HOW AWARENESS OF YOUR BREATHING CAN HELP YOU IN THIS CURRENT PANDEMIC

Some of the most satisfying work I’ve done in my career was lecturing in mental health law at what is now referred to as the mental health portfolio of the Health Education and Training Institute. When I lectured there the body was known as the NSW Institute of Psychiatry.

Our mental health is so damn important. Sadly, the current COVID-19 pandemic is resulting in elevated rates of stress, anxiety, loneliness, depression, harmful alcohol and drug use, self-harm and suicidal behaviour. Now, in serious cases professional help will be needed but there are some things we can do by way of self-help. One of them, the subject of this post, involves simply being aware of our breathing.

Now, there’s a saying, ‘Your breathing is your greatest friend. Return to it in all your troubles and you will find comfort and guidance.’ How true that is. What happens when you are stressed? Well, a number of things. Among them, your heart rate increases, and so does your breathing which ordinarily becomes more shallow as well.

At the first sign of your becoming stressed, immediately become aware of your breathing. Don’t try to change it. Don’t try to slow it down or deepen it. Indeed, don’t ‘try’ at all. Sometimes effort defeats itself, and this is such a case. Simply be aware of your breathing where your breath is most prominently felt. Perhaps that’s in your nostrils, mouth, throat, lungs or abdomen. This varies from person to person. Wherever your breath is most prominently felt, simply be aware of the sensation—and stay with the feeling. Don’t attempt to change this in any way. Just observe and be aware.

Does your breath feel warm? Cold? Fast? Slow? Deep? Shallow? Again, don’t attempt to change any of these things. Forget all about judging yourself. There’s no right or wrong here. Things just are.

Simply observe, be aware, and stay aware, of your breathing for 5, 10 or 15 minutes—that is, for as long as it takes for your breathing to slow down as well as deepen.

That’s right. Stay aware of your breathing until it slows down and deepens of its own accord. Your awareness of your breathing will result in your breathing slowing down and deepening. How is this so? Well, awareness is non-resistance—that is, non-judgmental self-observation. Awareness is letting be and letting go. Yes, awareness effects positive changes in your body and mind. The Vietnamese Zen Buddhist master Thich Nhat Hanh, pictured, writes:

Each time we find ourselves dispersed and find it difficult to gain control of ourselves by different means, the method of watching the breath should always be used. 

Now, if at any point in time during your awareness of your breathing you become mentally or emotionally distracted by some troubling thought, feeling, idea, memory or sensation, gently — please note that word ‘gently’ — bring your awareness back to your breathing.

One more thing. Don’t forget to breathe. Some people, when they become consciously aware of their breathing, forget to breathe. I am sometimes guilty of that.

Conscious awareness of your breathing will bring you relaxation and comfort. Try it.

Note. This post is a slightly reworked version of a previous post, ‘Your Breathing is Your Greatest Friend’, published on July 5, 2015.

Photo credit. The photo of Thich Nhat Hanh is by Dana Gluckstein. All rights reserved.

 

 

 

 

 

MINDFULNESS IN THE CHRISTIAN TRADITION (Part 2)

‘But mindfulness is Buddhist!’

I hear those words from time to time from a Christian, usually an evangelical.

Now, as Richard Nixon used to say, let me make this perfectly clear. Mindfulness is not Buddhist. Well, certainly not exclusively or inherently so, and even as respects Buddhism mindfulness is only one aspect of one particular tradition in Buddhism. Mindfulness is universal. It is grounded in the human experience of living fully from one moment to the next.

You can find mindfulness in all religious and spiritual traditions, including Christianity. What’s more, you can find mindfulness outside of religious and spiritual traditions. 

For the most part, the mindfulness that I teach is outside mainstream religious and spiritual traditions, although I do draw from a number of those traditions where I think they are making a valid point, that is, a point of universal importance and one that is generally in the nature of a self-evident truth. Of course, a self-evident truth is not always readily apparent or discernible to people. However, once a self-evident truth is properly understood, you are justified in affirming it as true.

In a previous post I looked at mindfulness in the Christian tradition. In this post, I want to focus on some good advice from the Bible. It’s from the Hebrew Bible (the Old Testament). It is from both the Jewish and Christian traditions, but the advice is good for all of us, even for those who claim not to believe in a God.

The Hebrew Scriptures advise us to know God by becoming still: ‘Be still and know that I am God’ (Psalm 46:10).

Who or what is God? Some dubious theological construct, one that some people have made up in their minds in an attempt to explain the mystery of life, but which doesn’t actually exist in objective reality? Well, the Bible elsewhere refers to God as the One ‘in whom we live and move and have our being’ (Acts 17:28). For me, ‘God’, when I use the word, which is not that often, refers to the one universal Presence and Power active in the universe, the medium (that is, order or level of reality) in which all things have their very be-ing-ness. God, if you choose to use the word at all – and you need not – is the Supreme Being, and we have our be-ing-ness, our very existence, in that Being.

Back to Psalm 46:10. There is so much in that short verse. The first thing to note is the importance of being still, if we are to come to know and experience the larger reality that the Bible refers to as ‘God’. In explaining this verse to people I sometimes break it up like this:

‘Be still and know that I am God’

‘Be still and know that I am …’

‘Be still and know …’

‘Be still …’

‘Be …’

If you experience the verse – note that word ‘experience’ – that way I truly believe that you will come to know and experience what some choose to call God. You can call it whatever you like. It doesn’t really matter. As J. Krishnamurti used to say, over and over again, ‘The word [in this case, God] is not the thing.’ It’s the reality – the experience – behind and beyond the word that really matters. Indeed, it is all that matters.

One of my spiritual mentors was the late Dr Norman Vincent Peale. He helped millions of troubled people in his long lifetime. He gave some wonderful advice on how to still the mind and the body. He often said that you cannot still the mind until the body has become still. First, still--- that is, relax---the body, and then the mind will follow. Dr Peale wrote, ‘Sit still, be silent, let composure creep over you.' Then you will be still. That's why Psalm 46:10 says, 'Be still ...' It's not a matter of do-ing but be-ing.

Jesus preached the 'kingdom of God' (referred to in Matthew’s gospel as the ‘kingdom of Heaven’). For me, the Kingdom of God is that state of being and consciousness that is often referred to as the eternal now. There is an eternal, that is, atemporal, quality about the now. It is forever new. The present moment has its unfolding in the Now. The past is no more than the expression of a present reality, being a present ‘window link’ to the eternity of the Now. Any memories of the past are a present reality. It’s the same as respects the future, for any ideas about or hopes for the future are present ideas and hopes. You see, the present is simply that which presents itself before us in and as the Now. So, the present embraces past, present and future. What's more, the kingdom of God is not only a 'place' of inner strength and power, it's also a repository of stillness and quietude.

Back, once again, to Psalm 46:10. ‘Be still and know that I am God.’ First, the ‘knowledge’ spoken of is not book knowledge. Not at all. It is an inner knowing. Secondly, note those words ‘… I am God.’ Now, I am not saying that you and I are God, although I do say that you and I, as well as all other persons and things, have their be-ing-ness in God. Now, those words ‘I am God’. God is the Great I Am, that is, the presence and power of pure Being. What’s more, that pure Being is the very be-ing-ness of the person that you are.

When you enter the silence, you are approaching the very presence of be-ing – that is, sheer existence … the very livingness of life itself. The state of mind experienced in the silence is not one of passivity or non-action. No, it is a truly awakened state of mind and be-ing-ness in which all things are experienced as new and fresh in the omnipresent eternal now. 

In time, and with regular practice, the action of being fully and choicelessly present in the moment from one moment to the next – the essence of mindfulness and living mindfully – will quicken and intensify.

The essence of Christianity is the experience of coming to know God – the larger reality – in the form, and through the person, of Jesus. What’s so special about Jesus? Well, among other things, Jesus lived and was fully grounded in the eternal now. His strength, power and peace were the result of his being at-one with the source of all life and being, and his living fully in the eternal now. That is why he said, ‘My kingdom is not of this world’ (John 18:36). Now, as I see it, Jesus was not saying that his kingdom was on some supposed ‘higher’ order or level of reality. No, the kingdom of which Jesus spoke is one that that we enter when we live in the eternal now. It is the very reason why Jesus said that he had come.  ‘I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full’ (John 10:10). Abundant living. Living mindfully in the eternal now. Living selflessly. Living lovingly.

‘Be still and know …’

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MINDFULNESS IS MORE THAN JUST STAYING ALERT AND BEING PRESENT

Far too many modern writings on the subject of mindfulness over-emphasize the importance of staying alert and awake and being fully present in the now. Of course, those things are not unimportant. Indeed, they are of great importance. However, there is much, much more to mindfulness than just those two things.

There is a phrase often used in writings on mindfulness—‘choiceless awareness’. I often use that phrase but I was not its originator. I think I first heard the phrase used in the talks of the Indian spiritual teacher J.Krishnamurti [pictured left] but I can’t be even sure that he was the originator of the phrase. Actually, it doesn’t matter who first used those words. The important thing is what the words mean.

Choiceless awareness. The word ‘choiceless’ is of paramount importance. The task before us is to be aware of whatever may form the content of our awareness. The content—thoughts, feelings, memories, images, bodily sensations and so forth—is constantly changing. To be choicelessly aware is to be aware of whatever may be our internal and external experience. We cease to label that experience, or any part of it, as good or bad or indifferent. It just is. Such is life.

The American Buddhist monk Ṭhānissaro Bhikkhu [pictured right], in a short essay titled ‘Mindfulness Defined’, writes:

Equanimity means learning to put aside your preferences so that you can watch what's actually there. Patience is the ability not to get worked up over the things you don't like, to stick with difficult situations even when they don't resolve as quickly as you want them to. But in establishing mindfulness you stay with unpleasant things not just to accept them but to watch and understand them. Once you've clearly seen that a particular quality like aversion or lust is harmful for the mind, you can't stay patient or equanimous about it. You have to make whatever effort is needed to get rid of it and to nourish skillful qualities in its place by bringing in other factors of the path: right resolve and right effort.

Equanimity is a beautiful word. It even sounds lovely. Equanimity is defined as a state of psychological stability and composure which is undisturbed by experience of or exposure to emotions, pain, or other phenomena that may cause others to lose the balance of their mind. Serenity is another word meaning more-or-less the same thing. When we are disturbed by someone or something, our equanimity comes goes out the window. In order to have equanimity we must learn to simply stay with what is. We must learn to look, observe, and be prepared to ‘watch what’s actually there’. That means we must ‘put aside [our] preferences’. Ordinarily, we choose to be aware of some things and not others, and we refuse to watch those things we label as bad or even indifference. True mindfulness is staying with whatever may be the content of our moment-to-moment experience, without labelling or judging that content as good, bad or indifferent.

All this requires patience, as Ajahn Thanissaro points out. Patience is not something we develop overnight. I know that. I am 61 years of age and I am still trying to learn to be more patient. That’s where mindfulness practice can help. As we practise mindfulness we become more patient over time. I still need a lot more practice. I hope I live long enough.

Ajahn Thanissaro provides a helpful working definition of patience—‘the ability not to get worked up over the things you don’t like’, and ‘to stick with difficult situations even when they don't resolve as quickly as you want them to’. We all know that we are upset not so much by what happens but by our reaction to what happens. It’s our reaction that hurts us, and often our reaction is automatic and self-defeating. We all need more patience. The next time you find yourself upset, may I suggest that you do the following. Watch what’s happening. Stay with it. Follow it through. Self-observation leads to self-knowledge, and self-knowledge leads to self-cure. If you can stay with and simply observe the content of your experience, rather than run away from it, and not label or judge that content, you will gain insight into the workings of your mind. You will come to understand that you have always been your own worst enemy, for you, and you alone, are the originator and cause of your self-defeating behaviour.

Letting go is very important, but so is sticking with difficult situations that we would rather not face. Life just is.

Ajahn Thanissaro refers to ‘right resolve’ (also known as ‘right intention’ and ‘right mindedness’) and ‘right effort’ (also known as ‘right diligence’). Those two things are just two of the eight path factors in the Noble Eightfold Path. Right resolve leads to right understanding, right effort, and right attentiveness. It means, among other things, watching our thoughts, for as we think, so we are. Right resolve also means reflecting upon our thoughts, words and deeds. Are they true? Are they necessary? Are they kind? (That threefold test of the rightness or wrongness of any proposed words or deed is known as 'The Three Gates'.)

Right effort is fourfold in nature and involves the effort to prevent unwholesome qualities from arising, the effort to extinguish unwholesome qualities (for example, greed, anger and resentment, and lust) that already have arisen, the effort to cultivate skilful or wholesome, qualities (especially generosity, loving kindness, and wisdom) that have not yet arisen, and the effort to strengthen the wholesome qualities that have already arisen. Whether you are a Buddhist or not, right resolve and right effort are of extreme importance.

True mindfulness is more than just a calm acceptance of what is. It means being prepared to change what needs to be changed in one’s life and making the effort to make those changes. 

THE SECRET OF BEING CONSTANTLY AWARE

There is nothing as good, and as useful, as the ancient wisdom. We think we are so smart today, but have we really discovered anything as important and wonderful as what was known to the wise and holy men and women of old? I think not.

Mindfulness is all about being choicelessly aware of what is happening, inside and outside of us, from one moment to the next. Unless we are capable of doing that well, we are not truly present, that is, living in the now.

Here’s a snippet of wisdom from Tao-hsin (Dayi Daoxin) (Japanese: Dōshin) (580-651) [pictured right], who was the fourth Chán [Chinese Zen] Buddhist Patriarch:

Constantly be aware,
Without stopping.
When the aware mind is present,
It senses the formlessness of things.
Constantly see your body as empty
And quiet, inside and outside
Communing in sameness.

Constant awareness. Hmm. How often we drift off into mental movies of our own making! You know what I mean. We see something, or think of something, or something happens, and … a mental movie begins in which we are the star, bit player, director, producer, writer, cinematographer and editor. The result? We are no longer aware. Yes, we have lost direct and immediate contact with the here-and-now. We have stopped observing. However, if we can just look and see, that is, observe … without judgment, analysis or interpretation … what happens? Well, as Tao-hsin says, when the aware mind is present—choicelessly aware---we come to see the ‘formlessness of things’.

Now, what does ‘formlessness’ mean, I hear you ask? Well, ordinarily, the conditioned, undisciplined mind wants to attach itself to something, that is, some object or thought. It is wants to grab hold of something. Actually, your mind is pure consciousness or awareness in it pure, unconditioned state, so that when you truly observe there is not you, the observer, as well as the thing observed, there is just awareness—pure unadulterated awareness. Is that possible? Yes, indeed, but it takes practice. That’s where the practice of mindfulness comes in handy. When you learn to give your full attention to this moment—by simply removing the hindrances or obstructions to your so doing---you will find that your mind is really formless as are all things. You see, that is, really see … and perhaps for the very first time in your life there is just the seeing! That is what Tao-hsin is talking about. When we attach ourselves to things—including our very own thoughts and feelings—we are living in a world of forms. However, if we can look and see without attachment, that is, give our full, undivided attention to what is directly and immediately present, we come to see and experience what Buddhism refers to as the formlessness of things, including the formlessness of our own mind. Emptiness is another word.

Begin now. There is no time like the present. When you look, just look. When you hear, just hear. When you smell, just smell. When you taste, just taste. When you touch, just touch. Avoid the temptation to grab hold of something, that is, attach your mind to something. In truth, your mind can never attach itself to the present. If you try, you will always end up losing direct and immediate contact with the present moment as it unfolds ceaselessly into the next present moment, and so on.

And what of ‘communing in sameness’. What the hell does that mean? What is ‘sameness’? Is it something like formlessness or emptiness? Well, yes, more-or-less. Actually, in both Buddhism and Taoism (Daoism) sameness and difference go together. You can’t have one without the other. They coexist. In a very real sense, they are one and the same. Things are many and yet one; they are one and yet many. I am not you, and you are not me; and yet we are all one in essence. We all live and move and have our being in the one life which flows through all things and is the very ground of being itself. Non-duality, some call it.

Stop seeing yourself as separate from all other living things. In truth, you are not. We are all part of life’s self-expression. The life in you, expressing itself as you, is the very same life that is in me, expressing itself as me. It is the very same life that is expressing itself in and as all other living beings as well. The form that each one of us presently takes has changed many, many times in our lifetime, and it will change many, many times hereafter as well. Forms come and go, wax and wane, but the life in us … well, it is ceaseless …

Never the spirit was born; the spirit shall cease to be never;

Never was time it was not; End and Beginning are dreams!

Birthless and deathless and changeless remaineth the spirit for ever.

Those wonderful words come from Sir Edwin Arnold’s beautiful poetic version of The Bhagavad-Gita dubbed ‘The Song Celestial’. I often use them at funerals. The words are very powerful ... and very meaningful, and true, too.

The spirit of life is indeed formless and empty. It is the same wherever there is life, animate or inanimate. At its very heart, life is consciousness, and mind is consciousness. Look beyond the forms. True reality is formless. All things are interdependent and commune in sameness. We are immersed in a world of largely indeterminate flux—‘mind stuff,’ or ‘dream stuff’ in the words of the Polish-American physicist Wojciech Zurek—consisting of seemingly endless possible actions and a quantum field of potentialities. What emerges from that quantum field depends to a very large degree upon---consciousness! Yes, mind or consciousness is primary and fundamental, ‘the creator and governor of matter’, in the words of that great English physicist of yesteryear Sir James Jeans. And mind is formless and empty—well, the unconditioned mind is. How conditioned is your mind?

In the words of Tao-hsin, start sensing the formlessness of things. See your body as empty … and quiet inside and outside. Commune in sameness.

Calligraphy [below]: Emptiness.

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WHY MOST SELF-HELP BOOKS DON’T HELP

‘Who is the “I” that is going to change it? The “I” is also a habit,

the “I” is a series of words and memories and knowledge, 

which is the past, which is a habit.”

J. Krishnamurti, The Impossible Question.

Go into any book shop, or look online, and you will find self-help books galore. I have bought quite a few of them myself over the years. Most of them are a total waste of money. They don’t work. Why? Because most of them rest on an assumption that is completely false, namely, that what we call the self can change the self. It can’t.

We use the word ‘self’ in two different senses. First, we use the word to describe the ‘person’ each one of us is---the ‘real you,’ so to speak---and that is a most legitimate use of the word. However, we also use the word to refer to what we mistakenly perceive to be our real identity. Let me explain.

We perceive life through our senses and by means of our conscious mind. Over time, beginning from the very moment of our birth, sensory perceptions harden into images of various kinds formed out of aggregates of thought and feeling. In time, the illusion of a separate 'observing self' emerges, but the truth is that our sense of mental continuity and identity are simply the result of habit, memory and conditioning. Hundreds of thousands of separate, ever-changing and ever-so-transient mental occurrences—in the form of our various likes, dislikes, views, opinions, prejudices, biases, attachments and aversions, all of them mental images—harden into a fairly persistent mental construct of sorts. This construct is, however, nothing more than a confluence of impermanent components (‘I-moments’ or ‘selves’) which are cleverly synthesized by the mind in a way that appears to give them a singularity and a separate and independent existence and life of their own. The result is the ‘observing self', but it is little more than a bundle of remembered images from and out of which further thought and new images—yes, more of them—arise.

As mentioned, this ‘observing self’ consists of hundreds of other selves, each of which is an image that we build in our mind over time and in time. There is, for example, the angry false self (‘I am angry’), the jealous false self (‘I am jealous’), the fearful false self (‘I am fearful’), the unworthy self (‘I am a miserable sinner’), and so on. These selves—lots and lots of psychological ‘I's’ and ‘me's’ that collectively manifest as our ego-consciousness) are called false because they are not the real person each one of us is, but we mistakenly believe that one or more of these false selves---which are nothing more than self-images in our mind---are the real person that we are. In truth, all of these 'I's' and 'me's' have been created by thought. Indeed, they are thought--thought images, if you like.

Now, these false selves are illusory, not because they do not exist--for they do indeed exist as images in our mind--but because they have no separate, distinct, permanent identity from the person that we are, the latter being a mind-body complex that is ontologically real (the 'physical "I"'). Only the person that you are---a person among persons---is ontologically real.

We are self-conscious beings, and not only is there this ‘observing self’ in our mind—along with many other mind-invented selves—there is also an ‘observed self,’ in that the observing self (a subject) is able to ‘split,’ so to speak, and become an ‘observed self’ (an object). So, we have the ‘I’ subject and the ‘I’ object. But that’s not the end of it. Every like, dislike, view and opinion hardens over time into a little ‘self’, so we have hundreds of these selves in our mind at any one point in time. The ‘observing self’ can easily morph into the ‘judging self’, deciding which likes and dislikes we will keep, and which ones we will discard. Ditto views and opinions. The ‘observing self’ can and does also morph into an ‘analytical self’ which analyses our other false selves. At the risk of repeating myself, none of these little selves, has no separate, discrete, or independent existence apart from the person each one of us is. In that sense the ‘observing self’ is false and illusory. Worse, it is the very same self—any other false self---that is being observed. This is what it means to be trapped in the illusion of self---a false self, lots and lots of them, in fact. Listen to what the Indian spiritual philosopher J. Krishnamurti [pictured right] has to say about the matter. These lines come from chapter 12 of his book Freedom From the Known:

One image, as the observer, observes dozens of other images around himself and inside himself, and he says, 'I like this image, I'm going to keep it' or 'I don't like that image so I'll get rid of it', but the observer himself has been put together by the various images which have come into being through reaction to various other images. So we come to a point where we can say, 'The observer is also the image, only he has separated himself and observes. This observer who has come into being through various other images thinks himself permanent and between himself and the images he has created there is a division, a time interval. This creates conflict between himself and the images he believes to be the cause of his troubles. So then he says, "I must get rid of this conflict", but the very desire to get rid of the conflict creates another image.'

So, I hope you can see by now that self is indeed the problem. The self that wants to change is the very same self that doesn’t want to change. The self that observes is the self being observed. Self is always self and nothing else but self. As a former Archbishop of Canterbury, William Temple [pictured left], pointed out, ‘no effort of the self can remove the self from the centre of its own endeavour.’ The self that wants to get rid of the self that is causing problems in one’s life is the same self as the one causing the problems. Self cannot change self. The only way self can change is by morphing into some other self, but you still end up with a self, and what good is that, I ask you? In any event, a self, being nothing more than a mental image in our mind, has no power in and of itself in any event. That is why we need to rely upon some power-not-oneself.

Let me say it again. Self can’t change self, and that’s where most self-help books go horribly wrong. However, the person that you are can change, but where does the power to change come from if it doesn't come from one's negative, conditioned ego-self? Is it some person, some god or god-like figure who will step in and change everything for us? Well, there are some who assert that is the way out, but I beg to differ. One of the many things I like about Buddhism is that it says, in effect, ‘Only you, the person that you are, can get yourself out of the mess you have created for yourself.’

Here’s some more wisdom from Krishnamurti, again taken from chapter 12 of his book Freedom From the Known:

Any movement on the part of the observer, if he has not realized that the observer is the observed, creates only another series of images and again he is caught in them. But what takes place when the observer is aware that the observer is the observed? … The observer does not act at all. The observer has always said, 'I must do something about these images, I must suppress them or give them a different shape'; he is always active in regard to the observed, acting and reacting passionately or casually, and this action of like and dislike on the part of the observer is called positive action -- 'I like, therefore I must hold. I dislike therefore I must get rid of.' But when the observer realizes that the thing about which he is acting is himself, then there is no conflict between himself and the image. He is that. He is not separate from that. When he was separate, he did, or tried to do, something about it, but when the observer realizes that he is that, then there is no like or dislike and conflict ceases.

For what is he to do? If something is you, what can you do? You cannot rebel against it or run away from it or even accept it. It is there. So all action that is the outcome of reaction to like and dislike has come to an end.

Then you will find that there is an awareness that has become tremendously alive. It is not bound to any central issue or to any image -- and from that intensity of awareness there is a different quality of attention and therefore the mind -- because the mind is this awareness - has become extraordinarily sensitive and highly intelligent.

The answer is self-awareness—choiceless, non-judgmental awareness. You look. You observe. You are alert and aware. When you truly come to see—and know—that all of those false selves in your mind are illusory and have no power over you except the power you choose to give them by identifying with them—note carefully that word ‘identify’—you, the person that you are, will have become free of their grip upon you. 

Yes, you can and will be relieved of the bondage of self when you come to understand that you need no longer be a slave to self. Stop trying to change or eradicate your false selves. Freedom comes when you are no longer for or against whatever self is the supposed problem at the partiuclar time—that is, when you are no longer fighting against that self being in your mind nor are you trying to hold on to it. This is what is known as letting go. Others call it acceptance. Krishnamurti calls it ‘choiceless awareness’. The words don’t matter, only the reality behind those words.

So, what is the ‘power-not-oneself’? It is you—the person that you are—when, to quote Krishnamurti once again, ‘there is an awareness that has become tremendously alive’.

That, my friends, is the only kind of self-help that works.

Freedom From the Known.
J. Krishnamurti. Edited by Mary Lutyens. New York: Harper & Row.

Copyright © 1969, 2010 Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Limited,

Brockwood Park, Bramdean, Hampshire, United Kingdom.

All rights reserved.

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