The Seat of Thought

"If I may I would like to point out we are not entertaining you. We are not indulging in some kind of intellectual game, or trying to point out what kind of belief you should have; or to seek a leader to solve our problems. We are not doing any kind of propaganda to persuade you to think in a particular direction, or to convince you of a particular point of view. But we are thinking together, observing together the problems, the crisis, that we are facing, the war, destruction, corruption, and the superstitions in the name of religion; all that nonsense that goes on in the name of religion, god and so on." - Jiddu Krishnamurti Madras 1st public talk

“Thought has no place whatsoever in the silent mind.” (Mary Lutyens Biography: Volume 2: Years of Fulfilment, page 176)

“Thought is necessary to accumulate knowledge to function skillfully,

otherwise thought has no place whatsoever.” (The Transformation Of Man: 'The Wholeness of Life' - Chapter XV111, p. 213)

Remarkable statements. Thought has created our entire civilization; it dominates all our days and our entire life, from sentient being to death. It is at the very centre of all our self-identity, goals, ambitions, occupation, social status and relationships. It has created all of science, technology, architecture, philosophy, religions, languages and the myriad iconic images of god. Yet, these statements are flatly stating that psychological thought is simply not required to live our daily lives. Period.

Can the brain stop recording experiences in memory?

The mind, as we know it, encompasses the brain, all feelings, and all the body senses. But it is the brain that is the seat of thought. The brain is a recorder and, not so strangely as it turns out, functions very much like a computer, which is its own creation. A computer mimics the actual structure of the brain: both are run entirely on fragmented memory (necessitating hard-drive defragmentation - like the deconditioning of the mind); and there is a remarkable symmetry between DNA code and computer programming binary code Scientist Creates Life – Almost (Time Magazine, January 24, 2008).

The brain is much more subtle, imitative and clever than we think.

Recording is accumulation. Accumulation is the central drive, or desire, of thought - to become something. Accumulating experiences, knowledge, fame, money and power. Accumulation gives comfort, pleasure and security to the self. The talks state that recording occurs only through inattention, which implies that most of the time we are not paying full attention to what we are doing and to what is occurring around us. (David Bohm, The Ending of Time: Chapter 3, 'Why has Man given Supreme Importance to Thought?' - April 8, 1980)

"Thought is time..."Thought brings about irrationality."

Thought, as time, is the problem. One must fully understand this statement, for it lies at the center of the Core of the Talks. Time is also thought. When one is fully in the present, when one is wholly attentive to the now, there is no thought. Thought comes in to fill this void, as it fears this blankness, or emptiness. It is thus concerned to be occupied with something all the time.

Thought is conditioned by the past, by memory, one can see this in oneself. It divides life into fragments: you can see when you look into the mind that there is a "me" and a "not me." On a worldwide scale this division is nationalism. Thought does not consider the unity of mankind, it is always narrow, self-interested and conforming to a pattern. It constantly plays games with itself, it is highly self-deceptive.

You can observe over time that the nature and content of your thought doesn’t change. You may have supposedly ‘new’ thoughts (new ideas, or so-called memes, which are only recycled from other people’s ideas) and a resultant change in lifestyle, which is essentially superficial, but the fundamental content of thought remains the same. Self-interested, deceptive, superficial, obsessing over particular repetitive memories, in fear, looking for direction, for endless distraction.

This is one of the deep statements that lies at the base of the talks. Thought, unlike the rest of nature, simply doesn’t evolve.

The brain is always recording and so the issue becomes one of what needs to be registered to live and what is only psychological registration in the defense and support of the self. Thought creates images as a part of its creation of this self. If thought ceases, then this movement of image-making ends, does it not?

Can you observe that thought is incapable of looking at facts without reaction? Can you see that it is always escaping from the actual? The self is the observer, the controller, which is the essence of our identity. It is seemingly separate from its thoughts. Over time, this observer has become an intrinsic part of one’s nature.

We believe that the self is an inherent part of human nature, do we not?

Why has thought constructed an illusory self? "Is not your every action a self-centered activity." (The Awakening of Intelligence: New York City Talk dialogue, April 24, 1971)

The essence of the self is arrogance and deception: the belief that “I know," which by extension means others don’t. The self is the antithesis of humility, which it shuns as socially inept behavior. It is thought's creation of continuity, of security, of the movement of psychological time. At the base of thought is desire, which is the essence of the self - seeking both security and pleasure, comfort, and the avoidance of pain.

The self is thought’s masterpiece of deception and a means of escape from the "what is." It wears masks to conceal its true motives. It is always accumulating: outwardly, this is represented in money and possessions; inwardly, as experiences and knowledge. These accumulations burden the mind and only produce the desire for more: more money, more experiences, more pleasure, and more knowledge. There is never a final satisfaction, as the self does not rest in the present, but is in a constant state of becoming.

The separate self is, of course, at the very core of what is called 'duality.' It is the construction of opposites, which are the concepts of the intellect, without understanding/insight. The self is the observer in the statement:

"The observer is the observed."

Nonduality, or what is called 'the perennial philosophy,' is the complete ending of this fictional creation of thought; it is integration of the heart, mind and body:

“The ‘me’ is brought about through thought; it has no reality by itself. …”(The Impossible Question: Chapter 4: 'Fragmentation' - July 23, 1970, page 46)

"Self-knowing is the understanding of becoming in oneself." (Pupul Jayakar Biography: Chapter 27, "Action Without Consequence?" - page 204)

Is it all about the ending of thought?

“There is the understanding of what is, an adequate action towards what is, only when the mind is not seeking any escape. The very thinking about what is, is an escape from what is. Thinking about the problem is escape from the problem, for thinking is the problem, and the only problem.

The mind, unwilling to be what it is, fearful of what it is, seeks these various escapes; and the way of escape is thought. As long as there is thinking, there must be escapes, attachments, which only strengthen conditioning. Freedom from conditioning comes with the freedom from thinking.

When the mind is utterly still, only then is there freedom for the real to be." (Commentaries on Living: Series 11: Chapter 2, "Conditioning')

"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."  (The Urgency of Change: page 187)

There has been much discussion over whether the talks are positing the end of thought, per se. They are. "Thinking is the problem, and the only problem." Obviously, thought itself has its place (referred to as technical thought), as all the senses have their place. One needs the intellect of logic and reason to live one’s daily life, to plan for the material future. The talks are addressing the possibility of the utterly still mind, where thought will come into being only when required to live practically, in the moment.

Undeniably, the talks are concerned with the ending of the self. The self is the creation of thought, so end the self and thought ends. The end of the self is the end of all experiences carried over from the past, as well as ending all psychological memory; which is dying to each day. There is only the carry over of memory which is essential for everyday practical or technical living and the denial of all the rest. The point is that one must come to the state of a silent mind, for this is when insight takes place.

What does this statement really mean: "The observer is the observed"?

We have complicated this core statement beyond a clear understanding of it. It means: "The thinker is the thought" - no more, no less. There is no separate independent thinker, it is all just thought. To put it another way: you are that which you are observing in yourself, you are not separate from it, despite the strong, even innate, sense that you feel you are.

What is called fragmentation is that movement of thought that has separated itself into two components. The self, which is time, which is the observer, which is the past, and the not self, which is everything that is observed by the self, including thought itself. But the observer is the same nature as that which it observes. In life itself, in all of nature, there simply is no division. There is an essential oneness, which can be seen when the thought process comes to an end. Man is the only creature on earth that has created a separate and apparently ‘independent observer’, that appears to be observing itself and the world around it. The self is a trick of the mind, a controller separate from itself:

“The observer is the self. The observer detaches itself from that which it observes in itself - the loneliness, emptiness etc. This very detachment - division - is an escape from the actual.”   (The Impossible Question: page 119)

"So we come to a point where we can say, the observer is also the image, only he has separated himself and observes. This observer who has come into being through various other images thinks himself permanent and between himself and the images he has created there is a division, a time interval. This creates conflict between himself and the images he believes to be the cause of his troubles. So then he says, "I must get rid of this conflict", but the very desire to get rid of the conflict creates another image.

Awareness of all this, which is real meditation, has revealed that there is a central image put together by all the other images, and the central image, the observer, is the censor, the experiencer, the evaluator, the judge who wants to conquer or subjugate the other images or destroy them altogether. The other images are the result of judgments, opinions and conclusions by the observer, and the observer is the result of all the other images - therefore the observer is the observed.” (Commentaries On Living: Series II: Chapter 50, 'Convictions--Dreams')

So the observer is the observed actually is a phrase that is quite simple to understand. It is the analytical and abstract thought process that complicates it. This becomes a clever escape from facing up to the actual fact of it. There is seemingly no end to the trickery and deceptiveness of thought; have you noticed that in yourself? Thought plays games and has an innate suspicion of simplicity, which explains why society as a whole is utterly dependent upon myriad experts to solve all of its problems.

Can thought be aware of itself?

This is a pivotal point. The following passage, which also addresses the importance of realization, brings these questions to the fore:

“So there has been in my conversation with myself the discovery that loneliness is created by thought. Thought has now realized of itself that it is limited and so cannot solve the problem of loneliness. …Thought has created this sense of loneliness, this emptiness, because it is limited, fragmentary,divided and when it realizes this, loneliness is not, therefore there is freedom from attachment.” (Brockwood Park: 3rd Public Talk, September 8, 1973)

“Thought must be aware of its own ways, of its own cunning deceptions. All consciousness, surely, whether it is of the past, the present, or the future, is within the field of thought; and any change within that field, which sets the boundaries of the mind, is no real change. A radical change can take place only outside the field of thought, not within it, and the mind can leave the field only when it sees the confines, the boundaries of the field, and realizes that any change within the field is no change at all. This is real meditation. In being aware of itself, without any desire to be or not to be, the mind comes to a state of inaction.

Inaction is not death; it is a passive watchfulness in which thought is wholly inactive. It is the highest state of sensitivity. When the mind is completely inactive at all its levels, only then is there action. All the activities of the mind are mere sensations, reactions to stimulation, to influence, and so not action at all. When the mind is without activity, there is action; this action is without cause, and only then is there bliss.” (Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 85, 'Sensation and Happiness')

The actual nature of this realization, and the state or quality of mind in which this self-awareness takes place, appear to be the most difficult issues of all in the talks. Have we ever realized anything? Realization is seeing something new.

Are we psychologically capable of it?

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