The Gifts I Give My Self

Now, you are fully aware of the suffering. Is that suffering apart from you and therefore you are merely the observer who perceives the suffering, or is that suffering you?

When there is no observer who is suffering, is the suffering different from you? You are the suffering are you not? You are not apart from the pain, you are the pain. What happens? There is no labeling, there is no giving it a name and thereby brushing it aside, you are merely that pain, that feeling, that sense of agony. When you are that, what happens? When you do not name it, when there is no fear with regard to it, is your center related to it? If the center is related to it, but different from it, then it is afraid of it, then it must act and do something about it. But if the center is that, then what do you do? There is nothing to be done, is there? If you are that and you are accepting it, not labeling it, not pushing it aside; if you are that thing, what happens? Do you say you suffer then? Surely, a fundamental transformation has taken place. Then there is no longer, “I Suffer,” because, there is no center to suffer. . .

As long as I have no relationship to or no separation from the thing outside me, the problem is not; the moment I establish a relationship with it outside me, the problem is. As long as I treat suffering as something outside. . . I establish a relationship to it and that relationship which is the primary dualism is fictitious. But if I am that thing, if I see the fact, that the whole thing is transformed, it all has a different meaning. Then there is full attention, integrated attention and that which is completely regarded is understood and dissolved and so there is no fear and therefore the word sorrow in non-existent.

Krishnamurti was a renowned 20th century writer who focused on the nature of the mind, meditation, human relationships and the psychological revolution. His words about suffering come from his 1954 work, First and Last Freedom. His message is not a new one. It conforms to the teachings that have been passed down from generation to generation in Eastern beliefs. The physical world is a separated world.

The first step in knowin is knowing the self.Truth is a pathless land. Man cannot come to it through any organization, creed, dogma, priest or ritual, nor through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. Man has built in himself images as a sense of security; religious, political and personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas and beliefs. The burden of beliefs dominate man’s thinking, relationships and his daily life.