energy, all that learning we have acquired individually and via this collective stream of consciousness is itself, it’s to see the thinking animal thing human consciousness is as the separate thinker IS it’s own continuation. It’s to see this little bubble of comfort which the centre is, this feeling of who we are ( until some sh1t hits the fan and then it’s a case of the bubble needing to readdress it’s self as some new learnt  action ) as the action of thought it actually is. Our standpoint, our living feeling of who are are is just this action of thought even continuing as its attempts to end itself as per some conversation you have accepted as right from a Krishnamurti book video. It’s the whole action that’s the ‘ problem’ including the ‘ standpoint ‘ ( centre ) of the action. 

Now let’s consider this from a standpoint of yet another post by this deranged annoying ars3hole agitated\_mind ( I don’t mind if you do ) and if choose to read this rambling mess then to consider from some standpoint of what he is on about. 

“ Now, is the thinker different from his thoughts? Does the thinker exist without thoughts? Is there a thinker apart from thought? Stop thinking, and where is the thinker? Is the thinker of one thought different from the thinker of another thought? Is the thinker separate from his thought, or does thought create the thinker who then identifies himself with thought when he finds it convenient and separates himself when it is not convenient?That is, what is the ‘I’, the thinker? Obviously, the thinker is composed of various thoughts which have become identified as the ‘me’. So the thoughts produce the thinker, not the other way round. If I have no thoughts then there is no thinker.“   
JK

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u/agitatated_mind- — 7 days ago

How did he manage to survive his brother's death?

https://preview.redd.it/j0dfontu0auh1.png?width=432&format=png&auto=webp&s=f29278982eb101c869ff822baacb30f5a31c75b2

How can one survive in a period of Total Psychological Insecurity? It drives most of us to insanity. It drives most of us to end our physical selves to escape the pain. We can infer that His brother was the anchor of his self/life up until that point. Without anchors one falls into a deep dark abyss, lonely by one self.

How long will you hide your deepest fears? Isnt it long enough time that we encounter them for what they are instead of going by our lives living a life divided into intellectual/spiritual and practical/real.

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u/Enceladusx17 — 7 days ago

Why do you want a friend?

Powerful phrasing that gets to the core of the issue. Our need to seek comfort in something external has been conditioned from childhood. Hence, this becomes an intrinsic part of how we think and operate. As K states, Real power and freedom can only come when we stare and observe ourselves without the aid or support of anyone else. This is a battle for each one of us to be managed alone. Maybe it is a new muscle that gets developed over time. There is a phrase that I recollect from one of K's poems "Suffering is an ointment". K essentially says that until we suffer, we can't grow and learn and truly understand what freedom means. To suffer is a requirement. A necessity. K himself transformed significantly when he was informed of his dear brother's death while he was a on a ship traveling to India. He suffered, wept but out of that intense suffering came a realization. Out of that intense loneliness came freedom. That is the core of this message.

u/Working-Broccoli-101 — 8 days ago

Are bliss, love, and seeing beauty in ourselves and others just temporary states?

Sometimes I go through moments where I feel unusually peaceful, loving, open, and appreciative of myself, other people, and life in general.

In those moments, I can see beauty very deeply — not just in other people, but in myself too. There’s much less judgment, comparison, resistance, or inner conflict, and everything feels lighter.

But then it passes.

Later there can again be fear, attachment, insecurity, comparison, self-judgment, irritation, etc.

So I’ve been wondering whether even things like bliss, love, compassion, self-acceptance, or seeing beauty in yourself and others should really be treated as some final or “higher” state that you’re supposed to hold on to.

Are there actually people who feel like that almost all the time — consistently peaceful, loving, self-accepting, with high self-esteem and very little inner conflict? Or do these states naturally come and go even for people who seem very psychologically stable or deeply self-aware?

Because the moment I think:

>“This state is better. I want to stay like this.”

it feels like I’ve already created another form of attachment or psychological becoming.

Maybe the important thing isn’t whether the present moment contains bliss, sadness, fear, attraction, love, self-love, or conflict.

Maybe it’s simply about seeing clearly whatever is actually there, without trying to hold on to one state and get rid of another.

In that sense, maybe awareness or presence is more fundamental than any particular feeling.

So is the point not to become permanently blissful, peaceful, loving, self-accepting, or compassionate, but simply to be fully present with whatever is happening — not as another state to achieve, maintain, or become, but simply as being?

And if a beautiful state passes, is there actually anything lost? Or does the problem only begin when we want that state to stay permanently?

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u/Deep_Degree_6742 — 7 days ago
▲ 41 r/Krishnamurti+3 crossposts

Happiness comes when you are not seeking it

When we actively seek, we will always not get it. It's that simple. The seeker will be, by design, disappointed. Why so? Because the seeker is only creating projections of thoughts and the same mind that projected is grading if you got it or not. And once you achieve, a new desire will take birth. That is the design of the mind. To keep changing goal posts. Hence, true freedom arises when there are no goal posts. When there is nothing to seek. It is at that point when the observer becomes the observed. The seeker is the sought. A state of pure awareness. Non judgmental. It is when the beginning is also the ending. It is a state when the mind is not conditioned. It is a state of choiceless awareness.

u/Working-Broccoli-101 — 9 days ago
▲ 30 r/Krishnamurti+1 crossposts

Freedom is to look without Thought

When one understands there are 2 type of time, chronological and psychological, it is true intelligence. Chronological is a pure fact. It is our clock time. It helps society run smoothly. It is aligned to the circadian cycle. Facts are easy to accept and are non-controversial. The bigger and perhaps the only problem child is "psycyhological time". There is no such thing as psychological time. The more strongly one believes in it, the more conditioned that person is. "If I sit for 1 hour daily to meditate, I will get something peaceful in return after 10 years" is an example of psychological time. Psychological time assigns a chronological time value to attaining freedom or truth. By design, it does not exist and hence is bound to create more inner conflict. Truth is pathless because there is no psychological time. Truth is pathless because truth is the result of an uncontioned mind.

u/Working-Broccoli-101 — 13 days ago
▲ 24 r/Krishnamurti+1 crossposts

We fear the known coming to an end

This is such a powerful note from K. The ending of the "I" as we know it is the biggest fear. So many years and so much effort has gone into crafting and erecting this definition of the "I". So many material acquisitions that have added more definition to solidify its meaning. So many relationships with people and things have made the "I" more and more relevant. The fear is losing so many decades and decades worth of effort in one inevitable biological process. That fear is so deep. The higher the fear, the higher the attachment to the "I". Can this death to the "I" happen before the biological process takes over it? That is the real freedom.

u/Working-Broccoli-101 — 12 days ago