Truth is a Pathless Land

My interest in Krishnamurti began in 1986 when I learned of his death. The most quoted paragraph of this Indian philosopher was part of the news in the magazine: "Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path.” If, as this columnist thinks, Krishnamurti’s assertion is right, why are there so many religious dogmas and political doctrines that want to take possession over the 'truth'?
My enthusiasm for the writings of this thinker was highest. I read his biography (two volumes by British writer Mary Lutyens), I bought a dozen of his books, I studied and dug deep down in five of them, and I browsed through the remaining. When I shared with someone my intellectual adventure, his criticism was scathing: "I could not care less for an author who needs those many volumes to present his thought". My friend shook me because it sounds indeed paradoxical to write so extensively about a journey that has no maps, directions or distances.
Did I lose my effort? In no way. Rereading the Indian writer, first, and following the teachings of the Buddha, afterwards, I left my confusion behind.  Krishnamurti's speeches (many of his books were transcripts of them), like the Buddha’s discourses, far from being speculations about theories, are invitations to the observation of the contents of the mind by those asking questions to the speaker; listeners, during the dialogues, can parallelize within themselves the introspection that the speaker is suggesting. Readers may do similarly as they go through the written texts. Self-observation, I noticed then, is something that we seldom practice.
What is the territory of Krishnamurti’s ‘truth’? "Man is an amphibian who lives simultaneously in two worlds: the given (matter, life and consciousness) and the home-made, the world of symbols (where we make use of a great variety of symbol-systems: linguistic, mathematical, pictorial, musical, ritualistic…). Without such symbol-systems we should have no art, no science, no law, no philosophy... In other words, we would be animals”, says Aldous Huxley in the foreword to a book by Krishnamurti. Unfortunately, adds the English writer, certain symbols in the domain of religion and politics, when we act in response to them, they can carry humans to use the same forces that they have developed "as instruments for collective suicide and mass murder".
Thanks to the world of symbols, we understand a significant portion of the world of the given. However, while scientists already understand matter to a good extent and have glimpses of insight in the functioning of life, they are fully ignorant in the field of consciousness. The portion of the world of the given that scientists still cannot grasp is the ‘pathless land’ of the Indian Sage. It is there where some segments of the world of symbols -the religious dogmas and the political doctrines- find fertile ground to seize, with the tragic results we know.
What are our hypothetical not yet proven truths? Those we learned from our parents? The ones we were taught in school? The ones we copied from our adolescent friends? Those we read in some persuasive text? The ones we heard from some talkative speaker? Let us respond with caution because only the silent mind can be impartial.
“Truth cannot be repeated; when repeated it becomes a lie’, says Krishnamurti. He adds: “Take, for example, the feeling of love. Can you repeat it? When you hear the words 'love your neighbor', is that a truth to you? It is truth only when you do love your neighbor; and that love cannot be repeated but only the word. Yet most of us are happy with the repetition, 'Love your neighbor'. Merely repeating certain ideas is not reality”.
Religious leaders in their sermons and political leaders in their talks are repeaters of what they read in their sacred books or their doctrinal manuals (when not in their bank accounts). Do you think, patient reader, that your religious doctrine or your political creed is the 'truth'? If it is so, please read again the quote that opens this note and ask yourself, leaving aside the biases of upbringing: “Would this be 'my truth' if I had been handed over for adoption to foreign parents, on the other side of the planet, when I were just a newborn?”

Gustavo Estrada
Author of 'INNER HARMONY through MINDFULNESS MEDITATION' 

Why do so few People Meditate?

"Suppose you read about a pill that you could take once a day to reduce anxiety and increase your contentment. Suppose further that the pill increases self-esteem, improves memory, is all-natural and costs nothing. Would you take it? This pill exists and it is called ‘meditation’." Social psychologist Jonathan Haidt asks the question and answers it in his book 'The Happiness Hypothesis'. If it is so, why do so few people use such medicine?

Pretexts abound. The most common –I cannot concentrate– is, indeed, the best reason to start meditating. Cravings and aversions, the components of our redundant ego, are the cause of the resistance. The frantic and bossy redundant ego –"the monkey in the forest", for the Buddha; "the voice in your head that pretends to be you", for Eckhart Tolle; "the butterflies of the night, intrusive and restless", for Saint Teresa of Ávila –refuses to meditate.

After immobilizing our autonomous, essential self, the redundant ego deprives us from freedom of action and becomes the decision maker in charge in our life. What does mindfulness meditation do? Its continued practice downsizes the redundant ego, ends its controlling power, annihilates it eventually, and gives the power back to the essential self.

Mindfulness meditation was developed by the Buddha twenty-four centuries ago. In its basic form, the meditator sits motionless, with closed eyes, in a comfortable position and in a quiet place, for as long as possible, impartially observing his/her breath and returning the attention to it, whenever the mind wanders. There are several other approaches to meditation (raja yoga, zazen, transcendental...); these, however, are 'lower power pills'.

Mindfulness meditation is the most important part of the recipe the Buddha proposed for the elimination of human suffering –anxiety and stress in modern terminology–. Inner harmony, the ensuing destination of meditation, is the absence of suffering.

Neuroscience is beginning to understand the functioning of meditation. Neurons, the cells of our nervous system, which includes the brain, do not work in isolation. Instead, they are organized in ensembles or circuits that process specific types of information. Some groups order the execution of tasks or the escalation of their activity (excitatory circuits); others stop actions or diminish their momentum (inhibitory circuits).

From the physiological point of view, mindfulness meditation is an exercise in physical stillness (the easy part) and mental silencing (the hard part); as such, it is an intensive training of the inhibitory circuits that restrain our body and appease our mind. Following the rule of 'use it or lose it', the inhibitory neuronal circuits, when they are underused or ignored, become lazy or paralyze, and suspend their healthy role of control.

For example, if we continue eating, after being already full, we are overlooking the inhibitory circuit that says "enough!" If we go through a threatening incident and are still frightened long after the event, we are ignoring the circuit that commands "calm down now!" When the inhibitory guards notice that we are bypassing them, they get bored and stop working. Result? Gluttony, overweight, high blood pressure, cardiologist... Or unfounded fears, traumas, compulsive panics, psychotherapist...

The practice of mindfulness meditation turns on and off, repeatedly and intensively, the inhibitory circuits (distracted, inhibition off; focused, inhibition on) and, in a sort of neuronal calisthenics, it returns them to their normal functionality. Then the sweet tooth will be satisfied as soon he or she has eaten just the normal portion and the obsessive fearful will relax when the danger is gone.

With persistent practice of mindfulness meditation, several things begin to happen: (1) meditation becomes a pleasant task and a habit that does not demand effort to find time for it; (2) the meditator enters deeper and deeper levels of mental silence; (3) the faculty of awareness is strengthened; (4) health improves. These developments just happen; then, without us seeking it or being aware of what is going on, inner harmony spontaneously enters our life.

While the mind of a person is in the hands of the redundant ego, neither the teachings of the Buddha nor neurology will convince him or her of the benefits of meditation. Interested beginners need to jump instinctively into the water. Logic reasoning will never persuade the redundant ego to act. Do not limit yourself then, dear reader, to simply test this wonderful pill... Without much thought, start taking it today...  And every day.

Gustavo Estrada
http://www.harmonypresent.com/Armonia-interior