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Copyright © 2007-2010 Daniel Marks | beyondthemind.net. All Rights Reserved.
This website went online on November 22, 2007 and is being continually developed.
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What is the nature of this "Intelligence" mentioned so frequently in the talks?
Energy is an underlying theme of the entire talks. As they were delivered over chronological time, different words and phrases were used, although the same meaning was attached to them. Thus the word "intelligence" is equated with this energy, and the phrase "flowering of goodness" - which again is this intelligence - is also used to indicate this energy. The following remarkable passage thus clearly spells out the origin of thought:
"The flowering of goodness is the release of our total energy. It is not the control or suppression of energy but rather the total freedom of this vast energy. It is limited, narrowed down by thought, by the fragmentation of our senses. Thought itself is this energy manipulating itself into a narrow groove, a centre of the self.
Flowering of goodness can only blossom when energy is free, but thought, by its very nature, has limited this energy and so the fragmentation of the senses takes place. Hence there are the senses, sensations, desires and the images that thought creates out of desire. All this is a fragmentation of energy. Can this limited movement be aware of itself? That is, can the senses be aware of themselves?... can thought be aware of itself, of its movement? All this implies, can the whole physical body be aware of itself?"
(Letters To The Schools, page 79; paragraph and ellipsis added)
Thought is energy, narrowed down, limited, and thus corrupted. The silent mind, unlimited by ideas, beliefs and cognitive reactions, is thus attuned to the whole energy behind creation itself. The issue, then, is this dissipation of creative energy, which is essential for there to be attention to the fact, to what is (The Secret: The Transformation of Human Energy):
"There are only facts, not greater or lesser facts.... In pursuing the fact, in watching the fact, the what is, the fact teaches and its teaching is never mechanical, and to follow its teachings, the listening, the observation must be acute; this attention is denied if there is motive for listening. Motive dissipates energy, distorts it; action with a motive is inaction, leading to confusion and sorrow. Sorrow has been put together by thought.... Belief is so unnecessary, as are ideals. Both dissipate energy, which is needed to follow the unfolding of a fact, the what is."
(The Notebook: page 177; ellipses added)
In the following passage it is again made very clear that thought is just part of the senses, the dominant part:
"We live by our senses. One of them is usually dominant; the listening, the seeing, the tasting seem to be separate from each other, but is this a fact? Or is it that we have given to one or other a greater importance — or rather that thought has given the greater importance? One may hear great music and delight in it, and yet be insensitive to other things. One may have a sensitive taste and be wholly insensitive to delicate colour. This is fragmentation.
When each fragment is aware only of itself then fragmentation is maintained. In this way energy is broken up. If this is so, as it appears to be, is there a non-fragmentary awareness by all the senses? And thought is part of the senses.
This implies — can the body be aware of itself? Not you being aware of your own body, but the body itself being aware. This is very important to find out. It cannot be taught by another; then it is secondhand information which thought is imposing upon itself. You must discover for yourself whether the whole organism, the physical entity, can be aware of itself. You may be aware of the movement of an arm, a leg or the head, and through that movement sense that you are becoming aware of the whole, but what we are asking is: can the body be aware of itself without any movement?
This is essential to find out because thought has imposed its pattern on the body, what it thinks is the right exercise, right food and so on. So there is the domination of thought over the organism; there is consciously or unconsciously a struggle between thought and the organism. In this way thought is destroying the natural intelligence of the body itself.
Does the body, the physical organism, have its own intelligence? It has when all the senses are acting together in harmony so that there is no straining, no emotional or sensory demands of desire.
When one is hungry one eats but usually taste, formed by habit, dictates what one eats. So fragmentation takes place. A healthy body can be brought about only through the harmony of all the senses which is the intelligence of the body itself. What we are asking is: does not disharmony bring about the wastage of energy? Can the organism's own intelligence, which has been suppressed or destroyed by thought, be awakened?
... The remembrance of yesterday's pleasure makes thought master of the body. The body then becomes a slave to the master, and intelligence is denied.... When the body has its own intelligence freed from thought, though thought is part of it, this intelligence will guard its own well-being.
Pleasure dominates our life in its crudest or most educated forms. And pleasure essentially is a remembrance - that which has been or that which is anticipated. Pleasure is never at the moment. When pleasure is denied, suppressed or blocked, out of this frustration neurotic acts, such as violence or hatred, take place. ...
When the body is aware of itself, then we can ask a further and perhaps more difficult question: can thought, which has put together this whole consciousness, be aware of itself? Most of the time thought dominates the body and so the body loses its vitality, intelligence, its own intrinsic energy, and hence has neurotic reactions.
Is the intelligence of the body different from total intelligence which can come about only when thought, realizing its own limitation, finds its right place?"
(Taken from The Link: #23 2003-2004, pp. 28-9; Letters to the Schools, Vol. 1, pp. 79-81)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Commentary:
The awakening of intelligence - as in the title of the book - implies that this intelligence is currently asleep, or dormant, which indicates that this intelligence is both within and without: it does not have a separate existence from the body. This is confirmed by the line: Can the organism's own intelligence, which has been suppressed or destroyed by thought, be awakened? And, as seen above, this intelligence is energy and also what is called "the flowering of goodness." This intelligence is there when all the noise of the mind, when all its conditioning, when all its thought, has ceased.
The essence of living, of being in the active present, is the silent mind. The natural intelligence within can only come into being - can be awakened - when the mind is completely still, without any thought at all. Stillness arises naturally when all that is false is seen and wiped away. What is false is the illusion of false security that the brain clings to for its survival. When minimal physical survival is a given, all the false notions of security created by by the thinking brain can be discarded.
It is also implied that this natural intelligence is not different from the total intelligence that exists in the universe. This makes sense: we are energy and the innate intelligence is energy and this energy is not separate from universal energy. Thus this intelligence is not separate from universal intelligence - as in the creative force behind the existence of the universe itself.
Thought is a sense. Thought is limited, hence the process of thought is the limitation of all the bodily senses. The center of thought is desire and the remembrance of past pleasures. End all the remembrances and all desires - end the observer, the self - and does not thought then end?
Note that the question: Can thought be aware of itself? is not answered as you have to discover this for yourself. No-one can tell you the answer. There is something very important to understand here, is there not?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is another dialogue about the ceaseless reactions of thought, stating that only insight can put an end to them:
JK: "So is it possible for the mind to go beyond reaction? That is the next step obviously. As we said yesterday morning in our discussion with the group, one gets irritated and that is the first reaction. Then the reaction to that, the second reaction to that is 'I must not'. Then the third reaction, 'I must control' - or justify or whatever it is. So it is constantly action and reaction. Can one see it is a movement, a continuous movement without an ending?
… So there is an ending to reaction if one is watchful, attentive, understand not only logically but have an insight into this reacting process all the time, it can of course come to an end. That is why it is very important, I think, to understand this, before we discuss what is an empty mind and if there is something beyond, or in that very emptying of the mind there is some other quality.
… is it possible to have a mind that is really completely empty of all the things that thought has put together?
David Bohm: Well, then thought ceases to react.
JK: That's it.
DB: … But now assuming that the reaction around the psychological structure has begun in mankind why should it ever stop, because one reaction makes another and another.
JK: It is like a chain, endless.
DB: One would expect it to go on for ever unless something will stop it. Right?
JK: Nothing will stop it. Only the insight into the nature of reaction ends psychological reaction.
DB: Yes, but then you are saying that matter is affected by insight, which is beyond matter.
JK: Yes, beyond matter."
(With David Bohm, The Ending of Time: Chapter 12, 14th Conversation, September 20, 1980; ellipses added)
(Partial or Total Insight?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This brief dialogue ranges over thought, awareness, the awakening of intelligence, meditation, the otherness - and ending, which is death now, in the present:
Pupul Jayakar: "When you say, 'be a light to yourself,' is it involved with contacting 'that' [the otherness] without a person?"
JK: "Not contacting, but receiving, living it. It is there for you to reach out and receive. But thought, as consciousness as we know it, has to come to an end. Thought is really the enemy of that. Thought is the enemy of compassion. And to have this flame, it demands not sacrifice, not this, not that, but an awakened intelligence which sees the movement of thought and the very awareness ends it. That is what real meditation is."
PJ: "What significance then has death?"
JK: None. It has no significance, because you are living with death all the time. Because you are ending everything all the time. I don't think we see the beauty and importance of ending."
(Jayakar Biography, Volume 2: Chapter 40, 'The Meaning of Death' - pp. 429-30)
(Life after Death ; The Core Quotes - On Death)
Energy is an underlying theme of the entire talks. As they were delivered over chronological time, different words and phrases were used, although the same meaning was attached to them. Thus the word "intelligence" is equated with this energy, and the phrase "flowering of goodness" - which again is this intelligence - is also used to indicate this energy. The following remarkable passage thus clearly spells out the origin of thought:
"The flowering of goodness is the release of our total energy. It is not the control or suppression of energy but rather the total freedom of this vast energy. It is limited, narrowed down by thought, by the fragmentation of our senses. Thought itself is this energy manipulating itself into a narrow groove, a centre of the self.
Flowering of goodness can only blossom when energy is free, but thought, by its very nature, has limited this energy and so the fragmentation of the senses takes place. Hence there are the senses, sensations, desires and the images that thought creates out of desire. All this is a fragmentation of energy. Can this limited movement be aware of itself? That is, can the senses be aware of themselves?... can thought be aware of itself, of its movement? All this implies, can the whole physical body be aware of itself?"
(Letters To The Schools, page 79; paragraph and ellipsis added)
Thought is energy, narrowed down, limited, and thus corrupted. The silent mind, unlimited by ideas, beliefs and cognitive reactions, is thus attuned to the whole energy behind creation itself. The issue, then, is this dissipation of creative energy, which is essential for there to be attention to the fact, to what is (The Secret: The Transformation of Human Energy):
"There are only facts, not greater or lesser facts.... In pursuing the fact, in watching the fact, the what is, the fact teaches and its teaching is never mechanical, and to follow its teachings, the listening, the observation must be acute; this attention is denied if there is motive for listening. Motive dissipates energy, distorts it; action with a motive is inaction, leading to confusion and sorrow. Sorrow has been put together by thought.... Belief is so unnecessary, as are ideals. Both dissipate energy, which is needed to follow the unfolding of a fact, the what is."
(The Notebook: page 177; ellipses added)
In the following passage it is again made very clear that thought is just part of the senses, the dominant part:
"We live by our senses. One of them is usually dominant; the listening, the seeing, the tasting seem to be separate from each other, but is this a fact? Or is it that we have given to one or other a greater importance — or rather that thought has given the greater importance? One may hear great music and delight in it, and yet be insensitive to other things. One may have a sensitive taste and be wholly insensitive to delicate colour. This is fragmentation.
When each fragment is aware only of itself then fragmentation is maintained. In this way energy is broken up. If this is so, as it appears to be, is there a non-fragmentary awareness by all the senses? And thought is part of the senses.
This implies — can the body be aware of itself? Not you being aware of your own body, but the body itself being aware. This is very important to find out. It cannot be taught by another; then it is secondhand information which thought is imposing upon itself. You must discover for yourself whether the whole organism, the physical entity, can be aware of itself. You may be aware of the movement of an arm, a leg or the head, and through that movement sense that you are becoming aware of the whole, but what we are asking is: can the body be aware of itself without any movement?
This is essential to find out because thought has imposed its pattern on the body, what it thinks is the right exercise, right food and so on. So there is the domination of thought over the organism; there is consciously or unconsciously a struggle between thought and the organism. In this way thought is destroying the natural intelligence of the body itself.
Does the body, the physical organism, have its own intelligence? It has when all the senses are acting together in harmony so that there is no straining, no emotional or sensory demands of desire.
When one is hungry one eats but usually taste, formed by habit, dictates what one eats. So fragmentation takes place. A healthy body can be brought about only through the harmony of all the senses which is the intelligence of the body itself. What we are asking is: does not disharmony bring about the wastage of energy? Can the organism's own intelligence, which has been suppressed or destroyed by thought, be awakened?
... The remembrance of yesterday's pleasure makes thought master of the body. The body then becomes a slave to the master, and intelligence is denied.... When the body has its own intelligence freed from thought, though thought is part of it, this intelligence will guard its own well-being.
Pleasure dominates our life in its crudest or most educated forms. And pleasure essentially is a remembrance - that which has been or that which is anticipated. Pleasure is never at the moment. When pleasure is denied, suppressed or blocked, out of this frustration neurotic acts, such as violence or hatred, take place. ...
When the body is aware of itself, then we can ask a further and perhaps more difficult question: can thought, which has put together this whole consciousness, be aware of itself? Most of the time thought dominates the body and so the body loses its vitality, intelligence, its own intrinsic energy, and hence has neurotic reactions.
Is the intelligence of the body different from total intelligence which can come about only when thought, realizing its own limitation, finds its right place?"
(Taken from The Link: #23 2003-2004, pp. 28-9; Letters to the Schools, Vol. 1, pp. 79-81)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Commentary:
The awakening of intelligence - as in the title of the book - implies that this intelligence is currently asleep, or dormant, which indicates that this intelligence is both within and without: it does not have a separate existence from the body. This is confirmed by the line: Can the organism's own intelligence, which has been suppressed or destroyed by thought, be awakened? And, as seen above, this intelligence is energy and also what is called "the flowering of goodness." This intelligence is there when all the noise of the mind, when all its conditioning, when all its thought, has ceased.
The essence of living, of being in the active present, is the silent mind. The natural intelligence within can only come into being - can be awakened - when the mind is completely still, without any thought at all. Stillness arises naturally when all that is false is seen and wiped away. What is false is the illusion of false security that the brain clings to for its survival. When minimal physical survival is a given, all the false notions of security created by by the thinking brain can be discarded.
It is also implied that this natural intelligence is not different from the total intelligence that exists in the universe. This makes sense: we are energy and the innate intelligence is energy and this energy is not separate from universal energy. Thus this intelligence is not separate from universal intelligence - as in the creative force behind the existence of the universe itself.
Thought is a sense. Thought is limited, hence the process of thought is the limitation of all the bodily senses. The center of thought is desire and the remembrance of past pleasures. End all the remembrances and all desires - end the observer, the self - and does not thought then end?
Note that the question: Can thought be aware of itself? is not answered as you have to discover this for yourself. No-one can tell you the answer. There is something very important to understand here, is there not?
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
Here is another dialogue about the ceaseless reactions of thought, stating that only insight can put an end to them:
JK: "So is it possible for the mind to go beyond reaction? That is the next step obviously. As we said yesterday morning in our discussion with the group, one gets irritated and that is the first reaction. Then the reaction to that, the second reaction to that is 'I must not'. Then the third reaction, 'I must control' - or justify or whatever it is. So it is constantly action and reaction. Can one see it is a movement, a continuous movement without an ending?
… So there is an ending to reaction if one is watchful, attentive, understand not only logically but have an insight into this reacting process all the time, it can of course come to an end. That is why it is very important, I think, to understand this, before we discuss what is an empty mind and if there is something beyond, or in that very emptying of the mind there is some other quality.
… is it possible to have a mind that is really completely empty of all the things that thought has put together?
David Bohm: Well, then thought ceases to react.
JK: That's it.
DB: … But now assuming that the reaction around the psychological structure has begun in mankind why should it ever stop, because one reaction makes another and another.
JK: It is like a chain, endless.
DB: One would expect it to go on for ever unless something will stop it. Right?
JK: Nothing will stop it. Only the insight into the nature of reaction ends psychological reaction.
DB: Yes, but then you are saying that matter is affected by insight, which is beyond matter.
JK: Yes, beyond matter."
(With David Bohm, The Ending of Time: Chapter 12, 14th Conversation, September 20, 1980; ellipses added)
(Partial or Total Insight?)
~~~~~~~~~~~~~
This brief dialogue ranges over thought, awareness, the awakening of intelligence, meditation, the otherness - and ending, which is death now, in the present:
Pupul Jayakar: "When you say, 'be a light to yourself,' is it involved with contacting 'that' [the otherness] without a person?"
JK: "Not contacting, but receiving, living it. It is there for you to reach out and receive. But thought, as consciousness as we know it, has to come to an end. Thought is really the enemy of that. Thought is the enemy of compassion. And to have this flame, it demands not sacrifice, not this, not that, but an awakened intelligence which sees the movement of thought and the very awareness ends it. That is what real meditation is."
PJ: "What significance then has death?"
JK: None. It has no significance, because you are living with death all the time. Because you are ending everything all the time. I don't think we see the beauty and importance of ending."
(Jayakar Biography, Volume 2: Chapter 40, 'The Meaning of Death' - pp. 429-30)
(Life after Death ; The Core Quotes - On Death)
A Mind Operating Without Thought
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"To open the door to the eternal, the journey into the self is the only way."
(Jayakar Biography: Chapter 20, 'Through Negation there is Creation' - page 234)
(Jayakar Biography: Chapter 20, 'Through Negation there is Creation' - page 234)
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Ending of things is a crucial issue - ending accumulation, ending memories, the ending of all psychological knowledge
- which is really the ending of thought, the ending of the self, the ending of consciousness as we know it.
If things are not ended with every day, they become the conditioning of the mind.
- which is really the ending of thought, the ending of the self, the ending of consciousness as we know it.
If things are not ended with every day, they become the conditioning of the mind.
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(Webpage exploring the nature of this crucial thing in life called intelligence - which has nothing to do with IQ)
"Seeing that which is false is the awakening of intelligence."
(Way of Intelligence)
(Way of Intelligence)
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"... Intelligence is not the denial of the false but rather the awareness of the false."
(Krishnamurti Speaking with the International Committees, Saanen, 1981-1985, page 8)
The minute you deny the false the self is in operation, with all its often hidden motives, machinations, delusions, and escapes.
(Krishnamurti Speaking with the International Committees, Saanen, 1981-1985, page 8)
The minute you deny the false the self is in operation, with all its often hidden motives, machinations, delusions, and escapes.
"Thought is measurable, intelligence is not. And how does it happen that this intelligence comes into existence?
If thought has no relation to intelligence, then is the cessation of thought the awakening of intelligence?
Or is it that intelligence, being independent of thought, being not of time, exists always?"
(Mary Lutyens, Volume 2: Krishnamurti: Years of Fulfilment: Chapter 17, page 190)
The question is put forward and yet the question itself contains its answer.
If thought has no relation to intelligence, then is the cessation of thought the awakening of intelligence?
Or is it that intelligence, being independent of thought, being not of time, exists always?"
(Mary Lutyens, Volume 2: Krishnamurti: Years of Fulfilment: Chapter 17, page 190)
The question is put forward and yet the question itself contains its answer.
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