Observation Therapy

[Kurosh]

Hello all

my first motivator to join Dharma has been J. Krishnamurti. I regard him as the Buddha of our time and the world teacher of our age.
his holistic approach to human problems is the peak of psychotherapy and pure dharma.

to me, the essence of therapy is improving the "observing" part of the mind and being objective to and aware of the inner states instad of being subjective and dissolved in them and react to them. I call this kind of Buddhist psychotherapy "Observation Therapy".

let me give an example. someone suffers from anxiety of exam. he faces a pendulum of "suppression" and "allowance". if he don't accept his anxiety and judge it, the problem will become suppressed and hence worsened. if he react to it and conduct its energy to a specific canal it will give a temporary relief but will strengthen the previous Vijnana and will be worsened again. the only true exit from the pendulum is observing the whole situation. it will transform the energy of past habit to the energy of observation. in other words therapy is meditating with our problems: accepting them but not approving them. acceptance prevents suppression and not approving don't allow them to take a canal and turn the skandha cycle.

how do you see this?

[Fernando F.da Silva]

Hello Brother Kurosh!

I have thought It was excellent your commentary here in Amida's Friend Ning on Krishnamurti's Teaching!

I agree with you,my friend, when you say that Krishnamurti could be the 'Buddha of this Era',on his marvellous "Observing Therapy"(K.),and and so many several things that Krishnamurti left us,but I have to question some parts of this commentry here,because Krishnamurti said that the first thing we must do to free our minds is to leave(immediatly and definitly) all kind of religions,philophies,patterns,Teachers and so on,of our past 'education',to flowering ourselves.Didn't he say it?

According to Krishnamurti. we would only get our 'Spiritual Freedom'('Flowering')the "Mind Revolution" if we investigate our minds by ourselves-never by somebody's helping or even a book!!!(Buddhist,Hinduist,Christian,Muslin,etc.).




Do you really agree with Krishnamurti's Teaching?
(Krishnamurti said all these things I have just mentioned in almost all of his books like you should know).

I think that the more difficult task in Krishnamurti's Teaching is really "how" to practise it and really understand all he said in his books in my humble opinion!...(K. really said If we don't give up institutional religions,philosophies,philosophers,gurus,orders,etc. we couldn't find OUR OWN ANSWERS by ourselfVES!.If we haven't investigated our minds by ourselves we wouldn't be able to free our minds).

How do you see this 'another side' of Krishnamurti's teaching?Pardon,Brother,but wouldn't a part of your text be a contradiction inside of Buddhist Religion?Althogh I agree that a lot of thing that K. has taught is useful for all Buddhists,but quote Krishnamurti in Amida's friend is a contradiction,isn't it ?


Thanks you a lot in antecipattion,


In Gassho,

Fernando.


*I am a Brazilian,I am sorry by my poor English
Fernando.

[caroline brazier]

Thank you both. There are abviously different aspects to your posting and I'm not going to get into debating Krishnamurti's status, but what you are saying about observation and stepping back to get a bigger picture certainly sits well with Buddhist approaches. It sounds very like mindfulness-based practices which have been popularised by Kabat-Zinn and others.

From an Other-Centred point of view, one could see these are 'working' because thgey shift the object of attention. Abhidharma psychology suggests that the mind is conditioned by the object of attention, so in mindfulness / observation practice, the attention ids often shifted away from the source of anxiety to the bodily or mental response to it. Of course this can generate more anxiety. I may think about a forthcoming meeting and feel anxious, then observe that my heart rate has increased and feel anxious about my heart or about being anxious (am I going to make a fool of myself by having a panic attack?). These sorts of thought loops aside, generally the shift of attention away from the source of anxiety to a bigger picture or to the mind state, particularly if this has already got associations of 'practice' and 'calming' will tend to reduce the anxiety state.

I am not convinced this takes us out of the skandha cycle. It may loosen its grip, but usually it replaces a pernicious or entrenched one with a more benign set of associations and responses. One of the things Pureland has taught me is not to underestimate our enmeshedness in the self-building process!