blog (March, 2002)
"being able to quote cleverly"
I'm reading The Flight of the Eagle, by Jiddu Krishnamurti. Excerpts:
The beauty of freedom is that you do not leave a mark. The eagle in its flight does not leave a mark; the scientist does. Inquiring into this question of freedom there must be, not only the scientific observation, but also the flight of the eagle that does not leave a mark at all; both are required; there must be both the verbal explanation and the nonverbal perception--for the description is never the actuality that is described; the explanation is obviously never the thing that is explained; the word is never the thing.
Can the sorrow in daily life end? Unless the mind changes radically our living has very little meaning--going to the office every day, earning a livelihood, reading a few books, being able to quote cleverly, being very well-informed--a life which is empty, a real bourgeois life. And then as one becomes aware of this state of affairs, one begins to invent a meaning to life; find some significance to give to it; one searches out the clever people who will give one the significance, the purpose, of life--which is another escape from living. This kind of living must undergo a radical transformation.
Can one die, psychologically, to all one's past, to all the attachments, fears, to the anxiety, vanity, and pride, so completely that tomorrow you wake up a fresh human being? You will say, 'How is this to be done, what is the method?' There is no method, because 'a method' implies tomorrow; it implies that you will practice and achieve something eventually, tomorrow, after many tomorrows. But can you see immediately the truth of it--see it actually, not theoretically--that the mind cannot be fresh, innocent, young, vital, passionate, unless there is an ending, psychologically, to everything of the past? But we do not want to let the past go because we are the past; all our thoughts are based on the past; all knowledge is the past; so the mind cannot let go; any effort it makes to let go is still part of the past, the past hoping to achieve a different state.
The mind must become extraordinarily quiet, silent; and it does become extraordinarily quiet without any resistance, without any system, when it sees this whole issue. Man has always sought immortality; he paints a picture, puts his name on it, that is a form of immortality; leaving a name behind, man always wants to leave something of himself behind. What has he got to give--apart from technological knowledge--what has he of himself to give? What is he? You and I, what are we, psychologically? You may have a bigger bank account, be cleverer than I am, or this or that; but psychologically, what are we?--a lot of words, memories, experiences, and these we want to hand over to a son, put in a book, or paint in a picture, 'me.' The 'me' becomes extremely important, the 'me' opposed to the community, the 'me' wanting to identify itself, wanting to fulfill itself, wanting to become something great--you know, all the rest of it. When you observe that 'me,' you see that it is a bundle of memories, empty words: that is what we cling to; that is the very essence of the separation between you and me, they and we.
happy trails
Spring break! A few days in Killington (here) and a few days at home. Here're some good reads for the meantime.
Pink Floyd vs. N'Sync: "You can write drivel for boy bands, because teenage girls are in love with them."
Meditation mapped in monks: "Using a brain imaging technique, Newberg and his team studied a group of Tibetan Buddhist monks as they meditated for approximately one hour."
My Acid Trip with Groucho: "A generation who trusted their friends more than their government deprogrammed themselves from the society that had shaped them, and then reprogrammed themselves , into an infinite variety of incarnations."
Interview with Ken Kesey: "no where else in history has there ever been a flag that stands for the right to burn itself."
complimentary reading material
On Sunday's plane ride home from Boston, Continental Airlines was kind enough to provide me with some fine magazines. I read a few articles in the latest Ford Foundation publication. Two items were particularly interesting:
- One article on ancient removal of scripture from the Bible and how this has influenced the religion to be more centered around a creed than about any sort of individual spiritual discovery.
- The other an interview with the executive director of the ACLU regarding curtailing of civil liberties following Sept 11th.
wicked tired
Returned from UAA conference indoor track championships today, at Brandeis University in Boston. I ran the 1500 meters, with not-so-stellar results.
The trip was fun, though. My fourth or fifth time in Boston, I think. We were allowed some time on our own downtown last night; dropped off between Faneuil Hall and the wharf, and given some freedom. I ate my first lobster at the Black Rose, which was exciting, but it was more exciting to simply be swirled up in all of the activity and culture. People everywhere. I didn't realize what an industrial wasteland the city of Cleveland is. Everything just seems so lifeless and desolate here, in comparison.
A few of us came upon the Bill Rodgers Running Center right near Quincy Market, which was a treat. Half running apparel store, half shrine to Rodgers, who, among other running achievements, set the American marathon record at 2:09:27 back in 1979.