Lessons from Jiddu Krishnamurti

I was always curious about the culture and values. I had gone through so many spiritual paths to understand why the differences exist between different paths.

I started questioning from the beginning why we do Pooja, festival celebration, so many gods, so many rituals etc. But did not find exact answer. I then learnt about pyramid meditation, there i saw they deny of doing Pooja and rituals. Then i learnt about Sri Vidya, there i saw people worshipping goddess Lalitha and mentioned she is supreme and all other gods are inferior to her. I then learnt about iskcon, where they mentioned lord krishna is supreme and all other gods are inferior. Then i learnt about Advaita discovered by lord Adi Shankaracharya. 

I was almost finding relations among all other conclusions. It was mentioned all gods and one and the same. There is nothing else exist apart from supreme. I started reading about this and i found vasista Rama samvadam (telugu) or yoga vasistam book. I was shocked by reading the book by giving so many anologies and the conclusion connecting to advaitha.

After that i learnt about pranic healing, i was surprised to see so many people got cured just because of some simple practices. But also i saw they mentioned their methods are the best compa red to others. Then i learnt about bramha Kumari meditation. I saw they worship lord Shiva as Jyothi form and they deny that advaitha and oneness. Then i  started learning about Isha and attended inner engineering, surya kriya. I was very surprised sadghuru is actually spreading about advaitha in contemporary way. I also learnt from Islam that Allah is supreme and no one else is god. I also read about complete works of Vivekananda where he gave very good explanation of our Hindu dharma. Also i learnt about Sri Ramakrishna and  Sri Ramana maharshi.

After going through several spiritual ways and learnt about them, i started questioning everything. Why this many paths, why each one is opposing other practices. Why they say their path is the best and others is not. Why they see results in their respective path etc.

I saw some great things about each and every path. I don't deny the results and I don't deny any path. 

After several years of such research, then i came across Jiddu Krishnamurti which influenced me deeply. I was astonished to see how jiddu Krishnamurti gave emphasis on questioning.

This book is not just about jiddu Krishnamurti's teaching. I am going to discuss about how his teachings are contemporary and do emphasis on incorporating the values in real life. Also this book is going to cover examples from Vedas, Upanishads, yoga vasistam and all the spiritual ways to unify the approach of looking at life rather than divide and conquer.

My mine motive is to emphasize on oneness and find middle ground of all spiritual paths. I don't want to call as religion as the term is misleading. We are also going to cover about the practical ways to implement in real life.

The beginning

Before we dive into the teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti, let's discuss on the human life and problems.

Each and every individual has a problem. An employee has a problem of getting the work done, balancing family and work, job security, politics etc. He/she might have to go through family problems such as taking care of kids, in laws, spouse and fulfilling their needs. A business man has a problem like running the business, competing with others, health issues, customer satisfaction, money management etc. A poor man has problems like feeding the children and family, earning money, surviving etc. A rich man has problems such as money safety, prestige, keeping the power, doubt on others etc. 

So the conclusion is every one has to go through the problems.

Let's deep dive into the problems. Why problems exist? Is there any one on this earth not facing problem? No one is exception. Whether it is Yogi, bhogi, they would need to deal with problems.

Lets take some real world example. A well known, always happening story. A monther-in-law and daugher-in-law problem. A son got married. Before his marriage, he was fully dependent on his mother, his mother used to take care of him. He always admire his mother. A girl born in other family was brought up with utmost care, and was treated as princess in her family. Her family members supported every aspect of her life, and try to make sure she is happy. 

After marrying to this guy, the problem started. The girl could not tolerate domination from her mother-in-law. The mother-in-law gets suspicious or fear whether her son leaves her and be with his wife. So she treats the daughter-in-law by using authority and try to control in every aspect. The newly married woman can't tolerate the authority, she struggles to adjust with the family as she never had to face this kind of situations in the past. Now coming to the guy, he suffers to handle both women, he can't question his wife, and his mother. So the real struggle begins.

Lets delve into this scenario. Who is bad in this, mother, son, daugher-in-law? Each one is good in their own way. No one is wrong. There is a problem of adding another person to the family. It takes time to get adjusted, it takes time to gel with the family. When I was bachelor, I used to stay in a big apartment, where I was sharing the apartment with four other people. We had differences, it took time to get adjusted. But they were never turned into suffering. Because everyone has to adjust, everyone understood that it takes time to gel with each other. Why this mother-in-law, daughter-in-law problem became universal in such a way that it is natural in every family? Why every soap opera of this problem became huge hit? 

Simple reason is no one in the family understood that it takes time to gel with the family. The girl creates pain and agony because she sacrificed her born family, expected better care compared. But the reality is totally reverse, she sees no care from her husband, her mother-in-law. No one really cared her pain. But who is responsible for her pain and agony? It may be hard to digest but the real responsibility is with her. Why? Because there are many girls who are happy with her in-laws. These girls also had the similar problems, but they used their consciousness and faced the reality. They understood it takes time for everyone to accept her, so she adjusted initially.  

Lets looks at from the boy's prospective. He created pain and suffering because of his expectations that new girl would be like his sister, his mother would be relieved and would be taken care. He suffered because of his expectations not met. Is every boy suffering after marriage? No. There are so many boys after marriage leading happy life as they understood it is natural to have differences among the family members. It is his responsibility to stay calm and do not support any of them, let the women handle themselves. Due to fear, the boy created suffering .

Now comes to the boy's mother. She created suffering from the problem. She expected the girl to be like her daughter but because of insecurity feeling she ill treated her daughter in law to protect her self.

When you look at each person in the above scenario, one thing is common. Fear future, insecurity, agony, hatred, lack of trust. Just because of this, everyone in the family is suffering and blames one another.

Let's look at different prospective of the same scenario. Is agony of the son and agony of mother and agony of daughter in law is different? No. Agony is same. Is insecurity of each of them is different? No. Insecurity is same for all. Just intensity is different. So when a person is expressing his/her agony, insecurity, hatred, love is no different from other person. What if the mother look at her daughter in law without hatred, insecurity or any other emotions and just look at her as fellow human being. She would never suffer because the insecurity created the agony or hatred. She would never have problem with her daughter in law. Similarly if the girl look at her in laws without any conclusion and agony or fear or insecurity, just look at them as fellow human beings, she would never suffer. We know that as human being it takes time to get mingle with other person. There are differences but will get adjusted as a fellow human being. 

This is what the primary aspect of jiddu krishna Murthy teachings. He emphasised on looking at every situation neither accepting nor rejecting, just look without any conclusion. Whole life changes with simple approach. It is not something he discovered first, there are many great scholars or saints emphasised the same aspect. Primary aspect of advaitha is aham brahmasmi and sarvam khalvidham Brahma. Just these two sentences can speak volumes. 

Aham brahmasmi means i am the supreme, there is no other supreme. Then immediately we try to demean others but then comes the second statement "sarvam khalvidham Brahma" . This means everything is Brahman i.e., everything is supreme. Then comes the third statement tatvam asi. I am that. Whatever i look is no different from me. Whatever i think is no different from me. Whatever i speak about is no different from me. Everything i speak, listen, think, act about others is about me.

Then people ask if look at filthy stuff, is it me? If i look at a criminal or rapist, is he me? What is this contradictory or hard to digest? The main theme of these statements is neither to look down nor look up on any one. 

Let's look at further. Consider the same scenario which we mentioned earlier. The girl suffered because of hatred, agony and insecurity. If she look at her mother in law as no different from her, she would stop blaming. When we stop blaming others for our problems, our mind stops creating stories. Let's say her mother in law did not treat her properly. It's a mistake. Once the incident is over, mind game starts. Mind keep on replaying the same scene again and again. Every time the agony or hatred increases. Initial suffering is 10 units but mind make it 1 million units. 

Same is the case with the boy's mother and the boy. They created insecurity within their minds and ill treat the Lakshmi (a woman worshipped as goddess). Because of which harmony of the family got disturbed and every one in the family started suffering. 

So the core aspect of Krishna Murthy's teachings is to introspect and self knowledge. He mentioned many times whether you are seeing the other person as fellow human being or just with your mind reflection. If we see other person without any past history in the mind, whole world changes. 

So Sri Jiddu Krishnamurti asked very simple yet profound questions. Let's say you are watching a tree. Can you see the tree without any commentary in the back end. It is natural that we always look at the tree or flower commenting how beautiful it is, how good it is. But this created distance between the observer and the observed. Observer in this scene is not seeing the tree as it is. There is commentator in the backend and observer just seeing with that commentary. What happens if the commentary stops? Let's say the observer watching rose flower. If there is no commentry in the back end, how will the flower look like? The real experience according to Krishnamurti is observer and the observed become one. There is no separation between the two.

Similarly he asked to watch sunset without any commentry. 

Once there was a guy who wanted to be with krishanamurti. Krishnamurti's routine is watch the sunset everyday. He watches along with many students at least twenty minutes a day. New guy accompanied krishna Murthy shouted how beautiful the sunset is while watching the sunset. Krishanamurti became very angry at that person and told never come to visit sunset with him again. Here his intention is the new guy is differentiating the nature. If sunset is beautiful, then something else is ugly. This creates the difference among people. So he emphasised to look at everything without commenting. If you look at sunset, or sunrise just immerse in the nature without any commentry in the background. At one point of time observer and observed become one. There is no artificial gap between the two. Sun and the person watching the sun is one. Tree and the person watching the tree is one. It looks confusing or contradictory but it is the essense of human being.

Shiva

We have read in so many places that before the creation only Shiva was there. He had got some desire to create the universe. His Shakthi was then expanded to other forms. Now let's ask ourselves, to create something new, we need a material to create. What is that material? If that material is different from Shiva then that material exists without Shiva right? But in reality there is no other material apart from Shiva. But we see different objects, people, animals, planets, etc. Are all these same or different from Shiva? If we go by the logic that before creation only one exists that is Shiva, then all the objects, planets, stars, galaxies etc are nothing but Shiva.

Shiva was expanded to the universe in all forms. His Shakthi was expanded. That expanded Shakthi is called Vishnu. So first Shiva was there. His Shakthi was hidden. Shakthi then expanded to the universe. Then Vishnu i.e, one who expanded everywhere existed. This is the theory of creation in one direction. 

Let's take this deeper. We all know entire creation is made up of atoms. In this notion , an atom has the power of Shiva right? Is this true? Let's find out. 

We all know the power of atom bomb. It could destroy many states. This atom bomb was made by just single atom. It is still known fact that an atom has inhibited power in the nucleus which is still not known. Our scientists created the atom bomb by a little knowledge of it. Large section of an atom which gives mass to the atom is unknown. Some says God particle, some says unknown. Truth is there is so much power in the atom that could just destroy the entire universe.

One simple example is novel corona virus. This virus is basically a half life. It is invisible. Comparing with human beings in size is significantly negligible. But still that small virus shattered millions of people's lives. Destroyed economy, killed so many lakhs of people. No one was spared. Ministers, prime ministers, big business men, well to do families, poor people, etc. Everyone was suffered for months. Still it's unknown what is going to happen. Before that every one was thinking human power can over power everything in the universe. But just a tiny half life shattered entire human world and scared humans to death for months. What is the power of this virus? Unknown.

In this sense we can call each atom or particle or everything in this universe has the power of Shiva. It is just that we have the faculty that is mind, that is not allowing us to see that power within. So conclusion is a virus, bacteria, an atom, things, people, animal or everything in this vast universe is simply expanded form of Shiva. Mind is the biggest obstacle to see the Shiva within and everywhere.

Now let's go deeper what the mind is? It is actually a super power and has immense capability. It has super creative and can create so many great things. Entire world is full of that creative power. Whether it is bulb, computer, buildings, ships, aeroplanes, appliances, power, solar, electrics, so on and on. Everything was possible just because of the power of the mind faculty. Now let's dissect this mind to understand it's functionality in great detail.

Mind has basically four major components. Manas, buddhi, chitta and ahamkar.

In other words, mind, intellect, memory store, identity.

Chitta: It is pure intelligence. Not influenced by anything. This pure intelligence is simply great tool for storing everything as it is. Suppose I say I like ice cream, it stores that as it is. It can be termed as a hard disk of a human mind. Everything is stored here as perceived.

Mind or Manas: it is simply recollect the past and analyse what needs to be done. 

It is just replaying the events stored in chitta again and again. It keeps on clinging to past events in chitta and puts labels on everything. Tape recorder replays songs but there was no emotion attached. When mind replays a situation, then emotion is attached. Emotion gets intensified every time it replays.

Intellect: this is the decision maker. Whether it is good or bad. It decides what needs to be done at that moment. If intellect takes over then it controls everything and decides against other faculties. It like sharp knife that cuts everything like a divider. It is good for some cases but in other cases it is dangerous as it could destroy lives.

Ahamkar: It is basically identity of the person. What is identity? Suppose I have a habit of looking into mobile all the time, then my identity is simply mobile addict. My identity plays key role in everything. This identity is the main reason for suffering. It is needed for survival in the world. It is important when to use the identity and when not to use. 

Now let's understand these four faculties with examples.

The character name here is Vishnu. Vishnu was a great student and always stood first in class. He was always focused on studies. He never hurt others. He became a police officer. He became very rich. He has got three kids. His age is now 56 years. His kids are very naughty.

Now take a situation in his Vishnu's life how these four faculties play. 

He met a friend, who stolen others items during childhood, after many years. Both went to a shop and bought a few clothes. His friend totally changed after years and was now a great human being. Suddenly some one reported theft in that shop and this police man accused his friend based on his previous experience with him. This police man literally abused him infront of every one saying he stolen the goods. With CCTV footage, Vishnu came to know that his friend was innocent.

His friend left from there silently. Vishnu felt guilty for accusing his friend and suspecting him. 

Let's decode why this had happened?

Vishnu's ahamkara or identity became police officer every moment. As a police officer he tend to suspect every one. His chitta stored memory of his friend stealing. Vishnu's mind replaying the childhood memories again and again, created illusion that his friend would always be a thief. So Vishnu's intellect decided that his friend was a thief in the shop.

This is just one example, and there are so many in our daily lives. We tend to decide based on the past encounter, identity, replaying the same incidents in mind.

So we are just seeing what is stored in the mind. We can't see anything beyond mind. That's why World is called a myth. 

If we see everything as Shiva, then there is a possibility of seeing different prospective. Truth is everything is Shiva, we forgot about that and believed that this name, fame, identity was real. Each one of us has possibility of removing this false identification and become Shiva. This is the fundamental principle of every ritual, spiritual practice. 

Aham brahmasi, means I am the Brahman or Shiva or Vishnu.

Tatvam asi: that is bramhan or everything else is Shiva. 

How it is possible? One of the way is by untraining the mind. When we are alone, replay all thr events stored in the mind by treating everything was Shiva. It would take years. Every moment we need to introspect, whether i am treating others and everything as Shiva or not.

Shunya

Like is just like a bubble. In each one of us we have created various bubbles in our mind. Those bubbles are nothing but other people. Why I call bubble is simply because just a fraction of what they are is stored in the mind. Suppose if I think about someone, it is about the past experience whether it is good or bad stored in my mind. A bubble is simply empty and but looks very big, similarly in the mind we store only the outer layer by bubbling up the empty. Let's say a person has taken 10000 births, now if I come across with him and he deceived me , he praised me and he apologized me some other time. Now all I have in my mind is the impressions of these situations with him. Whenever I think of him, only that hurt of deception exists and that blindfolds my mind. If I meet him, what do I see, do I see all 10000 births and his experiences? No. Only the life situation's with him. Let's say a birth is of 50 years at an average. In that case, that person is with 50000 years of knowledge and experience. But in my mind I store only 3 seconds of his life and believe that that person is this one. In reality it is just 3 seconds bubbled as 50k years. Remaining is unknown or shunya. That's why I said every one is just like a bubble in the mind as far as a person's experience is considered. I can give one more example. Suppose a person has done some crime in his life. A person who suffered because of that will treat him as criminal in his life time. Let's say his life time is 70 years. He might have committed mistakes or crimes 100 times ie., 500 seconds is 10 mins. Remaining time he might have suffered a lot or he might have done great things. Great rishi valmiki was once a thief. He stolen so much money and killed many people for money. The one who sees valmiki from thief prospective he is a thief even after writing ramayan. He might have lived a few years as a thief and committed a few crimes in the process. But in reality he was a good son, good husband by taking care of the family by looting others money. In his entire life time he performed crimes for 100 hours and remaining life time he was a good person who took care of family and parents. He also became great saint and wrote great epic Ramayana. If a person who suffered because of valmiki still in the trauma of theft for lifetimes. .

Why this is happening? Because we simply judge others based on the action they have performed and refuse to look deeper side. Also we simply create a bubble in the mind about that thing. Is it only about others? No. It is about self as well. We might have committed a few sins but we keep on feeling guilty for entire life time by creating a big bubble of the self saying sinner. Will then we be able to accept the self? No. Then we condemn the self and others as well. Slowly life simply becomes horrible. 

Now come to the physical plane. If we think we are bodies, a body is simply made up of tiny atoms. Each atom has nucleus and electrons. Electrons revolve around this nucleus continuously. Electrons are with negative charge and protons are positive charge. Protons are inside the nucleus.  To make the atom stable, there is a huge gap between nucleus and electrons. In other words 99% of the space in an atom is empty. If we take this equation further, entire human body is just like a bubble with 99% empty. It can be more too. Not just human body, entire universe is just empty or shunya. So what we see and perceive is just unreal. Because we never consider that emptiness or shunya. 

Spiritual journey

I am everything. My frequency can be 0 to 1000000. If I am angry my energy frequency comes down to 100 from 1000000, if I am hatred it comes to 10, if I am love it becomes 100000, if I am divine it becomes 1000000, if I am ecstasy it becomes 10000000 and so on. 

Today I see other person why she is behaving weirdly. To see that my energy has to match the frequency of her. then only I can be synonymous with that. I don't need to deviate from the energy if I am divine or love or ecstasy. 

Suppose I am love, if my wife complains about something, I don't need to acknowledge her complaint or I don't need criticize her, I can pray for her so that her energy levels increase. If I am identified with her complaints then automatically my energy level goes down all the way to match the energy frequency of the complaint. All the depleted energy will be given to her. Then she becomes calm and peaceful, and I become the complaint energy and it will haunt for a while. This is called energy theft. 

This kind of energy theft is happening inside us as well. Suppose I am love energy and my frequency is 1crore. Suddenly a thought raised in my mind about a past incident. If I am pure love, I just watch the thought and do not identify with it and then my energy will not be reduced at all. If I am not pure love or gets identified with it, then my energy automatically matches with that incident's energy. Then the same thought repeats again and again, I feel terrible as I don't have energy any more. Then my behavior becomes devilish. 

Now lets talk about this frequency levels in detail. These are basic assumptions but more or less it is true.

Suppose I am with 0-100 frequency, my thoughts or emotions or actions becomes cruel to others. Like rapes, murder, abuse others, dominate others, hate entire world. Every thought is just about hatred or complaint against the world, every emotion is to grab other's freedom and enjoy in others' misery. I might be sadhu before or I might be a famous person or I might be great human being, because of low frequency level I become identified with evil. All my activities become daemon. It is as simple as that. We gossip too much about the world, unknowingly our energy becomes that person or animal or incident. 

This is the reason what we see, whom we are with, what we read all create huge impact on us. Suppose a person is with 10000 energy, he associated with a person with 10-100 for more than six months, if he gets identified with the low frequency, his energy becomes 10-100 and all his actions become so low that the great person is no more. It is not his fault or not the other person's fault. It is because of lack of acceptance. If he accepts that other person is with 10-100 energy level, pray for his energy level to get increased, then there will not be any issues. This is a continuous battle. The moment he loses his energy level, automatically his thoughts, words or emotions or actions will change forever. 

Lets say you associate with a person who complaints all the time. He or she complains about everything, it is a continuous battle within you that you either become the complaint's energy or become more energized. It is always like this. No matter what you get identified, you are that. 

That is why in scriptures or spiritual practices, it is mentioned to make sure you always get associated with god or divine qualities or associate with divine people. why do they mention to avoid association with negativity? they could say no matter what, you continue the same and suffer with the consequences. But the emphasis is here about greater level of understanding. 

This incident in Buddha's life inspired me. It is an excerpt from one of the book. During his life time after getting enlightened, buddha was roaming all around india and preaching about dharma. Several villagers abused him for hours that day. He was smiling all the time and told finally that are you finished your abuses? If not you could continue once I return. People were astonished whether this guy is mad or what. His disciples got very angry against these villagers and wanted to retort. They could not digest Buddha's behavior.

Buddha's disciple Ananda couldn't hold this. He came to Buddha and asked why you didn't retort. Buddha told simply that  he could retort five years ago, now he realized they are abusing him because of their ignorance. This one incident reminds us through out the life how to live without getting affected. 

Buddha knew that if he retort, his energy level matches the energy of villagers and it will not yield any results. So kept his composure and showed compassion which made his energy level even higher. 

We all want to experience higher energies and want to experience higher emotions such as love, compassion etc. It happens only when we constantly try to get the higher energies instead of getting identified with low frequency thoughts, emotions or actions etc. 

Everyone is unique.. its time to give them real freedom..

Everyone is unique and has unique capabilities. There is no comparison. One can draw better than anyone in the planet. One can dance, one can sing, one can cook, one can do job, one can invent new stuff, one can play etc. Each person has such distinguish abilities. If we expect from the dancer to sing like lathamangeshkar ji saying everyone has same qualities, then that person may become a singer but can never become great singer. Since it is against his inner nature. Anything against inner nature can never allow him to excel in any way.
If Sachin Tendulkar was forced to play chess than cricket saying chess is also a game, you can become grand master, may be he would have become great chess master but would never become grand master as his inner nature is not designed.
It's foolish thing to expect everyone to study and do job. There are thousands of people who wish to do farming in better way but continuing their jobs for the sake of fulfilling responsibilities or for the sake of society. But those thousands could never become Bill gates or Steve jobs because their inner nature is against it.

You may ask then why Rishi's say everyone is equally capable?
Yes. Let's take an example. If the student sees the toughest question first and thinking to write answers to that question, he would waste ample amount of time. If he starts writing answers to the questions which knew and can answer better, once he completes the easy questions, he can then answer tough questions too. Similarly if one is allowed to exercise his inner freedom, and make him excel in that, then later he can easily excel in other stuff too. Suppose one is capable of drawing finely, if he/she is allowed to draw first, then they excel in drawing. Once they excel in drawing, they can then easily excel other areas.
In ancient days, the Rishi's never taught Vedas to everyone or archery to everyone. They used to analyse their students capabilities, and according to that, they teach their favourite subjects. Once every student excels in his/her favorite area, they would then be allowed to learn other areas too. In this way, there were many great scholars who excelled in all 64 Kalas.

The most saddest part is..every parent is spending huge amount of money or investment on their kids to study , do job and settled in life. Person is never settled by having a car, bunglaw, or amenities or security.  He is settled only when he does according to his inner nature. Even if he stitch shoes, he is settled. This nature is so free that anything can be made possible. It's time for parents to stop putting pressure on their kids to study, do job, settle in life.. no... Give freedom to their inner nature..help them to explore it with the help of yoga/meditation.. let that inner nature decides what the kid truly wants to do.. then we will see a different era of the Kali yuga where money, luxury do not matter.. wish I witness such era in my lifespan..

PS: kudos to the people and their parents who are already following this way..

What is truthfulness?

People often say be truthful and be happy. But what is truthfulness?
Being truthful to others is not real truthfulness. Being straight to oneself is truthfulness.
Every human being has the quality of humanity irrespective of place, religion etc. Everyone is born with these qualities. We need not teach anyone how to be a human.
But after a few years we are equipped with so called intellect and with that we start deviating from humanity. Slowly we start to deviate from ourselves. We always run away from ourselves. We invented or borrowed from western how to run away by wasting time on movies or gossips or news or social media etc. All these are needed for the sake of happiness by avoiding inner self.
That's why most people cannot sit alone without talking, without watching movie or mobile or TV etc. They can not even sit for 5 mins straight with themselves as they are afraid to face oneself.
So real enemy is intellect. It's time to be straight with inner self and be truthful to the inner self. Then irrespective of situation, one can be at ease. All yogic practices are just these. To be truthful to oneself. To enhance the ability to face with oneself. Because inner self is always straight and bluntly say this way is not correct. This way is not the way human should live etc. As long as one avoids inner self then he continue to fetch happiness outside which is momentary.

So be straight to yourself and be freed from problems.

Mood swings..how to handle

When a mood against someone or for someone arises, do not place it on the person in question – or on the object in question. Remain centered. Remember that you are the source, so do not move to the other, move to the source. When you feel hate, do not go to the object. Go to the point from where the hate is coming. Go not to the person to whom it is going, but to the center from where it is coming. Move to the center, go within. Use your hate or love or anger or anything as a journey toward your inner center, to the source. Move to the source and remain centered there. Try it! This is a very, very scientific, psychological technique. Someone has insulted you – anger suddenly erupts, you are feverish. Anger is flowing toward the person who has insulted you. Now you will project this whole anger onto him. He has not done anything. If he has insulted you, what has he done? He has just pricked you, he has helped your anger to arise – but the anger is yours. If he goes to Buddha and insults him, he will not be able to create any anger in him. Or if he goes to Jesus, Jesus will give him the other cheek. Or if he goes to Bodhidharma, he will roar with laughter. So it depends. The other is not the source, the source is always within you. The other is hitting the source, but if there is no anger within you it cannot come out. If you hit a buddha, only compassion will come out because only compassion is there. Anger will not come out because anger is not there. If you throw a bucket into a dry well, nothing comes out. In a water-filled well, you throw a bucket and water comes out, but the water is from the well. The bucket only helps to bring it out. So one who is insulting you is just throwing a bucket in you, and then the bucket will come out filled with the anger, hate, or fire that was within you. You are the source, remember. For this technique, remember that you are the source of everything that you go on projecting onto others. And whenever there is a mood against or for, immediately move within and go to the source from where this hate is coming. Remain centered there; do not move to the object. Someone has given you a chance to be aware of your own anger – thank him immediately and forget him. Close your eyes, move within, and now look at the source from where this love or anger is coming. From where? Go within, move within. You will find the source there because the anger is coming from your source. Hate or love or anything is coming from your source. And it is easy to go to the source at the moment you are angry or in love or in hate, because then you are hot. It is easy to move in then. The wire is hot and you can take it in, you can move inward with that hotness. And when you reach a cool point within, you will suddenly realize a different dimension, a different world opening before you. Use anger, use hate, use love to go within. We use it always to move to the other, and we feel very much frustrated if no one is there to project upon. Then we go on projecting even on inanimate objects. I have seen persons being angry at their shoes, throwing them in anger. What are they doing? I have seen angry persons pushing a door in anger, throwing their anger on the door, abusing the door, using dirty language against the door. What are they doing? I will end with one Zen insight about this. One of the greatest of Zen masters, Lin Chi, used to say, “While I was young I was very fascinated by boating. I had one small boat, and I would go on the lake alone. For hours together I would remain there. “Once it happened that with closed eyes I was in my boat meditating on the beautiful night. One empty boat came floating downstream and struck my boat. My eyes were closed, so I thought, ‘Someone is here with his boat, and he has struck my boat.’ Anger arose. I opened my eyes and I was just going to say something to that man in anger, then I realized that the boat was empty. Then there was no way to move. To whom could I express the anger? The boat was empty. It was just floating downstream, and it had come and struck my boat. So there was nothing to do. There was no possibility to project the anger on an empty boat.” So Lin Chi said, “I closed my eyes. The anger was there, but finding no way out, I closed my eyes and just floated backward with the anger. And that empty boat became my realization. I came to a point within myself in that silent night. That empty boat was my master. And now if someone comes and insults me, I laugh and I say, ‘This boat is also empty.’ I close my eyes and I go within.” Use this technique. It may work miracles for you.

--an excerpt from 112 techniques of meditation by osho