Keeping Quiet

Now we will count to twelve
and we will all keep still.

For once on the face of the earth,
let’s not speak in any language;
let’s stop for one second,
and not move our arms so much.

It would be an exotic moment
without rush, without engines;
we would all be together
in a sudden strangeness.

Fisherman in the cold sea
would not harm whales
and the man gathering salt
would look at his hurt hands.

Those who prepare green wars,
wars with gas, wars with fire,
victories with no survivors,
would put on clean clothes
and walk about with their brothers
in the shade, doing nothing.

What I want should not be confused
with total inactivity.
Life is what it is about;
I want no truck with death.

If we were not so single-minded
about keeping our lives moving,
and for once could do nothing,
perhaps a huge silence
might interrupt this sadness
of never understanding ourselves
and of threatening ourselves with death.
Perhaps the earth can teach us
as when everything seems dead
and later proves to be alive.

Now I’ll count up to twelve
and you keep quiet and I will go.

Pablo Neruda

Self Worship

The division between bodies is only imagined;
The division between places is only imagined.
Truly, I’m Shiva, the one supreme Self.
How, then, should I worship? To whom should I bow?

Song of the Avadhut

Intelligence

This is purely and simply a machine functioning automatically. The mechanism is functioning in an automatic way but with an extraordinary intelligence that is there. It knows what is good for it. There is a tremendous intelligence which is guiding the mechanism of the human body and its interest is protection, to protect its survival. Then the senses become very important factors. They begin to function at their peak capacity without the interference of thought except when there is a demand for it.

U G Krishnamurti

Haven't You Been Listening?

I’ve told you all that constitutes the very core of Truth;
There’s no you, no me, no superior being, no disciple, and no Guru.
The nature of the supreme Reality is self-evident and simple;
I’m nectarean knowledge, unchanging bliss; I’m everywhere, like space.

Avadhuta Gita

Explosive Silence

You can never understand the tremendous peace that is always there within
you, that is your natural state. Your trying to create a peaceful state of mind is
in fact creating disturbance within you. You can only talk of peace, create a
state of mind and say to yourself that you are very peaceful, but that is not
peace, that is violence. There is no use in practicing peace or reason to
cultivate silence. Real silence is explosive. It is not the dead state of mind that
spiritual seekers think. That doesn't mean anything at all. This is volcanic in its
nature. It's bubbling all the time—the energy, the life—that is its quality.

U G Krishnamurti

Harmonising

The Great Function manifests itself without fixed rules. Meeting each situation on its own terms, it's never too soon, never too late. Thrusting, retracting, advancing, retreating - it all takes place beyond the realm of thought. When you're in harmony with Mind, arms and legs operate on their own.

Bankei

The Great Calamity

When this thing happened to me I realized that all my search was in the wrong
direction and that this is not something religious, not something psychological,
but a purely physiological functioning of the senses at their peak capacities.
You want to know what my state is and make it part of knowledge, i.e. the
tradition, but knowledge must come to an end. Your wanting to know only
adds momentum to your knowledge. It is not possible to know what this is
because knowledge is still there and is gathering momentum. The continuity of
knowledge is all you are interested in.

U G Krishnamurti on his 'Great Calamity'