Simplicity of the Heart, by J. Krishnamurti

La Sencillez del Corazón
-por J. Krishnamurti
La sencillez del corazón es de mucha mayor importancia y significación que la sencillez de los bienes.
Contentarse con pocas cosas es asunto comparativamente fácil. Renunciar al confort, dejar de fumar u otros
hábitos, no indica sencillez de corazón. Ponerse un taparrabos en un mundo lleno de ropas, comodidades y
distracciones, no es indicio de ser libre. Hubo un hombre que había renunciado al mundo y a sus comodidades,
pero sus deseos y pasiones lo estaban consumiendo; había tomada los hábitos de monje, mas no halló la paz.
Sus ojos buscaban incesantemente, y su mente estaba corroída por sus dudas y esperanzas.
Exteriormente os disciplináis y
renunciáis, trazáis vuestro rumbo, paso a paso, para alcanzar la meta. Medís el progreso de vuestra realización de
acuerdo con el patrón de la virtud: en qué medida habéis dejado esto o aquello, qué control habéis logrado en
vuestra conducta, cuán tolerantes y amables sois, y cosas así. Habéis aprendido el arte de la concentración, y
os retiráis a un bosque, a un monasterio o a un cuarto oscuro para meditar; pasáis vuestros días en súplicas y
desvelos. Exteriormente habéis hecho sencilla vuestra vida, y en base a este meditado y calculado arreglo esperáis
alcanzar el gozo que no es de este mundo.
El deseo de ser es el principio de la complejidad. Impulsados por el deseo siempre creciente de ser, tanto
interna como externamente, acumulamos o renunciamos, cultivamos o negamos. Viendo que el tiempo nos despoja
de todas las cosas, nos aferramos a lo atemporal. Esta lucha por ser, positiva o negativamente, mediante el apego o
el desapego, jamás puede ser resuelta por ninguna acción, disciplina o práctica externa, pero la comprensión de
esta lucha traerá, de forma natural y espontánea, la liberación de la acumulación externa e interna con sus
conflictos. La realidad no se alcanza mediante el desprendimiento, es inalcanzable por ningún medio. Todos los
medios y fines son formas de apego, y deben cesar para que la realidad sea.
Sacado del libro de J. Krishnamurti Comentarios sobre el vivir .

Excerpted from J. Krishnamurti's Commentaries on Living.

Seed Questions for Reflection

How do you relate to the notion that "reality is unattainable through any means"? Can you share a personal story of a time you experienced simplicity of heart beyond all inner and outer desires to be? How do you reconcile the teachings that focus on being with this message that a desire to be is also an attachment that takes us away from the being of reality?

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Add Your Reflection

12 Past Reflections

Marc

Sep 6, 2016

This sounds great and in isolation I agree. In the reality I live in, I see people need food, shelter, education, healthcare, transportation for one and one's loved ones. This gets ine into the means and end dynamic bc of spending your time on these needs. So how do you reconcile being forced to have these means and ends with having none?

G Sep 11, 2016

I had once same questions but then I understood that the most important thing humanity need is divine grace through which despite of all the material needs and physical limitations sentient beings obtain peace of minds...

vic smyth

Sep 6, 2016

I have learned to simply be myself and to let others be themselves.

Kristin Pedemonti

Sep 6, 2016

Reality shifts as we construct and deconstruct it each day through our perceptions and experiences and how we react. Simplicity of the heart happens when we do not try to control it. I've had this experience when allowing myself to fully immerse in the present. Example, yesterday at a dance in a park I felt fully free, alive, happy and filled with joy. There was no attachment to dancing a certain way, it was allowing the rhythms to fully connect internally and just move however my body decided. Liberating!

Sunil

Sep 5, 2016

Beyond my understanding,creating more confusion than resolving it. Let us demystify the mysticism of spirituality. Let us not complicate it further & further.Let us help ourselves the common beings you and me with simple ,straight easy to follow guidance from the enlightened. Love

Saroj

Sep 5, 2016

Recently I have spent a lot of time with a three year old grand daughter, a puppy and a new born. Just watching them go through daily life is a lesson in pure joy that comes from just being and having very simple minds with no agenda, no show and no outward or inward fear. There is pure joy in just being and having the simplicity of heart, I wish I could learn from them and not the other way around.

Me too! Sep 16, 2016

Amen!

david doane

Sep 5, 2016

I think in this passage reality is the Ground of Being, and reality is unattainable through goal-directed behavior, whatever that may be. Goal directed behavior is a means to an end, and being attached to goal directed behavior gets in the way of pure being which unites us with the reality of the Ground of Being. Reality is attainable in being purposeless in the moment. I guess the closest I've come to simplicity beyond all inner and outer desires has been in moments of intimacy with nature or with another and in moments of meditation. Attachment to desire is attachment. 'Reality' is attainable by letting go of desire and simply being. As I see it, that is what the teachings that focus on being teach. To attain 'reality' we must purposelessly be what the teachings are about and not be attached to any means.

Amy Sep 16, 2016

This is expressed perfectly ... I so agree!

Abhishek Thakore

Sep 4, 2016

This morning, a friend cited Krishnamurthi as a defense for him not engaging in social action. My invitation to him was to connect to a 'larger' cause, to respond to the challenges and avoidable suffering that he sees rather than a self-indulgent form of spirituality. Krishnamurthi and Gandhi both seem to be approaching Truth from different ways - here, there is a tangential reference to Gandhi's experiments with truth as yet another 'trap' of the mind, a non-simplicity of the heart that desires to be 'more' virtuous That seems like the scientific method, though in that method too is a 'desire' to arrive at Truth, which Krishnamurthi insisted is a pathless land. Though again I wonder if Gandhi's experiments were with the intent to reach a land of bliss or just to arrive closer to Truth? Moreover, in K's observations is an inward-outward, me-other dichotomy, that I guess disappears in some way in a beyond-language Truth-land that K speaks about. The irony seems to be th... View full comment

Jagdish P Dave

Sep 3, 2016

Natural way of living is a free way of living. It is a way of living different from the habitual and conditioned way of living. It is a way of living without getting attached to our desires. Our attachment to desires makes us bound by our desires. And we all know that when we are bound by the desires, we go through the inevitable swings of pleasure and pain, elation and depression, ups and down in our life. Suffering arises from our attachment to desires. Wisdom traditions have offered different ways of liberating ourselves from the clutches of our desires. If we pay our full attention to what is happening in our body, mind and heart. We get helpful feed back from our own selves. We pause, recognize, and allow ourselves to witness without judging what is happening in the present moment. We inquire and get an insight and an answer from within. This process helps us to make a wise choice. We learn not to make a self hurting tight fist.If we don't make... View full comment

me Sep 12, 2016

I am so unable to liberate myself! I lack the power to do so because I am JUST a person. I attached myself to God at a young age, that He would set me free. Being personally attached to God, He set this captive free! I can be married, a mother, a friend ... functioning "naturally" under the influence of Him. Amen.
Namaste