Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Core of the Teachings

"Find out for yourself what are the possesions and ideals that you do not desire. By knowing what you do not want, by elimination, you will unburden the mind, and only then will it understand the essential which is ever there."

"If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation."

"To investigate the fact of your own anger you must pass no judgement on it, for the moment you conceive of its opposite you condemn it and therefore you cannot see it as it is. When you say you dislike or hate someone that is a fact, although it sounds terrible. If you look at it, go into it completely, it ceases, but if you say, 'I must not hate; I must have love in my heart', then you are living in a hypocritical world with double standards. To live completely, fully, in the moment is to live with what is, the actual, without any sense of condemnation or justification - the you understand it so totally that you are finished with it. When you see clearly the problem is solved."

"Perhaps you have never experienced that state of mind in which there is total abandonment of everything, a complete letting go. And you cannot abandon everything without deep passion, can you? You cannot abandon everything intellectually or emotionally. There is total abandonment, surely, only when there is intense passion. Don't be alarmed by that word because a man who is not passionate, who is not intense, can never understand or feel the quality of beauty. The mind that holds something in reserve, the mind that has a vested interest, the mind that clings to position, power, prestige, the mind that is respectable, which is a horror; such a mind can never abandon itself."

"The only thing that really matters is that there be an action of goodness, love and intelligence in living. Is goodness individual or collective, is love personal or impersonal, is intelligence yours, mine or somebody else? If it is yours or mine then it is not intelligence, or love, or goodness. If goodness is an affair of the individual or of the collective, according to one s particular preference or decision, then it is no longer goodness. Goodness is not in the backyard of the individual nor in the open field of the collective; goodness flowers only in freedom from both."

"Freedom from the known is death, and then you are living."

Questioner: I wonder whether one can survive when one is put in a place where everybody is fighting with another.

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Yes, put yourself in that position. Have you thought about violence? What is involved in violence, how does it arise, what is the structure of violence? There is physical violence and there is the violence of obedience - are you obeying and therefore being violent? Do you understand what I mean? When I obey you and suppress what I think, that suppression will burst out one day. So there is physical violence and violence brought about through obedience, the violence of competitiveness, of conformity. When I conform to a pattern I am violent - you see the connection? When I live a life of fragmentation - that is, when I think one thing and say another, do another - that is fragmentation and that also breeds violence. I may be very quiet, gentle, do all the work I am asked to do, but I flare up: which indicates there has been suppression in me. So violence is not just physical violence, it is a very complex question. And if you haven't thought about it, when you are faced with violence you will react most unintelligently.

"The brain is the source of thought. The brain is matter and thought is matter. Can the brain — with all its reactions and its immediate responses to every challenge and demand — can the brain be very still? It is not a question of ending thought, but of whether the brain can be completely still? This stillness is not physical death. See what happens when the brain is completely still."

"There are the states of inattention and of attention. When you are completely giving your mind, your heart, your nerves, everything you have, to attend, then the old habits, the mechanical responses, do not enter into it, thought does not come into it at all. But we cannot maintain that all the time, so we are mostly in a state of inattention, a state in there is not an alert choiceless awareness. What takes place? There is inattention and rare attention and we are trying to bridge the one to the other. How can my inattention become attention or, can attention be complete, all the time?"

Life in Freedom

Because man has forgotten that the true purpose of his being is to cultivate happiness within himself and in those around him, there is confusion and chaos, and his actions but add to that chaos.

What is it for which everyone in the world is craving and longing? To find happiness. True happiness is neither selfish, nor negative. It is intelligence, the accumulation of all experience; it is Truth which is eternal. No cloud can hide it nor can any sorrow lessen it. It is such happiness that every one desires. It is such happiness that I have always desired. I have seen people weighed down with labor, performing great works, accumulating knowledge, struggling to be spiritual and yet they had forgotten the one thing -happiness- which alone gives life to the mind and nourishment to the heart. There can be no health except in happiness. He who has not found it will never find Truth, will never bring life to its fulfillment, will never have tranquillity in this world of travail.

If you desire to establish that happiness within yourself, you must make it your goal and then your life will be as the flame which soars heavenwards.

People in search of happiness resort to many things -they will worship at temples and churches, they will gather from books the knowledge of others, they will perform religious rites in the hope of establishing in their minds peace and tranquillity. The desire for happiness is ever gnawing at their hearts.

In the great continent of America they are making the physical predominant in search for happiness. They say that without physical comfort, without a body that is strong and healthy, there cannot be a right development of the emotions. But in trying to establish perfect physical conditions they are losing sight of other essential things. In India, they go to the opposite extreme and in search for happiness they neglect altogether the physical.

Look where you will, every human being is seeking happiness. He begins his search in the mere pleasures which come from physical excitement. Then discovering that this excitement does not satisfy his craving for the lasting happiness, he experiments with other experiences, mental and emotional.

Life is a process of accumulating and discarding, of gathering and setting aside. What you gather you reject, and the more you reject the nearer you are to liberation. By setting aside what you have gained, you acquire the knowledge which will give you strength to shape your purpose, which will give you power ultimately to reach the Kingdom of Happiness which each one of you seeks.

As there is sap in the tree which brings forth foliage for the glory of its being, so in each man there is the spark of divinity which through sorrow, through ecstasy, through struggle, through all the processes of life, grows to perfection, to that state of eternal happiness which is the goal for all, which is the truest spirituality -the greatest gift that anyone can give to another.

You will find this undying, unalterable happiness when you are liberated from the tyrannies of the self -its desires and longings. This is not a goal imposed upon you by another. It is the longing of every human soul, of every individual who is striving, who is in sorrow, who is seeking. It is the spark of this desire which grows into a flame and becomes part of the Eternal Flame, and when you are able to lose yourself in that Flame, then you are in the Kingdom of Happiness.

Each must discover his own way of attainment. There is no other truth or other god but that goal which each one has established for himself, which cannot be destroyed by the breath of man or by the passing whims of any god.

In what way can you attain this goal and hold this happiness eternally in your heart? If you are a thoughtful person, you will recognize that in every one there are three different beings: the mind, the emotions and the body. And if you observe you will find that each of these beings has a separate existence of its own and tries to create and to act independently of the others, thus causing disharmony. Absolute happiness comes from the establishment of harmony between these three. If you are driving three horses -each desiring to run independently of the other two- unless you are able to control them and drive them all together, you will not reach your destination.

The mind must have a goal of its own, but it must be a goal created by you yourself; otherwise it will lead to superstition.

What is the ultimate goal for the mind?

It is the purification of the self, which means the development of individual uniqueness.

As the seed is forced by the life within it to break through the heavy earth and come into light, so if you are urged by the desire to find freedom, you will break through all limitations which bind you. To gain freedom, great desire is needed. People are afraid of desire, thinking that it is something evil which must be destroyed. But this is a mistaken attitude. Desire is the motive power behind all action. If you would light a great fire to warm and comfort you, you must give fuel to it, feed it with great logs of wood. So if you would fulfill life you must have great desires, for desire brings experience and experience leads to knowledge. If a man knows how to use desire it will bring him to the freedom for which he longs. If desire is killed or suppressed, there is no possibility of freedom. Most people in the world have intense, burning, vital desires but instead of utilizing them and training them, they either suppress them or are controlled by them. Without desire there can be no creative work. If you kill desire you become like a piece of dead wood, or else you become an automaton, a machine. Machines have been invented to minimize human labor. Physical problems perhaps may be solved in this way, but mental and emotional problems are more difficult to solve, and because the way to solve these problems is so little understood, religions, creeds, and dogmas have been invented.

If desire gives life it should be encouraged. If desire creates sorrow, through understanding that sorrow must be overcome. Because man does not want to be free, he kills his desires; because he does not want to attain true liberation, he is making of himself a machine. Use desire as a stepping-stone to kindle greater desires, to awaken greater delight and longing.

But intelligence is necessary in order to develop your individual uniqueness, to purify your desires, to realize that self which is the self of all -that absolute union with all things which brings to an end the sense of separation. It is necessary for the mind to be simple, but simplicity does not mean crudeness. We should not turn our back upon the results of progress and evolution, but on the contrary we should utilize them.

A mind that is simple will understand perfection because it is part of perfection itself. A mind that is crooked cannot understand the Truth. A mind that is complicated, that is full of the knowledge of books -though they have their value- is apt to become crystallized. In all great architecture, painting and sculpture, in all the greatest forms of beauty, there is simplicity and there is restraint. Simplicity of the mind is the greatest and most difficult thing to acquire, but in order to be simple you must have had great experience. Simplicity of the truest kind is the highest form of spirituality.

What is the ultimate goal for the emotions?

It is affectionate detachment. To be able to love and yet not be attached to anyone or anything is the absolute perfection of emotion.

As a barren tree in winter without leaf or flower to give scent to the morning air, so is a man without love. Those who would attain to Truth must cultivate -as the gardener cultivates his garden- this flower of affection, which is to give delight, which is to be a source of comfort in disappointment and sorrow. Love -however envious, jealous, tyrannical, selfish it may be at first- is a bud that will grow into great glory and give the scent of its perfection to every passer-by. Without love man is as a desert of dry sand, as the river in the summer time, without water to nourish its banks. Those who would attain the perfection of happiness, the beauty that is hidden from the human eye, must cultivate this quality of love. You must love all and yet be detached from all, for love is necessary to the unfoldment of life. To cultivate it you must learn to observe, you must gather experience -vicariously, or through your own treading of the sorrowful paths of experience. It is through experience that you know sympathy, that you are able to give affection to those who desire it, for if you have never experienced sorrow then your heart is incapable of sympathy and understanding.

This does not mean that you should taste of everything. There are many ways of acquiring experience -one is by living in the life of everyone, looking through the eyes of every passer-by and experiencing in imagination his sorrow, his transient pleasures. When you see a drunken man in the street, it should be sufficient to give you the experience of drunkenness; if you see a man in tears, that should give you the experience of grief; if you see a man in joy and ecstasy, that should give you the experience of joy. We need not all follow one road of knowledge. We give and take from each other. We can gather knowledge from the experience of the whole world and that is sufficient for progress, for culture and refinement. If you would attain to the fulfillment of life, you must have this accumulation of experience, for without experience you cannot arrive at the goal, you cannot unite the beginning and the end. While there is separation, there is pain, and it is only in the union with the goal that there is happiness, that you establish lasting Truth within yourself. To do that, you must from the very beginning gather experience as a man gathers the grain of the field.

If you have no sympathy, no affection, you can never achieve, you can never identify yourself with the goal. A mind that is contented and satisfied will never acquire sympathy or affection or give understanding to others. I have watched people who have greatly desired to help others but they do not know how to help. They are incapable of putting themselves into the place of another and so envisaging his point of view.

Those who would understand the life around them, who would see the goal and thereby establish the Beloved in their hearts, must develop great love and yet be detached from the bondage of that love. They must have great sympathy and yet not be bound by that sympathy. They must have great desires and yet not be slaves of those desires.

What is the ultimate goal for the body?

Everyone in the world is seeking for beauty but they seek without understanding. It is essential for the body to be beautiful, but it must not be a mere shell of beauty without beautiful thought and feeling. Restraint is necessary for the body -control without suppression.

These are the essentials for the absolute harmony of the three beings in each of us.

The desire for freedom, the desire to escape from all things, or rather to transcend all things, is necessary for the attainment of perfection. You can only free yourself if your mind and heart have determined their purpose in life and are continually struggling towards it, never yielding to those things which create barriers between yourself and your goal.

To attain perfection, to walk towards the goal of Truth which is eternal happiness for all, at whatever stage of evolution you may be, it is necessary to be rid of the binding narrow traditions that are born out of blind belief and have no touch with life.

As, when the rains come, only those who have prepared their fields and removed the weeds will have the full produce of their labor, the full benefit of the rain, so, if you would have the Beloved always with you, you must remove from your mind and heart the complicated ideas, traditions, and narrow points of view, which are as weeds that kill true understanding. For without understanding there can be no cooperation with life.

Life in Freedom. Talks in Benares, Ojai and Ommen, 1928.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Core of the Teachings

Look eternally forward

For those who have discovered Truth and attained the fulfilment of life -which is happiness and liberation- time and the complications of time have ceased. But those who are still bound to the yoke of experience are limited by the past, present and future.

You who would discover the Truth which is absolute and infinite must realize that you are the product of the past, and the outcome of your own creation. You are bringing forth out of yourself that which you have sown in the past. And as man is the product of the past, so by his actions of today he can control the future. Tomorrow depends upon today, and therefore today determines tomorrow. By controlling the future you become the master of the future. You bring the future to the present.

Everyone throughout the world is bound by the traditions, the fears, the shame, the beliefs, the morality, of the past. If you are constantly looking backwards, you will never discover Truth. The discovery of eternal Truth lies always ahead of you. If you truly understand this, you will not cling to the past. You will not be always conditioned by the thoughts, the actions, the feelings, the ethics of the past, because therein is stagnation and the bondage of life. Cut away the bondage of the past as a woodman cuts his way through a dark forest to find the open spaces and fresh breezes. For the past always binds, however glorious, however well seasoned, however fruitful it may have been, and the man who would be free must look eternally forward.

If you would walk, and build, and create in the shelter of eternity, you must not bring the past into conflict with the present, but must invite the future and thereby bring that future into conflict with the present.

Because your mind and heart are bound by traditions and beliefs, by the sacred books of the past, by the dark shadows of temples and remembered gods, you do not understand either the present or the future. Time, as man understands it, is dividing you from your goal. Therefore, to bring time to naught, you must so live now that you are the master of the future, so that the future becomes the present. People love to think of themselves as being glorified in the future, or resting on the laurels of what they have been in the past. What a comforting idea! The belief in your greatness in some distant future will not help you to deal with life in the present, when you are struggling, when there is confusion in your mind and heart.

Not in the distant future did I want to be great, but I desired to be happy in the present, I wanted to be free in the present, I wanted to be beyond all the limitations of time. So I invited the future into the present, and hence I have conquered the future.

Do not live in the future, nor in the dead things of yesterday, but live rather in the immediate now, with the understanding that you are a product of the past, and that by your actions of today you can control tomorrow and so become the master of time, the master of evolution, and hence the master of perfection.

Then you will live with greater intensity, then every second will count and every moment be of value. But you are frightened of such a present. You would much rather be conditioned by the past, because you have a dread of the future. But the future is not fearsome to those who walk in the way of understanding. If you would attain to the fulfilment of life, you must invite the future to the present and thereby create a conflict within yourself. Through contentment you do not find happiness, but a state of stagnation. If you would know true happiness there must first be that inward conflict, which will bring forth in you the flower of life.

Put aside the past with all its glories, beautiful and terrible, all its traditions, wide and yet so conditioned, all its moralities that strangle life, and look into your own heart and mind to discover what lies before you in the future. For as you are the product of the past, and as you can control the future, so the future becomes the present and you live in that present.

Life in Freedom. Talks in Benares, Ojai and Ommen, 1928.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Core of the Teachings

Understanding

For the well-being of the mind and heart, understanding is as essential as a warm fire on a cold night.

People imagine that they can attain by some miraculous process, that they can find Truth by the mere outward form of worship, that they can discover their goal by the continual repetition of prayers and chants, or by the performance of yoga, puja and other rites. You can only discover that which you desire, that for which your heart longs, and for which your mind craves, by yourself, through the purification of the heart and mind.

Those who seek for an understanding of life must fix their inward perception on eternal Truth which is the unfolding of life.

To those who live and have their being in the valley, the mountains are mysterious, hard, cruel, eternally aloof. The mountains never change; they are ever constant, never yielding. So it is with Truth. To those who live in the valley of shadows, of transient things, Truth seems terrible, hard and cruel.

Everywhere, among all people, there is a search for something hidden, for some realization which will give wisdom, greater knowledge, greater vision, greater understanding; this the people call Truth.

They think that Truth lies hidden in some distant place, away from life, away from joy, away from sorrow. But Truth is life, and with an understanding of life there is born an understanding of Truth. When you are fulfilling life with understanding you are the master of Truth.

Though there is at the present time a revolt against tradition and the established order of things, against morality in the narrow sense, yet the majority of people still judge and try to understand life from the prejudiced point of view of a limited and settled mind. A Hindu will only recognize Truth when it is presented to him through the medium of Hinduism, and so it is with the Christian and the Buddhist. But Truth is never contained in a particular form or medium. Truth can only be understood with an unbiased mind, capable of detachment and pure judgment.

As every human being is divine, so every individual in the world should be his own master, his own absolute ruler and guide. But if he would guide himself intelligently, he must be able to judge all things with an open mind and not reject what he does not understand because he is prejudiced.

When you bind life to beliefs and traditions, to codes of morality, you kill life. In order to keep alive, vital, ever changing, ever growing, as the tree that is ever putting out new leaves, you must give to life the opportunities, the nourishment which will strengthen it and make it grow. When life desires to find its freedom the only way by which it can attain is through experience.

There can be no understanding of life, which is Truth, when there is not the thrill, the agony, the suffering, the continual upheaval, discouragement and encouragement of life.

In the olden days, especially in India, those who desired to find Truth imagined that they could discover the way by withdrawing from the aching world, from the transient things, from the shadow of the real, by the destruction of the physical. But now you have to face life as it is, for you can only conquer life when you have a complete and not a partial understanding of it.

Once there was a man who kept all the windows of his house well closed except one, hoping that through that window alone the sunlight would come, but it never came. That is what those people are doing who are bound by tradition, by narrow sectarian beliefs, and who think that Truth is contained in any of those beliefs. You cannot bind life, which is the Truth, by anything, for life must be free and untrammeled. If you do not understand that the purpose of life is freedom, then you are only gilding the bars of your cage by the invention of theories, of creeds, of philosophies and religions.

The basis of all these innumerable beliefs is fear. You are afraid for your salvation, you are afraid to test your own knowledge, and hence you rely on the assertions, on the authority of another.

You must give to the suffering world, not beliefs, creeds, dogmas, but new understanding which comes from intelligent cooperation with Nature, through observation of all the events of daily life.

Those who would understand Truth, who would give of their heart and their mind to that Truth, must first have grown in experience. Then experience will guide them, for experience gives intelligence, and intelligence is the accumulation of all experience. The web of life is spun out of common things and the common things are experience.

Learn from every event, from every activity in daily life, and assimilate the experience every moment of the day.

You go to temples or to churches or to other places of worship and there you imagine that you are purified. But does that purification stand the test of daily life?

Your theories, your superficial knowledge of life, do not help you at moments of crisis. When death comes and takes away your friend, your beliefs and theories do not help you to overcome your loneliness and the sense of separation. You will only overcome it if the poison of separation has been destroyed, and you can only destroy that sense of separation by observing others in sorrow, in pain and in pleasure like yourself, and finding that in suffering as well as in pleasure there is unity.

No one can develop that power which dwells within you but yourself, for that power grows by experience. But experience alone, undirected by the goal you would attain, produces chaos, the chaos which prevails in the world at present. Without the understanding of the purpose of life there is bound to be chaos.

The first demand upon those who would seek the understanding of true happiness, is that they should have the burning longing to be free from all things, to gain that freedom which comes when you are beyond the need for further experience because you have passed through all experience.

If you would understand what I mean by the freedom of life, you must establish for yourself the goal which is liberation even from life itself.

For the understanding of life you must have revolt, dissatisfaction and great discontentment. Many people in the world imagine that they have found Truth by adopting some theory or other, and hence that they have solved the whole problem of life.

Contentment without understanding is like a pool covered with green scum, which does not reflect the bare eye of heaven. It is very easy to be ignorantly discontented, but to be discontented and to revolt intelligently is a divine gift. Revolt with intelligence, with understanding, is as a great river that is full of power.

Revolt is essential in order to escape from the narrowness of tradition, from the binding influences of belief, of theories. If you would understand the Truth, you must be in revolt so that you may escape from all these -from books, from theories, from gods, from superstitions- from everything which is not of your own.

If you would understand the meaning of my words, then throw aside all your mental conceptions of life and begin again from the very beginning. Then you will see for yourself how life works, how life which is the accumulation of all experience speaks through that voice which we call intuition, which guides you and helps you on the onward path.

I would urge you to be free -free from the very gods whom you worship, from the very beings whom you hold dear, because freedom is necessary for the growth of the soul and without freedom there is decay.

Because you do not wish to be free, you seek comfort, and comfort is like the shadow of a tree, it varies according to the sun from moment to moment, and those who seek comfort must move from one abode to another. Comfort cannot dwell with understanding.

The man who seeks comfort, who searches for the satisfaction of the moment, will never find real and lasting joy, for the momentary comfort is as transitory as the flower that is born of a morning and withers at the ending of the day.

When a pond is not touched with the breath of air, the waters become stagnant, and no animal comes to it to slake its thirst. But when the fresh winds come and breathe on its face, then animals and human beings alike can quench their thirst.

So if there is not in you the fresh wind of desire for freedom from all things, you will not find the Truth which alone can remove the thirst of the world.

When you are free, as the bird in the skies, your life becomes simple. Life is complicated only when there is limitation. Then you need traditions and beliefs to uphold you.

But when you desire to be free from all things, then you break away from the old order and enter upon that new life which will lead you towards perfection which is liberation and happiness.

When you are able to become a flame of revolt, then the means to reach the Kingdom will be found.

We have to create a miracle of order in this century of chaos and superstition. But first we have to create order in ourselves, a lasting order which is not based on fear or on authority.

I have found and established for myself that which is eternal, and it is my work to create order in your mind, so that you will no longer depend on outward authority, no longer be the slave of superstition or of those trivialities which hold life in bondage, and divide you from your goal.

Because you have no true purpose in life there is chaos within you; there is misery without understanding, strife without purpose, struggle in ignorance. But when you have established the goal of the Beloved in your heart and mind there is understanding in your life. There may still be struggle but it will be with understanding, and there will be greater love and greater happiness. Establish, therefore, within you that which is eternal, and the present shadows will pass away.

When you have established the Beloved in your heart, the source and the end are united and time no longer exists, for you hold eternity within you.

When you have established the Beloved in your heart, you are ready to face the open seas, where there are great storms, and the strong breezes which quicken life.

Because you have the Beloved in your heart, you must be a lighthouse on a dark shore, to guide those who are still enshrouded in their own darkness.

Of what value is your understanding, of what value are your high and noble thoughts, your pure life, if you do not help those who are in constant pain, who are in darkness, and in confusion? Of what value is the Truth you have seen if you are not able to give of that Truth to those who are hungering and thirsting after the eternal?

Because you have understood, be courageous with that understanding, and give of your life to those who are in darkness.

Life in Freedom. Talks in Benares, Ojai and Ommen, 1928.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Core of the Teachings

Taming the Ego...                             
                   ... with the Power of Love

We all have basic needs for food, shelter and physical well-being, but when these basic needs have been achieved, getting more food, more money, more possessions or a bigger house does not produce increasing  happiness or enduring satisfaction. In fact, after our basic needs have been met, the primary cause of our daily suffering and dissatisfaction is our own troublesome ego.

The ego is little more than a hodgepodge collection of strategies devised by our own mind  in response to various experiences in our past. And, unfortunately, the ego's old strategies are often not the best response to the present situation. 

During our early childhood we begin to develop a deceptive sense of a separate and independent "self", which quickly grows to be quite a monster. Then, most of us spend the rest of our life trying to find an escape from our preoccupation with the endless chatter and turmoil of this fictitious self and its ineffective strategies. For example, our fears and anger are often only knee-jerk reactions, caused by our ego's projections of past events, which tend to distract us from truly experiencing the wonders of the present moment and dealing with all of life's situations in a loving and kind manner.

The existence of such mind-made fantasy is not necessarily a problem, the problem arises when we become so preoccupied with the fantasy that we lose touch with what is actually happening in this moment and lose touch with our own true nature, that inner Divine spark which would like to guide us to respond to every situation in a kind and loving manner. The ego is a wonderful servant, but a terrible master - so we have to find a way to limit the power and authority of our own ego.

The mind of an average person may be pictured as an unruly horse that jumps and kicks and throws anyone that tries to ride it. Masters of the world are those who have mastered themselves, and mastery lies in the control of the mind. If the mind became your obedient servant, the whole world is at your service.

Githa Series II, Psychology , Hazrat Inayat Khan (unpublished)

Fortunately, this troublesome little self is merely a covering, like a veil, over our inherent true nature, which remains ever-pure, untarnished, awaiting our return to our true nature, fully awake and calmly aware of what is actually happening in the present moment.

Our limited self is like a wall separating us from the Self of God. God is as far away from us as that wall is thick. The wisdom and justice of God are within us, and yet they are far away under the covering of the veil of the limited self.

In an Eastern Rose Garden, Hazrat Inayat Khan
 

There is much talk in various religious traditions about annihilating the ego, or killing the ego. But, actually, we need an ego. What we don't need is a dysfunctional ego. That is, we each need to have a basic sense of self protection and self-concern which sufficiently guides us to meet our basic needs for food, shelter and physical well-being, but beyond that we will not find any enduring happiness by following the whims of the ego. All of our undue self-centered concern and internal chatter, whether deliberate or habitual, forms a veil over our True Nature and the attendant simplicity of Being. For enduring happiness, we need to focus our attention on something other than the on-going chatter and troublesome strategies of our own ego.

The point is not to deny our ego, but to extricate ourselves from our exclusive preoccupation with it.                     
                                                    One-Liners, by Ram Dass

In order to find some relief from the chatter and misguidance of the ego, we need to begin to recognize a couple of our most pernicious adversaries: resisting and clinging. If we can learn to recognize and overcome these two, we'll be well on the way toward success at finding both enduring peace and enduring satisfaction in all aspects of life.

Our tendency toward excessive preoccupation with matters revolving around "I", "me" and "mine" is largely related to these two common, yet often dysfunctional, attributes of the ego: resisting (struggle and aversion) and clinging (attachment and desire). With some careful observation, the presence of these two troublesome ego attributes can easily be found in one's own daily life.

In limited amounts, the desire and aversion unleashed by the ego can be normal and helpful, and can give us a brief experience of satisfaction. But when our resisting and clinging lead us into excessive preoccupation with concerns about "I", "me" and "mine", then these attributes inevitably lead to a dysfunctional life which lacks an enduring sense of well-being, satisfaction and happiness.

Let's take a more detailed look at each of these two potentially troublesome attributes of the ego, which in moderate amounts can be useful, but which in excess quickly lead to great suffering.

Resisting

Resisting manifests in many forms including a tendency to  reject, refuse, insult, separate, push away, or remove ourselves from a situation. Resisting leads to estrangement, animosity, dread, and fearfulness. Resisting is the underlying cause of anger, hatred and violence.

Resisting leads us to push something away, depriving us of the opportunity to develop a new, more productive response to the situation.

Clinging

Clinging manifests in many forms including a tendency to attach, grasp, hold on, pursue or force ourselves into a situation. Clinging leads to dependency, addiction, expectations and frustration. Clinging is  the underlying cause of habitual behaviors and shallow relationships.

Clinging leads us to continue to want "more", even when our basic needs have been met. Clinging leads us into unhealthy relationships.

Taking Action

Now, armed with a basic understanding of these two adversaries, begin to carefully watch your own behavior for their telltale evidence, such as agitation, frustration, dissatisfaction, disappointment or  unhappiness. At first, you may not even notice the effects of clinging and resisting until a few days after it happens. But, with further practice, you'll begin to notice the effects of clinging and resisting that happened more recently, perhaps that same day. With even more practice, you'll begin to catch yourself in the act. And, eventually, you'll be aware of the presence of troublesome behaviors even before they actually happen.

As you examine the troublesome situations in your daily life, you'll begin to see some of your own behavior patterns, and may also notice the interdependent arising of resisting and clinging - for example noticing that resisting something is the result of clinging to an old behavior pattern, or that clinging to something is the result of resisting change. Resisting and clinging are inextricably bound together.

Although this process of rising above troublesome behaviors such as resisting and clinging may seem like a new idea, the general idea been around for quite some time:

 “You have heard that it was said, ‘An eye for an eye and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I tell you not to resist an evil person. But whoever slaps you on your right cheek, turn the other to him also. If anyone wants to sue you and take away your tunic, let him have your cloak also. And whoever compels you to go one mile, go with him two. Give to him who asks you, and from him who wants to borrow from you do not turn away.

Matthew 5:30-42, New King James Version

Nonetheless, recognizing the problem is only part of the task at hand. In order to refashion your own personality, you'll need a new manner of behavior to replace the old ineffective behaviors. And fortunately, there is a time proven middle path between these extremes of resisting and clinging.

The Power of Love

The middle path which we need to walk between resisting and clinging is a path by which one rises above both of those dysfunctional extremes... this is the path of love. The true lover lives only for the pleasure of the beloved, is grateful for whatever is received, and has no need to resist anything or cling to anything.

What do I mean by love? It is such a word that one cannot give one meaning. All attributes like kindness, gentleness, goodness, humbleness, mildness, fineness, are names of one and the same thing. Love therefore is that stream which when it rises falls in the form of a fountain, and each stream coming down is a virtue. All virtues taught by books or by a religious person have no strength and life because they have been learned; a virtue that is learned has no power, no life. The virtue that naturally springs from the depth of the heart, the virtue that rises from the love-spring and then falls as many different attributes, that virtue is real. There is a Hindustani saying, 'No matter how much wealth you have, if you do not have the treasure of virtue, it is of no use'. The true riches is the ever increasing spring of love from which all virtues come.The Smiling Forehead, Hazrat Inayat Khan

This path of love is certainly not a new idea. Here's how it was expressed by Jesus over 2000 years ago:

“You have heard that it was said, ‘You shall love your neighbor and hate your enemy.’ But I say to you, love your enemies, bless those who curse you, do good to those who hate you, and pray for those who spitefully use you and persecute you, that you may be sons of your Father in heaven; for He makes His sun rise on the evil and on the good, and sends rain on the just and on the unjust. For if you love those who love you, what reward have you? Do not even the tax collectors do the same? And if you greet your brethren only, what do you do more than others? Do not even the tax collectors do so? Therefore you shall be perfect, just as your Father in heaven is perfect.

Matthew 5:43-48, New King James Version

This is Freedom: To be joyfully appreciative for whatever may arise. Jesus' disciple Paul further reminded us that love is a mighty bond of perfection which deserves to be accompanied by a sense of gratitude:

But above all these things put on love, which is the bond of perfection. And let the peace of God rule in your hearts, to which also you were called in one body; and be thankful.

Colossians 3:14-15,  New King James Version

Really, the essence of this shift from resisting/clinging to loving is whether we choose to experience life through the clutter, restlessness and difficulties of the emotional dramas which are fabricated in our own mind, or we choose to experience life in a calm, happy, ever-aware, heart-centered manner which is empowered by that Divine spark within. The head (when dominated by the little self) is full of endless difficulties, restless chatter, emotion and drama, while, in contrast, the heart calmly responds in a lovingly appropriate manner, bringing harmony, beauty and ease to every situation.

There are people who look at life through their brain, their head, and there are others who look at life through their heart. Between these two points of view there is a vast difference...

The Smiling Forehead, Hazrat Inayat Khan

A Plan for Success

To learn to tame the ego, we must first learn to recognize how the troublesome traits of resisting (struggle and aversion) and clinging (attachment and desire) are adversely affecting our own daily life. Initially, these ineffective strategies may be most noticeable in someone else's behavior, but gradually you'll be able to see your own troublesome traits, and understand how they are restricting your enjoyment of life. All situations which revolve around emotional drama or self-centered dialog are merely fabrications of the mind which limit your access to the enduring peace and tranquility which are your Divine birthright.

He who does not direct his own mind lacks mastery... If he does not control his mind, he is not a master but a slave. It lies with his own mind whether he shall be master, or whether he shall be slave. He is slave when he neglects to be master; he is master if he cares to be master.

Mastery lies not merely in stilling the mind, but in directing it towards whatever point we desire, in allowing it to be active as far as we wish, in using it to fulfill our purpose, in causing it to be still when we want to still it. He who has come to this has created his heaven within himself; he has no need to wait for a heaven in the hereafter, for he has produced it within his own mind now.

In an Eastern Rose Garden, Hazrat Inayat Khan

Then, after recognizing the problem, begin to move toward love at every opportunity, toward the loving acceptance of all things just as they are in this moment. That does not mean that you condone or perpetuate any evils, but merely that you see exactly what is happening without adding any of your own mind's drama, emotions or commentary. Armed with such clear vision of precisely what is actually happening, rather than the much larger drama which you could so easily create out of it, you will easily respond to every situation in a manner which will help to foster love, harmony and beauty amongst everyone involved. Recognizing that we're all in this together, it becomes quite easy to travel this path with love and gratitude for all that you encounter.

How can one explain spiritual progress? What is it? What is it like? Spiritual progress is the changing of the point of view. There is only one way to recognize this progress, and that is to see the progress in one's own outlook on life, to ask oneself the question, 'How do I look at life?' This one can do by not judging others, but by being only concerned with one's own outlook.

Sufi Mysticism, Hazrat Inayat Khan

As you gradually discover and perfect your own unique manner of living from the heart, living each moment with peaceful loving-kindness, generosity and compassion for all, then the old ineffective tendencies toward resisting and clinging will simply fall by the wayside, just as the toys of our childhood have fallen by the wayside, unneeded.

Taming the ego requires some effort, and some changes. Great transformations require a change of one's own outlook, and this taming of the ego is no exception. It's just a matter of letting your true nature, the Divine spark deep within you, be the foundation for your life, the guiding light of your life, and seeing how your outlook on everything changes when viewed from that rock-solid foundation, showering everything with an endless flow of love, harmony and beauty.

with love,
     wahiduddin

http://wahiduddin.net/views/taming.htm

The Balance between Heart and Brain Intelligence

Mind is not physical and so its not commensurate with the brain. Mind is our soul or spirit. Moreover, 3D science has already ascertained that 60-65% of the cells in our heart are neural; in effect, identical to brain cells.(1) Presumably that is why we are often exhorted to follow our heart and `think from the heart.' Arguably then, our mind is the 'intelligent force' behind the intuitive thoughts and feelings we all experience and those intuitive thoughts and feelings come to us through our heart. In other words information coming to us from Source is transmitted to us via our heart neurons rather than through our neural brain networks. 
 (Ron Chapman)

Throughout the ages, the heart has been referred to as a source of not
only virtue and love, but also of intelligence. One of the most
prevalent themes in ancient traditions and inspirational writing is
the heart as a flowing spring of intelligence.

Many ancient cultures, including the Mesopotamian, Egyptian,
Babylonian, and Greek, assert that the heart is the primary organ
responsible for influencing and directing our emotions and our
decision-making ability. Similar perspectives of the heart as a source
of intelligence are found in Hebrew, Christian, Chinese, Hindu, and
Islamic traditions. For example, the Old Testament saying in Proverbs
23:7, "For as a man thinketh in his heart, so is he," is further
developed in the New Testament in Luke 5:22, "What reason ye in your
hearts?"

The characteristic of psychic and spiritual balance and the attainment of physical bodily equilibrium are recognized as the essence of Yoga traditions, which also identifies the heart as the seat of individual consciousness and the center of life. In traditional Chinese medicine, the heart is seen as the connection between the mind and the body, forming a bridge between the two. And so it is.

Despite all these traditions and colourful heart metaphors, Western science and society persist in proclaiming that the heart is just a ten-ounce muscle that pumps blood and maintains circulation until we die. Medical science asserts that the brain rules all of the body's organs, including the heart. Medical science does not bother to explain how this situation can occur despite the fact that it has been scientifically demonstrated that the heart starts beating in the unborn fetus BEFORE the brain has been formed.

Neuroscientists have recently discovered exciting new information
about the heart that makes us realize it's far more complex than we'd
ever imagined. Instead of simply pumping blood, it appears that it may direct and align many systems in the body so that they can function in
harmony with one another.

These scientists have found that the heart has its own independent
nervous system – a complex system referred to as "the brain in the
heart." There are at least forty thousand neurons (nerve cells) in the
heart – as many as are found in various subcortical centres of the brain.

The heart communicates with the brain and the rest of the body in
three ways documented by solid scientific evidence: neurologically
(through transmissions of nerve impulses), biochemically (through
hormones and neurotransmitters), and biophysically (through pressure
waves). In addition, growing scientific evidence suggests that the
heart may communicate with the brain and body in a fourth way –
energetically (through electromagnetic field interactions). Through
these biological communication systems, the heart has a significant
influence on the function of our brains and all our physical systems.

The scientific evidence shows that the heart uses these methods to send our brain extensive emotional and intuitive signals. Along with this understanding that the heart is in constant communication with the brain, scientists have discovered that our hearts seem to be the "intelligent force" behind the intuitive thoughts and feelings we all experience.

Accepting that heart intelligence, with its premise of the heart as a primary source of emotions, gives us a new paradigm for understanding our emotions. It also establishes a strong scientific tie between our psychic and physical wellness and our emotional management. The more we learn to listen to and follow our heart intelligence, the more
educated, balanced, and coherent our emotions become. And it naturally
follows that the more balanced and coherent our emotions become, the
less likely we will be to experience stress, sickness and disease.

Because of the ever growing scientific research on heart intelligence,
it may be time we developed a new personal attitude about following
our hearts."
See: http://www.therealessentials.com/followyourheart.html 

Joseph Chilton Pearce (2) puts it this way:

`The idea that we can think with our hearts is no longer just a
metaphor, but is, in fact, a very real phenomenon. We now know this
because the combined research of two or three fields is proving that
the heart is the major center of intelligence in human beings.
Molecular biologists have discovered that the heart is the body's most
important endocrine gland. In response to our experience of the world,
it produces and releases a major hormone, ANF—which stands for Atriol Neuriatic Factor—that profoundly effects every operation in the limbic structure, or what we refer to as the "emotional brain." This includesthe hippocampal area where memory and learning take place, and also the control centers for the entire hormonal system. And
neurocardiologist have found that 60 to 65% of the cells of the heart
are actually neural cells, not muscle cells as was previously believed. They are identical to the neural cells in the brain, operating through the same connecting links called ganglia, with the same axonal and dendritic connections that take place in the brain, as well as through the very same kinds of neurotransmitters found in the brain.

Quite literally, in other words, there is a "brain" in the heart, whose ganglia are linked to every major organ in the body, to the entire muscle spindle system that uniquely enables humans to express their emotions. About half of the heart's neural cells are involved in translating information sent to it from all over the body so that it can keep the body working as one harmonious whole. And the other half make up a very large, unmediated neural connection with the emotional brain in our head and carry on a twenty-four-hour-a-day dialogue between the heart and the brain that we are not even aware of.

The heart responds to messages sent to it from the emotional brain,
which has been busy monitoring the interior environment of dynamic
states such as the emotions and the auto-immune system, guiding
behavior, and contributing to our sense of personal identity. The
emotional brain makes a qualitative evaluation of our experience of
this world and sends that information instant-by-instant down to the
heart. In return, the heart exhorts the brain to make the appropriate
response. All of this is usually on a non-conscious level.

In other words, the responses that the heart makes, effect the entire
human system. Meanwhile, biophysicists have discovered that the heart
is also a very powerful electromagnetic generator. It creates an
electromagnetic field that encompasses the body and extends out
anywhere from eight to twelve feet away from it. It is so powerful
that you can take an electrocardiogram reading from as far as three
feet away from the body.

The field the heart produces is holographic, meaning that you can read
it from any point on the body and from any point within the field. No
matter how microscopic the sample is, you can receive the information
of the entire field. The intriguing thing is how profoundly this
electromagnetic field affects the brain. All indications are that it
furnishes the whole radio wave spectrum from which the brain draws its
material to create our internal experience of the world.
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/JCP99.html 

Perhaps most importantly, we now know that the radio spectrum of the
heart is profoundly affected by our emotional response to our world.
Our emotional response changes the heart's electromagnetic spectrum,
which is what the brain feeds on. Ultimately, everything in our lives
hinges on our emotional response to specific events.' See:
http://www.ratical.org/many_worlds/JCP99.html 

END NOTES

(1) In recent years, neuroscientist Dr. Armour made the exciting
discovery that the heart has its own intrinsic brain and nervous
system. This helped to explain what physiologists at the Fels Research
Institute* found in the 1970's — the brain (in the head) was dutifully
obeying messages being sent from "the brain in the heart." Doc Childre
and colleagues at the Institute of HeartMath take these discoveries
even further. HeartMath researchers have established the heart's
capacity to "think for itself." Their aim was to determine how the
heart formulates logic and influences behavior. HeartMath researchers
believe that the heart communicates with the brain and the rest of the
body through four biological communication systems. Through these
systems, the heart has a significant influence on the function of our
brains and all our bodily systems. IHM's extensive research led to a
number of published studies in medical journals such as The American
Journal of Cardiology, Stress Medicine and Integrative Physiological
and Behavioral Science.

…. According to co-authors Childre and Martin, as we learn to become
more heart intelligent and increase the emotional balance and
heart/brain coherence in ourselves, new enhanced levels of mental
clarity, productivity, physical energy, overall attitude and quality
of life may well surprise us.'
http://www.deepplanet.com/articles.asp?ArticleID=52&SectionID=4 
http://www.heartmath.org/research/our-heart-brain.html 
http://www.experiencefestival.com/a/Heart_and_Brain/id/1961 
http://www.therealessentials.com/followyourheart.html 

*http://www.temple.edu/medicine/departments_centers/research/fels.htm 

SO, 3D research confirms that the advice we get from the Celestials
and our Space Brethren is SPOT ON! We become what we think and what we
think depends on what we feel. And our feelings can be intuitively
intelligent. Thus we find that 3D research is rapidly confirming the
truth of the basic spiritual message we receive from the Celestials.
Blessed are those who have not seen, yet believe: BUT ultimately we
will not have to believe – we will KNOW, both intuitively and in reality.

Source; http://abundanthope.net/pages/Ron_71/The_Balance_between_Heart_and_Brain_Intelligence_4123_printer.shtml