Meditation

"The only true meditation", as Krishnamurti clearly points out, "is when the mind comes to understand itself, and stops."

Meditation? In certain way, there’s no bigger issue. That is - what really is meditation! The meditations that are ’given’ are institutionalized meditations: Zen meditation, Hindu mantra meditation etc. They’re a taste of something. I think the reason Krishnamurti spoke so much about it is because people get hooked on the ’taste’! He doesn’t say it in so many words, but it turns more into self-hypnosis than what meditation really is, in it’s purity. What he says is: ’Meditation (in it’s purity) - the mind comes to understand itself and, as a result, stops’

But what I’m feeling very much, these days, is that somehow an ’exercise in meditation’ might be most useful. Mainly because of the extreme extent of the current confusion - things are spinning to such a degree! It’s so difficult, sometimes it’s almost impossible to ’get a handle’ on thought, so to speak - to hold a thought, to focus! More difficult than it’s ever been. A meditative exercise will never be a replacement for ’understanding the mind’ - but in this incredibly intense period it could be most useful place to rest.

Full self-remembering would be the equivalent of meditation and more. It’s more important, because in mechanical meditations, you’re ’avoiding’ thought, pushing thought away. In Self-Remembering you develop a separation between your ’Being’ - and whatever your thought, sensation or emotion might be! You don’t ’chop your head off’. Meditation exercises, in a way, is the equivalent of chopping your head off. You may open up a higher level of the mind but you fall back when you finish the exercise - back to the ’normal’ confusion.
Full Self-Remembering is another name for ’meditation’. It’s got meditation in it, and more. If you’re in a meditative place, you would be sensitive, first of all, to your body. This can happen in a mechanical meditation, especially with Zen, sitting in, usually, not such a comfortable position. You go through the pain. Sometimes people’s legs just freeze. But when the mind is not busy burning up all the energy, there’s enough left for simple awareness in the body. With attention in the body, you find that you go through the pain - until it’s forgotten, gone.