TO SEE FAR, FIRST SEE NEAR

'To see far, first see near.’ That is the sound advice of the American spiritual teacher and author Vernon Howard [pictured left], whose books, lectures and talks have helped me greatly along life’s way.

Self-change begins with self-observation. Unless we have insight into our thoughts, feelings, moods and sensations we will stay the same. We may even regress.

Self-observation comes from a mindful attention to, and choiceless awareness of, the content of the present moment, from one such moment to the next. The word ‘content’ refers to both psychological and physical (including bio-physical) content—action both inside of us and outside of us.

In his insightful book Esoteric Encyclopedia of Eternal Knowledge Vernon Howard says:

To see far, first see near. Be mindful of the present moment, for it contains answers about future and past. What thought just crossed your mind? Are you now sitting before me with a relaxed or with a tense physical body? Do I now have your full or partial attention? Come close to home by asking questions such as these. Close questions lead to distant answers.

In those few lines Howard makes three very important points.

First, if we want to come to understand the ‘big’ things of life, we must start with ourselves and the content of our own mind.

Secondly, in order to ‘see near’, that is, gain insight into ourselves and the workings of our mind, we must be ever-mindful of the present moment. After all, the present moment is all that we have. A memory of the past is a present experience. A hope or expectation for the future is a present experience. Everything—and I do mean every thing—occurs in the present moment, and that, my friends, is where knowledge of yourself is to be found.

Listen to these oft-cited words from author and ‘disciple’ P D Ouspensky (In Search of the Miraculous) as he quotes his master George Gurdjieff [pictured right]:

The first reason for man's inner slavery is his ignorance, and above all, his ignorance of himself. Without self-knowledge, without understanding the working and functions of his machine, man cannot be free, he cannot govern himself and he will always remain a slave, and the plaything of the forces acting upon him.

This is why in all ancient teachings the first demand at the beginning of the way to liberation was: ‘Know thyself.’

The third point Howard makes, albeit somewhat indirectly, is this—self-knowledge comes from self-questioning. First, a mindful attention to, and awareness of, the content of the present moment. Then, self-questioning. What am I thinking now? What I am feeling now? What is my pain telling me? Where is this anger coming from? Am I paying attention? Am I aware of my awareness? These are the types of questions you must ask yourself. The answers you will receive—in the form of self-knowledge and insight into yourself—will literally astound you … and in time change you for the better.

Once a Zen master invited questions from his students. A student asked, 'What future rewards can be expected by those who strive diligently with their lessons?' The master answered, 'Ask a question close to home.' A second student wanted to know, 'How can I prevent my past follies from rising up to accuse me?' The master replied, 'Ask a question close to home.' Zen masters often gave that advice to students who ask the 'wrong' question. Actually, it was always the right answer to all their questions--the only right answer. Ask yourself a question 'close to home'. Don't try to solve the big mysteries of life and the universe. It will be more than enough for you--and me--to solve the mystery of ourselves. So, self-knowledge comes from ... asking questions close to home. As Vernon Howard says, 'Close questions lead to distant answers.'

Now, what I am now going to say is important, because some people get the wrong idea about all of this. I am not advocating self-absorption and self-obsession. Like Howard, my goal is to set people free—and most of all, free from themselves. Perhaps paradoxically, self-knowledge leads to freedom, not more self-absorption.

To see far, first see near. Ask a question close to home—right now.

Note. For more about Vernon Howard click here.

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DON’T PRETEND THAT YOU UNDERSTAND WHEN YOU DON'T, JUST LISTEN

For many years I taught law at a major university in Sydney, Australia. I still teach law, but not at the same place. I used to see my law students---thousands of them in total—do the very same thing I did when I was a law student back in the early to mid-1970s. They---as I did in my time---tried to write down in lectures everything that I said, or at least everything that they thought that I thought was important and needed to be known and regurgitated at exam time.

I well remember when I was a law student. By the way, the present Australian Prime Minister Malcolm Turnbull was in my law classes way back then. We all knew then that he would go places. For starters, he told us that he would. No, not exactly. But we all knew it. He was then the brightest fellow in the room, and he still is. But I digress.

Anyway, I would write down everything the lecturer said—well, as much as I could---often not fully understanding the complicated legal doctrines, rules and principles the lecturer was pontificating about. I always hoped that the lecture material would make sense to me when I got home. I would read and re-read my notes on the train going home but seldom would the stuff make much sense to me. So, when it came my turn to be the lecturer---I had learned a lot more about the law in the 15 or so years after leaving law school---I would say to my students, ‘Now, if you don’t understand what the hell I’m saying, please don’t write it down. Just listen. Listen carefully. Ask questions. Do anything, but don’t just write down what I say in the vain hope that it will all come together later, for it seldom will.’ Those last few words---'for it seldom will'---would frighten the heebie-jeebies out of the students, but that wasn't really my aim.

Here’s a little Zen story which is more than a little on the point. It goes like this. A monk came to the celebrated Zen master Pai-chang and asked, ‘What’s the most wonderful thing in the world?’ Pai-chang replied, ‘I sit on top of this mountain.’ Impressed, the monk paid homage to the master, ceremonially folding his hands. So, of course, Pai-chang hit the monk with his keisaku (stick). We all need to be hit at times with a keisaku---metaphorically speaking, of course. There are many ways of waking up to the real. I have always favoured the direct, hard-hitting, no-nonsense approach. Zap! Sock! Kapow! Whack! Whamm! (Shades of TV’s Batman.)

Now, the monk did not understand the import and significance of Pai-chang’s statement, ‘I sit on top of this mountain,’ but he felt he had to give the impression that he understood. We are just like that monk. Someone tells us a joke which we don’t quite understand, but which we assume is funny, so we laugh nervously. ‘Oh, that is funny,’ we say, hoping that the other person won’t notice that we don’t get the joke.

Life can only be experienced from within. No one can unlock the so-called mysteries of life for us---no priest, minister, guru or teacher. Direct, immediate and unmediated experience of the real is the only way to know and understand. We must learn to listen. That reminds me of J. Krishnamurti’s many encounters with his audiences. This would happen quite often. Krishnamurti would ask some metaphysical question, and someone in the audience would respond with some pat answer such as ‘There is no self,’ or ‘The knower and the known are one.’ Krishnamurti would snap back, ‘He is copying someone.’ The 'someone' was usually Krishnamurti himself. The pat answer annoyed him to no end. He hated having his own words thrown back at him. So do I as a lecturer. Well, maybe not the first time it happens, but certainly after a while it gets more than a bit irritating. Enough said.

Don’t copy. Don’t write it down. Don’t pretend to understand something when you don’t. Listen to the voice of the real—that is, the voice of experience as well as reason. Self-knowledge and self-understanding, gained from a life lived mindfully from one moment to the next, is worth so much more than all the book knowledge and so-called wisdom of the masters put together.


Note. The photograph at the top left of this post is of the author, on the occasion of his law graduation in 1978 at the University of Sydney.

MINDFULNESS AND SELF-KNOWLEDGE

We've all heard of the Ancient Greek aphorism 'Know thyself.' In mindfulness (also known as ‘insight meditation’), the important task of gaining knowledge---or insight---into ourselves takes on a whole new dimension.

A press release from the Association for Psychological Science (APS) on 14 March 2013 confirms that mindfulness can help individuals be more aware of their ‘self-knowledge.’ Erika Carlson (pictured left), a psychological scientist from Washington University in St Louis, has found mindfulness, when used in a non-judgmental way, can reduce barriers that prevent individuals from understanding themselves.

Mindfulness---paying attention to one’s current experience in a non-judgmental way---might help us to learn more about our own personalities, according to this new article published in the March 2013 issue of Perspectives on Psychological Science, a journal of the APS.

According to the latest research, two important components of mindfulness---namely, attention and nonjudgmental observation (also known as choiceless awareness)---can overcome the major barriers to knowing ourselves. Carlson argues that the motivation to see ourselves in a desirable way is one of the main obstacles to self-knowledge. For instance, people may overestimate their virtuous qualities to ward off negative feelings or boost self-esteem. However, non-judgmental observation of one’s thoughts, feelings, and behavior, might reduce emotional reactivity---such as feelings of inadequacy or low self-esteem---that typically interferes with people seeing the truth about themselves.

Resource: Carlson, E N. ‘Overcoming the Barriers to Self-Knowledge: Mindfulness as a Path to Seeing Yourself as You Really Are’, Perspectives on Psychological Science, March 2013, vol. 8 no. 2 173-186, doi: 10.1177/1745691612462584.

THE MINDFUL ART OF KNOWING ONESELF

Most of us---except those who, for reasons best known to themselves, prefer the 'unexamined life' (which, as Socrates supposedly pointed out, is not worth living)---want to know more about ourselves. We want what is often referred to as 'self-knowledge,' for with that, so we have been told, comes a certain 'power,' 'presence' and---most importantly---'peace of mind.' However, few of us have any real idea of how to gain true knowledge of who we really are.

Many people meditate, in various well-known ways, in order to gain so-called 'self-knowledge.' However, as the great Indian spiritual philosopher Jiddu Krishnamurti (pictured left) pointed out more than once, without knowing yourself there cannot possibly be a state of meditation. Meditation is self-knowledge. Self-knowledge is meditation.

That is why mindfulness meditation has one great advantage---it actually has several---over other forms of meditation where the ‘method’ employed is usually to sit still and concentrate. Mindfulness meditation, on the other hand, ‘happens’ while living, so to speak, and is applied to the whole of one’s life and daily living---from one moment to the next. It is meditation without ceasing---something like what the Apostle Paul (pictured below right) perhaps had in mind when he gave the advice to ‘pray without ceasing’ (1 Thes 5:17). True meditation has no ‘method’---it simply happens all by itself or not at all. It ‘happens’ when you simply---observe! Here is a YouTube video clip in which Krishnamurti and Dr Allan W Anderson have a discussion to find out what meditation truly is:

True self-knowledge means knowing the whole content of your mind and consciousness and the experience of your body---yes, every thought, every feeling, every mood, every sensation. And what do I mean by ‘knowing’? It means paying bare attention to, and being choicelessly aware, of every thought, every feeling, every mood, and every sensation, as they arise from one moment to the next, and observing where they come from. There must be no analysis, no judgments, no interpretations, no self-criticism. If you engage in any of the foregoing, you are no longer living in the present, you are back in the past---inextricably caught (indeed, bound) up in bundles of memories, belief systems, opinions, ideas and so forth. Bad stuff. You bet! Why? Well, it’s very simple. All those things prevent you---yes, prevent you---from experiencing life in all its directness and immediacy.

That is why I am totally and implacably opposed to religions and ideologies which require you to believe 'this' or 'that.' Unfortunately, Christianity, except in its more liberal, progressive and esoteric forms, is a religion of beliefs. Buddhism, Hinduism, Judaism and Islam are not, for the most part, religions of belief. You can be a Buddhist, Hindu, Jew or Muslim without holding any specific beliefs. Not so with Christianity, the two main creeds of which begin with the words 'I/We believe.' A so-called 'secular Christian' is an oxymoron if ever there was one, but there can be, and indeed are, secular Muslims, Jews, etc. As for ideologies, Marxism is an example of a belief-based ideology, but I digress. Forgive me. 

Beliefs are a menace to society---and a total, impenetrable barrier to true knowledge and wisdom. Beliefs are always someone else's 'version' of reality---the result of someone else's conditioned mind, mental habits and fragmentary thinking, that is, the past. There is nothing of any value to believe, and there is nothing to be gained by believing anything or anyone. Just observe. Then you will know---and understand. You do not need to believe anything, and if you truly want to know---don't believe! Beliefs, being 'mechanical' in nature, and constructed entirely of past thoughts, are for spiritual cripples---that is, those who can't, or won't, think for themselves. In that regard, I have always found helpful these words attributed to the Buddha: 'Do not believe, for if you believe, you will never know. If you really want to know, don't believe.' My point exactly.

So, we must merely observe, that is, be aware---choicelessly so---of the movement of the mind, otherwise you are back in the past---the so-called conditioned mind with all its baggage and wallpaper. Merely observe.

Of course, that’s not an easy thing to do. As soon as we become aware of something, we almost invariably start to analyze, judge, form an opinion as to whether or not we like it, and so forth. We get caught up in the movement of the mind, which is nothing other than the ‘self.’ As I have said many times before, the problem with the movement of the mind as self is that it is a veritable prison. Unless we are freed from the bondage of self, there is no hope for us. The thousands of ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s’ are nothing more memory and habit.

Krishnamurti denied the separate, independent existence of a ‘Self’ (with a capital ‘S’)---that is, a ‘Supreme Self,’ a ‘Big Self,’ a ‘Higher Self,’ or ‘Atman.’ For Krishnamurti, any such concept was ‘still within the field of thought.’ Possibly. However, the ‘Self’ of which I speak is simply the absence, or freedom from the bondage, of the thousands of ‘I’s’ and ‘me’s’ which, in themselves, have no separate, independent existence. As I see it, the ‘Self’ of you is nothing more nor less than the presence of the very livingness of life in you and as you---that is, the person that you are. End of the matter. I am not referring to anything ‘supernatural’ or ‘hocus pocus.’ When you get rid of the ‘little selves’---which are illusory in any event---you are left with the so-called ‘Big Self.’ It’s as simple as that---so please keep it simple.

Most self-knowledge is anything but knowledge of the person that you are. All too often, the knowledge is nothing more than the ceaseless, mindless, senseless activity of the waxing and waning I’s’ and ‘me’s’ which are solely the result of conditioned mind and thinking. The result of such ‘self’ observation? More and more bondage to self. More and more self-obsession and self-absorption. Not a good thing.

You are wasting your time meditating unless you understand the reality of what I have just written. Krishnamurti wrote that you must first establish ‘deeply, irrevocably, that virtue which comes about through self-knowing, is utterly deceptive and absolutely useless.’ Strong stuff, but undeniably true.

So, don’t engage in self-deception, which is just another way of describing what the world refers to as so-called 'self-knowledge.' The true ‘emptiness’ of which the mystics and the holy ones---in all religious traditions and none---have spoken comes from a total surrender, a letting go, of all desire to do anything other than to observe, to be aware, to know---yes, a letting go of 'self.' Freedom comes from the realization that only a free mind---a mind which is free from conditioning and beliefs of all kinds---can both enquire and know. The problem with most Westerners is that we have taken too seriously the ‘advice’ that we must analyze everything, form opinions, believe this or that, and so forth. It’s all self-deception and self-delusion. There is no ‘way’ to be free---and certainly no ‘path.’ The way to be free is to be free.

There is no ‘path’ to true self-knowledge. There is no ‘technique’ or ‘method’ that can be employed, so don't bother trying to find one---and reject all those so-called 'gurus' and 'teachers' who would try to teach (or sell) you one. If you are looking for, or relying upon, any of those things or persons, you will not acquire self-knowledge. You may acquire knowledge of ‘this’ or ‘that’---but no knowledge of the person that you are. I am deadly serious---as always.

Acknowledgment is made, and gratitude is expressed,
to the Krishnamurti Foundation of America, Ojai, California, USA.

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