Re: “What is the value of self-observation and how can it be attained with sincerity?”

“…  As long as I am looking at life from a particular point of view or from a particular experience I have cherished, or from some particular knowledge I have gathered, which is my background, which is the 'me', I cannot totally. I have discovered intellectually, verbally, through analysis, the cause of my dependence, but whatever thought investigates must inevitably be fragmentary, so I can see the totality of something only when thought does not interfere. Then I see the fact of my dependence; I see actually what is. I see it without any like or dislike; I do not want to get rid of that dependence or to be free from the cause of it. I observe it, and when there is observation of this kind I see the whole picture, not a fragment of the picture, and when the mind sees the whole picture there is freedom. Now I have discovered that there is a dissipation of energy when there is fragmentation. I have found the very source of the dissipation of energy …” (Krishnamurti, Pp 62-63).

Krishnamurti seems to suggest that a vital first step is to look at one’s dependence.

Dependence is a flexible word:

“…the state of relying on or needing someone or something for aid, support, or the like …” (dependence. (n.d.). Dictionary.com Unabridged. Retrieved February 03, 2012, from Dictionary.com website: http://dictionary.reference.com/browse/dependence)

“Something” might well mean conditioning – physiological or sociological. It might well be valuable to examine our dependences as a first step in introspection.

I took another path. Initially, in my late teens/early twenties I tried psychedelic drugs – and lots of them. There were moments of profound introspection, but they didn’t last and weren’t reliably attained. YMMV.

Years later, I wound up with a lot of introspection – by not trying. I was required to sit with my breath in meditation as a part of an academic program. In time, and counter intuitively, I developed enough compassion to look at things – including myself and my own dependences, with compassion. The compassion kept me from quickly looking away.

There are many studies showing how a meditative practice will change brain activity and brain structure in brain locations thought responsible for compassion.

My first sustainable step, before being able to look at my dependences, or other human beings, with compassion, was sitting with my breath.

My point of contentions with Jiddu Krishnamurti is not regarding the value of looking at one’s dependences as a necessary part of self-observation. This is vital. My point of contention is in Sitting for a time to enable such a look. I am not exploring  “… intellectually, verbally, through analysis, the cause of my dependence…” (Krishnamurti, p62). I am cultivating compassion via Sitting, which for me foments (albeit gradually) moments in which “…thought does not interfere …” (Krishnamurti, p62). This is when “… conflict between what has been and what is …” (Krishnamurti, p63) ceases for me. Again, YMMV (your mileage may vary).

I often wonder if Krishnamurti came into this life with many lives behind him, already the beneficiary of a great deal of meditation. Perhaps this is why his look was so piercing, and gaze so steady. I believe he did look at his dependences, but I suggest that, a few lifetimes ago, this might not have been the case.