The body of mine (and yours ) has its sensations of hearing, seeing, smelling, tasting,and feeling. This group I'll call sensation. Then there is perception, the power to create images, imagination. There is the mind which thinks, and there is consciousness. (I am dividing them for convenience, not to create a new system). All these: body, sensation, perception, thought, consciousness, go to create the “I”. It is not the “I” which creates them, not the “I” which thinks, which feels, which perceives, which is conscious. The “I” begins to acquire,grasp, hold, and through this grasping, holding, self-consciousness is created.Thus all self-consciousness is
acquisition. The “I” does not exist by itself, it exists only through sensation. To me there is no “I”; it is but sensation, body, perception, thought, consciousness, that create the “I”; and because it must live in separateness, that “I” must acquire, must possess. So consciousness, that “I”, must hold, must grasp, must acquire, and in opposition to that, death seems like annihilation. Now this acquiring, grasping “I”, thinks that through these accumulations it will acquire happiness, completeness. Through that desire of acquisition it sets up the idea of continuity and the fear of annihilation. So the “I” is created in the mind, the “I” does not exist by itself. For its well-being, for its maintenance of separateness, it demands the standardization of thought, with all its implications, and evades all changes.Then there is the standardization of morality, laws framed to check the “I” from becoming too greedy in acquisition, and from this arises fear, the fear of that independent thought which leads man to become his own law.Naturally, from all this, there is the emphasis on individuality in the wrong place; that is, you think that because the individual is separate and the quality of individuality is acquisition, you should emphasize that quality of acquisition in work. You think that through work the individual will gain more and more for himself and become more possessive in qualities, friendships and objects. The emphasis is laid on the gain to the individual through work. Work must be collective, not individualistic. There must be the planning of cooperative work for the whole and not for the individual alone. We must plan together for the whole of mankind, and in that there cannot be separation into countries,nationalities, peoples.On the other hand, there is the individual who must free himself, through his own effort, from his “I”, self-consciousness. For that there can be no authority— though there must be an authority in work. Authority must be in the right sphere and not in the wrong sphere as it is at present. You have spiritual authority, that is, you follow someone, a saviour. There can not be authority towards the freedom of self-consciousness, because Truth is purely an individual perception and in that perception you must become a law to yourself and cannot follow another.Because of the false emphasis on individuality, there is the idea either of annihilation or of continuity. The mind is all the time occupied with the “I”: whether “I” shall always exist, whether “I” have enough possessions, power, glory, comfort—all the time grasping, acquiring, growing, and this kind of growth is entirely based on sensation. The “I” exists in that consciousness which depends on sensation, so the mind is occupied with all these longings; and you imagine that the more you acquire, the happier you will be. Examine your systems of life and you will see that everything is based on this. While you are caught up in this division of “yours” and of “mine”, there are many ways of deceiving yourself. But when the mind is free of the “I”, it can begin to renew itself, to recreate itself.
And that to me -it's just the way It Is .
Your thoughts as usual.
PS
Obviously you don't have to agree on anything placed above.
acquisition. The “I” does not exist by itself, it exists only through sensation. To me there is no “I”; it is but sensation, body, perception, thought, consciousness, that create the “I”; and because it must live in separateness, that “I” must acquire, must possess. So consciousness, that “I”, must hold, must grasp, must acquire, and in opposition to that, death seems like annihilation. Now this acquiring, grasping “I”, thinks that through these accumulations it will acquire happiness, completeness. Through that desire of acquisition it sets up the idea of continuity and the fear of annihilation. So the “I” is created in the mind, the “I” does not exist by itself. For its well-being, for its maintenance of separateness, it demands the standardization of thought, with all its implications, and evades all changes.Then there is the standardization of morality, laws framed to check the “I” from becoming too greedy in acquisition, and from this arises fear, the fear of that independent thought which leads man to become his own law.Naturally, from all this, there is the emphasis on individuality in the wrong place; that is, you think that because the individual is separate and the quality of individuality is acquisition, you should emphasize that quality of acquisition in work. You think that through work the individual will gain more and more for himself and become more possessive in qualities, friendships and objects. The emphasis is laid on the gain to the individual through work. Work must be collective, not individualistic. There must be the planning of cooperative work for the whole and not for the individual alone. We must plan together for the whole of mankind, and in that there cannot be separation into countries,nationalities, peoples.On the other hand, there is the individual who must free himself, through his own effort, from his “I”, self-consciousness. For that there can be no authority— though there must be an authority in work. Authority must be in the right sphere and not in the wrong sphere as it is at present. You have spiritual authority, that is, you follow someone, a saviour. There can not be authority towards the freedom of self-consciousness, because Truth is purely an individual perception and in that perception you must become a law to yourself and cannot follow another.Because of the false emphasis on individuality, there is the idea either of annihilation or of continuity. The mind is all the time occupied with the “I”: whether “I” shall always exist, whether “I” have enough possessions, power, glory, comfort—all the time grasping, acquiring, growing, and this kind of growth is entirely based on sensation. The “I” exists in that consciousness which depends on sensation, so the mind is occupied with all these longings; and you imagine that the more you acquire, the happier you will be. Examine your systems of life and you will see that everything is based on this. While you are caught up in this division of “yours” and of “mine”, there are many ways of deceiving yourself. But when the mind is free of the “I”, it can begin to renew itself, to recreate itself.
And that to me -it's just the way It Is .
Your thoughts as usual.
PS
Obviously you don't have to agree on anything placed above.
