Cursory Thoughts On Consciousness And The Mind

The process of thought is hurt. And how do you prevent future hurt? Not by resistance, not by withdrawal, not by becoming more and more hard. Do you want to wipe out your hurts? Or do you love your hurts? Do you want to keep your hurts? There is deep pleasure in keeping them because it keeps your vitality and energy, to hurt someone else. If you want to be free from all hurt what will you do?

As long as I have an image about myself, that image is going to be hurt. Is it possible to live without a single image? That means no conclusions, which is a form of image, no prejudices, all of these are images. At the moment that you insult me, which is at the moment you say something that is contrary to the image that I have about myself then you hurt me. Now at that moment when you are saying something that is harmful and hurtful, if I am aware of what you are saying, and give my total attention to what you are saying, then there is no registration taking place.

It is only when there is inattention, registration of hurt or flattery takes place. Now when says that you are a fool, can you at that moment, give your total attention. If you do then there is no hurt. The past hurts have gone in that attention. Attention is like a flame that burns out the past and present hurts. – Jiddu Krishnamurti | Extract from Public Dialogue 1, Brockwood Park, UK, 1976

Consciousness and the Contents of Consciousness

There is consciousness and then there are the contents of consciousness. It is when the awareness of the Mind, which precedes and therefore transcends consciousness, falls upon phenomena within the Mind – the contents of consciousness – that there is birthed consciousness. And it is from consciousness that there is birthed experience. The contents of consciousness include everything of perceptive experience, from sensations and emotions to thoughts and beliefs, as well as the complex associations between all of these as concepts. All that we experience is what we are conscious of, and what we are conscious of exists within the Mind. But prior to consciousness there is Mind, but when Mind becomes confused with the phenomenal arisings, with thought, then the knowledge of the pure and unadulterated Mind is lost, the Natural Mind as Bodhidharma called it. As the slumber deepens, we transition from the True Mind, the Natural Mind, to the false mind, the little mind, the distracted mind, the mind that is occupied with phenomena.

What is within your consciousness is, on the surface level of manifested Being, what you are. But this manifestation is a constant process, so rather than Being it is actually Becoming. There is no rest there for us when we are constantly arising and ceasing, constantly in a state of Becoming. The problem however, as far as stress goes, is self-identification with this. The nature of the self, as we relate to it, is a constant process that is in flux. It has no solidity, no permanence to it, no state of rest but only restlessness.

The essence of your consciousness is thought, which puts together this sense of I. Thought is a continual process, and thus, this sense of I is a continual process of arising and cessation, of Becoming. The emptying out of consciousness occurs through cultivating non-attachment with respect to the contents of consciousness, which is essentially to perceive phenomena as impermanent. And because all phenomena are impermanent, they are in a constant state of arising and cessation. But their arising and cessation is not just a description of individual being within the eye of perception, but rather, a holistic description of the interdependent nature of all phenomena. Through this expanded view of interdependence we see the empty nature of phenomena as lacking inherent reality. Because this I is composed of the continual process of phenomenal thought, it is to recognize the impermanent nature of the self, the empty nature of self and this sense of I which we identity with. In this case, we are at last in harmony with nature, with true perception.

The Dreamer Awakening

It is because of a deep sense of loneliness and disconnection within that the Mind engages in constant distraction. It is an attempt to be occupied with everything except that discomfort within. And then when the Mind mistakenly self-identifies with the contents of that internal chatter and distractive process then the false self arises and we enter into a catastrophic delusional state that requires its constant maintenance. This entire process is exhausting and stressful, and drains us of our energy. But when you attend to the chatter of the Mind, not attempting to control it, as Krishnamurti says, merely observing it, staying with it, then you will experience transformation. The awareness of the Mind will move beyond the chatter and to the reason for that chatter, which is the pain within. And when we once again attend to the discomfort, to the agitation, to the pain, and then to the sense of loneliness and absence, then we can once again move beyond it. By being with the loneliness, you will notice that you are not alone, for in attending to it and being with it, it ceases to be the case that are you alone. This is the introduction to the notion of an immaterial presence, of the dreamer who observes, and it opens up for us the fundamental questions of the mysterious nature of Being.

It is when the awareness of the Mind no longer falls upon the contents of consciousness that there is the absolute cessation of consciousness. In the cessation of consciousness does the Mind become truly quiet, not asleep but awakened, entering that profound state of Sacred Silence as some traditions call it. Then it is in a state of pure observation, without judgement.

Then only the Mind, the whole structure of consciousness, being free is capable of looking at itself without distortion as you see in a clear mirror your face. There is no distortion unless the mirror is distorted. Distortion takes place when there is effort, effort implies “me” and something “I” am going to achieve; there is division between “me” and “that”. Wherever there is division there is conflict. Meditation comes only when there is the complete ending of conflict. – Jiddu Krishnamurti | Extract from Public Talk 4, Brockwood Park, UK, 1976

When the awareness of the Mind falls upon itself then the dreamer awakens, and thus begins to be aware of the dreamer. True perception ends the constant process of Becoming, regardless of how slow this realization may occur within the Mind, and at the end of this process of Becoming there is simply Being, where Being is beyond all material categories. Then one may be simply satisfied and content; it is to observe the body while recognizing that one is not the body per se.

Striving Beyond the Body

But this cannot be done unless there is the intention to achieve it, and there is no intention to achieve it until there is drive, and there is no drive until there is motivation. As Krishnamurti explains, we cannot give up something that gives us a deep pleasure, a pleasure that is rooted in attachment, in need, in dependency. The motivation to remain attached to the body, to self-identify with the body and with the corporeal, exists as the status quo within us. This status quo is the desire for the pleasure of remaining attached and fixed, locked up and chained within a comfort zone, within a prison. But if we form a desire for freedom then there is born motivation to cultivate our way to freedom, and thus there is the drive towards the effort for achieving freedom. And once there is this drive, then there is the intention to achieve freedom.

The pleasure of attachment is only an effect of the belief that without the self there can be no experience, no existence, no reality. And so, to cling to life we cling to this material conception of self. And we also cling to the various objects of attachment that guarantee, at least in our minds, the endurance of self perpetually. What maintains the self is what we call self-absorption with respect to emotions and thoughts and actions; our emotions and thoughts and actions come to revolve completely around the self and its preservation. The opposite of this is to be totally in the present moment, without anxiety and without fear, and without the movement of thought that arises out of the attempt to soothe and distract. And so, the reason why we find it so hard to be grounded in the present moment is precisely due to self-absorbed activity within us due to the presence of a deep pain and discomfort.

Our bodies emerge from the natural environment. To become grounded in nature is to become more deeply rooted in our own bodies. But the physical body is like a tree. Just like the tree indicates an entire system of roots beneath the soil, the physical body indicates the unseen metaphysical world behind it – the order, the intelligence, consciousness, the ability to make value judgments and to discern, all together there is the Divine sign of intelligence. And so, when we connect back to nature, there is something felt that seems to permeate it. We are experiencing our soul in nature, a sign of the transcendent reality behind all of existence. By connecting back to nature we are able to intuitively perceive the Divine. So to focus on the material self is to forget the True Self, which is undefined and without a category of existence. It is immaterial, and in this state, we feel connected to others and to nature.

Trauma and Self

From a psychological perspective, we understand trauma as disconnection. As an experience, it is often described as depersonalization; what is happening is that the sense that our own Mind is the generative source of reality and experience is diminishing. This diminishing is a sort of fall from grace from a higher conscious plane; we are becoming less and less lucid, and increasingly unconscious. Regardless of how acute or subtle this is, it is traumatic. A constant state of distraction slowly conditions us away from being grounded in the present moment of life, and instead, conditions the awareness onto illusory mental distractions that ceaselessly arise within the Mind. Rather than a dramatic and painful event leading to traumatic disconnection, the disconnection takes place slowly so that it is normalized within us. Only then, later on when the anxiety and the agitation and the discontentment reaches a boiling point is there a dramatic display of trauma later on in life; a midlife crises, a mental breakdown, lashing out at others, it all reflects our own state.

Krishnamurti says “On the other side of being hurt is flattery.” On the other side of feeling invalidated by others is the desire to feel validated by others. One must, therefore, destroy one’s desire to be validated by others, but to do this requires understanding of the belief about oneself that leads one to desire validation from others in the first place. It is the belief that one is inherently inferior, of lower existential value. But this perception on the level of our psychology is rooted in a perception about the nature of Being on an ontological level; that we define ourselves by certain physical parameters that it cannot be helped that we be compared to the physical parameters of others. After all, physical parameters are mutually relational concepts, that for one physical trait or parameter or indicator to have value, other traits must be shown to have lesser value by comparison. When we fall into this way of perception, the poison of comparison, with respect to human value then suffering is inevitable.

And sometimes this belief can go unnoticed until we come across the type of person who can reveal it within us simply by virtue of who they are. We are, after all, like mirrors for each other. We see in others what is in us, but certain states that pertain to the deepest levels of Being require the highest degrees of perception. A person who defines themselves by external validation, especially if they are adept at it and possess qualities that enable it more easily for themselves, is a very clear mirror for us about our own inclination towards this. Mirrors project the image in the opposite orientation, and so it releases within us the anxiety of resentment and envy that is present in them, except that in them it is in a sense of accomplishment and entitlement; on the other side of these emotions are their opposites.