Has sitting quietly to observe thought any value? | J. Krishnamurti

Published 2015-04-19
Subtitles available in: CHINESE, ENGLISH, FINNISH, FRENCH, ROMANIAN, SPANISH

Saanen 1980 - Question #1 from Question & Answer Meeting #4

'Is our sitting quietly every day to observe the movement of thought by your definition a practice, a method and therefore without value?'

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All Comments (21)
  • 5 years I've been studying this man... Only now, after 5 years am I starting to reap the rewards of this man's life work. For those working seriously twds freedom, know that it takes time, but also know that it takes no time at all. 🙏
  • @lostfound2265
    Buddha was asked, “What have you gained from meditation?” He replied, “Nothing!” Then he continued, “However, let me tell you what I have lost: anger, anxiety, depression, insecurity, and fear of old age an death.”
  • The uniqueness of JK is his ability to illustrate how to find answer rather than giving it. A true coach.
  • @yeshajariwala
    “The world as we have created it is a process of our thinking. It cannot be changed without changing our thinking.”– Albert Einstein
  • you need to watch it twice or thrice at different times then you will get what exactly he is saying...our brain will only consume what is up to for now. 2,3 more times to watch ..! & He is so sharp.
  • @perplexedmoth
    Interesting. Attention is when the mind is most quiet. I'll remember this.
  • @sarozgiri1103
    The motive of sitting silently and watching thoughts is not just to watch it. the objective is to change previous mindset that reacts to thoughts, the work here is to observe thought without judgement. The mind tends to cling to good feelings or thoughts and avert bad feelings or thoughts, the challenge is to be calm and unattached to both of the thoughts just witness. pure bliss showers when the state comes when you are unaffected by any of them, slowly you can enter the state of no mind. the purpose of sitting silently and watching thoughts comes not just by sitting 20 mins in morning, 20 in afternoon. The meditation is state achieved in between that watching of thoughts.
  • @surenderapple
    Question: You seem to object even to our sitting quietly everyday to observe the movement of thought. Is this, by your definition, a practice, a method and therefore without value? Now the questioner asks: What is wrong with sitting quietly every morning for twenty minutes, in the afternoon another twenty minutes and perhaps another twenty minutes in the evening or longer - what is wrong with it? By sitting quietly you can relax, you can observe your thinking, your reactions, your responses and your reflexes. What is the motive of those who sit quietly by themselves, or together in a group? What is the motive behind the desire to sit quietly for half an hour every day? Is it not important to find out why you want to do this? Is it because somebody has told you that if you sit quietly you will have parapsychological experiences, that you will attain some kind of peace, some kind of understanding, some kind of enlightenment, or some kind of power? And, being rather gullible, you pay thousands of dollars to receive instructions and a mantra which you can repeat. Some people have paid thousands of dollars to a man who will give them something in return - specially a Sanskrit word - and they repeat it. You pay something and you receive something in return; what is the motive behind it? Why are you doing this? Is it for a psychological reward? Is it that by sitting quietly you attain some kind of super-consciousness? Or is it that you want that which has been promised by your instructor? So it is important - before we plunge into all this - to find out what is your motive, what it is that you want. But you do not do that. You are so eager and gullible; somebody promises something and you want it. If you examine the motive, you see that it is a desire to achieve something - like a businessman's desire to earn a lot of money. That is his urge. Here the psychological urge is to have something that a guru, or an instructor, promises. You do not question what he promises, you do not doubt what he promises. But if you ask the man who is offering you something: Is it worthwhile? Is it true? Who are you to tell me what to do? then you will find that sitting quietly, without understanding your motive, leads to all kinds of illusory psychological trouble. If that is the intention of sitting quietly, it is not worth it. But if while sitting quietly without any motive, or walking quietly by yourself or with somebody, you watch the trees, the birds, the rivers and the sunshine on the leaves, in that very watching you are also watching yourself. You are not striving, not making tremendous efforts to achieve something. Those who are committed to a certain kind of meditation find it very hard to throw that off because the mind is already conditioned; they have practised this thing for several years and there they are stuck. And if somebody comes along and says: "What nonsense all this is" they may, at a rare moment, become rational and say: "Yes, perhaps this is wrong; then begins the trouble, the conflict, between what they have found rationally for themselves and that which they have been practising for the last ten years - a struggle that is called progress, spiritual progress! The mind is always chattering, always pursuing one thought or another, one set of sensory responses after another set of responses. In order to stop that chattering you try to learn concentration, forcing the mind to stop chattering and so the conflict begins again. This is what you are doing; chattering, chattering, talking endlessly about nothing. Now, if you want to observe something, a tree, a flower, the lines of the mountains, you have to look, you have to be quiet. But you are not interested in the mountains, or the beauty of the hills and the valleys and the waters; you want to get somewhere, achieve something, spiritually. Is it not possible to be quiet, naturally - to look at a person, or to listen to a song, or to listen to what somebody is saying quietly, without resistance, without saying, "I must change, I must do this, I must do that", just to be quiet? Apparently that is most difficult. So you practise systems to be quiet. Do you see the fallacy of it? To practise a method, a system, a regular everyday routine, as a result of which you think the mind will at last be quiet; but it will never be quiet; it is mechanical, it has become set in a pattern, dull and insensitive. You do not see all that; you want to get something - an initiation! Oh, it is all so childish. If you listen quietly, not saying the speaker is right or wrong, or saying, I am committed to this, I have promised not to give it up; I am this, that, the other thing", but listen to what is being said without resistance, then what you are doing is your own discovery, then your mind in the very process of investigation becomes quiet. So can we, ordinary people, with all our troubles and turmoils, be quiet and listen to all the prattlings of our own movements of thought? Is it possible to sit, or stand, or walk quietly, without any promptings from another, without any reward or desire for extraordinary super-physical sensory experiences? Begin at the most rational level; then one can go very far.
  • @Freddd95
    "The way I appear now, I will never appear again. I am Life, and I am always changing. But still I am, always. And I can always rest in myself."
  • @Guitube99
    18:49 "If you are interested in something, you are naturally attentive." Either our interest does not last long or we are actually interested in the result, not the observing. Then a question comes, bringing interest in the inquiry, consequently quieting the mind without effort. I guess that whenever the mind is not quiet, it means we are not interested in what is happening, rather in what could happen or has happened.
  • @dk_xo5914
    So basically, observe the river. Dont swim in it and dont try to stop the current.
  • @aliciagc2539
    His intelligence is off the charts. He strikes me as one who did not suffer fools.
  • 14:38 Sit quietly, naturally and listen observe without resistance. 15:14 Short comings of practicing meditation to quiet the mind. 17:13 Then your mind becomes quiet in the process of investigation.
  • @asstudio5107
    Because of j krishnamurti sir I've learnt to observe the "me" i started to understand disorder and therefore by very understanding of disorder comes order I've completely understood that the world is me and i am the world.
  • @nattycampos
    He helps us so basically, intrinsically, essentially and therefore, so deeply...
  • @orbalturner6747
    Excellent advice,really helped me realize a few things after 21yrs of heroin addiction,Thank you for this,love and Peace
  • We don't mind corrupted spiritually. Be quiet naturally This struggle is spiritual progress 🙏