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Date Posted: 00:04:48 04/23/04 Fri
Author: Hendrik - 25 Mar 2004
Subject: An interesting discovery

During my holidays someone gave me a book to read by J. Krishnamurti, called "Meditations", published in 1979. Part of the content sounded strangely familiar to me. Here is an excerpt, followed by a message by Shibendu Lahiri. (emphasis added)


(1)

Meditation is one of the most extraordinary things, and if you do not know what it is you are like the blind man in a world of bright color, shadows and moving light. It is not an intellectual affair, but when the heart enters into the mind, the mind has quite a different quality; it is really, then, limitless, not only in its capacity to think, to act efficiently, but also in its sense of living in a vast space where you are part of everything.
Meditation is the movement of love. It isn't the love of the one or of the many. It is like water that anyone can drink out of any jar, whether golden or earthenware: it is inexhaustible. And a peculiar thing takes place which no drug or self-hypnosis can bring about: it is as though the mind enters into itself, beginning at the surface and penetrating ever more deeply, until depth and height have lost their meaning and every form of measurement ceases. In this state there is complete peace--not contentment which has come about through gratification--but a peace that has order, beauty and intensity. It can all be destroyed, as you can destroy a flower, and yet because of its vulnerability it is indestructible. This meditation can not be learned from another. You must begin without knowing anything about it, and move from innocence to innocence.
The soil in which the meditative mind can begin is the soil of everyday life, the strife, the pain and the fleeting joy. It must begin there, and bring order, and from there move endlessly. But if you are concerned only with making order, then that very order will bring about its own limitation, and the mind will be its prisoner. In all this movement you must somehow begin from the other end, from the other shore, and not always be concerned with this shore or how to cross the river. You must take a plunge into the water, not knowing how to swim. And the beauty of meditation is that you never know where you are, where you are going, what the end is.

http://home.datacomm.ch/rezamusic/meditations.html


(2)

Message 1995

Satyalok, Varanasi, August 15, 1995

Without laying the foundation of a righteous life, Kriya becomes an escape and, therefore, has no value whatsoever. A righteous life is not merely the following of social morality it is indeed the freedom from envy, greed and the search for power. Without knowing the activities of the self, Kriya becomes a sensuous excitement and therefore of very little significance. Mind in Kriya is limitless, not only in its capacity to think and to act efficiently, but also in its sense of living in a vast space where one is a part of everything.

In the "Parabastha of Kriya", a peculiar thing takes place which no drug or self-hypnosis can bring about. The mind enters into itself penetrating even more deeply and then depth & height lose their meaning. Every form of measurement utterly ceases. In this state there is complete peace, not merely contentment which comes about through gratification. Kriya is a movement from innocence to innocence. In the explosion of Kriya, the eyes are made innocent and love is then a benediction. Kriya opens the door to the incalculable, to the measureless. Kriya brings about the religious mind — the deep religion that is untouched by the Church, the temple and the mosque. Kriya is not an escape from the world but rather the comprehension of the world and its ways. Kriya de-conditions and thus frees you from your past Karma.

http://www.kriyayogalahiri.com/message/messageuk/message-1995.htm



It is obvious that Shibendu has 'borrowed' part of his message from Krishnamurti's book, and this right down to the wording. A year ago I wrote that I am not sure whether Shibendu is speaking really from own experience or rather has his knowledge taken primarily from books by Krishnamurti and related people. I am surprised that my supposition is being corroborated at least within the context of the above two samples of texts. This was a coincidence.

Later in the same book however, Krishnamurti adds:

-----------------------------------------------------------------------
There is no system or method which will give understanding; only a choiceless awareness of a fact will do that. Meditation according to a system is the avoidance of the fact of what you are; it is far more important to understand yourself, the constant changing of the facts about yourself, than to meditate in order to find god or have visions, sensations and other forms of entertainment.
-----------------------------------------------------------------------

If meditation according to a system will give no understanding, I wonder where there is place left for Kriya practice here? On the other hand Shibendu says that the mind is a myth and almost impossible to tackle, so Kriya works with the body "which is something real". But nevertheless he teaches Swadhyay (self-study). Does he know what he is talking about? The two do not go together.

I have noticed a similar discrepancy with other teachers also. The Jnana paths are known to be very difficult. Apparently some of its followers make slow progress and try to speed things up by arbitrarily integrating Kriya techniques in their practice, and they believe Shibendu is their man, because he speaks the right language, a language they understand.

Some time ago the American Zen teacher Sensei Charles Sinkai Birx came to this board and posted here using a pseudonym. Another time an American who had studied Buddhism in college inquired on a newsgroup about Shibendu; I responded to him. I wondered why a convinced Buddhist is looking into Kriya Yoga.

As I said in an earlier post of today, I am very skeptical of coupling Kriya techniques with the Jnana methodology. Jnana is essentially a method that works on the mental level - the mental ego is expanded by self-study and finally disperses. But if Kriya with its manipulation of subtle energies all over the body is added to that process and other parts of the being get involved, the one-pointed attention on the purely mental processes may be diverted and the mental ego thus be consolidated instead of weakened, because of the surcharge with energy. The vital ego is not even cared about at all, which is possibly responsible for the unrefined, sometimes aggressive and eccentric behaviour of some teachers. The walls are subtly but slowly fortified. Kriya becomes a hodgepodge yoga then, particularly as long as there is not a strong authority, a master, at hand to beat one out of this entanglement in the ways of the self. It then becomes a case of birds building their own cage.

Hence I would encourage people to keep their hands off and stick to their individual practice, at least to one at a time, and not to mix up things deliberately. I have not heard of one person as yet who has coupled Jnana and Kriya and struck a deep impression on me. Maybe there are exceptions, but they must be rare because they remain invisible.

Hendrik

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