Taking away everything you are not

Jeroen

I was reminded this morning of this quote attributed to the Buddha:

“I will give you everything that you are, and take away everything you are not.”

In a way this is very much the problem of the modern western man. Every day we take in newspapers, tv shows, self help books, websites, and very little of it makes a real impact, but we are surrounded by a swirl of words and images crafted by others. The few words that touch us light up parts of our truth, but to reveal the innermost core of our being takes the skill of a sculptor, knocking away that which we are not.

Jiddu Krishnamurti often talked about deconditioning or deprogramming. I vaguely recall his book Freedom From The Known, the problem is that besides letting things settle and being concerned with the practical aspects of living, there are not that many techniques that one can employ, whatever you do just fills up the brain’s inbox with more stuff.

federica

I see conditioning as an 'external' and programming as an 'internal'.
It is theoretically easier to un-condition someone than it is to de-program them...

how

The only place one can actually let go of any of our habituated responses to anything is within this present nano moment. Here, the sums of all our theoretical practices give way to the reality of how we actually meet this one passing instant of time.
Here, the dangers lie not from the amount of input that visits our brains so much as how we habitually manipulate that input for our own dreamscape productions.

Jeroen

It’s funny, just yesterday I was thinking about this and today I get a message from my uncle that he suggest I concern myself less with becoming less and more with just being.