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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

 

Jiddu Krishnamurti
1895 - 1986

the Lotus Position and its Inefficacy

 

 

 

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August Goforth: “Unconditional Alignment. First, Foremost, Now and Always: Alignment is All (T)Here Is. Awareness of Alignment. In the spiritual life, we are always at the beginning.” Editor’s note: Awareness is Alignment.

 

Krishnamurti advises that the popular meditative ‘lotus position’ will not aid and induce enlightenment

 

In fact, he says, it will take us farther afield from the mind’s natural receptivity of higher inspiration.

 

 

It is said the Lotus Position resembles its namesake flower, in that the latter is able to flourish in muddy water.

The lotus-positioned devotee subscribes to a symbolism. It is hoped that, like the ill-accommodated flower, one might transcend the murkiness of the world and enter an enlightened state of inner peace.

an ancient teaching

The Lotus Position doctrine finds its origins a great many centuries ago. Anything sanctified by much time, goes the common judgment, will of necessity offer us sound basis.

But, not necessarily so.

For example, the rituals and precepts of the worldly Big Religion also boast primordial beginnings of millennia past. But, as we’ve seen, as we peer into the formations of distant antecedents, it’s hard to find anything that one might label as “the truth.”

And, as I think we’ll find, the Lotus Position takes its place among the unwarrantedly honored.

what is the precise problem with the lotus position

This is a big subject, and the answer is sprinkled among the scores of Krishnamurti lectures posted on the main-page. To do justice to this question, one needs to review a good number of his talks.

However, with caveats in place, allow me to offer a brief overview.

The mind is a quantum field, ever churning and bubbling with endless possibilities. It cannot be quieted, as such, but only re-directed.

It is possible to “strait-jacket” the mind, with formulae, chantings, and programming, but this does not quiet the mind in a healthful way but only dulls it. As Krishnamurti pointed out, if we repeat the word “Coca-Cola” hundreds of times, we will induce a form of mental quietude, but it will be the quietness of dullness, not of scintillating aliveness, which the mind requires to enter enlightenment.

“Truth is a pathless land” asserts Krishnamurti, meaning, there is no one sure-fire way to access its hidden riches. It will be a little different for each student. And, any attempt to reduce enlightenment to a system of "7 laws of success” or some such will do nothing but create inner conflict and darkness. Why does this create inner conflict? It does so because when we “try very hard” to huff-and-puff our way to enlightenment, our goal recedes from us at the same pace. The mind cannot be stormed and taken by force. Trying very hard to sit the right way, breathe the right way, chant the right way, automatically sets up a dualism of “I am here and my goal is far away, and I have to grit my teeth with effort to reach it.” But enlightenment will never be apprehended by exertion of will-power. It flourishes, if at all, in a natural way. It’s like the proverbial herding of cats; you can’t do it, the mind won’t cooperate in that way.

I used to believe that some sort of bodily positioning was advantageous

When I began this search, going on for almost 20 years now, I thought that deep breathing was essential to the process; it was my “lotus position,” so to speak. Granted, some of these positionings can provide a certain sense of relaxation, and nothing wrong with this – but, it would take me more than 10 years to realize that the “breathing” was merely optional. The progress I was making had nothing, essentially, to do with the breathing, with the real action taking place elsewhere. So it is with the Lotus Position.

this whole area of what is called 'meditation' is grossly mislabeled and misconstrued

Krishnamurti does a good job pointing this out. The focus here must not be that of quieting the mind, as the pictures of the lotus-positioned student tend to imply – it's nothing at all with that.

 

we are not empty vessels to be filled

Notice what the Lotus Position encourages as visual aid.

See the outstretched arms, the open palms, the crossed legs of immobility and inactivity, the closed eyes, the putative quieted mind.

In all this we easily infer that the Lotus Position teaches that God, the Source, the Infinite, or some other term of power or blessing, is “out there,” not part of us, and must be summoned and induced to come within.

All of this casts God as external power, far away, some sky-god, some other-dimensional force to be invited - but the entire concept of advantageously positioning the body in any of this is quite wrong.

We are not vessels to be filled but already have, this moment, right now, all the spiritual life we’ll ever have even in a million years. What is needed is not to invite some foreign entity but to open one’s eyes to what was given from the beginning.

As the “Gospel Of Thomas” has it, we are the children of Light, and it resides deep within our core being.

simply notice

The real work of meditation, of coming to enlightenment, is “simply noticing” the antics of the ego in one’s own head. This shines a spotlight of awareness on the wiles of this inner force.

Sunlight is the best disinfectant. And once the ego can no longer deceive us with it relentless ploys and tricks to bring us under its domain, its days are numbered. Its influence, in a natural way, grows less and less, over the months and years. It’s now down for the count.

attentive to inattention

Krishnamurti lecture: 16.May.1965. Question: "What can we do to be aware, to be attentive?" Answer: "I don't think you can do anything. All that you can do is to be attentive to inattention. If you are trying to be attentive, trying to be aware, then it becomes a conflict, a battle [Do not self-condemn, do not say, "I must be attentive, I must not allow my mind to wander", as this immediately sets up conflict in the mind; instead, simply notice]... It is only inattention that creates problems, isn't it? If I am attentive even if only for a minute, in that minute of attention there is no problem." [When we notice the antics of the mind, it is hard for the ego to create illusion for us.]

As the ego’s influence wanes, our “inner life” naturally and automatically rises. More and more we thrill to daily insights, courtesy of our soul-link to God.

 

silence your ego and your power will rise

Doctor Strange (2016)

The Ancient One (Tilda Swinton) and
Stephen Strange (Benedict Cumberbatch)

 

The Ancient One: “You cannot beat a river into submission. You have to surrender to its current and use its power as your own… Silence your ego and your power will rise.”

 

Editor’s note: Good comment by The Ancient One. I would just add, however, concerning “use its power as your own”, that, it is your own. At the depths of being, we are linked with God via Universal Consciousness. But even this is not exactly correct as there's a hint of separation here. There is no clear line of demarcation between the deeper self and God. We merge seamlessly. We are one with God, as Jesus said.

 

 

The Ancient One was correct. We cannot beat a river into submission -- it's a moving, flowing, living force -- and neither can we strait-jacket the mind with rigid, formulaic positionings, and think that this will precipitate enlightenment. Silence the ego by shining awareness upon it, and one's deeper power will naturally rise.

Further, and to restate, none of this, fundamentally, has an atom’s worth of association with “quieting the mind.” And when you experience this in an authentic way you will know that these are true statements.

See the many articles on the WG site which offer general advice concerning the “true self” and coming to enlightenment.

 

a well known spiritual teacher speaks of meditation but offers much error

Editor’s note: With advancing age, the mortal body lacks endurance; as such, I must keep the following short, yet I feel compelled to offer a word.

I was listening to a podcast of a favorite teacher, from whom I’ve learned much over the years. He spoke of meditation and, given his fine reputation, I assumed the talk would be something good.

Allow me to condense the message: He advocated a form of self-managed stilling of the mind, by the repetition of aphorisms, done in a near whisper, virtually putting one to sleep.

I was caught off guard. I thought he’d be offering something worthwhile. But I suddenly realized that his message was all wrong.

Editor’s note: Allow me to interject: I hate the word “meditation.” It comes with too much baggage. We immediately think of trying very hard, huffing and puffing, to quiet the mind. But the mind is a quantum field of ever-bubbling possibility and refuses all attempts to stifle. If we seem to succeed, the result is not a quieting of the mind per se, but a dulling of the mind, to its detriment. And a dull mind will never find the truth. Instead of “mediation,” we should speak of “constant awareness.”

The insights into higher reality that people are looking for can never be realized by so-called “quieting” the mind. These insights, if they come, are manifestations of cosmic creativity. The muse cannot be bridled and haltered. When she comes, she comes on her own terms and schedule.

 

“You can’t make the creative act happen. You have to do certain things, otherwise it won’t happen. But it won’t happen while you are doing them.”

“What is required is an attentive response to something real and other than ourselves, of which we have only inklings at first, but which comes more and more into being through our response to it – if we are truly responsive to it. We nurture it into being; or not. In this it has something of the structure of love.”

- Iain McGilchrist, The Matter With Things: Our Brains, Our Delusions

 

Those who preach “stilling the mind” do nothing more than announce that they’ve never experienced the real cosmic creativity, the real doorway to truth and reality. You don’t have to manage the mind like an unruly child to achieve this, for, when the creative burst comes, it will manage you, it will still you!

Editor’s note: This could remind us of what we’ve said about authentic romantic love and marriage. You don’t have to work on the real love, for, when it comes, it will work on you, and take you for a ride. But no one believes this, because they've never known it.

How to access this “cosmic creativity”? Ahh, well, now we’ve used a word that sends Krishnamurti to distraction. “How” implies method and effort, and force of will destroys the muse. Then what? We cannot achieve what we’re looking for by concentration, but only attention.

Remaining alert, all the day, if we can, even while we “chop wood and carry water,” will yet allow the muse to light upon us, when it’s good and ready.

 

 

Editor's last word:

We cannot “bottle and sell enlightenment for $29.95, with operators standing by.” In a larger sense, there is nothing one can do to jump-start this process.

Why is this so? – because enlightenment, at basis, represents the soul awakening, and never, at any time, now or in the future, shall we, at the surface of life, have a particle’s worth of power over the soul. This is so because, as stated, the soul is an extension of God, Universal Consciousness, and good luck to us moving God to action in any manner whatsoever.

If all of this is true, then what was the above writing about? Maybe the Lotus Position will prove fruitless, but what about “simply noticing” to subdue the ego?

Absolutely none of it will mean a farthing’s worth - if that’s all we have. The soul cannot be stirred into activity by anything that we do. We can sit in Lotus Position till kingdom come, or employ other tactics, and we’ll still be unrewarded.

And so, what did I mean with advice to “simply notice” and the like?

merely auxiliary in nature

It means this: if the deeper self, the “true self,” the soul, has, by its own choice, decided that now is the time for us to awaken, then – we can ride this wave of energy and help it expand. We do this by “getting out of the way,” not fighting it, removing blockages aiding repression. But our efforts in this regard, at best, are merely auxiliary in nature and do nothing to initiate or lead the process.

The fact that you, dear reader, are surveying an article such as this, may indicate that your deeper self is stirring, rousing itself to a new level of consciousness. And if it is your time to awaken, then you can aid the process by “simply noticing” and similar mental activities.

Editor’s note: In my own case, it all began 30 years ago with total surprise (and then I fought it for 10 years). I knew nothing about any of this, was a fervent Christian fundamentalist, and would have scoffed at the Lotus Position. I might say that I was “ambushed” and “assaulted” by the deeper self, and, even without my consent or willingness, was plunged into profound mystical experience, all of which upended my life.

So much for methodically quieting the mind and politely inviting the muse of Consciousness. However, not every beginning of “inner life” will commence as dramatically as mine; it could be incremental. But when it’s your time to “open the eyes,” the soul might very likely impose itself at an inconvenient time -- open palms or not -- and you’ll have no say in the matter.