Love, death, and sorrow are all the unknowable

Love, death, and sorrow are all the unknowable

We know only fragmentarily this extraordinary thing called life; we have never looked at sorrow, except through the screen of escapes; we have never seen the beauty, the immensity of death, and we know it only through fear and sadness. There can be understanding of life, and of the significance and beauty of death, only when the mind on the instant perceives “what is”.
You know, sirs, although we differentiate them, love, death, and sorrow are all the same; because, surely, love, death, and sorrow are the unknowable. The moment you know love, you have ceased to love. Love is beyond time; it has no beginning and no end, whereas knowledge has; and when you say, “I know what love is”, you don’t. You know only a sensation, a stimulus. You know the reaction to love, but that reaction is not love. In the same way, you don’t know what death is. You know only the reactions to death, and you will discover the full depth and significance of death only when the reactions have ceased.
The Collected Works vol XI, p 288

Krishnamurti - freedom

Freedom through complete attention

The perception, the total observation of jealousy and the freedom from it, is not a matter of time, but of giving complete attention, critical awareness, observing choicelessly, instantly, all things as they arise. Then there is freedom—not in the future but now—from that which we call jealousy.
This applies equally to violence, anger or any other habit, whether you smoke, drink or have sexual habits. If we observe them attentively, completely with our heart and mind, we are intelligently aware of their whole content; then there is freedom. Once this awareness is functioning, then whatever arises—anger, jealousy, violence, brutality, shades of double meaning, enmity, all these things can be observed instantly, completely. In that there is freedom, and the thing that was there ceases to be. So the past is not to be wiped away through time. Time is not the way to freedom.
The Flight of the Eagle, p 84

Leave earth and travel for a long while and then look back. In terms of our senses, we don't exist. Yet, like the tiny atoms that we can't see now, we do our job to the best of our ability (at any given moment). The functioning of the universe and therefore our lives here on earth still depend on our actions, just like we depend on the actions of molecules. I like the space travel mental exercise because it attempts to reveal our true relative size, which is essentially nothing.

I was thinking about how everything in the natural world is so good at what it does. We seem so inadequate compared to the trees and rocks and animals. Yet, it also seems impossible that we could be a product of nature or god or whatever you want to call it, and be any less perfect than the trees, rocks, and animals. Who are we to question or judge a purpose, big or small? We give things meaning but really we are completely clueless.

Our only guidance, really, is how we feel. The fact that some people can live in discord with how they feel is a wonder of human nature, and reveals the depth of our psyche and our tolerance for pain. The idea of relationship is extraordinarily powerful. At its root, any relationship is simply a part of one's relationship with god. Like it or not, life is a total and constant interaction, and it's not a choice (other than killing yourself).

TED Talk

Cool talk, good ideas. Guy loves his words a little too much maybe. Right.

TED Talk: Clay Shirky on Twitter, China, flow of information, etc.

The saddest thing about the destruction of life is the immensity of the struggle that has created our world. Imagine working your whole life to build something beautiful, complicated, with the potential to be enjoyed by everything in existence – only to have it torn down before your very eyes by a child you loved. We humans are the culmination of billions of years of challenges and adaptation; the very things we celebrate today in sport and business. Ironically, our celebration of the champions of business gives accolades to the very people who are destroying our natural environment and us. It’s as though life has been cheering on who it thought was acting in its best interests (and for what seems like an eternity, life was correct), but now, its hero has turned on it. We do not see or cannot comprehend the history of our surroundings, and thus cannot give them, or we, the respect deserved. This massive movement, river of life, has birthed a bastard child that wants its inheritance now and is willing to kill its parents for it.

randmo

random thoughts.

existence is consciousness

god is existence

god is consciousness

you cannot fathom its entirety

you can change your life by changing your mind

you can live without thinking

action is the only way

when you realize something and then you act on it, it becomes easier and easier

any time you give into a fear you are going in the wrong direction

Food, Inc.