Goodness

From a discussion of manners, as dependent on character and position:-

PROF: No one has any position anymore. They are all just like travellers! They are rough; there are no sharply defined roles. There may be some in London—I don’t know—but what you get in the street is just a rabble of travellers.
MINI: And when you get sharply defined roles, it’s hard to believe there is anything in it apart from business.
PROF: Absolutely. Yes. They’ll only be top business executives if they are smart.
ME: There always seemed to be a lot more in it (in the past) than that. There was honour, for instance.
PROF: Oh yes, there was a whole lot — all completely gone. People don’t believe it anymore. It’s not part of the moral setup anymore. Now, they’ve got a single standard, which is money.
MINI: We were looking at that recently, and thinking, “What does ‘good’ reduce to?” What is the meaning of ‘good’!
PROF: Yes, and I came up with a definition of which I am really quite proud:

‘Goodness in Humankind comes down to the ability to Experience Pleasure.’

Amazing. I never quite thought of it like that before.

ME: And religion is like the politics of goodness.
PROF: But religion has been sidelined today, so I don’t really think it’s relevant. It is not part of the mass mind today. It’s only a very small section that still believes it.
MINI: Religion is a little bit like conservatism — the idea is that you save up so you can have a real experience of pleasure at some other time.
PROF: You go without a little bit. Even Krishamurti mentions that: “Self-denial is part of the way.” All that that can mean is you are saving up; saving up for a better experience!
MINI: Christianity at root is: you can save up for the pleasure of heaven.

Later on, the subject of ‘fame’ was touched on, as well as the impossibility of talking to anyone due to emotional misunderstandings. I had been reading Alexander Pope, and thought that “in spite of Pope’s love of wordplay, if he were faced with the wordless, thought-free study, he would have ‘bowed-out’ and absented himself; in other words, he would have completely understood and ‘left the stage’,” but my words were taken by the others in a somewhat different light:-

MINI: When ordinary people get any inkling of the study, their immediate response is just to withdraw — “I didn’t see that,” or, “What they are talking about is nothing.”
PROF: Yes, and as far as the study is concerned, they thereby reveal that they are not, which is what they are! Don’t they? They don’t ‘bow out.’ They just....don’t! The creature isn’t really curious about the ultimate facts at all.
MINI: No, and you’ve illustrated why: the main point and focus is actually the pursuit of pleasure...
Prof: ...that fuzzy warm feeling that life’s alright.
But you can’t talk about this, because people will think you are condemning pleasure: “No pleasure. Right. OK.” Hopeless, with people! They would have to take an interest in this matter; if they don’t, you can’t do anything with them.
I mean, in my own case, it’s rather sad (said he, eyes glinting, looking anything but sad!) that I’ll never become famous (but doing his level best to sound pathetic). Because, awh, you know, I can’t actually promote the study in any way, and you have to admit, that’s a bit sad...
ME: Do you really feel that it’s sad?
PROF: Hmmm (childish indignation)
MINI: But I know that you would run a mile from anything to do with fame!
PROF: But wouldn’t I be chuffed if somebody approved of my sayings?
ME: I think you’d be happy.
PROF: Well that’s the same thing, isn’t it?
ME: I think it’s not so much the approval, as someone actually being able to understand and appreciate it. It’s more than approval.
PROF: More than approval?!
ME: Well, approval is just social.
PROF: You mean it’s an intensified sort of approval...
MINI: Of course, we’d be glad.
PROF: Let’s try and make a hypothesis, then, in which for once, what I say is approved of outside our little circle.
MINI: Yes, just suppose that XX Publications, instead of sending the usual rejection had said, “Yes, that sounds interesting. We agree. It’s time for a book about acknowledgement to be produced and written, and we’d like to see an outline, and please give us your ideas.”
PROF: Thank goodness they didn’t!! (Laughter) Well, because then you are obliged. You are obligated.
ME: But you could do it all very quickly.
PROF: Hmm, I’m not so sure if I was obligated.
MINI: Oh no! You’d do it very easily! We’d help you. We’ve got all the material.
ME: You take even a letter as an obligation, and answer it very quickly.
PROF: I s’pose that’s true.
MINI: Well for one thing, if there were interest shown, the point is, that it should not be directed to a personality.
PROF: Oh, absolutely. That’s what I would run away from: that’s the mistake - that’s a grave error of the first water. To focus on personalities: it’s what they do today a lot, and you know that it’s so distasteful. They think that by bandying names about they get people interested. If people are interested in that - they are just no better than chickens, pecking about for a grain of truth!

"The Perceived Cannot Perceive"* - Discuss

(From a letter to a friend)

"As to the presence or absence of selfhood, what is meant is that there can exist no absolute, objective entity, whether actually or purely cognitive. The reason of humans is, as you know, based quite firmly on belief in a probable infinity of discrete though interdependent entities, animate, inanimate or as yet unclassified, each doing its bit in an immeasurably vast scheme of things. To argue with such a view would be worse than futile, but it is possible to scrutinize it in the immediacy of presence, whereat it immediately dissolves.

"The notion that consciousness is personal is actually assumed; the assumption is also what we understand as selfhood. Ideas of trying to rise above the sense of personal centeredness ('enlightenment') must fail and plunge into the ocean of actuality. Eventually, one comes to suspect that the ever-searching thought process must give way to this unoccupied actuality."

* - a quote from Huang Po

Can you be present?

(26th April 2009)

People can't stand presence!

I don't know about creatures, but for people, it's an imposition to be present: "I have to sit here, being present! It's really unpleasant!"

To be present is unpleasant. Why? Isn't it fascinating to look at that? One might say that all creatures are made to move, and so keeping still doesn't appeal to them: but presence is not about being still.

Interaction between people could be seen to be artificially stimulated, mainly, to make it seem as if something is happening. That's the effect of a crowd. There is a more or less unspoken assumption that you have to keep building up a network of social connections in order to stay alive, and that if you don't things will get really difficult. This is what might be called a myth. In fact, all the bustle of crowds and connections just serve to conceal the fact of presence— because presence is torture for a human being!

So presence is largely unexplored. Every kind of excuse is thought up - thought up to stave off boredom, really, because boredom is really bad news - it ranks right up there with depression.

BOREDOM = the will to move freely, but frustrated by a sense of restriction.

There is a very strong tendency to feel frustrated and restricted. All sorts of things serve as restriction, even one's things. The whole existence as a human being seems to be a big restriction! There is a feeling of lots and lots of people and all their things; and an incredibly complicated argument which goes beyond all the people, too, into the animals, the whole thing just a squirming mass of confusion, trying to find itself, trying to get away from itself — except of course when we bring it home to mind. Then, though we are aware of it all, it has the quality of mind, rather than being a multitude of qualities and contradictions.

Cleverness and Stupidity

"When everything is easy, one quickly becomes stupid." —Maxim Gorky

"Struggle also stupifies, due to over-exercise of the will. Witness the state of the world." —Wing Galaxi

Absence of self is bliss

Presence of self is just a worry,

It's time to wake up to the fact of the very, very long demise of humanity. Humanity is a bad investment!

People are always trying to put together a future, and trying to feel positive about it. At the moment, it is very hard to feel positive about the future, hence the worldwide economic 'slump' - a lack of confidence in the ability to carry on exploiting the environment effectively.


(After watching, and enjoying the BBC's series 'Planet Earth') The existence of the wild animals is full of violence all the time. All their reproduction is done for that end - for the violence of the kill, or being killed.

'Man' is a pseudo-species: all ideas of species are man-made; they don't exist at all without man's explanation. Humans love to sort things. They are classification maniacs! What is the sum of all their classification? Nothing but the observer of it, and the observer, of course, is himself completely notional.


Anything that arises in the mind is a contender for fact.

What does that mean?

We are looking at the process of thought, here. And we don't want any metaphysics! Metaphysics is arm-chair living. We want something that works in daily life, not just a little bit of fly-by-night wisdom.

This study is far too subtle to be encapsulated, as for example, in a book. It's not something to learn, a way to 'progress' along, nor any kind of system of personal development in which participants get a little wiser every day (a process known as 'wising up').

The Drama of Living

Routine upset and disturbance, otherwise known as 'relationship,' is so common that probably, it is hardly even noticed most of the time. But the emotions involved so completely occupy the attention that the actual fact of life is obscured. Where ever is the opportunity, then, to wonder, "What is this actually all about?"

What is this actually all about? The sheep provide a clue. They spend all their time eating. For humans, too, eating and drinking are the main meaning. You carry on eating so that you can experience... what? Pleasure? But pleasure is fleeting. Pain? But that, too, must pass, if only into unconsciousness.

You begin to realize that there is nothing in this existence, really.

"People think that's terrible, that you're being nihilistic, defeatist, etc. But that's nonsense! It's the most marvellous thing you can realize, that there is nothing in this existence at all! I can say this, and look what I am surrounded with!" (A very orderly, cultured front room, with a Persian carpet and a roaring fire.)

Once again take the example of the sheep, who are constantly eating. Humans have put them to work, and they put in a full day, with no overtime! But in wilder pasture, sheep spend much more time resting. They like to find a good vantage point and just be. Their neurotic eating when contained together in a field is similar to the activities of people in cities.

It's true that the sensations of romance are strong and compelling. That's what keeps everyone hoping and waiting for the appearance of their dream, so that there is no chance of seeing through it, any more than the sheep!

But it is the finest thing in the world to realize that there is nothing in this existence! It doesn't stop one from doing and appreciating anything at all. But it clears away all the drama about 'me' and 'my life,' not to mention all the other people agonizing over their lives. It is a very profound perception - goes to the root of one's motivations, of one's being.

Observations

People don’t know about interacting these days. They are like machines, in which your presence is like a coin. You put in the coin and the machine starts up!

- People feel immensely insecure. And no wonder. A person's security is entirely social. Each person consists of other people. A person has to be given an inordinate amount of attention just to be there at all!

- It is amazing how rubbishy the assumed separate individual is!! (This is something for deep personal honesty, not public confession.)

- Humanity is a condition. You find yourself in a condition of humanity in which there appear to be too many of you.

- But you see, the BBC knows that people don’t want things to go right anymore, because they are absolutely addicted to things going wrong.