An Illuminating Meditation (Part I)

What is true meditation?

If you are confused about the practice of meditation, it makes sense to turn to the wisest for guidance.

I must count Jiddu Krishnamurti as one of the best teachers on meditation that I have encountered in my readings.

Rather than just encourage you to read one of Krishnamurti's books (most of which are transcriptions of his talks), I have selected one of his talks and  what I believe to be the salient points and then put them together in an easily accessible and readable format.

The problems with this approach are immediately evident:

1. As an unofficial editor, my biases and the limitations in my understanding are heavily involved in the redacted version.
2. Perhaps inadvertently, the removal of material may change the original meaning and intent of the teacher.
3. The reader may be mislead into thinking that the essence of the teaching is easily distilled and that there is no need to explore more fully the writings of the teacher–much as a college student may be tempted to skip reading a classic of literature because he or she has read the Cliff Notes version. Clearly, much value would be lost in such an approach.

Nevertheless, I still think there is a benefit in creating an invitation to explore more fully what Krishnamurti has to offer on the question of how to live a full and satisfying existence.

In the interest of fluidity, I will not indicate gaps in the text or necessarily hold to the original formatting. I will also add comments or emphasis when I think such editorial intrusions will help clarify the distilled message. These changes and additions are documented in the footnotes.

My hope is that the end result will be a useful tool in an individual's quest to conquer happiness by living up to his or her fullest potential.

There Is A Job To Do

In an interview given when he was 90*, Viktor Frankl talks about the conquest of happiness:

"What the philosopher and lunatic had in common, Frankl went on to explain, is the certainty that happiness can be attained by furious pursuit and a consequent rage at the unsatisfying results. His useful word for this is 'hyper-intention,' a tendency that only inflames what is usually the real problem, our own self-centeredness. 'Everything can be taken away from man but one thing–to choose one's attitude in a given set of circumstances, to choose one's own way.' The sane are those who accept this charge and do not expect happiness by right. Thus Frankl's own 'logotherapy,' which views suffering not as an obstacle to happiness but often the necessary means to it, less a pathology than a path.

"Logotherapy amounts in nearly all situations to the advice, 'Get to work.' Other psychologies begin by asking, 'What do I want from life? Why am I unhappy?' Logotherapy asks, 'What does life at this moment demand of me?' Happiness, runs a favored Frankl formulation, 'ensues.'"

The great Trappist monk, Thomas Merton, also makes this point:

"You do not need to know precisely what is happening, or exactly where it is all going. What you need is to recognize the possibilities and challenges offered by the present moment, and to embrace them with courage, faith and hope."

In conclusion, if you are seeking happiness you will not find it. Nor will it drop from heaven, manna-like, into your out-stretched hands. If you wish to conquer happiness, you will have to follow the advice of Frankl and get to work. When happiness does come calling, it should find you quietly working in the garden of your own mind as you observe this fantastic universe around you and carefully consider what relationship you have to it and it has to you.

 

*Viktor Frankl at Ninety: An Interview by Matthew Scully – First Things April 1995

Unbeliever

Eric Hoffer, the wise longshoreman and author of The True Believer, was no true believer himself:

"I don't have to believe in him

I live with him.

Jehovah, man's most sublime invention

Is my God,

He is with me in all my thoughts,

And I treat him as a God and not as an errand boy;

To fetch what I need,

Or nurse me or defend me or comfort me.

No! He and I discourse about the wonder that is man,

That I am in him and He in me."

A Cultural Connection

What is the difference between imitation and emulation?

In The True Believer, Eric Hoffer writes that imitation "is often a shortcut to a solution. We copy when we lack the inclination, the ability or the time to work out an independent solution."

Emulation is the opposite of imitation. To emulate an admired individual is to use a superior example as an inspiration for discovering on one's own the answers to many of life's questions. The superior individual encourages us to tackle the problems we face in a unique and creative way.

Through emulation, it is not uncommon for the disciple to overtake the master, to lead the way, and to take his turn as an inspiration to others.

This form of mutual encouragement is the driving force of cultural creativity.

A Characteristic Ending

If character is destiny, no character is tragedy.

A Grateful Realization

Enlightenment is the shocking realization that you actually exist.

Until you have this realization it is not possible to be truly grateful for only life can give thanks for life.

An Unnatural Point of View

Man begins where nature ends; nature and man can never be friends.--Thomas Hardy