The Core of the Teachings of J. Krishnamurti

Of late, I have been reading the works and talks of J. Krishnamurti who is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He did not expound any philosophy or religion, but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, of the individual's search for security and happiness, and the need for mankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow. He explained with great precision the subtle workings of the human mind, and pointed to the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality.

Krishnamurti belonged to no religious organization, sect or country, nor did he subscribe to any school of political or ideological thought. On the contrary, he maintained that these are the very factors that divide human beings and bring about conflict and war. He asked that we tread lightly on this earth without destroying ourselves or the environment. He communicated to his listeners a deep sense of respect for nature. His teaching, besides being relevant to the modern age, is timeless and universal.

Krishnamurti’s work is permeated by what may be called the essence of the scientific approach, when this is considered in its very highest and purest form. Thus, he begins from a fact like the nature of our thought processes. This fact is established through close attention, involving careful listening to the process of consciousness, and observing it assiduously. In this, one is constantly learning, and out of this learning comes insight into the overall or general nature of the process of thought. This insight is then tested. First, one sees whether it holds together in a rational order. And then one sees whether it leads to order and coherence in what flows out of it in life as a whole.

The core of Krishnamurti’s teaching is contained in the statement he made in 1929 when he said, “Truth is a pathless land”. Man cannot come to it through any organization, through any creed, through any dogma, priest or ritual, not through any philosophical knowledge or psychological technique. He has to find it through the mirror of relationship, through the understanding of the contents of his own mind, through observation and not through intellectual analysis or introspective dissection.

Man has built in himself images as a fence of security—religious, political, personal. These manifest as symbols, ideas, beliefs. The burden of these images dominates man’s thinking, his relationships, and his daily life. These images are the causes of our problems for they divide man from man. His perception of life is shaped by the concepts already established in his mind. The content of his consciousness is his entire existence. The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all humanity. So he is not an individual.

Freedom is not a reaction; freedom is not choice. It is man’s pretence that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive; freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence. In observation one begins to discover the lack of freedom. Freedom is found in the choiceless awareness of our daily existence and activity.

Thought is time. Thought is born of experience and knowledge, which are inseparable from time and the past. Time is the psychological enemy of man. Our action is based on knowledge and therefore time, so man is always a slave to the past. Thought is ever limited and so we live in constant conflict and struggle. There is no psychological evolution. When man becomes aware of the movement of his own thoughts, he will see the division between the thinker and thought, the observer and the observed, the experiencer and the experience. He will discover that this division is an illusion. Then only is there pure observation which is insight without any shadow of the past or of time. This timeless insight brings about a deep, radical mutation in the mind.

Total negation is the essence of the positive. When there is negation of all those things that thought has brought about psychologically, only then is there love, which is compassion and intelligence.

Gratitude letter from a daughter

When one is feeling very happy, that is a reminder to be grateful to all those people who have been instrumental in one's happiness and fulfillment. So I penned down (and then typed out!) some of my feelings for my mother.

Dearest mummy,

I think so many times to express my love and gratitude to you, but don't seem
to say as much as I would like to. You can call it my laziness, or inertia, or too
caught up in routine work of teaching and taking care of Prem and children,
but these are excuses after all. So here are some of my feelings which I
strongly feel about you.

You have been a pillar of strength and support throughout my life, whether it
was in my studies, taking part in extra-curricular activities, pestering you to
allow me to join 'extra' hobbies like batik painting, learning shorthand and
typing, etc. I always feel so happy when people commend me for my cooking
which is due to your patient guidance in teaching me the finer points. You have
been my role model and mentor, more so after I got married. Whenever I was
clueless on what should I do in a certain situation, you guided me quietly and
subtly, without taking any credit. Even after more than thirty years of marriage,
when I am in a difficult situation, I always think of you, "What you would have
done in such situation".

Whenever I start planning to visit you in Delhi, first thing I am reminded of is
your caring nature. Starting from making my favourite dishes, to taking care of
all the needs, big and small, you don't seem to get tired! Your diligence is
evident in all the activities, and I can't express my gratitude enough for all the
times, when you took care of even minor details when both our daughters were
born. I am always so relaxed when I am with you because I know that all the
things will be taken care! I have realized that you have foresightedness and strong intuitive power because of which you have been guiding me all along, steering clear of difficult situations.


You have often emphasized about the importance of strong and good relationships to me, and I have witnessed how you have built and nurtured close relationships with all our aunts and uncles. As a result, when I look at my relationships with my in-laws, my siblings, friends and now my children and their in-laws, I feel happy and fulfilled, and it's all due to you. You have guided me and corrected my behaviour when needed, which has made me a likable person. I am truly blessed and privileged to be born as your daughter, and I deeply admire you and love you for all the things!

Your loving daughter,
Alka

Comparison of face-to-face vs online teaching

I use laptops and IT applications in classroom teaching every day; in conducting the lesson, as well as my students doing research and assignments online and uploading their PPT slides for presentation . Even exams are conducted online. In fact, if a student doesn't bring laptop to the classroom, he/she is not allowed to sit and do his work (there is a resource centre from where he can borrow one). During the semester we also teach online for one week where students do not come to the college; rather they learn from their homes( just to prepare ourselves of any emergencies!). Today I wish to discuss about these two modes of teaching.

There are some basic differences between face-to-face (F2F) and online teaching. Let us look into some characteristics of these two.

F2F teaching is in real time, dynamic and highly interactive. We as teachers are able to see our students, look at their body language while they respond to us, and notice their emotional state, and gauge their level of understanding. Accordingly, we can adjust our responses. One of the main issues of today’s highly wired students is how to engage them, away from their distractions, and increase their attention span on the lesson. This may be better monitored and guided in F2F lesson, as a measure of their focused effort (by introducing some activities related to the lesson). Also honing their skills in teamwork, active participation in class discussion and debates, and the opportunity of on-the-spot clarification of doubts with us are more realistic in F2F teaching than online.

On the other hand, online teaching provides more flexibility in terms of time and place as students need not come to the college. This aspect becomes very important if classes can’t be conducted in college due to some emergencies like MERS, etc. So students can choose to look into the lesson while having dinner at the coffee shop, and respond to the discussion forum at midnight (assuming that it is asynchronous mode of online teaching). Since no one is looking, some of the less-responsive or shy students can now express themselves more freely in discussion forum, without getting intimidated by ‘loud ones’. They can write their ideas or opinions or answer the questions posed by us without getting anxious, and taking their own sweet time!

In summary, each type of teaching has its own strengths and weaknesses. Depending on the situation, availability of resources in the college, as well as ease of accessibility of these resources to the students outside the college, either of these can be used. While online teaching provides more flexibility (in time and place) to the students as well as to the teachers, it requires different set of methods to conduct the lesson, gauge students’ progress and give them feedback. So we as teachers need to learn newer ways to engage them meaningfully, know them without meeting F2F, and respond to their queries any time of the day! As for F2F teaching, we have to be mindful of our verbal language, body language and emotions so as not to hurt any students’ sentiments in classroom, chances of which are lower in online lessons. Also F2F lessons become mandatory for those subjects where labs or some sort of demonstrations are required.

Value of Grit and Deliberate Practice

Some of my students seem to take easy way for their learning in the classroom, when they don't take down notes, and may not be fully attentive as they have 'false security' of relying on online resources. To make the matters worse, many of them become sulky and indifferent when asked to practice some concepts a few times. They feel that they have read once, and they have downloaded some material from the Web, it is enough! They prepare their Power point presentation, and upload it; slides look fine. But the problem starts when they start presenting their slides. They tend to read the text, and when asked to explain in their words, they stumble. When asked a question related to the projected slide, even then also, they have difficulty in giving a satisfactory answer. The root cause of this problem is lack of clear understanding or grasp on the concepts which can be attributed to their lack of grit and enough practice. This reminds me of my own experience as a student when I was returned one assignment to do it again.

I was in the first year of my honors degree in Life Sciences(somewhere in 1976), and the module was Human Embryology. My professor was very strict, with both the submission time of the assignments as well as its quality. I had been a conscientious student, and hence submitted my assignment before time, and had done my best. However, Prof called me in the next class and returned my assignment, where he had crossed it and written, "Do again". This was the first time, and may be the last time, that I had such a remark. I was totally shocked. Later when I asked my Prof what I needed to do to make it OK, he pointed some mistakes in the drawings of embryos. These were some very fine details, which I had missed as I didn't know their significance. He asked me to redraw, though he mentioned that my explanations were fine.

That reminds me of grit and deliberate practice which Dr Angela Duckworth talks about in her research papers on character development. Although drawing those finer details about the embryos looked rather tedious at that time, and I had to do that a couple of times, before it was approved, I could see the significance of that later. Those details conveyed how the development of the embryo was progressing, and what types of cells were involved in that. So it was not just a mere drawing, but an important part of the answer. That experience made me more aware of deliberate practice, and feedback from Prof was very important to make sure practice was leading to the right outcome. In that sense, I honed grit as my character strength and continued doing practice till mistakes became lesser and lesser, and I got the mastery over the concepts. In fact, by the end of the semester, I was guiding my classmates on how to draw properly!

In short, grit means determination to improve or doing better next time, which is very important character strength for learning. But without deliberate practice, grit is of not much use. We need to practice again and again, with a view to improve and come up to the expected outcome. Then we will have sense of achievement and satisfaction!

Bill Gates' advice to students

I came across a speech which Bill Gates gave at a High School in U.S. which was very apt for the students, so I shared it with my class today. In this he talks about eleven things students do not and will not learn in school. He talks about how feel-good, politically correct teachings created a generation of kids with no concept of reality and how this concept set them up for failure in the real world.

I strongly feel that this should be posted in every school so that kids all over the world can read and digest these wise words. Love him or hate him , Bill Gates sure hits the nail on the head with this!

Rule 1: Life is not fair - get used to it!

Rule 2: The world doesn't care about your self-esteem. The world will expect you to accomplish something BEFORE you feel good about yourself.

Rule 3: You will NOT make $60,000 a year right out of high school. You won't be a vice-president with a car phone until you earn both.

Rule 4: If you think your teacher is tough, wait till you get a boss.

Rule 5: Flipping burgers is not beneath your dignity. Your Grandparents had a different word for burger flipping: They called it opportunity.

Rule 6: If you mess up, it's not your parents' fault, so don't whine about your mistakes, learn from them.

Rule 7: Before you were born, your parents weren't as boring as they are now. They got that way from paying your bills, cleaning your clothes and listening to you talk about how cool you thought you were: So before you save the rain-forest from the parasites of your parent's generation, try delousing the closet in your own room.

Rule 8: Your school may have done away with winners and losers, but life HAS NOT. In some schools, they have abolished failing grades and they'll give you as MANY TIMES as you want to get the right answer. *This doesn't bear the slightest resemblance to ANYTHING in real life.

Rule 9: Life is not divided into semesters. You don't get summers off and very few employers are interested in helping you FIND YOURSELF. (Do that on your own time.)

Rule 10: Television is NOT real life. In real life, people actually have to leave the coffee shop and go to jobs.

Rule 11: Be nice to nerds. Chances are you'll end up working for one.

If you can read this...thank a Teacher.
And for life and everything else you have...thank God!

So above 11 rules quite sum up the philosophy of life in clear words!

The Power of Gratitude

Today is my husband's birthday, and to celebrate the occasion, my daughter had booked a table in a very nice restaurant. We just returned home after having a lovely dinner, having spent almost two hours enjoying the company of our dear ones. As I write this, I am filled with gratitude, for all the wonderful people I have around me, and for all the wonderful things they do!

I have devised my own methods of increasing gratitude in my life, to be thankful for what all I have. One simple way is to spend a few minutes quietly with myself, usually in the evening, and think of a few things I am thankful for, and also think about a few people(may be one or many) I am thankful to have in my life. I try to do this every day, and instead of repeating the same persons, I try to think of more people and things to be grateful for, thus expanding my arena.

After recognizing the people to whom I am grateful in my life, I try somehow to convey my feelings to them. Whether it is through a short note, or verbal compliment, or cooking something of their choice, I express my thankfulness to them. This makes their lives happier, and as their faces light up with a smile I also feel happier. This may sound too simple, but it can have a big impact on someone's day, week or even life!

While recognizing other people's efforts and expressing our gratitude to them, we often forget ourselves. We are also important and valuable! So during quiet reflection, I also reflect on things that I can be thankful for about myself. It could be that I finally got done with that boring or difficult task I had been procrastinating on, or I lent a listening ear to my daughter's hard day at work. Self-gratitude does not have to be about big achievements only. I could simply be thankful for my good sense of humor, or volunteering my time and efforts, or even doing my exercise regularly.

So power of gratitude is huge, and its effects are far-reaching. We just have to start feeling it, and then express it as often as we can. You will be amazed by the results!

We decide to get angry

All of us get angry, and some of us get angry more often than others. We usually blame it on other people's behavior or the situation. But is it truly so? Let's see how we get angry.

Just reflect on who we get angry with! Most of the times we get angry with someone younger to us in age like our children or siblings, or someone working for us like our helpers, employees, etc. What about our boss or seniors in the office, or elders at home? We usually don't get angry at them or rather, I should say, we can't afford to get angry with them, otherwise consequences will be serious. So even though we may be unhappy with them, we repress our feelings. Same goes with strangers-- our irritation or frustration with strangers is for much shorter than with known people. So it looks like that the closer we are to a person, more angry we tend to get with that person. That may also explain why at times we 'explode' at our parents than our teachers-- we take them for granted, but are afraid of the teachers.

So next time when you get angry, don't say that it just happened, and you couldn't control it. It is actually in our hands to get angry or not, with somebody. Of course, it is very difficult to control our anger, or minimize it. But if we become aware of our responses, and act after considering all the consequences of our actions, then incidences of outbursts will surely reduce.