Theos-Talk Archives (August 1996 Message tl00542)

Hi
On the statement "The Mind is the Slayer of the Real -- Let the Desciple
slay the slayer", here is an excerpt from a message in listening-l, the
maillist for Krishnaji's Teachings.

I believe that Krishnaji is saying the exactly same thing.

_______________________________________________________
    Peace to all living beings.

    M K Ramadoss



Instant Enlightenment
---------------------

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.[snip]

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 acknowledgement 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.

No Sacred Thoughts
------------------

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.[snip]

No Path, No Progress, No Goal
-----------------------------

"...the bodhissatvas 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 Skandas, The Eight Siddhis, etc. Some
would have us believe that learning all these articles of faith are necessary
for enlightenment.[snip]

Here again Krishnamurti seems to be more in agreement with the very core of
Buddhist teachings then 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..."[snip]

No Apostolic following
----------------------

Buddhist teachers are prone to exhort us to believe in the principles that
Buddhist leaders have laid down for them over the centuries, and there are
authoritative Buddhist lineages with apostles who have been appointed to
carry out this task.

For Krishnamurti even the faintest aroma of authority is totally detrimental
to spirituality, because authority implies that someone has been placed in a
position of acceptance. Anyone who accepts anything, any truth from someone
else has not yet found it within himself. As long as people are unwilling or
for any reason unable to find truth within themselves there will be no
possibility of obtaining any true spiritual insight. [snip]


According to Krishnamurti the person is not important, but what he says
is.[snip]

What of all the rules that the Buddha has passed down to us over the
centuries? Accounts have it that just before his death the Buddha entrusted
his monks to discard all minor rules, saying he knew they were able to
discern the essence of dharma. Overcautious, the monks decided they couldn't
decide, and kept all the rules. In effect, they denied the Buddha's last
wish. Had
Krishnamurti sat in the place of the Buddha, and had he made but one rule, it
might have been "know thyself", and all other rules would have been declared
to be minor and therefore to be discarded. [snip]

He(K) always taught at the level of the sutra and for that reason
there is much agreement between Krishnamurti and "The Heart Sutra".
Krishnamurti,therefore, never compromised himself in the same manner as the
Buddha did(i.e. laying down rules, etc.). Krishnamurti remained true, at
times obstinately steadfast, to the Sutra level of teaching during his whole
life, and his teachings were consequently more difficult for the public to
assimilate.[snip]

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Have an elightening Labour's Day (here in the US).


Somendra