I didn't have much to report, so I just thought I'd post this quote that I enjoyed...
"Meditation is not a personal search for personal experience. Meditation is not the search for a transcendental experience which will give you great energy to become more mischievous. Meditation is not personal achievement sitting next to God. Meditation then is a state of mind in which the "me" is absent and therefore that very absence brings order. And that order must exist to go any further. Without that order, things become silly."
- J. Krishnamurti
I didn't have much to report, so I just thought I'd post this quote that I enjoyed...
6 comments:
Is it possible for this "me" to be absent while it is also present?
I am not allowed to say or think, "I'm absent," or "The me is absent." That doesn't give me any order.
When you are working, the self-reflexive "you" is absent, but Happy Boy Farms boss, your employer, sees you nonetheless.
Just because the "me" is absent doesn't imply that the product of this absence is morally justifiable or good.
If meditation has order as its telos, is the quality of this order better than the quality of alternative methods of order.
If so, how do you know, or what do you think...?
Hi Daniel,
Your pursuit of truth is very inspiring.
Olga.
Olga,
Thanks, I hope it can be inspiring. But, really I have no idea what I'm doing, and my life isn't really anything very heroic. - Just a crazy guy trying for a little glimpse of sanity.
Dear Anonymous,
I'm not Krishnamurti, so I can't claim to know what he meant by the statement. And, I might be at a loss to give you a good answer.
>> Is it possible for this "me" to be absent while it is also present?
I'm not sure what you mean by "absent while also present"? That's a trippy idea.
>> If so, how do you know, or what do you think...?
I don't think meditation is good or morally justifiable, or better than anything else that one could do with their time. I just think it is what it is - but I sure do love it!
Dear Daniel,
I start with the self-evident premise: "I'm always present."
I can't be literally absent, unless we are just talking about a feature of our cognitive process, as you are when the 'me' is absent while meditating.
So it is perfectly reasonable to be present and absent at the same time but with respect to two very different senses:
1. The physical me, concentrating on a particular work process, which may bump into other people.
2. The fuzzy cognitive feature that we've arbitrarily spoken of as me (which is a bit of a mystery) but which we might be able to call self-reflection.
In other words, meditation is NOT distinguished as a type of self reflection (thought) but rather non-thinking.
I tend to see some types of activities of concentration as meditation (learning to play piano, gardening, hiking). While we are thinking we are also doing, it is not so discursive as the imaginary breadth of self-reflection. The process of doing is so bodily, engages an entirely different kind of mindfulness altogether. Similarly, I don't think the mind is ever not thinking, but that meditation is just a regulation of an otherwise discursive process unhindered and unaffected by the focus of the body in motion.
>>I just think it is what it is - but I sure do love it!
It is what is it is ...And, I think It's great to have things we love in our lives as long as we are not using it as an escape.
Happy Meditating! :)
>>I think It's great to have things we love in our lives as long as we are not using it as an escape.
Following on this logic... if we're using it as an escape, then it's not great to have things we love in our lives? Should we then have a life devoid of things we love? he he... Personally, I think it's great to have things we love in our life... period.
Anyway, I thought maybe that's what you meant by "absent while present" - and yeah, I think that's what it's all about. To be absent while present, or present while absent.
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