Autumn Equinox

At the equinox day and night are of equal length. The Autumn Equinox is a time of abundance and celebration for the harvest.

In the autumn we are busy in our gardens clearing out the old and generally tidying up. Glennie Kindred suggests that we have a personal clear out of all that is no longer helpful in our lives, not just the physical things but also outworn modes of behaviour, old patterns and habits. Glennie and other authors suggest that this is a time to mend quarrels, to seek to bring harmony to the world and look to our relationships.

There is a well know phrase -

Be the change you wish to see

But to effect change we must understand the problem. Otherwise we are just trying to impose some ideal which is no more than wishful thinking and which ultimately must fail.

We need to see that we are the world and look at our own relationships because the society we live in is a reflection of these relationships.

“The relationship between man and man has created this, which we call society. Man is violent, man is self-centred, man is seeking pleasure, frightened, insecure, in himself he is corrupt and in his relationship whether it be intimate or not, this way of relationship has created this so-called society. That is clear, obviously. But we always try to change society, not change man who creates the society in which he lives. Please, this is logic, simple, clear. And the socialist, communist, capitalist and so on and so on have always tried to change this amorphous, abstract thing called society. But never tackled the problem of relationship between man and man. Right? Now can that be changed? That is the whole point.”  Krishnamurti On Relationship Page 142

When we understand ourselves and our relationships we will have created a new society. The dark time of the year is a good time for introspection and to look at our relationships. Not in a judgemental way or looking for a solution to problems but rather to understand our relationships and our problems. For help to do this I recommend that you read Krishnamurti “On Relationship”.

“We all want to change society… and you cannot possibly change it unless our relationship with each other is completely and radically changed. That is very obvious. But we always want to change the outer without changing the inner structure of the human mind.” Krishnamurti On Relationship page 153

“Suppose I have a problem. How do I look at it, how do I examine it, what is my response to it? So the problem is not important but how you approach it. Is that clear? Am I afraid of the problem? Or do I want to run away from it, or suppress it, or rationalize it? Or do I have a motive that I must find an answer to it? So I approach the problem with all my confusion, my uncertainty, my fear. We have to find out what your approach is, how you come to it. What is your motive? Your motive is to resolve it, if you are aware of that problem at all. You want to resolve it because it is painful. ” Krishnamurti On Relationship page 154

“Suppose I am selfish and I say I must not be selfish. That is, thought has brought about selfishness. It has structured selfishness. Then thought says, “I must not be selfish,” so there is a conflict between the fact and what thought wants it to be… So conflict arises between “what is” and “what should be”. The “What is” is fact, the “what should be” is non-factual. So can we drop the non-factual, the ideal, the “what should be” and only be concerned with “what is”.” Krishnamurti On Relationship page 156