Question: In order to have peace of mind, must I not learn to control my thoughts? Krishnamurti: To understand this question properly, we must go into it deeply, and that requires close attention. I hope you are not too tired to follow it. My mind wanders. Why? I want to think about a picture, a phrase, an idea, an image, and in thinking about it, I see that my mind has gone off to the railway or to something that happened yesterday. The first thought has gone, and another has taken its place. Therefore I examine every thought that arises. That is intelligent, isnt it? But you make an effort to fix your thought on something. Why should you fix it? If you are interested in the thought that comes, then it gives you its significance. The wandering is not distraction - do not give it a name. Follow the wandering, the distraction; find out why the mind has wandered; pursue it, go into it fully. When the distraction is completely understood, then that particular distraction is gone. When another comes, pursue it also. Mind is made up of innumerable demands and longings, and when it understands them, it is capable of an awareness which is not exclusive. Concentration is exclusiveness; it is resistance against something. Such concentration is like putting on blinkers - it is obviously useless, it does not lead to reality. When a child is interested in a toy, there is no distraction. Comment from the audience: But that is momentary. Krishnamurti: What do you mean? Do you want a sustained wall to hold you in? Are you a human being or a machine, to be limited, circumscribed? All concentration is exclusive. In that concentrated exclusion, nothing can penetrate your desire to be something. So concentration, which so many practice, is the denial of real meditation. Meditation is the beginning of self-knowledge, and without self-knowledge, you cannot meditate. Without self-knowledge, your meditation is valueless; it is merely a romantic escape. So, concentration, which is a process of exclusion, of resistance, cannot open the door to that state of mind in which there is no resistance. If you resist your child, you do not understand him. You must be open to all his vagaries, every one of his moods. Likewise, to understand yourself, you must be alive to every movement of the mind, every thought that arises. Every thought that comes implies some interest - do not call it distraction and condemn it; pursue it completely, fully. You want to concentrate on what is being said, and your mind wanders off to what a friend said last evening. This conflict you call distraction. So you say, Help me to learn concentration, to fix my mind on one thing. But if you understand what causes distraction, then there is no necessity to try to concentrate - whatever you do is concentration. So the problem is not the wandering away but why the mind wanders. When the mind is wandering away from what is being said, then you are not interested in what is being said. If you are interested, you are not distracted. You think you ought to be interested in a picture, an idea, a lecture, but your interest is not in it, so the mind goes off all over the place. Why should you not acknowledge that you are not interested and let the mind wander? When you are not interested, it is a waste of effort to fix the mind, which merely creates a conflict between what you think you should be and the actual. It is like a motor car moving with the brakes applied. Such concentration is futile. It is exclusion, a pushing away. Why not acknowledge the distraction first? That is a fact. When the mind becomes quiet, when all the problems are resolved, it is like a pool with still waters in which you can see clearly. It is not quiet when it is caught up in the net of problems, for then you resort to suppression. When the mind follows and understands every thought, there is no distraction, and then it is quiet. Only in freedom can the mind be silent. When the mind is silent, not only the upper part, but fully, when it is free from all values, from the pursuit of its own projections, then there is no distraction - and only then reality comes into being.
Posted on: Fri, 26 Dec 2014 10:16:49 +0000