Be who you really are

"A violet can never become a rose, but the violet in itself can be a perfect flower." Krishnamurti

Yoga will help you to discover the real you and to realise your potential. You don't need improving - you just need to let go of the less than useful ideas and habits that you've accumulated about who you are and how you should be. 

Yoga will help you do that. It will bring about change but in its own way and in its own time. It is not possible nor desireable to predict the changes as each person's journey is their own. Typically you will experience improvement in your physical, mental, emotional and spiritual well being but at times there may be some discomfort because change takes us outside of our comfort zone. You may find yourself challenged in unexpected ways while at other times you will find yourself suprised and delighted.

Yoga with Anne is here to support you in your practice, to help you with understanding gained through observation, self-practice and studies with my teacher, Diane Long. Anne specialises in teaching to small groups and one to one to offer more personalised support. You may join one of her regular groups or arrange private tuition. For more details please visit the Yoga with Anne website.

Thow away Jung!

"When you observe the fact without knowledge, then you can learn...

So I have to throw away not only Freud and Jung, but also the knowledge which I have acquired about myself yesterday."

J. Krishnamurti in "Meeting Life" Page 57

November 11th

From Poppies

The earth on which we live is our earth - right? It is not the British earth, the French earth, or the German, Russian, Indian, Chinese, it is our earth on which we are all living. That is a fact. But thought has divided it racially, geographically, culturally, economically. That division is causing havoc in the world... It is our earth on which we are all living but we have divided it - for security, for various patriotic, political, illusory reasons, which eventually bring about war.

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 73

Krishnamurti on being attentive

I subscribe to JKOnline's daily quote. Here is the quote I have received for today.

"I am learning about myself—not according to some psychologist or specialist—I am watching and I see something in myself; but I do not condemn it, I do not judge it, I do not push it aside—I  just watch it. I watch that I am proud—let us take that as an example. I do not say, “I must put it aside, how ugly to be proud.”—but  I just watch it. As I am watching, I am learning. Watching means learning what pride involves, how it has come into being.  I cannot watch it for more than five or six minutes—if one can, that is a great deal—the next moment I become inattentive. Having been attentive and knowing what inattention is, I struggle to make inattention attentive. Do not do that, but watch inattention, become aware that you are inattentive—that is all. Stop there. Do not say, “I must spend all my time being attentive”, but just watch when you are inattentive. To go any further into this would be really quite complex . There is a quality of mind that is awake and watching all the time, watching though there is nothing to learn. That means a mind that is extraordinarily quiet, extraordinarily silent. What has a silent, clear mind to learn?"

 J. Krishnamurti The Impossible Question, pp 25-26

 

Wyrd!

An arduous task

In light of the previous post the following words from Krishnamurti seem relevant.


"To look at oneself without an attitude, without any opinion, judgement, evaluation, is one of the most arduous tasks."

J. Krishnamurti in "On Nature and the Environment" page 54

 

Isn't it suprising how pertinent words find you. A short while ago I started the Little Pearls Blog a collection of inspiring and insightful words. (Almost) every day I add a new quote. As I read I note down quotes for future use. It suprises me how often quotes from different sources seem to follow a theme. Maybe it's what the universe wants me to hear right now. Maybe my psychological state makes me more likely to take notice of such words. Maybe they're the same thing anyway.

Without the word, is there feeling? | Daily Quotes Arquive - J. Krishnamurti Online

I've signed up to receive a quote from Krishnamurti's teachings every day. I received this one today which I'd like to share. K is talking about envy but you can extrapolate to any feeling which we label.
Without the word, is there feeling? | Daily Quotes Arquive - J. Krishnamurti Online

Shared via AddThis

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

Krishnamurti Quote of the Day

If you're at all interested in Krishnamurti's teachings you can sign up to receive a quote each day. Click on the subscribe button which is bottom right on the home page of J. Krishnamurti online. Here is today's quote:

Observe for yourself how the brain operates. It is the storehouse of memory, of the past. This memory is responding all the time, as like and dislike, justifying, condemning and so on; it is responding according to its conditioning, according to the culture, religion, education, which it has stored. That storehouse of memory, from which thought arises, guides most of our life. It is directing and shaping our lives every minute of every day, consciously or unconsciously; it is generating thought, the "me", which is the very essence of thought and words.The Impossible Question, p 71

On Relationship

I have been reading “On Relationship” by J. Krishnamurti. It is a collection of extracts from talks and dialogues with Krishnamurti between 1940 and 1981 on the theme of relationship.

Krishnamurti was adamant that people should go to the source of teachings and find out for themselves rather than take notice of the interpretations and commentaries of others so I am not going to try and summarise the contents of this book.

"The teachings are important in themselves and interpreters and commentators only distort them. It is advisable to go directly to the source, the teachings themselves, and not through any authority." Krishnamurti

I do recommend that you read it for yourself. I have an Indian edition that I picked up a few years ago in Watkins in London but you can get a copy from the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust online shop or you can get a second hand copy from Amazon
Here is an extract from a talk at in September 1979 which I feel summarises the enquiry we embark upon when reading these teachings.

“So what is relationship, out of which we have made such a tremendous problem? Relationship means to be related to another, to one or to many or to the whole of mankind. Oh, you don’t see it! Why is there not in this relationship peace, a depth of understanding of each other that brings about love? Why isn’t there? The sexual relationship between two people, a man and woman, is called love. Right? For God’s sake don’t let us be hypocrites, let’s face these things! It is called love. Is it love? Or is it the demand for sensory satisfaction, the demand for companionship, the demand that is born out of loneliness, the demand that says, “I cannot be alone. I cannot stand this immense solitude in myself, therefore I must have somebody on whom I can depend psychologically.”


For me everything really came together in a large extract from a talk given in Bombay in January 1981 (25th according to the book, 24th according to http://www.jiddu-krishnamurti.net/. The full transcript is available online. The book contains the final passage starting “Society is an abstraction…”

Here are a few more quotes from this talk:
“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.”
...

“So come to the point: why do human beings never change? This is an important question.”
...

“You listen to all this, does this listening bring about an abstraction called an idea, or in the very act of listening you see the truth of it? Which is actually going on in your brain? Seeing the actual truth or listening and making an abstraction of it into an idea and therefore the idea becomes all important and not the fact, which is what is going on.”

Yoga without a label

When we visited The Krishnamurti Centre they gave us a copy of the latest issue of The Link. According to its editor, Javier Gomez Rodriguez 'The Link is a literary contribution to the global dialogue around K's teachings and a source of general information on many of the related organisations and their activities. It is an open and international forum for the expression of diverse approaches to the teachings, some more experiential and others more philosophical, including current discussions on consciousness and education. It aims at maintaining a high quality with an eye to the authenticity and insightful nature of the pieces published and always includes excerpts of original K material.' You can read The Link online.

In a letter to The Link Lionel Claris, a former student at Brockwood Park School, differentiates between K's teachings and living the teachings. He argues that while the name of Krishnamurti can be linked with the teachings to link the name with the work of living the teachings is a form of propaganda and could lead to corruption of the teachings.

When I read his letter I thought of Vanda Scaravelli, author of 'Awakening the Spine', and what has come to be known as Scaravelli Yoga. Vanda was a great friend of Krishnamurti for nearly 50 years, from before her marriage until K's death in 1986 and K's teachings are very evident in her work. Diane Long, who has helped me greatly in my practice, studied with Vanda for over 23 years. Diane says that Vanda did not want to create and give her name to a style of yoga and that she was simply interested in the work itself. None of Vanda's students say they do 'Scaravelli Yoga' and neither do any of their students as most are aware that this is not what Vanda would have wanted.

"the mind should not be rigid or tied to traditions or patterns, but open and supple, even ready to change directions."

"BE CAREFUL, VERY CAREFUL about organizations. Yoga cannot be organized, must not be organised. Organizations kill work."

Vanda Scaravelli in 'Awakening the Spine'

However there is a tendency, and I've done it myself, to use such phrases as 'inspired by Vanda Scaravelli' and 'in the Scaravelli Tradition' to describe the way that we work and teach. What I hadn't understood was that it's not just about Vanda not wanting to create a style of yoga, which would fossilise it and turn it into something habitual and mechanical, but it's also about me. While I may not use the term 'Scaravelli Yoga' if I use her name I am still associating myself with her whatever the words I use. By associating myself with someone bigger, better, more famous etc. I feel more important, comfortable and secure. But it separates me from others who are not in this 'club' and leads to feelings of superiority. By associating myself with Vanda's name not only am I corrupting her teachings but, as yoga is interpreted as union, I am not even doing Yoga.

"When you are seeking status in function, then to you status is far more important than function, and hence in that there is conflict inwardly as well as outwardly." Krishnamurti in 'On Relationship'

Lionel says that when he left Brockwood Park his intention was to recreate the quality of being that he had found - without its label. He has managed to practice his understanding of K's teachings without using the name Krishnamurti much.(Read Lionel's full letter on page 14 of issue 28 of The Link ) So the challenge for me and for all of us who study Vanda's teachings is to do the work without name dropping.

Visit to the Krishnamurti Centre

Yesterday Mark and I went to The Krishnamurti Centre at Brockwood Park in Bramdean, Hampshire for An Introduction to Krishnamurti day. The Centre is a place where people go to study Krishnamurti's teachings. It is run by the Krishnamurti Foundation Trust whose role is "to see that these teachings are kept whole, are not distorted, are not made corrupt. They will not give rise to any sectarian spirit in their activities... nor create any kind of place of worship around the teachings or the person." We had both been wanting to visit The Centre for some time now but until yesterday had not been able to attend any of the Introduction Days (not that you have to go to one of these days first - you can visit any time the centre is open).

The eight of us attending the day gathered in the lounge where we helped ourselves to tea or coffee and biscuits. Our guide for the day was Shakuntila. Shakuntila was a teacher first at the Rishi School in India and then, for 15 years in the 1970's and 80's, at Brockwood Park School. It was great to be shown around by someone who had actually known and worked with Krishnamurti. Our day began with a tour of the centre's beautiful, spacious building which was designed by Dr. Keith Critchlow. Kishnamurti himself was involved in the initial stages of the design and the building was completed in 1987 the year after his death.

There is an amazing meditation room. Guests are asked not to visit this scared space during the first day of their stay so that they bring quiet to the space rather than going there for the quiet (but not to worry as there are plenty of quiet places). The centre also has a library, areas for watching videos or listening to tape recordings of Krishnamurti's talks and discussions, a book store, a spacious lounge and dining room (quiet table available) and a magnificant kitchen as well as the Foundation's offices and guest accommodation.

The photos above show our first glimpse of the building and the central courtyard. Visit The Centre's Home page to see more images of this special space.

The tour was followed by a slide presentation about key events in Krishnamurti's life and after a refreshment break we watched a video by Professor Allan Anderson in which Krishnamurti's main teachings were outlined. The video included many clips of talks and conversations with Krishnamurti.

We then enjoyed a delicious lunch which included produce grown in the garden of the centre. Over lunch we chatted to some of the other guests. Some had come for the day while others were staying for a few days (the centre has 19 bedrooms). All appreciated the fact that there is no guidance or structured activities and that they were free to enjoy the peace and tranquility in their own way... going for walks, being on their own, being quiet, reading, watching recordings of Krishnamurti's talks or talking with other visitors and the staff. The centre does also run a number of themed weekends throughout the year where guests can get together to discuss the topic.

Fortunately there was then time for a quick visit to the bookshop before we reconvened :-) I bought 3 books (Letters to a young Friend, On Nature and the Environment and Meeting Life) and a DVD of two talks between K and Anderson ( A Wholly Different Way of Living Talks 17 & 18 Meditation, a quality of attention that pervades all of one's life & Meditation and the sacred mind).

When we had all gathered together again Shakuntila took us through the gardens to the school for a tour of the buildings. The grounds are fantastic. We walked through the Rose and Vegetable Gardens to reach the school buildings which are in the old house. The Vegetable Garden is amazing and very beautiful. The 1.5 acres are tended by two gardeners with help from volunteers. The produce from the garden is used in both the centre and the school and manages to supply 1/3 of  the school's veggie requirements). The school has around 60 students above the age of 14 from all around the world. What a special place to learn! Of note is the Art Barn - another fantastic building designed by Keith Critchlow. From the school we walked through the playing field to The Grove with it's giant sequoias, oaks, rhodedendrons, azaleas, camelias and other trees planted in the 18th century. Apparently this was a place that Krishnamurti loved.

We returned to the centre through the gardens for afternoon tea and a final Q&A session. Talking to Shakuntila we discovered that she stayed with and did yoga with Vanda Scaravelli in Italy! Next time we meet we will talk about yoga.

Mark and I both intend to return to this very special place to study, and be quiet and to enjoy it's tranquility.

Keep interested, stay young!

I am reading 'On Relationship' by Krishnamurti. It is a collection of extracts from various talks, dialogues, journals and letters of Krishnamurti from 1940 to 1982. The following quote, from 16 June 1940, reminded me of the way I practice yoga.

"Mere control with its peculiar training has its dangers, as it is one-sided, incomplete, and therefore shallow. Interest brings its own natural, spontaneous concentration in which there is the flowering of understanding. This interest is awakened by observing, questioning the actions and reactions of everyday existence."

I do yoga because it interests me. I practice with awareness, attention and curiosity, approaching each posture as if for the first time - well most of the time anyway! We usually start yoga for one or more reasons including relaxation, flexibility, stress relief or mental or physical health. While yoga gives us all these things if we aren't interested in the yoga itself then either we become bored and our practice soon fizzles out or we continue to go to classes or do a few postures now and then through habit or because it's what we do - but we're no longer doing yoga!

Vanda Scaravelli wrote in
Awakening the Spine: The Stress-free New Yoga that Works with the Body to Restore Health, Vitality and Energy

"The old seem to forget, but it is only that they are not interested in what they are doing. They lose contact with the world, with their environment, with themselves. They too easily give up their activities and the things they care for, taking refuge in their own protective shell.
We have to keep on using and entertaining our memory. It is a delicate organ and must be looked after with care."

What ever it is that you do keep interested and stay young!