Having a curious, alert and equanimous mind and a pure heart

 There is the whole mechanism of thought, and the division thought creates between the thinker and the thought, and the everlasting conflict. If you really see that – not understand it, not see the fact and how to understand the fact and all that stuff, but actually see it – then inevitably, naturally, as a river flows down, your mind is astonishingly awake, as it is no longer making effort. Then it is constantly empty. You cannot empty it. If you try to empty it, there is the emptier and the thing to be emptied, and therefore contradiction and all the rest of it. ( J Krishnamurti From Public Discussion 3, Saanen, 6 August 1964)

 

The minder of the thoughts and feelings isn’t That—the “being, consciousness, bliss” that spiritual seekers are after. It cannot be since there is a clear separation between thinker, observer, minder and thought, which is also in part thought generated. Yet, mindfulness is a method just as sitting for 20 minutes in silence every day is in the attempt to still the mind. Nisargadatta Maharaj often spoke about earnestness that matters. Let’s observe the mind chatter and the constant up and down of feelings and life’s events with a curiosity, with an alertness, and without any desire to get anything from it. We can be the Sherlock Holmes in search of the mind tricks, and the keeper of a pure heart. Let’s see what happens.