I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief. A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed, a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak, for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous precipices.
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You cannot depend upon anybody. There is no guide, no teacher, no authority. There is only you—your relationship with others and with the world—there is nothing else. When you realize this, it either brings great despair, from which comes cynicism and bitterness, or, in facing the fact that you and nobody else is responsible for the world and for yourself, for what you think, what you feel, how you act, all self-pity goes. Normally we thrive on blaming others, which is a form of self-pity.
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Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not a choice. It is man's pretence that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive; freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence. In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity.
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Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something—and it is only such love that can know freedom.
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You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life…
6 comments:
Sorry this one is so long, but I just couldn't bear to condense it!
no worries. it's all good stuff.
i really like that last bit about experiencing all of life.
so who was this chap?
Well, you can read about him at Wikipedia. Basically, he was "adopted" as a child by a group called the Theosophical Society, proclaimed as the next incarnation of the "World Leader" (aka Buddha, Jesus, etc. according to the Society), and after being groomed to take up his position at his first speech he announced that no one should follow him, and basically ended the whole thing. He spent the rest of his life lecturing and writing.
wow, that's fabulous.
sort of like the Life of Brian with the whole 'im not a messiah don't follow me' thing.
i like these ideas. it reminds me a lot of 'the prophet' by khalil ghibrain. (sp?)
Yeah, that's true! I hadn't thought of the LOB connection...
Another interesting guy bears the same name: U.G. Krishnamurti. He met with J. Krishnamurti (who is also sometimes known as K.) over a period of years, but became frustrated with his approach: 'And then, towards the end, I insisted, "Come on, is there anything behind the abstractions you are throwing at me?" And that chappie said, "You have no way of knowing it for yourself". Finish -- that was the end of our relationship, you see -- "If I have no way of knowing it, you have no way of communicating it. What the hell are we doing? I've wasted seven years. Goodbye, I don't want to see you again". Then I walked out.'
I only found out about U.G. very recently (I've known about K. for about twenty years, through my dad). U.G. just died last year.
Actually, I'm exaggerating in my first response there - it wasn't his first speech where K. renounced his position, but he did do it early on, and disbanded the whole Order they had set up around him, including returning donations, among them a castle!
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