Stumbling Block
By JIRARA
© JIRARA, March 2021
Published by JIRARA on matrubharti.com
All rights reserved. No parts of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form or by any means, electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise, for any commercial purposes without the prior permission of the author and/or publisher.
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Disclaimer: This is the work of fiction as far as all the characters, their names and the names of all the events are concerned and all these are imaginary and hence any resemblance to the persons (and their lives) dead or alive, and any places are coincidental. Even if a few events might look realistic/’real’, these are fictionalised and the associated names are changed in order to maintain their privacy, honour, and security. No intention whatsoever is meant to hurt any feelings of whosoever, irrespective of their personal/cultural beliefs, social or political inclinations, religion-orientations/practicing/philosophy, life styles, and work/business. The ‘I’, ‘my’, ‘me’, and ‘mine’ (if any used) do not necessarily mean the author of this book/story/article, and these and other such pronouns: her, hers, his, he, she, him, you, your, yours, ours, theirs…; are used for effective personification and dramatization, and the readers should not take these on their ‘own persons’.
The readers should take these stories/verses/thoughts with/in good spirit. The presented ideas and material are based, where feasible, on readings and (thought-) analyses of scientific/other open literature (which seemed most profound and trustworthy), with as much care as possibly taken. The readers are requested to verify these notions on their own, and use their own discretion. However, these stories/verses/thoughts/ideas (mostly original) are expressed here with an intention of increasing awareness of the readers with a hope that in an overall sense, their (and ours) consciousness would be heightened (in all and multiple directions), so that we all can live our lives on this planet with true happiness, ever-lasting peace and real joy (irrespective of our orientations). The author and the publisher will not be responsible for any negative effects/situations arising as a result of reading these stories/verses and/or following the suggestions if any; and no discussions/dispute of any kind will be entertained at any time and in any way, manner, and/or forum; because the dictum is that if you like(-d) you read, otherwise ignore, what is the point in making a fuss about it?; anyway you are independent to judge the messages in the articles/stories and utilize for your benefits if found useful, since here the idea is in the direction of ‘consciousness raising’. JIRARA.
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Stumbling Block
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Psychological security is not within the field of achievement:
It seems to me that one of the greatest stumbling blocks in (the human) life is this constant struggle to reach, to achieve, to acquire. We are trained from childhood to acquire and to achieve - the very brain cells themselves create and demand this pattern of achievement in order to have physical security, but psychological security is not within the field of (this) achievement.
By J. Krishnamurti, Freedom from the Known (#, at the end).
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Commentary (By JIRARA):
Let us divide this statement into four parts, and give a short title: a) constant struggle, b) training, c) physical security, and d) field of achievement.
a) Constant struggle:
We the humans since, the time we are born as babies, start ‘giving’ lot of work to our parents, and others who matter to them. Ironically, the parents become very happy that in their house a new human being is born, and their wish was fulfilled. The parents from that day start planning for the baby’s health, growth, clothes, toys, special foods, medicines, and then education and so on…; the constant struggle for the parents starts from here, and interestingly for the babies also, just when they start understanding something, and remembering some small events, and their parents' vocal statements and desires, etc.
So, the constant struggle has begun, and the growing children and their parents are caught ‘unaware’ by the spasm of this enchanting and greatly demanding task as the responsibilities of the parents who then take these as their pious duties to their children, and ironically this continues even when these children have become the adults.
We want to reach somewhere, but we don’t know why and where we want to go, we are always thinking of ‘living’ but not of the ‘life’.
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Note: Please read here my MB story-article: Mother’s Happiness. And in this struggle we lose our own self; Please read my MB story-article: Can I Not Shun…; and my MB ‘Bites’: At the age of retirement.
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b) Training:
We as the parents, care takers and teachers always train our children/students to achieve something in their lives, and also acquire something for future security. The parents educate their children, help in getting them the jobs, get them married, and even build at least one house for them, if the parents can afford these huge costs. During the entire lives we the humans keep struggling for something or the other, either in the planned way or even in the unplanned manner. This has become a habit.
The farmers’ sons are sent for education abroad, the rich people acquire big farm houses to invest their monies, and the film actors join politics to spend their riches in the election campaigns. The entire life around seems always too busy to acquire more knowledge, more monies, more accolades, more honours, and more buildings, and so on…; and for all these many of us are really well trained by our mentors, and guardians from our childhood, at least the notions are well ingrained in our brains by the time we attain adulthood.
It so happens that in the process of natural evolution for millions of years, our brains themselves have also evolved and their cells prod us in these directions to acquire and achieve this pattern of achievement in order to have physical security; we feel that if we don’t have any physical security, we will not be able to live our lives happily in the future times.
c) Physical security:
We build lot of such securities around us: a) physical training of our bodies (body builders), b) physical tools and gadgets, like vehicles, arms (illegally), body guards, bank balances (even overseas), monies invested in more than one business, life insurances, property insurances, and huge retinues of like-minded friends and very close relatives, and what not!
And yet, it has been observed that lot of such people who have built enormous amount of physical fortresses are still not very happy, they are worried about losing their treasures, and hence they don’t get proper sleeps in the nights!
d) Psychological security v/s the field of achievement:
It is then ironical that the physical security that we have built around us for our own selves and our children for attaining the ever-lasting happiness does not provide us the mental peace. We have achieved so much, but still we are worried, because the physical securities give us the false sense of (mental) security that I have everything, and nobody can touch me, or do any harm to me; however as is the case with the nature of these objects, that these can dissolve (banks going bankrupt), and businesses going in the wings of the recession, and so on…, then the permanence of this is questionable.
And hence the master says: psychological security is not within the field of (this physical) achievement: what we really want is the first one but that cannot be attained by the second, because the first one has never been the goal within the pursuit of the second; we were mainly concerned with acquiring and achieving, and we never sought peace any way; we had a wrong impression of the physical sense of safety and security, and believed that with the latter we would achieve permanent peace, and when we do not attain it, we either blame the bad times or our fate; but we had never done the self-analysis and we never studied ourselves as to what really we wanted; we missed contemplation in our lives.
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© Krishnamurti Foundation Trust/Krishnamurti Foundation Trust.
#krishnamurti #jkrishnamurti #jiddukrishnamurti #selftransformation #awakening #awareness #mindfulness #meditate #meditation #consciousness #selfknowledge #enlightenment #yoga #psychology #spiritual #spirituality Krishnamurti; Jiddu Krishnamurti Centre at Walden's Path School, Hyderabad, India.
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