Can the Mind Be Quiet?

Krishnamurti Foundation of America

"We do not seem to be aware of the psychological structure of the brain. Most of us carry on mechanically in the condition in which we are born and educated, living a repetitive life, with certain modifications. We are trained from childhood until we die to function within a very small part of our brainâs capacity, whether we are scientists, engineers or anything else. A scholar, a priest, a theologian or a politician functions within a very small fragment of the brain. We all use that part of the brain which is always of yesterday. All specialisation is exclusive and fragmentary, limited and narrow. All this is the old brain which is the result of millions of years of struggle for survival, struggle to get the best out of the environment, and so on. This is all we know and with this brain we try to explore and discover something new. Therefore there is always deep-rooted frustration and despair.
...

Is the whole operation of the brain old? Is there any action of the brain which is not this response of the computer? And can this brain ever be quiet? Can it be active when it is demanded and silent when it is necessary? The answer to this lies in meditation. The understanding of this mechanical habitual brain opens the door to the new quality of the mind. When we say the new we mean something entirely different, a different dimension which cannot possibly be formulated by the old. Anything that can be formulated by the old brain is not new, for this very formulation is the action of memory which is image and thought. When the new is very close to the old, the old can reach it, touch it and contaminate it. But if the new is very far from the old then the old cannot reach it. Thought can be quiet and produce a certain silence which is the cessation of its own chattering. But this silence with its space around a centre is not the new. The new is not just the cessation of the old.
â¦

The new can be only when the old has completely understood its place and function. So our concern is not with the new, but having seen the whole nature and structure of the old then action is different. All our action is relationship. This different action of relationship is love, which is not the known. And meditation is freeing the mind from the known.

The separation between the old brain and the new can be perceived very definitely when the old brain loses its observer. The new cannot be perceived as the observer if the old brain sees the observed separate from itself. When the whole mechanism of the old with its observer becomes entirely quiet, keeps its acuity and therefore loses its observer, then the new is.

In a certain manner of speaking it is wrong even to make a division between the old and the new: they live in the same house, there is harmony between the two. This harmony cannot possibly exist without love. And meditation is of this love."

J. Krishnamurti
From the new book Can the Mind Be Quiet?

Dear Friends,

In the previous excerpt, Krishnamurti seems to suggest that there is a part of the brain which he calls old that has been shaped by a history of struggles; survival, environmental and so on. This old brain works mechanically, and he asks if it can ever be quiet for the new to be discovered.

This topic and others are part of a new book recently released by the foundations titled Can the Mind Be Quiet? It contains sixty, previously unpublished, conversations, recalled and written down by Krishnamurti in the late 1960s and early 1970s. They contain probing inquiries into topics such as the self, consciousness, the essential qualities of a good education, and the meditative mind. These pieces also include Krishnamurtiâs much-loved descriptions of nature.

The Krishnamurti Educational Center in Ojai attracts people from all over the world who come to learn about themselves using Krishnamurtiâs teachings as a basis for inquiry. To encourage and provide more opportunities for this work, our center is hosting some interesting programs:

Dan Kilpatrick will facilitate Coming to the Ultimate: Science and the Ground of Being. This in-depth study program will run September 9-13. The participants will explore how science tends to perceive the universe and its underlying nature, and what this reveals about ourselves. Clearly, science is a product of human thought, which naturally raises the question: Can science come to the basis of existence without understanding thought itself?

Karen Hesli, who is the former head of Oak Grove School, will facilitate a program titled Krishnamurti Education & Poetry that will run on the weekend of September 27-29. The backdrop for this weekend exploration will be the questions that Krishnamurti discusses with students, parents, and teachers about education, centering on these themes: conditioning, fear, flowering in goodness, vocation, arts of listening, observing, asking, and the mirror of relationship.

Participants will also explore the transformative power of words. Words (most) often separate and compartmentalize lifeâ¦ yet the words in a poem can inspire a kind of wondering, an awakening of the heart or widening of perspective. Immerse yourself in reading and writing poems that have the potential to shed the skin of superficiality and invite insight.

Amanda Lezra and Liam OâMara will facilitate Opposition: On freedom and fixation, a theme weekend that will take place October 4-6. They will focus on exploring the movement and function of conflict in a series of dialogues and writing exercises, looking at the specific relationship between language and conflict.

Jaap Sluijter
Executive Director

Krishnamurti Education & Poetry
Weekend Program
September 27-29

The backdrop for our explorations will be the questions that Krishnamurti discusses with students, parents and teachers about education, centering on these themes: conditioning, fear, flowering in goodness, vocation, arts of listening, observing, asking, and the mirror of relationship.

We will also look at the transformative power of metaphor juxtaposed to words that intellectually and habitually ensnare LIFE. Words (most) often separate and compartmentalize lifeâ¦ yet the words in a poem can inspire a kind of wondering, an awakening of the heart or widening of perspective. Reading or writing a poem can transcend languageâs normal limitations and offer something translucent. During the weekend we will immerse in good poems that have the potential to shed the skin of superficiality and invite insight.

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Itâs Never âGoodbyeâ
Oak Grove School

Each year, Oak Grove students transitioning into high school go through a thoughtful process of reflection and anticipation, culminating in a written speech. Near the end of the school year, eighth-grade students present their Gateway Speech to faculty, fellow students, and family.

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Coming to the Ultimate
In-Depth Study Program
September 9-13

Krishnamurti pointed out that the observer is the observed. Does this have any bearing on what science is observing and seeking in its endeavors to understand actuality? Is it possible that science, and we, tend to look through a conditioned perspective that in turn frames what is seen? Are our perceptions and scientific observations of reality in fact a reflection of a perspective that creates for itself space-time, separate objects (including self), etc., as an experience, even as it moves?

In seeking the Ultimate, is science in fact in search for itself, without knowing it?

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OppositionâOn freedom and fixation
Weekend Program
October 4-6

The purpose of this program is to intentionally create space for the astonishing faculty of observation Krishnamurti describes, and to delve into the nature and movement of internal and interpersonal conflict, paying close attention to the role languageâverbal, written, and nonverbalâplays in generating and perpetuating it.

We will use a variety of mediumsâincluding writing exercises, dialogue, video, and stillnessâto closely observe the lifespan of conflict on a personal and social level.

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Krishnamurti Foundation of America

PO Box 1560

Ojai, CA 93024

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