(Page updated 7/31/21)
Of all the research topics highlighted on the optimabowling.com website, understandings gained from our research concerning Fragmentation and Wholeness will significantly influence the development of the Optima Bowling Academy approach and hypothesized resolution of our paramount issue the coach-athlete relation.
When we approach the subject of Wholeness from a realization that "the observer is the observed," no technique or guide needs to be involved in the process, the movement of fragmentation and wholeness. The primary resource here is J. Krishnamurti's dialogues and studies.
We will start with what is, not with a destination in mind.
Where "what is is movement."
The following notes are from the J. Krishnamurti book, “What are you Doing with your Life?” (2001)
[An educational environment should be] “a place where one learns about the totality, the wholeness of life… where both the teacher and the taught explore not only the outer world, the world of knowledge, but also their own thinking, their behavior.” (pg. xi)
The way you and I relate to our own brains, to each other, to our possessions, to money, to work, to sex – these immediate relationships create society. Our relationship to ourselves and one another… creates the world. (pg. xiii)
-4- What Is the Self?
[B]y the self… I mean the idea, the memory, the conclusion, the experience, the various forms of namable and unnamable intentions, the conscious endeavor to be or not to be, the accumulated memory of the unconscious, the radical, the group, the individual, the clan, and the whole of it all, whether it is projected outwardly in action or projected spiritually as virtue; the striving after all this is the self. (pg. 6-7)
-5- Self-Knowledge Is a Process
So to understand the innumerable problems that each one of us has, is it not essential that there be self-knowledge? And that is one of the most difficult things, self-awareness – which does not mean an isolation, a withdrawal.
Self-knowledge is obviously a process, not and end in itself; and to know oneself, one must be aware of oneself in action, which is relationship… requires an extraordinary alertness of mind, a keenness of perception. (pg. 7-8)
-6- What You Are, the World Is
What you are within is projected without, into the world; what you are, what you think and what you feel, what you do in your everyday existence, is projected outwardly, and that constitutes the world. (pg. 8)
-7- Your Struggle Is the Human Struggle
Relationship then is a revelation, a constant process of the discovery of oneself, and from this self-discovery, action takes place.
So, self-knowledge can come only through relationship, not through isolation. Relationship is action, and self-knowledge is the result of awareness in action. (pg. 10)
-8- Transform Yourself and You Transform the World
To transform oneself, self-knowledge is essential; without knowing what you are, there is no basis for right thought, and without knowing yourself, there can be no transformation. (pg. 10)
-9- Why Change Now?
There is no essential difference between the old and the young, for both are slaves to their own desires and gratifications. Maturity is not a matter of age; it comes with understanding. (pg. 10)
-10- Thought Cannot Solve the Problem of the Self
Obviously it can be solved only when we can look at it as a whole – not in compartments, not divided.
The self is the problem that thought cannot resolve. There must be awareness which is not of thought. (pg. 12-13)
-1- Security, Happiness, Pleasure
-4-
I think it is very important to understand this thing called joy, the enjoyment of things. (pg. 19)
-5- Joy Is the Absence of the ‘Me’ that Wants
We may move from one refinement to another, from one subtlety to another, from one enjoyment to another, but at the center of it all is the ‘me’ – the ‘me’ that is enjoying, that wants more happiness, the ‘me’ that searches for, looks for, longs for happiness, the ‘me’ that struggles, the ‘me’ that becomes more and more “refined”, but never likes to come to an end. It is only when the ‘me’ in all its subtle forms comes to an end that there is a state of bliss which cannot be sought after, an ecstasy, a real joy, without pain, without corruption. Now, in all our joy, all our happiness, is corruption; because behind it there is pain, behind it there is fear. (pg. 19)
-6- We want security
There is no security, psychological security, at any time, at any level, with anybody - this is the most difficult thing to realize. (pg. 20-21)
-7- Realizing the Fact of Insecurity
We never come in contact with this insecurity. We are afraid of being completely insecure. It requires a great deal of intelligence to understand that security. When one feels completely insecure, one runs away. (pg. 21)
-2- Intelligence, Awareness May Burn Away the Problems
All thinking obviously is conditioned; there is no such thing as free thinking. (pg. 35)
-4- Intelligence Is Crippled by Analysis
The very first thing to do, if I may suggest it, is to find out why you are thinking in a certain way, and why you are feeling in a certain manner. Don’t try to alter it, don’t try to analyze your thoughts and your emotions; but become conscious of why you are thinking in a particular groove and from what motive you act. (pg. 38)
-1- The Right Kind of Education
The ignorant man is not the unlearned, but he who does not know himself, and the learned man is stupid when he relies on books, on knowledge, and on authority to give him understanding. Understanding comes only through self-knowledge, which is awareness of one’s total psychological process. Thus education, in the true sense, is the understanding of oneself, for it is within each one of us that the whole existence is gathered. (pg. 153-154)
Life is pain, joy, beauty, ugliness, love, and when we understand it as a whole, at every level, that understanding creates its own technique. But the contrary is not true: technique can never bring about creative understanding. (pg, 154)
-2- Skill In Making a Living Is Not Living Completely
Present-day education is a complete failure because it has over-emphasized technique. In over emphasizing technique we destroy man. To cultivate capacity and efficiency without understanding life, without having a comprehensive perception of the ways of thought and desire, will only make us increasingly ruthless. Which is to engender wars and jeopardize our physical security. (pg. 155)
Without understanding ourselves, mere occupation leads to frustration, with its inevitable escapes through all kinds of mischievous activities. (pg. 156)
-4- The Individual or the System
Education should awaken the capacity to be self-aware and not merely in gratifying self-expression. (pg. 157)
-5- The Function of Education
The right kind of education is concerned with individual freedom, which alone can bring true cooperation with the whole, with the many, but this freedom is not achieved through the pursuit of one’s own aggrandizement and success. Freedom comes with self-knowledge, when the mind goes above and beyond the hindrances it has created for itself through craving its own security.
It is the function of education to help each individual to discover all these psychological hindrances, and not merely impose upon him new patterns of conduct, new modes of thought. Such impositions will never awaken intelligence, creative understanding, but will only further condition the individual. (pg. 158)
-2- Competition
[W]e take it for granted that we must live in this competitive society, so there is a premise laid down, and from there we start. As long as you say, “I must live in this competing society,” you will be competitive. This society is acquisitive; it worships success, and if you also want to be successful, naturally you must compete. (pg. 162-163)
But the problem is much deeper and more significant than mere competition.
What is the significance behind it? For one thing, competition implies discipline, does it not? You must control, you must conform, you must toe the line, you must be like all the others, only better, so you discipline yourself in order to succeed. Please follow this. Where there is the encouragement of competition, there must also be the process of disciplining... to a certain pattern of action, and is that not one of the ways of controlling the boy and girl? If you want to become something, you must control, discipline, compete. We have been brought up on that, and we pass it on to our children. And yet we talk about giving the child freedom to find out, to discover! (pg. 163)
Competition hides the state of one’s own being. (pg. 163)
-3- Competition Only Hides Fear of Failure
You think that progress, evolution, lies through judgment, through comparison, but when do you compare, when do you compete? Only when you are uncertain of yourself, when you do not understand yourself, when there is fear in your heart. To understand oneself is to understand the whole process of life, and self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom. But without self-knowledge, there is no understanding; there is only ignorance, and the perpetuation of ignorance is not growth. (pg, 164)
-5- Cooperation Is the Absence of Self-Centeredness
There can be cooperation only when you and I are as nothing.
What does nothingness mean?
We only know the state of activity of the self, the self-centered activity…
So, we know that there cannot be fundamental cooperation though there may be superficial persuasion through fear, through reward, through punishment, and so on – Which is not cooperation obviously. (pg. 165)
-1- Your Life Must Not Destroy Another
Don’t you want to find out if it is possible to live in this world richly, happily, creatively, without the destructive drive of ambition, without competition? (pg. 168)
You will find the right answer when you love what you are doing. (pg. 169)
[N]ot to gain recognition but just because you love to do it, then you will find that you never compete with another, I think this is the real key: to love what you do. (pg. 169)
-2- Find out What You Love
How can you find out? And is not the true purpose of education to help you find out, so that as you grow up you can begin to give your whole mind, heart and body to that which you really love to do? (pg. 169-170)
-3- Teaching Is the Noblest Profession
Teaching is the noblest profession – if it can be called a profession at all. It is an art that requires, not just intellectual attainments, but infinite patience and love. To be truly educated is to understand our relationship to all things – to money, to property, to nature – in the vast field of our existence. (pg. 171)
-8- What Is Livelihood?
It is the earning of one’s needs – food, clothing, shelter – is it not? The difficulty of livelihood arises only when we use the essentials of life, food clothing, shelter as a means of psychological aggression. That is, when we use the needs, the necessities, as means of self-aggrandizement, using the essentials as a psychological expansion of oneself. (pg. 176)
-9- Give Back
All that one can do, if one is earnest, if one is intelligent about this whole process, is to reject the present state of things and give to society all that one is capable of. That is, sir, you accept food, clothing, and shelter from society, and you must give something to society in return…
Are you giving anything to another in the real sense of the word, or merely taking payment for something?...
You are not depending on another for your psychological needs – and it is only then that you can have right livelihood.
-1- Why Change Ourselves at All?
First of all, why do you want to change what is, or bring about a transformation? Why? (pg. 179)
-4- A Problem Is Never Solved on its Own Level
Problems will always exist where the activities of self are dominate. To be aware which are and which are not activities of the self needs constant vigilance…
A problem is never solved on its own level; being complex, it must be understood in its total process. To try to solve a problem on only one level, physical or psychological, leads to further conflict and confusion. For resolution of a problem, there must be awareness, this passive alertness which reveals its total process. (pg. 181)
-9- Understand for Yourself All the Problems of Life (pg. 183)
Most of us are concerned with bringing about a little change here and there, and with that we are satisfied. The older we grow the less we want any deep, fundamental change, because we are afraid. We do not think in terms of total transformation, we think only in terms of superficial change; and if you look into it you will find that superficial change is no change at all. It is not radical revolution, but merely a modified continuity of what has been. All these things you have to face from your own happiness and misery to the happiness and misery of the many; from your own ambitions and self-seeking pursuits to the ambitions, motivations and pursuits of others. You have to face competition, the corruption in yourself and in others, the deterioration... the emptiness of the heart. You have to know all this, you have to face and understand it for yourself. (pg. 184-185)
-10- No Thinker Has Solved Your Problems
Thinking has not solved our problems. The clever ones, the philosophers, the scholars, the political leaders, have not really solved any of our human problems – which are the relationship between you and another, between you and myself. (pg. 185)
-11- Intelligence is Freedom from Self
Intelligence is possible only when there is real freedom from the self, from the ‘me’.
-1- Are We in Relationship – or Only Our Images?
What do we mean by the word relationship? Are we ever related to anyone, or is the relationship between two images which we have created about each other? To have a relationship with another is only possible when there is no image. When I can look at you and you can look at me without the image of memory, of insults, and all the rest, then there is a relationship, but the very nature of the observer is the image, isn’t it? My image observes your image, if it is possible to observe it, and this is called relationship, but it is between two images, a relationship which is nonexistent because both are images. To relate means to be in contact. Contact must be something direct, not between two images. It requires a great deal of attention, an awareness, to look at another without an image which I have about that person, the image being my memories I have about that person -how he has insulted me, pleased me, given me pleasure, this or that. Only when there are no images between the two is there a relationship. (pg. 189-190)
-2- Relationship Is Not Dependency
Now, for most of us, relationship with another is based on dependence, economic or psychological. This dependence creates fear, breeds in us possessiveness, results in friction, suspicion, frustration.
I am referring especially to that psychological dependence on another which is the outcome of craving for personal satisfaction, happiness… One feels, in this possessive relationship, enriched, creative, and active… possessive fears come into being with all their resulting problems. Thus, in this relationship of psychological dependence, there must always be conscious or unconscious fear, suspicion, which often lies hidden in pleasant-sounding words. The reaction of this fear leads one ever to search for security and enrichment through various channels, or to isolate oneself in ideas and ideals, or to seek substitutes for satisfaction. (pg. 190-191)
Though one is dependent on another, there is yet the desire to be inviolate [Not violated or profaned; intact… free from violation, injury, disturbance, etc.], to be whole.
Though, intellectually, we may perceive that life is a continual process of flux, mutation, necessitating constant change, yet emotionally or sentimentally we cling to the established and conforming values; hence there is a constant battle between change and desire for permanency. Is it possible to put an end to this conflict? (pg. 191)
-4- Personal Relationships Create All Society
In becoming deeply aware of the process of possessiveness, with its violence, fears, its reactions, there comes an understanding that is whole, complete. This understanding alone frees thought from dependence and possessiveness. It is within oneself that harmony in relationship can be found, not in another, nor in environment. (pg. 192-193)
-5- Look to Yourself, Not the Other, to Solve Conflicts
In relationship, the primary cause of friction is oneself, the self that is the center of unified craving. If we can but realize that it is not how another acts that is of primary importance, but how each one acts and reacts, and if that reaction and action can be fundamentally, deeply understood, then relationship will undergo a deep and radical change. In this relationship with another, there is not only a physical problem but also that of thought and feelings on all levels, and one can be harmonious with another only when one is harmonious integrally with oneself. In relationship the important thing to bear in mind is not the other but oneself, which does not mean that one must isolate oneself but understand deeply in oneself the cause of conflict and sorrow. So long as we depend on another for our psychological wellbeing, intellectually or emotionally, that dependance must inevitably create fear from which arises sorrow. (pg. 193)
-6- Life Is Relationship with Things, People, Ideas (pg., 194)
-7- The Mirror of Relationship
Relationship, surely, is the mirror in which you discover yourself. Without relationship, you are not; to be is to be related; to be related is existence. And you exist only in relationship; otherwise you do not exist, existence has no meaning. It is not because you think you are that you come into existence. You exist because you are related, and it is the lack of understanding of relationship that causes conflict. (pg. 194)
-8- The Key to Happiness Is Self-Knowledge in Relationship (pg. 194)
-9- Stop the Image-Making Machinery (pg. 195)
-10- How Does the Image, the Opinion, Begin?
I have experience – pain, death, misery, conflict, hunger, loneliness. All that creates an image in me; I am that image. It is the thinker that creates the image. Through his responses, through his reactions – physical, psychological, intellectual, and so on – the thinker, the observer, the experiencer, creates that image through memory, through thought. So the machinery is thinking, the machinery comes onto existence through thought. And thought is necessary, otherwise you cannot exist. (pg. 195-196)
So, first see the problem. Thought creates the thinker. The thinker begins to create the image about himself… He creates the image and he lives in it. So thinking is the beginning of this machinery. And you will say, “How can I stop thinking? You cannot. But one can think and not create the image. (pg. 196)
-11- Opinions Are Just Images (pg. 196)
-12- Self-Image Leads to Pain
Why are you hurt? Self-importance, is it not? And why is there self-importance?
Because one has an idea, a symbol of oneself, an image of oneself, what one should be, what one is or what one should not be. Why does one create an image about oneself?... What awakens anger is that our ideal, the ideas we have of ourselves, is attacked. And our idea about ourselves is our escape from the fact of what we are. But when you are observing the actual fact of what you are, no one can hurt you. Then, if one is a liar and is told that one is a liar it does not mean that one is hurt; it is a fact. (pg. 197)
-1- Meditation Means to Pay Attention (pg. 242)
-2- Meditation Is Not Something Apart from Daily Living (pg. 243)
-3- Attention to the Whole Movement of Relationship Is the Beginning of Meditation
[T]here is meditation which demands that you attend… be attentive at the moment, do not concentrate. Because concentration is something which is very ugly.
Concentration is an exclusion. When you want to concentrate on something, you are excluding, you are resisting, you are putting away things which you don’t want. Whereas if you are attentive, then you can look at every thought, every movement; then there is no such thing as distraction, and then you can meditate. (pg. 244)
-4- Meditation Is Clarity
Then such meditation is a marvelous thing because it brings clarity. Meditation is clarity. Meditation is silence, and that very silence is the disciplining process of life, not your disciplining yourself in order to achieve silence. But when you are attentive to every word, to every gesture, to all the things you are saying, feeling, to your motives, not correcting them, then out of that comes silence, and from that silence there is discipline. Then in that there is no effort; there is a movement which is not of time at all. And such a human being is a joyous person; he does not create enmity [Deep-seated, often mutual hatred. A feeling or state of hatred or animosity], he does not bring unhappiness. (pg. 245)
-5- Meditation, Not Collective Thought, Understands Life: Be Your Own Light (pg. 245)
-6- Meditation Is Self-Knowledge (pg. 246)
-9- When You Are Eating, Eat
What is important is not what we are doing but whether we can give total attention. (pg. 249)
-10- In Stillness, Problems Are Resolved: The Cup Is Useful Only When It Is Empty (pg. 249)
[W]hen one dies each minute to the inward environment, to the inward commitments, to the inward memories, to the inward secrecies and agonies, there is then an emptiness in which alone a new thing can take place. (pg. 250)
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