...is it possible to eradicate violence in ourselves?
I am asking whether it is possible for a human being living
psychologically in any society to clear violence from himself
inwardly? If it is, the very process will produce a different way
of living in this world.
Some of us, in order to rid ourselves of violence, have used a
concept, an ideal, called non-violence, and we think by having
an ideal of the opposite to violence, non-violence, we can get rid
of the fact, the actual - but we cannot. We have had ideals
without number, all the sacred books are full of them,
yet we are still violent - so why not deal with violence itself and
forget the word altogether?
If you want to understand the actual you must give your whole
attention, all your energy, to it. That attention and energy are
distracted when you create a fictitious, ideal world. So can you
completely banish the ideal? The man who is really serious,
with the urge to find out what truth is, what love is, has no
concept at all. He lives only what is.
To investigate the fact of our own anger you must pass no
judgement on it, for the moment you conceive of its opposite
you condemn it and therefore you cannot see it as it is. When
you say you dislike or hate someone, that is a fact, although
it sounds terrible. If you look at it, go into it completely, it
ceases, but if you say, "I must not hate; I must have love in my
heart," then you are living in a hypocritical world with double
standards.
To live completely, fully, in the moment is to live with what is,
the actual, without any sense of condemnation or justification -
then you understand it so totally that you are finished with it.
When you see clearly the problem is solved.
J. Krishnamurti
from Freedom from the Known
with thanks to The Beauty We Love
~
Photo - Mystic Meandering
Bleeding Enso
2011
~
Enso is a sacred symbol of Zen Buddhism meaning circle...
It is traditionally drawn using only one brush stroke as a
meditative practice in letting go of the mind... While at
first glance, the enso symbol appears no more than a
misshapen circle, it symbolizes many things: the beauty
in imperfection, the art of letting go of expectations, the
circle of life, and connection. The enso is a manifestation
of the artist at the moment of creation and the acceptance of
the innermost self. The enso is said to leave the artist fully
exposed at that one particular moment in time.
Barbara Bash - Artist
(I have no idea what I was feeling at the time I created
this enso on wax paper, thus the drips - the only one I ever did.)
