Every Sensation Comes to an End
by J. Krishnamurti
[Listen to Audio!]
 I wonder if you know what it means to be aware of something? Most of us are not aware because we have become so accustomed to condemning, judging, evaluating, identifying, choosing. Choice obviously prevents awareness because choice is always made as a result of conflict. To be aware … just to see it, to be aware of it all without any sense of judgment.
Just be aware, that is all what you have to do, without condemning, without forcing, without trying to change what you are aware of. If you are aware choicelessly, the whole field of consciousness begins to unfold. So you begin with the outer and move inwardly. Then you will find, when you move inwardly that the inward and the outward are not two different things, that the outward awareness is not different from the inward awareness, and that they are both the same.
Everything about us, within as well as without — our relationships, our thoughts, our feelings — is impermanent, in a constant state of flux. But is there anything which is permanent? Is there? Our constant desire is to make sensation permanent, is it not? Sensation can be found again and again, for it is ever being lost. Being bored with a particular sensation, I seek new sensation. Every sensation comes to an end, and so we proceed from one sensation to another and every sensation strengthens the habit of seeking further sensation. My mind is always experiencing in terms of sensation. There is perception, contact, sensation and desire and the mind becomes the mechanical instrument of all this process. With the arising of sensation comes the urge to possess; and so begins the turmoil of desire. And the habit of seeking further sensation.
And is there an end to sorrow? Is it possible to live a daily life with death, which is the ending of the self? There is only one fact — impermanence: every sensation comes to an end. Can the mind, the brain remain absolutely with that feeling of suffering and nothing else? There is no movement away from that moment, that thing called suffering. Is there an action in which there is no motive; no cause — the self does not enter into it at all? Thought identifies itself with that sensation and through identification the ‘I’ is built up. Identification with sensation makes the self. If there is no identification; is there a self?
So is it possible not to identify with sensation? So we are asking, is there a holistic awareness of all the senses? Just be aware … effortless observation … choiceless observation … and to learn, to find out whether it is possible to allow sensation to flower and not let thought interfere with it — to keep them apart. Will you do it?
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Every Sensation Comes to an End
What do you understand from “outward awareness is not different from the inward awareness?” Can you share a story of a time that you were aware “choicelessly”? How can we develop the ability to be “aware of it all without any sense of judgment”? |
| Kristin Pedemonti wrote: Perhaps it is best stated by “What Is, Is.” or “It is what it is.” And it will always change, whatever the Is, Is. 🙂 Therefore we have no need to grasp so tightly or to fear because the Is wil… |
| david doane wrote: Thank you for this article. My understanding is that Krishnamurti is speaking nondualistically in saying that “outward awareness is not different from the inward awareness.” He is a… |
| Abhishek Thakore wrote: Choice less awareness is tricky business…I find my windows of awareness being bracketed by judging (“Wow! That feels good!” for example)….encountering this happens when there are phases of ‘flow’… |
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