When the watcher (includes the I , the me - which is
accumulation of memory n time, concepts, precepts, preconceived set
patterns of eg, what is right , what is wrong, what is ', what was,
what ought to be - they all come from memory, texts, scriptures.)
it is merely reinforcing the I and the me. Buddhist recitation
reduced to a ritual is simply a vicious cycle. I doubt it is
freeing cos the ''problem'' of the intellect cannot be
solved/reconciled by the intellect. It is the left side of the mind
fighting with the right side of the mind. Left hand fighting right
hand.
I think the point you're making can be found in this article..
http://www.buddhanet.net/khrisna.htm
3. The Krishnamurti Connection With Buddhism
In
many ways Krishnamurti's message is similar to the one that
Buddhism teaches. Both point to the ease and susceptibility of the
human mind to succumb to conditioning as the origin of all our
human problems. Both doctrines, therefore, prescribe the use of an
intense awareness of all of our mental processes, thoughts,
memories, beliefs, hopes, and fears in order to gain that state of
enlightenment which Krishnamurti calls insight or complete and
unconditional freedom.
On
the surface there appears to be conflict between Krishnamurti and
Buddhism on some points. To Krishnamurti the process of
enlightenment takes place instantaneously, like a sudden awakening.
To most Buddhists enlightenment would take place only after years
of painstaking meditative practice and countless
rituals.
In
the preceding we examined the nature of human psychological time.
Time is measured by humans usually through a process of increase or
decrease. We sense that time is passing because we are growing
older or earning more money or waiting to be promoted to a higher
rank. More precisely, psychological time is our perception of the
process of increase or decrease and nothing more. Without that
perception there would be no sense of passage of time.
When
we talk of working and meditating over a period of years to achieve
enlightenment it is the same as saying, "I will create the passage
of time by undergoing a process of 'increase' from a lower to a
higher spiritual level". By taking this approach we will have
avoided taking the discontinuous leap into enlightenment, and
instead we will have created our own delay in achieving
enlightenment. As we mentioned earlier, the human ego is involved
with this process. In fact, one could say that the human ego is
this process, i.e. perception (increase/decrease) = psychological
time = ego.
It
stands to reason that any Buddhist authority who urges others to
work real hard over a long period of time in order to achieve
enlightenment is selling an ego package. Yet, we sometimes hear
such advice coming from Buddhists. Krishnamurti's view of
enlightenment is not that of a gradual one which increases slowly
over years of hard work, because that sort of ego-related process
creates its own delay and thus insures that the end is never
attained. In Krishnamurti's view enlightenment comes by its own
accord where and when it chooses, and there is little that we can
do about it. It comes to us at auspicious times like a major
discontinuity in our lives, and it reminds us of some Buddhist
accounts of awakening which were induced by an unexpected slap to
the face or a blow to the body. Ego involvement in enlightenment
(or meditation for that matter) is no more than an interference
which will negate the process.
It
is the author's opinion that Krishnamurti's views provide us with
more insight into The Sutra of the Heart of Transcendent Knowledge
than most explanations available from the Buddhist world. In the
Sutra, Avalokitesvara states that there is no birth and no
cessation, ... no decrease and no increase, ... It is the exact
same process which Krishnamurti dwells upon in volume after volume
of his works. Enlightenment is a state that is timeless which means
that its chief attribute is one of no-time, meaning no involvement
with ego or ego-created time. Once an acknowledgment is made by the
ego that time is required to attain enlightenment, the search has
gone off on a hopeless tangent and will end in failure. The ego has
to surrender its jurisdiction in the matter of enlightenment and
allow something which is infinite and unknowable to take its
course.
To
Krishnamurti any process of thought is unsacred. Thoughts of the
dharma or Buddha are as unsacred as any other type of thought. The
only thing remaining sacred in Krishnamurti's view is that which
thought is incapable of capturing or the unknowable. All thoughts
are mere human creations of the human brain stem and are forever
incapable of capturing that which is infinite and
unknowable.
At
first it seems that most Buddhists would agree with the foregoing
paragraph. But there is plenty of Buddhist literature available
which encourages Buddhists to meditate upon sacred images or
thoughts or The Eight-Fold path or some mandala or mantra. It is
self-evident that a state of complete emptiness is impossible as
long as any images whatsoever persist in the mind. The Sutra says
that emptiness is form and all form is emptiness, yet many Buddhist
leaders keep on encouraging others to fill this vast, wonderful
emptiness with a product of the human nervous system as if that
product is sacred enough to occupy space as long as it has received
the authorized stamp of approval from a duly appointed Buddhist
authority.
Some
Buddhist groups conduct prayer meetings. Prayer is an obvious
exercise of the ego, a deliberate, calculating way to gain an
increase over a period of time. There are some who feel that more
prayer results in more gain. It is another attempt to attain
something despite the fact that there is no attainment.
4. No Path, No Progress, No Goal
"...the
bodhisatvas have no attainment, they abide by means of
prajnaparamita."
To
Krishnamurti there is no "path", no procedures, no organization,
and no rules that should be laid down by men for other men to
follow on the road to enlightenment. As part of the path, Buddhists
must observe a very typical, man-made, structure which begins at
the top with The Three Precious Ones: the Buddha, the Dharma, and
the Sangha. Each of these pillars has subsets of rules associated
with it: The Five Skandhas, The Eight Siddhis, etc. Some would have
us believe that learning all these articles of faith are necessary
for enlightenment.
Much
Buddhist literature suggests that in following Buddhism there is a
great object that one must attain and that one progresses towards
this goal as one takes each step along the path. To Krishnamurti
setting a psychological goal and working for progress in any
direction will only lead to more confusion and suffering. Any
attempts at psychological self-betterment will amount to no more
than just one more futile duplication of many similar past efforts,
all of which had previously failed.
The
typical pattern of human behavior that we always seem to fall into,
perhaps by virtue of conditioning, is the "work for a reward"
stereotype. One finds a religion and sees something desirable in it
which becomes an object of attainment. The next step is to devise a
plan to acquire the object, and finally, with great deliberation we
set about to carry out that plan with hard, unrelenting
work.
Krishnamurti
tells us that the "work for a reward" operandi has been tried
countless times by homo sapiens, but it has never led us to
anything new or different in the area of spiritual enlightenment.
What do we make of all this? Buddhist leaders round the world tell
us that there are Buddhist goals and a path of hard work and
attainment for reaching these goals.
Here
again Krishnamurti seems to be more in agreement with the very core
of Buddhist teachings than the Buddhists themselves. The Sutra of
the Heart of Transcendent Knowledge sounds more like Krishnamurti
than does many of the Buddhist teachers: "There is ... no path, no
wisdom, no attainment, and no nonattainment ..." Here Krishnamurti
is telling us to live up to the precepts of this great Buddhist
Sutra. He is not telling us to follow a path, but to under stand
that there is no path. He tells this just as bluntly and simply as
the Sutra does. There is no apparent sympathy or embellishments for
the benefit of those who either fail to understand or for those who
have beliefs in goals to which they must continue to
cling.