pi-dal

"The Book of Life: 365 Days of Quiet Meditation [Douban Rating as High as 8.8! The great spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti of the 20th century, whose words and works cannot be attributed to any religion, neither Eastern nor Western, but belong to the whole world!]" Reading Notes#

Author: J. Krishnamurti
Reading Time: 7 hours

These are the notes and excerpts I recorded while reading "The Book of Life: 365 Days of Quiet Meditation [Douban Rating as High as 8.8! The great spiritual teacher J. Krishnamurti of the 20th century, whose words and works cannot be attributed to any religion, neither Eastern nor Western, but belong to the whole world!]" on WeChat Reading.

Translator's Preface: The Unlocatable Liberator#

I believe that reality is untraceable; you cannot reach it through any religious sect or method. Since reality is infinite, unconditioned, and untraceable, it obviously does not require human organization. No organization has the authority to force people to follow a specific path. If you do this, reality will become a rigid dogma and will also become a plaything for the weak and dissatisfied. Reality cannot be bent to human will; one must approach it through one's own effort. The mountain cannot move to your feet automatically; you must bravely traverse the valleys and climb the cliffs to reach the summit... I care only about one thing: to help humanity achieve unconditional ultimate liberation.

I believe that reality is untraceable; you cannot reach it through any religious sect or method. Since reality is infinite, unconditioned, and untraceable, it obviously does not require human organization. No organization has the authority to force people to follow a specific path. If you do this, reality will become a rigid dogma and will also become a plaything for the weak and dissatisfied. Reality cannot be bent to human will; one must approach it through one's own effort. The mountain cannot move to your feet automatically; you must bravely traverse the valleys and climb the cliffs to reach the summit... I care only about one thing: to help humanity achieve unconditional ultimate liberation.

Introduction: You Are This Book of Life#

We sit like friends in a park on a sunny day, discussing life, our inner issues, exploring the nature of existence, and seriously asking ourselves why life is so full of difficulties? Why does our highly developed intellect make our lives seem meaningless? Is everything just for survival? Why does daily life become a torment? Perhaps we go to church, follow some political or religious leaders, but daily life is always filled with disturbances; although there are moments of fleeting joy or happiness, life is always shrouded in clouds. You and the speaker are exploring these issues in the spirit of friendship, so there is care and sincere emotion in each other's hearts. Let us see if it is possible for us to live in a state free of worries.

We sit like friends in a park on a sunny day, discussing life, our inner issues, exploring the nature of existence, and seriously asking ourselves why life is so full of difficulties? Why does our highly developed intellect make our lives seem meaningless? Is everything just for survival? Why does daily life become a torment? Perhaps we go to church, follow some political or religious leaders, but daily life is always filled with disturbances; although there are moments of fleeting joy or happiness, life is always shrouded in clouds. You and the speaker are exploring these issues in the spirit of friendship, so there is care and sincere emotion in each other's hearts. Let us see if it is possible for us to live in a state free of worries.

January: Listening · Learning · Authority · Self-Awareness#

Language often causes confusion; it is merely a superficial communication tool. To enter into a communion that transcends language, your hearing must remain in a state of passive alertness. A heart filled with love may understand how to listen, but truly listening is extremely rare. Most people pursue results and achieve goals; we are constantly conquering and overcoming problems, and thus the ability to listen has vanished. Only true listening can hear the poetry in words.

We are always trying to do this or that, wanting to reach a certain state, or fixated on one experience while rejecting another, which fills our hearts with delusions, making it impossible for them to listen to their own struggles and pains.

When the speaker is talking, if you can quietly listen to your own heart, then from this listening will emerge clear understanding, and your heart will become healthy and robust. It neither submits nor resists; it becomes lively and fully attentive—only such a person can create a new world.

Learning seems to be a very difficult thing, and listening is not easy either. We have never truly listened to anything because our hearts are not free: our ears are filled with known things, making it hard to hear anything new. If you can listen with your whole life, your listening becomes an element of liberation, but unfortunately, you never truly listen, so you cannot have real insight.

Exploration and learning are inherent functions of the mind; therefore, the learning referred to here is not about accumulating knowledge through memory, but about the ability to think clearly, to be mentally alert without any illusions, to see facts without viewing them through beliefs or ideals. If you hold onto a pile of prejudices, you will learn nothing. Simply acquiring information or knowledge is not true learning; learning refers to the desire to understand and to do something out of love.

Most people believe that learning must be effective through comparison, but the truth is just the opposite. Comparison only creates feelings of frustration and fosters jealousy, which is called competitiveness. Like other forms of persuasion, comparison only hinders learning and fosters fear.

Learning is not an accumulation. You cannot turn learning into a warehouse of accumulated knowledge and then act from that stock; you can only learn while living, so there is no moment that is regressive or degenerative.

Understanding the nature of authority is very important. Authority often hinders our learning, and learning is not about accumulating knowledge into memory. Memory will always create fixed patterns of response, which lack freedom. A person bound by knowledge, who accepts guidance from others, will surely be burdened by what they have learned. They may become very knowledgeable, yet the knowledge they acquire will only hinder the freedom of their heart, preventing them from truly understanding.

After all, virtue or ethics cannot be imitated; once it becomes a mechanical pattern, virtue disappears. Virtue, like humility, cannot be cultivated; you can only live it out in each moment. A heart that is not humble cannot learn.

After all, our hearts are always seeking—they always want to find a safe and undisturbed place.

If you want to be aware of the entire process of submitting to authority, to recognize the truth within, to understand and transform that desire to know, you must develop awareness and insight. In fact, the beginning is liberation, not at the end that liberation is obtained.

Therefore, what most people desire is merely different levels of satisfaction. But the point is not to discover who has awakened, but to understand yourself. No authority can help you know yourself; without self-awareness, it is impossible to free yourself from ignorance and suffering.

Knowing oneself requires an extremely alert mind, because you are constantly changing in every moment. If you can keep up with the changes in your thoughts, you will not be bound by any dogma, belief, or specific behavioral pattern. You must have awareness to know yourself.

To understand your own truth without distortion, whether beautiful or ugly, good or bad, is the beginning of virtue. Virtue is the most important quality because it brings liberation.

Without self-awareness, our experiences often foster illusions; if we have self-awareness, we can immediately face the challenges that experiences bring without leaving behind the remnants of memory. Self-awareness is discovering your motives, desires, thoughts, and preferences in every moment. You cannot divide experiences into "yours" or "mine"; the phrase "my experience" represents ignorance and illusion.

Under the protection of authority or guides, you may temporarily find safety or happiness, but this does not truly understand the activities of the heart. The nature of authority is to hinder complete self-awareness, and it will ultimately destroy inner freedom. Only when the heart has freedom can there be creativity. Only through self-awareness can creativity arise.

If you can be aware of yourself, you will find that living is a continuous process of revealing oneself.

If you want to quiet the mind, you cannot continue to accumulate, condemn, criticize, or measure. Only a pure heart can understand what reality is. A heart skilled in analysis and calculation is not pure; it is always filled with knowledge, information, and thoughts.

Therefore, understanding oneself, without any selection, observing oneself without interpreting one's activities, and simply observing the flow of thoughts is the most important thing.

Creative emptiness is not a state that can be cultivated; it will arrive quietly without invitation. Only in this state can renewal and reform occur.

You and the external world are not two different existences, each with its own problems; in fact, you are this world, and your problems are the world's problems. You may develop certain tendencies influenced by the environment, but fundamentally, you are not different from others. Our inner activities are very similar; we are all driven by greed, improper will, fear, and ambition. Our beliefs, desires, and expectations share a common background. We are one, yet we are often fragmented by politics, economics, and various prejudices. Hurting others is equivalent to destroying oneself. You are the core of this whole; if you do not understand yourself, you cannot know reality.

Language often causes confusion; it is merely a superficial communication tool. To enter into a communion that transcends language, your hearing must remain in a state of passive alertness. A heart filled with love may understand how to listen, but truly listening is extremely rare. Most people pursue results and achieve goals; we are constantly conquering and overcoming problems, and thus the ability to listen has vanished. Only true listening can hear the poetry in words.

We are always trying to do this or that, wanting to reach a certain state, or fixated on one experience while rejecting another, which fills our hearts with delusions, making it impossible for them to listen to their own struggles and pains.

When the speaker is talking, if you can quietly listen to your own heart, then from this listening will emerge clear understanding, and your heart will become healthy and robust. It neither submits nor resists; it becomes lively and fully attentive—only such a person can create a new world.

Learning seems to be a very difficult thing, and listening is not easy either. We have never truly listened to anything because our hearts are not free: our ears are filled with known things, making it hard to hear anything new. If you can listen with your whole life, your listening becomes an element of liberation, but unfortunately, you never truly listen, so you cannot have real insight.

Exploration and learning are inherent functions of the mind; therefore, the learning referred to here is not about accumulating knowledge through memory, but about the ability to think clearly, to be mentally alert without any illusions, to see facts without viewing them through beliefs or ideals. If you hold onto a pile of prejudices, you will learn nothing. Simply acquiring information or knowledge is not true learning; learning refers to the desire to understand and to do something out of love.

Most people believe that learning must be effective through comparison, but the truth is just the opposite. Comparison only creates feelings of frustration and fosters jealousy, which is called competitiveness. Like other forms of persuasion, comparison only hinders learning and fosters fear.

Learning is not an accumulation. You cannot turn learning into a warehouse of accumulated knowledge and then act from that stock; you can only learn while living, so there is no moment that is regressive or degenerative.

Understanding the nature of authority is very important. Authority often hinders our learning, and learning is not about accumulating knowledge into memory. Memory will always create fixed patterns of response, which lack freedom. A person bound by knowledge, who accepts guidance from others, will surely be burdened by what they have learned. They may become very knowledgeable, yet the knowledge they acquire will only hinder the freedom of their heart, preventing them from truly understanding.

After all, virtue or ethics cannot be imitated; once it becomes a mechanical pattern, virtue disappears. Virtue, like humility, cannot be cultivated; you can only live it out in each moment. A heart that is not humble cannot learn.

After all, our hearts are always seeking—they always want to find a safe and undisturbed place.

If you want to be aware of the entire process of submitting to authority, to recognize the truth within, to understand and transform that desire to know, you must develop awareness and insight. In fact, the beginning is liberation, not at the end that liberation is obtained.

Therefore, what most people desire is merely different levels of satisfaction. But the point is not to discover who has awakened, but to understand yourself. No authority can help you know yourself; without self-awareness, it is impossible to free yourself from ignorance and suffering.

Knowing oneself requires an extremely alert mind, because you are constantly changing in every moment. If you can keep up with the changes in your thoughts, you will not be bound by any dogma, belief, or specific behavioral pattern. You must have awareness to know yourself.

To understand your own truth without distortion, whether beautiful or ugly, good or bad, is the beginning of virtue. Virtue is the most important quality because it brings liberation.

Without self-awareness, our experiences often foster illusions; if we have self-awareness, we can immediately face the challenges that experiences bring without leaving behind the remnants of memory. Self-awareness is discovering your motives, desires, thoughts, and preferences in every moment. You cannot divide experiences into "yours" or "mine"; the phrase "my experience" represents ignorance and illusion.

Under the protection of authority or guides, you may temporarily find safety or happiness, but this does not truly understand the activities of the heart. The nature of authority is to hinder complete self-awareness, and it will ultimately destroy inner freedom. Only when the heart has freedom can there be creativity. Only through self-awareness can creativity arise.

If you can be aware of yourself, you will find that living is a continuous process of revealing oneself.

If you want to quiet the mind, you cannot continue to accumulate, condemn, criticize, or measure. Only a pure heart can understand what reality is. A heart skilled in analysis and calculation is not pure; it is always filled with knowledge, information, and thoughts.

Therefore, understanding oneself, without any selection, observing oneself without interpreting one's activities, and simply observing the flow of thoughts is the most important thing.

Creative emptiness is not a state that can be cultivated; it will arrive quietly without invitation. Only in this state can renewal and reform occur.

You and the external world are not two different existences, each with its own problems; in fact, you are this world, and your problems are the world's problems. You may develop certain tendencies influenced by the environment, but fundamentally, you are not different from others. Our inner activities are very similar; we are all driven by greed, improper will, fear, and ambition. Our beliefs, desires, and expectations share a common background. We are one, yet we are often fragmented by politics, economics, and various prejudices. Hurting others is equivalent to destroying oneself. You are the core of this whole; if you do not understand yourself, you cannot know reality.

February: Becoming · Belief · Action · Good and Evil#

However, no matter what state or realm we wish to transform into, there are always activities of blame, reaction, naming, and archiving involved. Therefore, "becoming" is a form of suffering and competitiveness, isn't it? It is an endless struggle: I am like this now, but I always want to become like that.

You do not like your current state; you want to become a state that you prefer, but this ideal is at best a self-projection. The state we project seems opposite, but it is merely an extension or slight modification of the current truth. This projection is filled with contradictions; we strive to become something, yet that something is already a part of us. Can you recognize this as a trick the mind plays on itself, as what you pursue is merely your projection, your shadow, and your delusion?

Love knows no boundaries; you cannot gradually develop love in the absence of it; you can only indiscriminately perceive that you are not in love, and then transformation may occur. Deliberately creating a hierarchy of masters and disciples, distinguishing between saviors and sinners, and the gap between the enlightened and the unenlightened is a denial of love. The exploiter is the exploited; he will always seek a pleasurable hunting ground in the dark illusion. You have created a separation between yourself and the divine or reality because your heart has always sought security and certainty. This separation cannot be bridged by religious rituals, deliberate cultivation, or self-sacrifice; no guiding spirit or master can lead you to realize reality or dissolve this separation, because the separation is created by yourself.

Any activity of the mind, whether positive or negative, is an experience that reinforces the self; so is it possible for the mind not to engage in discernment? This can only happen when the mind is completely still.

By "self," I mean various concepts, memories, conclusions, experiences, intentions that can or cannot be articulated, states of wanting or not wanting, or various memories accumulated in the unconscious—including racial, group, personal, or familial history. Everything we pursue is the self, and the self may project into external actions or spiritual virtues, including the competitive desire to become better.

A person with material wealth or rich knowledge and beliefs will never discover what light is; he will only bring misfortune and disaster. But if you and I can understand the entire operation of the self, we will understand what love is. I can assure you that this is the only way to transform the world. Love is absolutely not a self-centered activity; the self does not recognize love at all. The moment you say the word "love," you will experience it, and true love will disappear. When you truly realize love, the self has already vanished.

Just because we do not want to face and understand the current truth, we invent various ways to escape, and then we beautify it with the names of ideals or beliefs. Only by seeing the fictitious as fictitious can our hearts become aware of the current truth. A person trapped by fiction can never discover what truth is.

Only when we want to escape reality and hide in illusion do we need beliefs.

In fact, belief is merely an escape from confusion and ignorance; it cannot help us face and understand the facts before us. Understanding the confusion and ignorance in our hearts does not require belief, because belief only creates a barrier between us and our troubles.

We only want to talk about the concept of peace, but we do not really want to achieve peace. Obviously, the word "peace" is not true peace; only when your confusion with others ceases will peace truly arrive. What we often pursue is a new social and political system, not peace; we only consider superficial mediation, not the thorough removal of the causes of war. The answers brought by such pursuits are always constrained by history, and this limitation is what we call knowledge or experience, and then we interpret and translate the facts before us according to this knowledge. Thus, conflicts between facts and old experiences continue to arise. Old knowledge and current facts are always in opposition, so problems not only remain unresolved but also become more severe.

Only when we understand the entire activity of concepts can we know what love is. However, can we understand love by abandoning non-loving activities? Is it possible for us to abandon concepts and understand what love is? Because love is the only redemption. Love is not a theory; you must truly love.

This does not mean that there is no jealousy, resentment, cruelty, lack of compassion, or absence of love in the world; rather, why do we divide life into good and evil? Is the problem not a lack of awareness? Clearly, if the heart can be fully aware, remaining alert and vigilant, there is no such thing as good and evil; there exists only a state of complete awakening. In this way, goodness is no longer a quality or virtue but the true manifestation of love. If love manifests, there is no such thing as good or evil. If you truly love someone, you will not think about the issue of good and evil; your whole being is filled with love. Only when love or concentrated awareness disappears will there be a conflict between truth and ideals. At this point, we will consider our current state to be evil and that the future should be a little better.

The oppositions of good and evil in the world are all created by us, and hatred seems to generate a stronger sense of unity against a common enemy. Only those who are wise can see the causes of good and evil; they can liberate themselves from this opposing thought and feeling through deep understanding.

Everything from the past cannot be ignored; you can only observe it objectively without being occupied by it. This way, your heart can observe freely and without selection. If you make selections regarding the activities of memory, your heart will only be occupied by delusions. The moment the heart is occupied, it falls into past memories. A heart occupied by past memories cannot see the new, original, and pure reality.

In this entire thought process, we create the problem of excessive effort, do you understand? Effort leads to a discipline of deliberately controlling thoughts—"I must control bad thoughts; I must become a non-violent, non-jealous person," and so on. Whenever I come into conflict with what I want to control, I fall into a laborious or effortful activity. This is what actually happens in our daily lives.

However, no matter what state or realm we wish to transform into, there are always activities of blame, reaction, naming, and archiving involved. Therefore, "becoming" is a form of suffering and competitiveness, isn't it? It is an endless struggle: I am like this now, but I always want to become like that.

You do not like your current state; you want to become a state that you prefer, but this ideal is at best a self-projection. The state we project seems opposite, but it is merely an extension or slight modification of the current truth. This projection is filled with contradictions; we strive to become something, yet that something is already a part of us. Can you recognize this as a trick the mind plays on itself, as what you pursue is merely your projection, your shadow, and your delusion?

Love knows no boundaries; you cannot gradually develop love in the absence of it; you can only indiscriminately perceive that you are not in love, and then transformation may occur. Deliberately creating a hierarchy of masters and disciples, distinguishing between saviors and sinners, and the gap between the enlightened and the unenlightened is a denial of love. The exploiter is the exploited; he will always seek a pleasurable hunting ground in the dark illusion. You have created a separation between yourself and the divine or reality because your heart has always sought security and certainty. This separation cannot be bridged by religious rituals, deliberate cultivation, or self-sacrifice; no guiding spirit or master can lead you to realize reality or dissolve this separation, because the separation is created by yourself.

Any activity of the mind, whether positive or negative, is an experience that reinforces the self; so is it possible for the mind not to engage in discernment? This can only happen when the mind is completely still.

By "self," I mean various concepts, memories, conclusions, experiences, intentions that can or cannot be articulated, states of wanting or not wanting, or various memories accumulated in the unconscious—including racial, group, personal, or familial history. Everything we pursue is the self, and the self may project into external actions or spiritual virtues, including the competitive desire to become better.

A person with material wealth or rich knowledge and beliefs will never discover what light is; he will only bring misfortune and disaster. But if you and I can understand the entire operation of the self, we will understand what love is. I can assure you that this is the only way to transform the world. Love is absolutely not a self-centered activity; the self does not recognize love at all. The moment you say the word "love," you will experience it, and true love will disappear. When you truly realize love, the self has already vanished.

Just because we do not want to face and understand the current truth, we invent various ways to escape, and then we beautify it with the names of ideals or beliefs. Only by seeing the fictitious as fictitious can our hearts become aware of the current truth. A person trapped by fiction can never discover what truth is.

Only when we want to escape reality and hide in illusion do we need beliefs.

In fact, belief is merely an escape from confusion and ignorance; it cannot help us face and understand the facts before us. Understanding the confusion and ignorance in our hearts does not require belief, because belief only creates a barrier between us and our troubles.

We only want to talk about the concept of peace, but we do not really want to achieve peace. Obviously, the word "peace" is not true peace; only when your confusion with others ceases will peace truly arrive. What we often pursue is a new social and political system, not peace; we only consider superficial mediation, not the thorough removal of the causes of war. The answers brought by such pursuits are always constrained by history, and this limitation is what we call knowledge or experience, and then we interpret and translate the facts before us according to this knowledge. Thus, conflicts between facts and old experiences continue to arise. Old knowledge and current facts are always in opposition, so problems not only remain unresolved but also become more severe.

Only when we understand the entire activity of concepts can we know what love is. However, can we understand love by abandoning non-loving activities? Is it possible for us to abandon concepts and understand what love is? Because love is the only redemption. Love is not a theory; you must truly love.

This does not mean that there is no jealousy, resentment, cruelty, lack of compassion, or absence of love in the world; rather, why do we divide life into good and evil? Is the problem not a lack of awareness? Clearly, if the heart can be fully aware, remaining alert and vigilant, there is no such thing as good and evil; there exists only a state of complete awakening. In this way, goodness is no longer a quality or virtue but the true manifestation of love. If love manifests, there is no such thing as good or evil. If you truly love someone, you will not think about the issue of good and evil; your whole being is filled with love. Only when love or concentrated awareness disappears will there be a conflict between truth and ideals. At this point, we will consider our current state to be evil and that the future should be a little better.

The oppositions of good and evil in the world are all created by us, and hatred seems to generate a stronger sense of unity against a common enemy. Only those who are wise can see the causes of good and evil; they can liberate themselves from this opposing thought and feeling through deep understanding.

Everything from the past cannot be ignored; you can only observe it objectively without being occupied by it. This way, your heart can observe freely and without selection. If you make selections regarding the activities of memory, your heart will only be occupied by delusions. The moment the heart is occupied, it falls into past memories. A heart occupied by past memories cannot see the new, original, and pure reality.

In this entire thought process, we create the problem of excessive effort, do you understand? Effort leads to a discipline of deliberately controlling thoughts—"I must control bad thoughts; I must become a non-violent, non-jealous person," and so on. Whenever I come into conflict with what I want to control, I fall into a laborious or effortful activity. This is what actually happens in our daily lives.

March: Dependence · Attachment · Relationships · Fear#

If a wife or husband ignores us, we will react with jealousy. Jealousy is certainly not love, but there must be an element of jealousy in the small love recognized by society. Marriage is actually a form of self-defense and self-escape. Any form of defense will foster dependence. A heart that always wants to depend cannot be free. What you need is freedom; you will find that only a free heart is humble. A humble and free heart has the ability to learn. Learning is an extraordinary thing—just learning without accumulating knowledge. The knowledge we generally speak of is easily obtained. That way of learning still enters the known from the known, but true learning is entering the unknown from the known.

If people in society are mutually exploiting each other, it will inevitably foster violence. When we exploit others, we are always thinking about the ultimate goal. This goal will certainly hinder the interaction of relationships and true communication. No matter how much comfort or satisfaction others can bring, our hearts will always have fear; to escape this fear, we want to possess more. From this possessiveness will arise jealousy, suspicion, and conflict. Such relationships will never bring happiness. If the social structure is based on needs, whether physiological or psychological, it will foster conflict, confusion, and unhappiness. Society is a projection of your relationship with others. If you use others to satisfy your needs, you cannot establish a true connection with that person. For your own comfort and convenience, you treat another person as furniture; in this case, how can you establish a true relationship with them? Therefore, understanding the meaning of relational interaction in daily life is the most urgent matter.

A higher spiritual realm refers to a more satisfying and lasting state. Because we fear our own non-existence, we develop attachment and possessiveness. If what is possessed cannot satisfy us or brings pain, we will abandon it in pursuit of something more pleasurable. The ultimate possession is what is called God or reality. As long as one is unwilling to be a nobody, it will inevitably foster pain and hostility. Being willing to be a nobody has nothing to do with renouncing the world or asceticism, but is related to seeing the current truth. Seeing the current truth can free us from the fear of not having security, and this fear often fosters attachment and leads us to produce the illusion of wanting to renounce the world. The love for truth is the beginning of wisdom; with this love, true communication and sharing can occur, but renouncing the world and self-sacrifice is always an illusion of self-isolation.

You want to escape the pain of attachment, so you seek another thing to counter it, but you still fall into the activity of attachment. Therefore, only a foolish heart would deliberately cultivate a non-attachment attitude. All classics tell us to "not be attached," but what exactly is non-attachment? Observe your own thought activities, and you will discover an extraordinary truth—deliberately cultivating a non-attachment attitude will only make your heart attached to another attitude.

We are the same as what we possess. As long as there is attachment, there cannot be a noble spirit. Attachment to knowledge is no different from other addictive tendencies. Attachment is a form of self-indulgence or self-deception, whether at a low or high level, and its purpose is to escape the feeling of emptiness.

Attachment creates pain on one hand, while on the other hand, it seeks to pursue a state of non-attachment, while also wanting to gain a sense of vanity through renunciation. If you can understand these tricks of the self, wisdom will begin to sprout.

But if you can recognize that patching holes is futile—not just an intellectual understanding, nor merely agreeing with this viewpoint and deciding to do something, but thoroughly recognizing how absurd this is—you can face it. Therefore, the point is not to not depend, but to see that not depending is merely a reaction against dependence. Why not face this fact and look at the truth before you?

The objects of our attachment become tools to escape emptiness. Attachment is a form of escape, and escape will reinforce the limitations within the heart.

Only a heart that does not belong to any object can truly be empty, but emptiness is not a state that can be cultivated; can you recognize this? If you can recognize this, you will be out of the game, and you will no longer receive invitations to dinner from governors or presidents. In this state of emptiness, your heart will become humble. Only an empty heart can understand what love and power are. A heart full of ambition, including religious people or ordinary individuals, cannot know what love is. If you can recognize all of this, you can live fully and act fully. Only through self-awareness can one enter this state.

As long as you still want to gain satisfaction, then non-attachment will become a form of attachment. Therefore, what we truly seek is still satisfaction; we will use various means to satisfy ourselves. We become attached because it brings us pleasure, security, power, and happiness, although it is still buried with pain and fear. Our pursuit of non-attachment is still for pleasure, to avoid being hurt. However, we must understand this entire process without any blame or excuses, because unless we have understanding, we will never escape the confusion or conflict within our hearts.

Relationships are a mirror; through this mirror, I will see my own truth, but most people do not like their own truth, so they begin to correct the state reflected by this mirror. I want to change this truth—this means I have set a pattern for how I should be. If we cling tightly to this pattern, we will not be able to understand our own truth. Once the heart has an image of what it wants to become or a state it does not want to be, it is clear that I cannot see the truth in that moment of relationship. I think it is very important to understand this point, because most people are lost at this point. Simply wanting to improve oneself cannot lead to understanding the truth.

In fact, the most interesting part of relationships lies in their insecurity and uncontrollability. Pursuing security within relationships hinders their operation and leads to strange behaviors and unfortunate outcomes. The interaction of relationships is meant to reveal a person's truth; relationships are the entire process of self-revelation and self-awareness. Self-revelation is a very painful thing, so we must have the ability to adjust ourselves and the flexibility of thoughts and emotions. Relationships can sometimes bring pain and sometimes allow you to taste peace.

We are our own possessions. A person who possesses money identifies with money. Whether it is land, houses, or furniture, as long as one identifies with it, we become it. If we do not possess anything, we may become an empty shell. If we do not fill our lives with music, furniture, knowledge, or this and that, we will become an empty shell. This empty shell will produce a lot of noise, and then we call the noise we produce life, but we are already very satisfied with that. If an accident occurs that takes us away from all this, we often suffer immensely. At this point, you will suddenly discover your truth—an empty shell of little significance. Therefore, being aware of the entire content of relationships is the action of liberation; from this action, true relationships will arise, and we can discover the meaning, depth, and love within relationships.

But the fact is the opposite; true revolution cannot be achieved through collective activity, but must involve reassessing one's own truth in the interaction of relationships. This act itself is the true reform, and it is a radical, ongoing revolution.

But clearly, we must start solving problems from the small, which is "I" and "you." Once we understand ourselves, we can understand you, and from this understanding, love will arise. What we lack is love and warmth and sincerity in relationships. Because we lack love, tenderness, compassion, and generosity, we escape into collective activities, thus creating more confusion and unhappiness. We paint blueprints for transforming the world in our hearts, yet fail to recognize that the only thing that can solve problems is love.

The external world is not something separate from you and me; the world and society are the interactive relationships we have established or wish to establish.

The world is not separate from us; our problems are the world's problems.

Independent living is impossible because life is the interaction of relationships. To be aware of the truth of relationships requires a high degree of wisdom and keen awareness of self-exploration. Without this keen and fluid awareness, those controlling tendencies will become stronger, leading to inner imbalance.

Why do we always submit, follow, and imitate? Because we fear facing uncertainty. We want economic and moral certainty, to have a secure position, to gain approval; we never want to face pain and problems, but only want to close ourselves off.

However, psychologically, if we always seek certainty, it will foster fear. A heart that constantly seeks certainty cannot be stable and will not taste the eternal.

For example, during a military parade, a religious procession, or when one's country faces the danger of invasion, what kind of reaction will you have? At that time, you will surely identify with your country, a certain person, or a certain ideology; at other times, you may identify with children, a spouse, or some form of action. Identification is a self-forgetting activity. As long as the sense of self exists, we will inevitably be aware of pain, struggle, and fear. But if we identify with something greater and more valuable, such as beauty, reality, faith, or knowledge, we can temporarily escape ourselves, right? Talking about national affairs allows us to temporarily forget ourselves, doesn't it? Talking about God can also allow us to forget ourselves. Identifying with my family, a group, a political party, or a certain ideology can all temporarily divert us from ourselves. Now do we know what fear is? What it cannot accept is the truth before it, so we must first understand what "acceptance" means. Acceptance does not mean deliberately accepting something; it only arises when we fail to recognize the truth before us. Therefore, fear is the refusal to accept the truth before us.

"What should I do?" is an ideal, but ideals are fictitious; they are not my truth. Only when I understand the disorder caused by time can the truth before me truly change. Therefore, can I instantly remove the fear in my heart? If I allow fear to continue, it will constantly create disorder in my heart; we must recognize that time is the element causing disorder; it is not a tool for completely eliminating fear.

Because time causes disorder, there is such serious opposition between people.

Thoughts are products of time, and time is also a product of thoughts. Thoughts often foster fear of death, and time is a mental activity filled with subtle and complex fears.

The desire to become better and more accomplished will foster dependence, which in turn triggers fear. However, not fearing is not the opposite of fear, nor is it about deliberately summoning courage. If we can understand the causes of fear, fear will cease, but it is not about becoming brave, because there are still seeds of fear in the activity of becoming. Dependence on people, things, or ideas will foster fear; dependence arises from ignorance, lack of self-awareness, and feelings of inadequacy. Fear makes our hearts feel insecure and hinders our understanding and communication.

The past history always wants to resurrect in the present, thus creating our identification with the "self." The self is the root of all fear.

If a wife or husband ignores us, we will react with jealousy. Jealousy is certainly not love, but there must be an element of jealousy in the small love recognized by society. Marriage is actually a form of self-defense and self-escape. Any form of defense will foster dependence. A heart that always wants to depend cannot be free. What you need is freedom; you will find that only a free heart is humble. A humble and free heart has the ability to learn. Learning is an extraordinary thing—just learning without accumulating knowledge. The knowledge we generally speak of is easily obtained. That way of learning still enters the known from the known, but true learning is entering the unknown from the known.

If people in society are mutually exploiting each other, it will inevitably foster violence. When we exploit others, we are always thinking about the ultimate goal. This goal will certainly hinder the interaction of relationships and true communication. No matter how much comfort or satisfaction others can bring, our hearts will always have fear; to escape this fear, we want to possess more. From this possessiveness will arise jealousy, suspicion, and conflict. Such relationships will never bring happiness. If the social structure is based on needs, whether physiological or psychological, it will foster conflict, confusion, and unhappiness. Society is a projection of your relationship with others. If you use others to satisfy your needs, you cannot establish a true connection with that person. For your own comfort and convenience, you treat another person as furniture; in this case, how can you establish a true relationship with them? Therefore, understanding the meaning of relational interaction in daily life is the most urgent matter.

April: Desire · Marriage · Sex · Passion#

This person who constantly seeks to escape emptiness, loneliness, and imperfection is no different from what he tries to escape. In fact, he cannot escape himself; he can only attempt to understand that he is the loneliness and emptiness in his heart; as long as he separates these things from himself, he will fall into illusion and endless conflict. If he can experience the loneliness in his heart, he may be liberated from fear.

Although the thoughts generated from experience can analyze the emptiness in the heart, they cannot directly recognize emptiness. The term "emptiness" can cause painful and fearful memories and hinder us from directly experiencing the feeling of that emptiness. Terms are a form of memory; when the term loses its significance, the relationship between the experiencer and his experience will be completely different. This new relationship is direct, and this unity of subject and object can liberate us from fear.

Desire must be understood, not destroyed. If one simply destroys desire, it may very well destroy life itself. If you shape desire, control it, or suppress it, you may destroy the incredible beauty of life.

For me, confusion or unhappiness seems to begin like this: when that face, that river, that cloud, or that mountain becomes a pleasurable memory, this memory will try to perpetuate itself; we will want to repeatedly enjoy such experiences, which is something we are all familiar with. Once we have enjoyed a certain pleasurable experience, we will want to repeat it. Whether it is sexual, artistic, or intellectual pleasure, we want to experience it again and again—but at this moment, pleasure has begun to create false values, obscuring our hearts and preventing them from seeing the truth.

Whether in economics, society, or religion, various aspects continually strengthen self-awareness, which creates conflict and contradiction. Clearly, you will only have self-awareness when contradictions arise. The essence of self-awareness is conflict...

Because we have been living superficially, we only see some surface reactions. We are already satisfied with this superficial way of living and the various troubles it brings, so as long as we continue to live in this superficial state—though we may identify with the universe, the country, and other grander things—we are still limited within the self-centered range. As long as we continue to live within the realm of the mind, we will inevitably generate troubles and various complex emotions.

Love cannot be known. Only when all that is known is understood and transformed can you know what love is. Therefore, we must understand love in a passive rather than active way. What is love to us? Our love always contains elements of possession, control, or flattery, and from possession arises jealousy and the fear of loss, and we even legitimize this instinct of possession. We are all familiar with the jealousy and various conflicts that arise from possession. But love is neither possession nor a feeling. Feelings and emotions do not contain love; they are merely sensations.

When disturbances arise in your heart, delusions are produced—if you label these thoughts as love, you will constantly be disturbed. Clearly, love is not a mental activity; love disappears because the heart is filled with thoughts. The activities of the heart are merely desires of jealousy, ambition, wanting to become someone or achieve certain accomplishments. These things fill your heart, and you still call it love. If there is black smoke, can there still be pure flame?

Because you regard women merely as inferior beings to satisfy your sexual desires, you invent terms like rights and obligations; when women rebel, you use these concepts to confine them. Only a corrupt society constantly emphasizes these concepts. Examine your thoughts, and you will find that there is no love in your heart.

Love is a state of being; it is neither personal nor impersonal; it requires no adjustment and no merging. A heart that wants to merge with something greater is escaping from unhappiness and confusion; such a heart is still incomplete. Love does not know what merging is, nor does it know what not merging is. It is neither personal nor impersonal; it is a state of existence that our minds cannot discover; the mind may describe it and name it, but terms or descriptions are not love itself. Only when the heart is quiet can it understand what love is, and this state of quiet cannot be cultivated.

Before considering marriage, you must understand what love is. Clearly, love is simple; without love, you cannot become a simple person. You may live a life of abstinence, but without love, your heart cannot be simple or pure. If you hold onto the ideal of chastity and become a celibate, there will still be no love, because you only want to become a noble person, thinking that this will help you discover reality. Promiscuity leads to unhappiness and degradation, and pursuing spiritual ideals also brings unhappiness; both states imply indulgence in something or wanting to become something else. They exclude love and emphasize the importance of the self.

If your heart lacks love, you will want to connect with someone; lacking love, you will want to marry, and then you will try to adapt to each other in marriage. How beautiful the phrase "to adapt to each other" sounds, but it is still a mental activity, isn't it? The so-called "adaptation" is clearly a mental activity, but love has nothing to do with adaptation. Sir, you should know very well that if you truly love the other person, you will not want to adapt to anything because you have already merged with them. Only when we lack love do we want to adapt to each other, and adaptation is what marriage is. The reason marriage fails is that it is the source of conflict, a war between two people. Marriage is a very complex issue; it is more complex than other issues because the desires and impulses involved are too strong. Therefore, a person who constantly adjusts their thoughts cannot be simple; a heart that pursues pleasure through sex cannot be chaste. Perhaps you can temporarily forget the self in sexual activity, but a heart that seeks pleasure cannot be pure and simple. Only when love appears can your heart become innocent.

Love is not a thought; thought is merely a surface activity of the brain. Love is the most profound thing; the mystery of life can only be discovered through love. Without love, life is meaningless—this is the tragedy of our existence.

Only when love appears can chastity exist; without love, there is no such thing as chastity. Without love, chastity becomes another form of desire. Wanting to be chaste is the same as wanting to become a powerful lawyer or politician. This is not chastity; it is the result of ideals, achieved through constant resistance. Once love appears, chastity is no longer an issue. Living fully in love is the true purpose of life. This reform will bring a brand new world.

But if the heart lacks passion, how can it feel beauty, ugliness, sunsets, the smiles on people's faces, or the rustling of leaves in the wind? If there is no passion, how can one abandon the self? Sir, please listen to me; do not try to pursue this passion. I know you are very enthusiastic about finding a good job, despising a certain pitiful person, or being jealous of someone, but the passion I speak of is something entirely different. It is a passion capable of love, and love is a state without a sense of self, where there is neither condemnation nor judgment of whether sex is good or bad. Love has nothing to do with these contradictions. Contradictions and love cannot coexist.

If there is no passion, how can there be love? Without passion, how can there be keen sensitivity? Keen sensitivity means being able to feel the people around you at any moment, to observe the pollution, noise, and poverty of the city, and to see the beauty of rivers, seas, and skies. If there is no passion, how can one feel these things? How can one empathize with others' smiles and tears? I can say with certainty that love is a form of passion.

What I mean by passion is actually a complete thing. A person with intense feelings will not be satisfied with a small job—whether that job is as a prime minister, chef, or any other form. A passionate heart is willing to explore, pursue, observe, question, and inquire; it does not merely seek to find something that satisfies itself and then fall into a deep sleep.

Passion without reason is awareness without attachment. Once passion has a reason, there will inevitably be attachment, and attachment is the beginning of suffering. Most people have attachments; we are always attached to people, nations, beliefs, or concepts, and when the objects of our attachment disappear or lose their significance, we feel empty and inadequate, and then we pursue other things to fill that emptiness. Please examine your own thoughts carefully; I am merely a mirror that allows you to see yourself clearly. If you do not want to look, that is fine, but if you want to understand some things, you must look at yourself clearly, ruthlessly, and with focus—without expecting to resolve your anxiety, sadness, or guilt, but rather trying to understand this immense passion that leads to suffering. Once passion has a reason, it will evolve into desire. If passion has an object—people, concepts, or some form of satisfaction—it will inevitably lead to conflict, contradiction, and effortful situations. You will struggle to achieve or maintain a certain state or to regain something you have already lost. The passion I refer to will not foster conflict and contradiction; it is unmotivated, so it is not a result.

This person who constantly seeks to escape emptiness, loneliness, and imperfection is no different from what he tries to escape. In fact, he cannot escape himself; he can only attempt to understand that he is the loneliness and emptiness in his heart; as long as he separates these things from himself, he will fall into illusion and endless conflict. If he can experience the loneliness in his heart, he may be liberated from fear.

May: Wisdom · Sensation · Language · Limitations#

Reality or the true God—not the false gods created by humanity—does not want a narrow, superficial, limited, and trivial heart; it wants a heart that can appreciate it and is healthy, a heart that is abundant—not well-read, but innocent—without a trace of experience and without a sense of time. You have invented some false gods to gain some comfort. False gods can accept a dull and tormented heart, but the true God does not want such a heart; it wants a heart that is full, rich, clear, with strong feelings, capable of discovering the beauty of trees and the smiles of children, and understanding the suffering of a woman who has never had enough to eat.

Wisdom arises through sensitivity and observation.

Therefore, you must understand that emotions, moods, enthusiasm, and feelings of being good have nothing to do with true passion or compassion. All emotions or moods are related to thoughts, which is why they cause pleasure and pain. Love is free from pain and sorrow because it is not a product of pleasure and desire.

Do not attempt to change your thoughts and emotions, nor analyze them; just be aware of why you have specific thought patterns and what the motivations behind your actions are. Although you can discover the motivations behind your actions through analysis, this is not true observation; only when you are fully aware of the operation of thoughts and emotions can you see the truth; then you will recognize their complexity and subtlety. As long as you have thoughts of "must" or "cannot," you will never discover the rapid changes in thoughts and emotions. I am sure you all grew up in an environment of "must" and "cannot," so your thoughts and feelings have been damaged; you have been bound by various systems, methods, and teachers. Try to let go of those thoughts of "must" or "cannot." But this does not mean you should let yourself go; rather, it means to be aware of the "should" or "should not" in your heart. Then wisdom will begin to operate like a flower blooming in the morning.

If you truly apply wisdom in business activities, where emotions and thoughts can operate harmoniously, your business may very well collapse. But you may let it collapse because you have felt the cruelty, absurdity, and profit-driven nature of this way of life. Unless humanity can handle life with wisdom rather than intellect, no political system can help humanity escape the grind of life.

For most people, it is very difficult to feel deeply, strongly, and penetratingly the things before them because our troubles are simply too many. Anything can be turned into a trouble by us. Clearly, human troubles are endless, and people seem unable to solve them. The more troubles we have, the lower our sensitivity becomes. What I mean by sensitivity is the ability to appreciate the beauty of the twisted branches, observe the dust on the road, feel the pain of others, or joyfully watch the beauty of the sunset. These are not merely emotions or moods. Emotions or moods can form cruel attitudes, exploited by society; as long as you fall into emotions and moods, you become a slave to society. But one must have strong sensitivity. Beauty, language, the silence between words, and awareness of sound all bring strong feelings. Only sensitivity can sharpen the heart.

Whether you are influenced by emotions or reason, the result will lead to despair. You must understand that love is not a pleasure or a desire. Sir, do you know what pleasure is? When you look at something or have a certain feeling, you keep thinking about that feeling, and thus a pleasure arises, and then you want to repeat that experience. Ambition can also bring a person satisfaction in pleasure. If a person pursues power, status, fame, or seeks fame under the guise of the nation and ideals, it will bring pleasure. His heart contains no love at all, so he will only bring disaster to the world. He will bring war to both the inner and outer worlds.

Love is completely different from emotions or feelings; there can be no love in the realm of thought, and emotions and feelings arise from thought. Love is like a smokeless flame, always fresh, joyful, and creative. Such love is a threat to relationships and society, so thought must intervene to turn love into something legitimate, to remove it from danger, and then that love disappears.

Life is a process of facing challenges and generating responses. Challenges are always new, while responses are old. Limited responses always stem from past history; you must understand it, not limit it or condemn it. This means that daily life must be experienced thoroughly and completely. Only when love appears and the heart feels complete can one live thoroughly and completely. Once there is love in the heart, there are no more memories in the mind. Thus, every moment's activity becomes a rebirth.

If I do not label a feeling, if I do not generate any images, symbols, or thoughts, what will happen? Clearly, at this moment, the heart is no longer a segregated observer. When the heart does not fall into delusions, symbols, signs, or images, the thinker and his thoughts become one, and then the heart becomes quiet, right? This state of quiet is not deliberately created. When the heart is truly quiet, it can naturally face the underlying emotions. If emotions are labeled, they may be reinforced and prolonged; they will be suppressed deep within, prompting us to further label or reinforce and express them.

Although you want to live in love, your daily life is often filled with the aforementioned emotions. Since you often have the desire to hurt someone, such as treating them with an unfriendly attitude or harsh words, then try to coexist with that feeling.

But such peace cannot be cultivated because the peace that is cultivated is dead silence. The more you are interested in something, the more you want to understand it, and then your heart will become clear, free, and pure. At that moment, all thoughts come to a complete stop. The reactions generated by the challenges in front of you are what we call the thinking process; therefore, a chattering heart cannot understand the truth—truth in relationships, not abstract truths. The truth is very subtle; it quietly descends in the night.

Only when you have no self-awareness can you know yourself. If your heart holds no thoughts, is completely open, and is not prepared to face anything, you will inadvertently see your own truth. At that moment, your heart has no defenses, calculations, controls, suppressions, or desires to change.

Therefore, this spontaneity can only occur when the intellect is unguarded. This can only happen within the heart. This spontaneity is fresh, unknown, uncalculated, and creative, and it must be of your concern, but the will led by intellect must cease to operate. Observing your emotions, you will find that states of joy or bliss are often not planned; they occur unexpectedly.

We find that thoughts are always constrained by past history and then projected into the future; if we acknowledge the past, we must also acknowledge the future. But there is no such thing as past and future; there is only a state composed of consciousness and unconsciousness, which includes collective history and personal history. Collective history and personal history respond to the situation of this moment, thus creating personal consciousness. Therefore, consciousness is always old, and it is the entire background of our existence. Once the past is acknowledged, the future must also be acknowledged, but the future is merely an extension of the corrected past, so it is still old. Our problem lies in how to bring transformation to this process without creating another constraint, another old thing.

The thinker forms thoughts through habitual copying and recitation. Isn't habit a state of unthinking? But awareness can create order; it does not create habits. Established tendencies only bring unthinking habits. Why do people act unthinkingly? Because deep thinking is a painful task; it brings disturbances, creates dissent, and opposes established patterns. Careful exploration and non-selective awareness will lead us into deep unknown territories, and the heart will resist this unknown state; it will constantly move from the known to the known, from one habit to another, from one pattern to another, and such a heart cannot abandon the known to explore the unknown.

The thinker may categorize himself into various types of thoughts, but thought and the thinker are the same. The thinker and the desire to become better are the causes of conflict and confusion.

The thinker is thought itself, the creator is creation itself, and the actor is action itself. The thinker reveals himself through thought. The thinker creates his own misfortune, ignorance, and struggle through his actions.

If you truly know yourself, your heart will be complete, and thus conflict will not repeat itself. Repeated conflicts will only prolong the self of the thinker.

I wonder if everyone is aware that we all live in contradictions. We advocate peace while preparing for war. Although we promote non-violence, we are filled with violence at our core. Everything we say is kind, but the facts are otherwise. We emphasize love, yet we are always ambitious, eager to compete, and relentless in achieving our goals. Thus, we have so many contradictions. Actions arising from contradictions will only bring defeat and further contradictions.

Knowledge is never complete; thoughts arising from knowledge are always limited and unfree. We can explore whether there is a form of freedom that is unrelated to thought, which contains only pure awareness—awareness of our conflicts and the impacts brought by the external environment.

I think you must have had experiences of immediately perceiving the truth, such as discovering that you cannot belong to any object; this is an insight: immediately seeing the truth in things, requiring neither analysis nor logical thinking, and without any mental activity that delays insight. This is completely different from the term "intuition" that we use unthinkingly.

Understanding oneself does not require the accumulation of knowledge or experience because these things are all memories. Knowing oneself must occur in every moment; if you only accumulate knowledge about yourself, it will hinder further understanding. The accumulation of knowledge and experience becomes a self-centered activity, which is focused thinking.

In our pursuit of knowledge, we have lost love, diminished our sensitivity to beauty, and become unaware of our cruelty. We have become increasingly specialized and increasingly unable to integrate. Knowledge cannot replace wisdom; no accumulation of explanations or facts can resolve human suffering. Knowledge is necessary, and science has its place, but if the heart and mind are filled with knowledge while the root of suffering has not been explored deeply, then life becomes shallow and meaningless. Information and knowledge of stated facts are increasing, but essentially they are limited; wisdom is infinite, encompassing knowledge and correct action. However, we always see the trees but not the forest; this one-sided knowledge cannot truly understand the joy of the whole. Reason can never see the whole because it is incomplete. We have separated intellect from sensitivity; to develop intellect, we have sacrificed sensitivity. We are like a creature with three legs, one of which is much longer than the other two, thus losing balance. Our education has always been cultivating sharp intellect, insatiable curiosity for knowledge, and clever argumentative skills; however, wisdom is far more important than intellect, as only it can integrate reason and love. Unless you have self-awareness and deeply understand the entire process of the self, true wisdom is impossible.

What we call learning is what? Is accumulating knowledge and information learning? Is this one of the ways of learning? If you study engineering, you must understand mathematics and acquire information in this area, so we accumulate knowledge only for practical reasons. Your way of learning is to continuously accumulate knowledge, becoming addicted to knowledge, but does a heart that constantly accumulates really have the ability to learn? Or is learning a completely different state? I believe what we call learning is not learning at all; it is merely recitation and rote memorization; a thing that operates like a machine cannot learn anything. Machines have no capacity to learn. What I mean by learning is something else. A heart that is always learning does not say, "I know." Learning is complete, while knowledge is partial. Learning is not about carrying a pile of concepts to learn something and then adding more knowledge on top of it; this is purely a mechanical operation. For me, learning is about recognizing oneself in every moment, so the process is fluid, lively, with no beginning and no end. If I say, "I have known myself," then learning has ceased in the context of accumulation. Learning is not about accumulating knowledge; learning has no beginning and no end.

A heart that truly understands learning is pure, while a heart that accumulates knowledge is outdated, stagnant, and decayed. A pure heart can immediately produce insights; it can continuously recognize things without accumulating knowledge, and such a heart is mature.

There is no need to immediately accept what I say; feel free to observe for yourself.

Our daily routines operate like machines, repeating themselves over and over. The mind is very eager to establish a pattern of existence and clings tightly to this pattern! The mind is composed of a pile of concepts and lives according to these concepts. It is neither free nor flexible; it always operates rigidly within its range. It never dares to take risks; as soon as it does, it gets lost in fear. What it fears is not the unknown but the potential loss of all that is known. The unknown does not provoke fear; dependence on the known does.

Fear is always related to desire. A mind that constantly changes patterns is the creator of time; as long as there is time, there will be fear, hope, and death.

The mind always thinks according to a fixed pattern. In the past, human minds were shaped by religious organizations; now, government institutions have taken on this task, always trying to control and shape your mind. On the surface, it seems that the mind resists these controlling forces, but deep down, it is still bound by time and tradition. The conscious mind can lead itself to a certain extent, but in the subconscious, you are still filled with ambition, impulses, superstitions, and unresolved issues. The entire realm of the mind is a product of time; it unthinkingly accepts various messages, thus creating conflicts and the desire to constantly adjust, which leads to endless struggles and contradictions. We all desire to live happily, but in fact, we are not very happy. Because there is violence in the heart, we create the concept of non-violence. Our hearts are battlefields, constantly generating conflicts. We pursue security, yet deep down, we seem to know that security does not exist. We do not want to face this fact, so we are always in pursuit of security, fearing that we will not be guaranteed.

If you want to understand the mind, you cannot interpret it according to others' concepts; you must observe your own thought activities. Once you recognize its entire process—ways of thinking, desires, motivations, ambitions, appeals, fears, jealousy, and greed—you can transcend yourself and discover something new. That new thing will bring incredible passion, and this immense passion will lead to an inner revolution, a transformation that no political or economic system can achieve.

You will see that your heart is always oscillating between the past and the future; it never exists in the present. The past mind is a means of escaping the unpleasant present, while the future mind is a hope of escaping the present, so the heart is always filled with thoughts of the past and future. It either rejects and condemns the present fact or recognizes and accepts it; such a heart clearly lacks the ability to see the truth in the present moment. Being bound by past history and the activities of deluded consciousness will generate limited responses to the challenges brought by truth; the more you greet this challenge according to past beliefs, the more you will reinforce those beliefs. The reinforced beliefs continue on to become what we call the future. Thus, our consciousness is always oscillating between the past and the future.

A heart filled with troubles cannot be serious; only a heart willing to understand troubles can immediately dissolve them.

The path of the heart is not constrained by any authority; it is extremely difficult to be unbound by authority—including the authority imposed on us by others and the authority formed by past experiences or traditions. The path of the heart has no beliefs; it does not believe in any dogma but sees the facts of each moment, so the path of the heart contains a scientific spirit. However, a heart with a scientific inclination does not necessarily have the path of the heart. The path of the heart contains a scientific spirit, but a mind trained in science does not necessarily have the path of the heart.

October: Time · Insight · Mind · Transformation#

As a person, I have lived in this world filled with various theories and concepts for forty to fifty years, and the society before me is filled with greed, jealousy, and competition. I am part of these things.

Everything from yesterday extends into today, thus creating the future; this is evident. A year ago, I had an experience that left an imprint in my heart, so I interpret what happens in the present according to that experience and constraint, thus creating tomorrow. I have been stuck in this vicious cycle, and this is what we call life, what we call time. You are filled with various memories, constraints, hopes, despair, and delusions of loneliness; all of this involves time. If you want to understand the realm that transcends time, you must explore whether the mind can completely free itself from experience and the sense of time.

Clearly, the essence of thought is time; as long as we turn time into a tool for evolution, the mind cannot transcend itself—only a mind that transcends time can transform itself. Within time, there must be fear; I mean that the psychological sense of time must bring fear, while also creating frustration and contradiction, but directly perceiving the facts before us does not require the element of time.

All of this involves effort; we have become accustomed to effort, and the "shoulds" we set are merely fictional concepts; they are not the facts before us. If you want to change the facts before you, you must understand the thoughts created by time.

I find that the sense of time is the element that creates chaos rather than a means to liberate fear; therefore, we cannot gradually free ourselves from fear, nor can we gradually eliminate the poison brought by nationalism. If you believe in nationalism while simultaneously advocating brotherly love, you will create war, hatred, and pain, as well as divisions between people. Thus, time only creates disorder and chaos.

Do you know? Perhaps there is another completely different kind of time; so far, we only know of external time and psychological time. External time severely affects our mental state, and our mental state can also affect matter. We must have external time to catch a bus or train, but if you completely reject the psychological sense of time, you will encounter another completely different time; I hope you can join me in entering this new time! This time is orderly.

A person who can see the complete truth of life has clearly transcended the sense of time. Sir, please listen carefully, because this matter is closely related to our daily lives; it is not a religious or philosophical issue, but a matter related to daily life. If we can understand this, we can see through the daily routines, as well as the boredom, pain, nauseating anxiety, and fear within them. Therefore, do not immediately push it away and say, "What does this have to do with my daily life?" You will find that you can indeed cut off the root of pain like a surgeon, which is why I want to discuss this matter with you.

If the mind exhaustively thinks, it will reach the critical point of thought, at which point it will quiet down—not because it is tired, nor because it wants to find answers through quietness, but because it has exhausted itself, thus naturally quieting down. At this moment, a non-selective awareness will emerge, with no demands and no anxiety; this state will produce insight. Only insight can resolve all our troubles.

A heart that merely pursues liberation is never free; only a heart that can perceive facts without condemnation, criticism, or translation is free; a free heart must be pure; although it has lived for a hundred years and has had various experiences, it remains pure. Only such a heart can perceive the reality that transcends time.

The range of freedom is becoming narrower; if you have the ability to observe, you will certainly notice this phenomenon. All politicians, opinion leaders, monks, newspapers, magazines, the knowledge you pursue, and the beliefs you cling to are all narrowing the range of freedom. If you are aware of this phenomenon happening, truly aware that the mind is becoming narrower and the slavery of the mind is becoming stronger, then this insight will bring you energy. This energy generated from insight will shatter the narrow heart, the revered heart, the fearful heart, and the heart attached to the path, thus insight is the path to reality.

Without love, actions are hollow; they are merely products of specific cultures and societies, and such products are usually mechanical and lifeless. However, when the mind is aware in a calm and unperturbed manner, it can see its deepest truth; such awareness can transcend time. You cannot reach this state through any exercise or cultivation method; you can only simply be aware of everything.

A worldly person who can free themselves from knowledge and experience has a truly pure heart; only such a heart can discover what lies beyond the mind; otherwise, what you discover may be tainted by your experiences.

I believe that the constant effort to become something is the main cause of mental damage and degeneration. Look at how quickly we age; it is not only those over sixty; even young people are beginning to age. This refers to mental degeneration. Very few people can keep their hearts young; I mean young not in the sense of being playful, but in the sense of being an untainted heart—not distorted by the accidents and events of life, not exhausted by the struggles and strife of life.

The belief that methods or cultivation systems can renew our minds is fundamentally a mistaken notion. Mechanical mental activities are constrained by tradition; they cannot face the real, non-mechanical life.

The most important issue is whether everyone can possess such a heart—not gradually cultivating it, because cultivating, developing, or growing implies temporality. This must happen immediately in the present; transformation transcends time. Rebirth is a form of death, and death awaits you; both death and rebirth do not allow for debate. Therefore, is it possible for such a heart to appear?—it is neither an achievement nor a goal that can be reached, because all of this implies the limitations of time and space. We always think that realizing reality must be achieved gradually over time; this notion is too convenient and too luxurious. This notion is a completely unreasonable illusion because time is fundamentally an illusion.

Therefore, you must question whether these experiences are real. By questioning, exploring, asking questions, observing, listening, and inquiring, this old mind will quiet down; however, it is not asleep; it is both lively and quiet. It quiets down through observation and exploration. If you want to observe and explore your heart, you must possess wisdom; this wisdom is uninterrupted awareness.

If you want to transform this world, you must start with yourself; starting with oneself means understanding one's motivations. Our motivations must be focused on understanding ourselves, not demanding others to change or making slight adjustments to the world through left-wing or right-wing revolutions. Transformation is our responsibility; no matter how small our world is, as long as we can transform ourselves and truly achieve enlightenment in daily life, we may influence the entire world and change the relationships between people.

True change can only occur at the moment the heart faces the problem; a heart burdened with a pile of old memories is exhausted and cannot face the truth clearly and eagerly.

Such awareness is harmful to true change in the mind because we will turn such knowledge into a tool for self-satisfaction. As long as there is a self there pursuing satisfaction, rewards, or security, true change is impossible. However, all our efforts are based on rewards or achievements, aren't they? This is what most people care about, but such change is not true change at all. Therefore, if the heart wants fundamental transformation, it must free itself from the known, and then it will become very quiet. Only such a heart can experience fundamental transformation.

All conscious activities, whether past, present, or future, remain within the realm of thought. Any state that has a range is not true mutation; true mutation can only occur outside of thought. Only when the mind recognizes its limitations and discovers that any change within a range is not true change can mutation occur. This is true meditation.

Only by entering the unknown from the known can true transformation occur. Please join me in exploring this matter. Changes from the known to the known will inevitably produce authoritative views—you know and I do not, so I worship you. I follow you because you answered what I wanted to know; you taught me a behavioral guideline to produce certain results and achievements. Achievement is a known; I know very well what achievement is, and that is what I want. Therefore, we always move from the known to the known, which must involve authoritative views—sanctions, opinion leaders, masters, hierarchical orders, someone knows while others do not—this known person can guarantee my success in practice, satisfy my needs, and bring me happiness. Isn't this the motivation we want to change?

No matter how hard the mind tries, it remains limited and futile. Perhaps the self's prison has gained some embellishments—more light, a few more windows, and improved food—but this prison is still constrained by a specific cultural background.

Only when the thinker and thought are no longer opposed can this self be transcended. When the thinker and thought become one, the heart becomes empty; in emptiness, there are no images or desires. If there is no experiencer in emptiness, a creative transformation will occur.

December: Silent Independence · Religion · God · Meditation#

Silent independence is clearly not isolation, nor is it a special state. If there is a sense of specialness, there must be a desire for some degree of excellence, while silent independence requires a high degree of sensitivity, understanding, and wisdom. Silent independence means that the heart has freed itself from all forms of influence and is no longer tainted by society. To understand what true religion is, one must be independent of external things, that is, to discover the immortal realm that transcends time for oneself.

Unfortunately, most people are in pursuit of dependence; we desire companions, friends, and we only want to live in a state of division, which must involve conflict and contradiction. In the state of silent independence, there is no conflict, but the mind can never perceive or understand it; the mind only knows what loneliness is.

We are all products of culture, propaganda, psychological heritage, and various constraints. We cannot be completely selfless, so we are