Compassion,

 

For the purpose of illustrating, what I want to say about compassion, I will first bring the reader this quote from J. Krishnamurti. “Compassion is not sentiment. Compassion is not wooly or empathy; it is not something you can cultivate through thought, discipline, control, suppression, or being kind, polite, gentle and all the rest of it. It only comes into being when thought, at the very root, has come to an end.” Krishnamurti was, unknowingly, his whole life, referring to Embodied Language (EL), which is the expression of our Language Enlightenment (LE). I hope you are able to combine his words, with what I say about our Disembodied Language (DL), which creates and maintains the illusion of thought. The absence of compassion, isn’t due to the presence of thought or a mind – because it doesn’t exist – even though we all talk like that, due to how we deal with our language. Our DL creates all of our problems, as it makes us believe, language can happen within us.

 

Krishnamurti’s words require some translation, to the concepts of DL, EL and LE. He often stated, that thought is time, born of experience and knowledge, which are inseparable from time and past. However, the fallacy of covert, supposedly, inner language – of being able to have thoughts or, presumably, a mind of our own – has distracted us from paying attention to the overt behaviors, which determine how we deal with our language: 1) speaking, 2) listening, 3) writing and 4) reading. Moreover, all other – good as well as bad – behavior, is kept going by the way in which we deal with our language and not by some superstitious fantasy, which inevitably occurs, since we cannot speak appropriately about our own experience. Our DL always distorts our own experience, therefore, we can never talk effectively about our own experience, in the here and now.

 

With EL, we can, for the first time in human history, talk, without any distraction or distortion, with total awareness, about our own direct experience. This is how we acquire self-knowledge, which is grounded in our own experience, in the here and now. We can finally talk whole-heartedly about our past as well as our future, because EL keeps us present. In DL, we dissociate from our experience, because we feel threatened. It isn’t – as Krishnamurti says – time,  which is the psychological enemy of man, but it is the constant threat, we experience, while we speak. We have never been in a non-threatening situation, in which we could consciously continue with our EL.

 

In EL, our action is based, not on knowledge of the past, but on self- knowledge in the hear-and-now. Therefore, we are not limited, by our unfulfilled desire, to express who we really are, that is, our LE.  Fascinatingly, Krishnamurti decribed his state of mind, as a young boy – when he wasn’t yet fully conditioned by DL – as follows: “No thought entered his mind. He was watching and listening and nothing else. Thought and its associations never arose. There was no image-making. He often attempted to think, but no thought would come.” You can tell from his words, that thought and even the so-called mind itself, was only a verbal product, which arose from the associations and the image-making of DL.

 

Our fantasy of having thoughts or a mind – which  probably has been going on, ever since human beings became verbal – will only come to an end when we make the individual shift, from our DL to EL. Nobody can do this for us, but we can definitely do this for ourselves. It is a skill, which we can and, in my opinion, should acquire. Once we have this marvelous ability, to have ongoing EL, we will step out of our dreadful history of conditioning with DL. In effect, our thought doesn’t really come to an end, but we fully understand, that it never even existed.

 

I totally agree with Krishnamurti, that compassion doesn’t come from charitable acts or social reform, but I disagree, that compassion has to be free from sentiment, romanticism or emotional enthusiasm. As anyone with EL will agree, accurate expression of our feelings, is of utmost importance, as this – and  this alone – guarantees the continuation of our EL. In essence, our sentiments reflect our experience of whether we feel safe or threatened. The fact that we are incapable of talking about this, with our DL, makes it seem, as if there is something wrong with our emotions, but we can’t reason properly, as long as we don’t feel safe. The accurate expression of our emotion, is, of course, not the same as emotional idealism or nostalgia, which derives from the fact, that we are incapable of talking about our feelings.

 

Our attitude or judgement about the situation, we find ourselves in, is determined by the perception, afforded by our DL or our EL, by the way in which we use our language. Although in DL, we attack each other, it is primarily reactive and defensive. I also want to say a few words about romanticism. In context of the fact, that individuals, historically, have been punished, killed, tortured or imprisoned for not adhering to the group-behavior, which was culturally-required to survive, it is important to recognize, that romanticism is marked by its focus on the individual. Surely, this focus was and is not perfect, but it certainly has given birth to societies, in which individuals have rights and freedoms. It is not a bad thing, in my opinion, to be reminded of the historical literary movement called romanticism, which is about the unique perspective of a person, often guided by irrational and emotional impulses. Furthermore, it would really help us, to be more romantic, to have respect for nature, the so-called primitive and to celebrate the common man. Since we have never had ongoing EL, there was no way for us to talk sensitively, sensibly, intelligently, however, romanticism surely was a movement, to elaborate on that, albeit embracing isolation and melancholy.  Lastly, anyone with EL immediately feels a sense of emotional enthusiasm, because our EL expresses, effortlessly and happily our LE, who we really are. In closing, with EL we verbally, naturally, acknowledge,  we are sensitive individuals, who experience and celebrate the abundant positive energy of our LE.

 

It is foolish to compare our compassion, to a great immoveable rock, in the midst of confusion, misery and anxiety. The new culture, which Krishnamurti was talking about, could not come about as long as our DL remained unaddressed. It can only come into being with ongoing EL. I already live in that culture, which I create for myself and which each of us can only create for ourselves. I am not waiting for anyone, but if you manage to stop your DL, I will be delighted to talk with you. I agree with my old friend Krishnamurti, that compassion and intelligence go hand in hand, but they only do so because of our EL. The wholeness of life or LE, is articulated by our EL.