Thinking Beyond Science

All thinking obviously is conditioned; there is no such thing as free thinking. Thinking can never be free, it is the outcome of our conditioning, of our background, of our culture, of our climate, of our social, economic, political background. The very books that we read and the very practices that we do are all established in the background, and any thinking must be the result of that background. So if we can be aware and we can go presently into what it signifies, what it means, to be aware—perhaps we shall be able to uncondition the mind without the process of will, without the determination to uncondition the mind. Because the moment we determine, there is an entity who wishes, an entity who says, “I must uncondition my mind.” That entity itself is the outcome of our desire to achieve a certain result, so a conflict is already there. So, is it possible to be aware of our conditioning, just to be aware?—in which there is no conflict at all. That very awareness, if allowed, may perhaps burn away the problems.

The very first thing to do, if one may suggest it, is to find out why we are thinking in a certain way, and why we are feeling in a certain manner. Don’t try to alter it, don’t try to analyze our thoughts and our emotions; but become conscious of why we are thinking in a particular groove and from what motive we act. Although we can discover the motive through analysis, although we may find out something through analysis, it will not be real; it will be real only when we are intensely aware at the moment of the functioning of our thought and emotion; then we will see their extraordinary subtlety, their fine delicacy. So long as we have a “must” and a “must not,” in this compulsion we will never discover that swift wandering of thought and emotion. And it is sure we have been brought up in the school of “must” and “must not” and hence we have destroyed thought and feeling. We have been bound and crippled by systems, methods, by our teachers. So leave all those “must” and “must nots.”

Now why do we ask this question? Why are we asking someone to tell us the meaning of life, the purpose of life? What do we mean by life? Does life have a mean-ing, a purpose? Is not living in itself its own purpose, its own meaning? Why do we want more? Because we are so dissatisfied with our life, our life is so empty, so tawdry, so monotonous, doing the same thing over and over again, we want something more, something beyond that which we are doing. Since our everyday life is so empty, so dull, so meaningless, so boring, so intolerably stupid, we say life must have a fuller meaning and that is why we ask this question. Surely a man who is living richly, a man who sees things as they are and is content with what he has, is not confused; he is clear, therefore he does not ask what is the purpose of life.

Our difficulty is that, since our life is empty, we want to find a purpose to life and strive for it. Such a purpose of life can only be mere intellection, without any reality; when the purpose of life is pursued by a stupid, dull mind, by an empty heart, that purpose will also be empty. Therefore our purpose is how to make our life rich, not with money and all the rest of it but inwardly rich-which is not something cryptic. When we say that the purpose of life is to be happy, the purpose of life is to find God, surely that desire to find God is an escape from life and our God is merely a thing that is known.

Why are we so lonely, frustrated? Because we have never looked into ourselves and understood ourselves. We never admit to ourselves that this life is all we know and that it should therefore be understood fully and completely. We prefer to run away from ourselves and that is why we seek the purpose of life away from relationship.

After all, loneliness is a state of isolation, because the mind encloses itself and cuts itself away from every relationship, from everything. In that state the mind knows loneliness, and if, without condemning it, the mind be aware and not create the escape, then surely that loneliness undergoes a transformation. The transformation might then be called “aloneness”— it does not matter what word we use. In that aloneness there is no fear. The mind that feels lonely because it has isolated itself through various activities is afraid of that loneliness. But if there is awareness in which there is no choice—which means no condemnation—then the mind is no longer lonely, but it is in a state of aloneness in which there is no corruption, in which there is no process of self-en-closure. One must be alone, there must be that aloneness, in that sense. Loneliness is a state of frustration, aloneness is not, and aloneness is not the opposite of loneliness.

One of the things that prevents the sense of being secure is comparison. When we are compared with somebody else in our studies or in sport or in our looks, we have a sense of anxiety, a sense of fear, a sense of uncertainty. So, as we were discussing yesterday with some of the teachers, it is very important to eliminate in our school this sense of comparison, this giving grades or marks, and ultimately the fear of failure…

We study better when there is freedom, when there is happiness, when there is some interest. We all know that when we are playing games, when we are doing dramatics, when we are going out for walks, when we are looking at the river, when there is general happiness, good health, then we learn much more easily. But when there is fear of comparison, we do not study or work or learn so well…

Teachers are concerned only that we should pass examinations and go to the next class, and parents want we to get a class ahead. Neither of them is interested that we should leave school as intelligent human beings without fear.

Source : What Are You Doing With Your Life? by J. Krishnamurti

Goodreads : https://www.goodreads.com/book/show/22145861-what-are-you-doing-with-your-life

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