When does a situation become a problem? || Acharya Prashant, on J. Krishnamurti (2017)
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Video Information: 29th Advait Learning Camp, 24.2.17, India
Context:
~ How to be free from problems?
~ How to drop fear?
~ How to deal with difficult situations?
~ What is any problem without exception?
~ Why do we not know what is happening?
Quote: "It is the incapacity to understand a challenge that brings about a problem."
~ J.Krishnamurti .
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
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Video Information: 29th Advait Learning Camp, 24.2.17, India
Context:
~ How to be free from problems?
~ How to drop fear?
~ How to deal with difficult situations?
~ What is any problem without exception?
~ Why do we not know what is happening?
Quote: "It is the incapacity to understand a challenge that brings about a problem."
~ J.Krishnamurti .
Music Credits: Milind Date
~~~~~
Category
📚
LearningTranscript
00:00 It is the incapacity to understand a challenge that brings about a problem. This is what
00:10 Krishnamurthy says and habituated as we are of concluding, we are very habituated to conclude,
00:22 we immediately take this sentence as a call for action as if he is urging us, pushing
00:34 us to immediately do something. That's what you too did. You said, so this statement is
00:43 saying you first develop the capacity. You go ahead and develop that capacity. No, that
00:50 is not what Krishnamurthy is principally saying. We all face problems and whenever we face
01:06 problems to every problem, we are fond of attributing a reason. To every problem, we
01:17 attribute a reason. What are the kinds of reasons we associate normally with our problems?
01:26 Yes, please. The other person is not understanding. Your medical reports just came and they show
01:46 that your heart is not really in a good shape, problem. Now, what reason do you associate
01:51 with it? And I am in a horrid schedule tied to it and it is my schedule that is the cause
02:07 of this problem. You are working somewhere and there the appraisal reports are not quite
02:17 fine that scares you, problem. What reason do you attach to it?
02:29 This place is not for me. I am not cut out for this place. I am for some other job and
02:36 the boss does not really understand me and the environment is not conducive to my productivity.
02:48 You are facing tensions in the family, problem. Again, what reasons come up? They do not understand
02:58 me. Oh, well, I tried, but I cannot go overboard with trying. I have my own human limits. What
03:08 else do they want me to do? I have already sacrificed enough. Does not a fellow have
03:14 his own individuality? Why should I conform to their patterns and expectations?
03:21 So do you see what is happening? There is nobody who is not beset with challenges, challenges
03:35 that are called problems by us. And there is nobody who does not claim that he has been
03:50 able to diagnose his problem. We all claim to be experts who understand their problems.
04:07 Very haughtily, we have become self-appointed specialists and consultants. All right, there
04:22 is this problem. But who is the one person who understands the anatomy of the problem?
04:31 I am. So we are both, the sufferer and the doctor. Who is suffering because of the problem?
04:40 I am. And we have also appointed ourselves as the healers of the problem. We say my problem,
04:49 who else will heal it? I am in the best position to know it, to take care of it. That is the
04:56 myth that Krishnamurthy is busting. He is saying, if there is a problem, then all the
05:05 reasons that you assign to it are false. Because had you really known the reason, there would
05:15 have been no problem in the first place. If there is a problem, then the real problem
05:23 is that you do not know the problem. Had you really known the problem, the problem would
05:30 have very quickly faded away. The problem exists not because there is an external situation,
05:41 an external situation antagonistic to your interests, an external situation hostile to
05:47 your well-being. No, not at all. The problem exists because you just do not know what is
05:53 going on. This inability to know what is going on is called a problem. I repeat, a problem
06:01 is not an unfavorable external situation. A problem is just the inability to know the
06:09 happening. Are we one on this? Or is it too difficult to be one on this? Yes, please.
06:32 Problem is a life situation just like any other situation. It becomes scary and overbearing
06:49 just because we do not know what the situation is. Are you getting it? Let me give you an
07:12 example. You are driving on a hilly road. You are in a strange area. You are in a strange
07:17 area. The road might be fine, the vehicle might be fine, but the area is strange. You
07:23 are not familiar with it. And suddenly, you have a memory lapse. For a few minutes, you
07:40 totally forget where you are coming from and to which place are you going. Everything outside
07:53 is still the same. The road is fine, the vehicle is fine, the day is fine. But now you do not
08:01 know what is going on. You find yourself on the wheel, pressing the accelerator and you
08:11 are at your wits' end figuring out what is going on. Which place am I going? Now, do
08:19 you have a problem at hand? Of course, you have. What is the reason? Does the reason
08:24 lie in anything outside of you? And do not you see that any perfectly normal life situation
08:29 can become a problem if you lose sense of it? The same thing can happen to you as you
08:44 are sitting here right now. What if your mind gongs off right now? Boom, gone. Some short
08:55 circuit, some neural connection, that can happen, happens. Boom, no remembering. Your
09:04 power to analyze, your power to recall, your ability to be present, all has just disappeared,
09:12 let us say just for a few minutes. What happens to this situation? This situation that appears
09:21 nice to you right now, even pleasant and peaceful, becomes horrible. The same situation becomes
09:30 horrible because now you can make no sense of it. You look at yourself, you look at the
09:36 people around, you cannot identify anybody, you do not know who you are, you do not know
09:40 what the world is like. And there is a strange fellow in white and green sitting in front
09:46 of you, sermonizing, and you do not know what is going on. You do not know what is going
09:51 on. Do you see how terribly shaky you can feel? We keep imagining all the time, kindly
10:01 imagine that you are a moon. Can you step into that person's shoes? The one who is caught
10:09 in a situation like this, can you imagine how horrid it would be? You do not even recall
10:17 your own name. You look at the other fellow and you say, what is this chap doing here?
10:25 What is this sound from somewhere? What is flowing? What is going on? Why am I here?
10:30 And who am I first of all? This is what is called life problem. Everything is fine and
10:38 normal just as everything else is in existence. But you have lost your wits. Sounds humiliating,
10:51 right? All problems are just this. You do not know what is going on. No idea what is
11:05 happening. Let us say only ideas about what is happening. No relation with reality. That
11:15 is what any problem is without exception. Any problem. Had you known what is happening,
11:22 problem is gone. The problem disappears the moment it is diagnosed correctly. Once I said,
11:31 when the disease is unreal, the diagnosis is the cure. All you need is the diagnosis.
11:39 You do not know what is happening. That is what Vaishnav Murthy said. So, he is not asking you
11:48 to try to understand. What he is doing is attacking your belief that you know. That
11:58 is what his intention is. Kindly get out from your self-created heavens of intelligence.
12:12 You do not know what is happening. You only think you know. And within that thought,
12:25 there is conflict. In fact, conflict is there only in thoughts. So, if you face conflicts in
12:33 your life, here is a little tool that might help you. Only thoughts fight with each other,
12:46 collide with each other and are in strife. Have you ever seen facts fight with each other?
12:53 Do facts ever fail to reconcile? Please. If you are sitting to his left, then he has to be present
13:12 to your right. Two facts. A is sitting to the left of B. And second fact, B is sitting to the right
13:22 of A. Do you see any disagreement between these two facts? Facts will never fail to add up. Facts
13:31 are honestly square. There is never any tussle between facts. Never, never, never. You never
13:45 find contradictions there. Yeah, but when you are imagining, then you are seldom aware of the fact
14:01 that you are imagining. The fact is that you are imagining. Instead, imaginations become the fact.
14:08 And these are two very different things. You see, I am sitting here and imagining. Let me say,
14:14 Donald Duck and Mickey Mouse. Now, what is the fact? There is one fact here and only one. The
14:21 fact is, I am imagining. Instead, the figments of imagination become the facts. And what are
14:28 the figments? The duck and the mouse. Now, they have become facts. They are not. They are imaginations.
14:35 Are we going on this? When you are imagining,
15:05 then there is only one fact. In the world, there can be fragmented facts, which is possible. So,
15:13 A is to the left of B is one little piece of fact. B is to the right of A is another little piece of
15:21 fact. What do you mean by fact? A fact is something impersonal. A fact is something that
15:29 would not change with your mood. A fact is something that does not come out of your prejudice.
15:36 The limitation associated with a fact is that it takes the objective world as the reality. That is
15:46 why the truth is above facts. But facts at least redeem you from imaginations. The only flaw that
15:56 remains still associated with facts is that they pertain only to the objective world. And that is
16:04 alright. There is certain honesty about it. You are stating what you are seeing. So,
16:11 that is why I am so fond of facts. Only by looking honestly at the objective world, this world,
16:18 can we know the essence, the basis of this world. What else otherwise is available to us? If you
16:28 do not use this world, what else will you use? Is there anything else given to you? Your hands,
16:36 they can only hold the material. Your eyes, they can only look at the material. Your ears,
16:41 they can only hear material sound. And your mind, it can only think of the material. So,
16:48 when we have to proceed only with the material, then it is very important to be honest with the
16:55 facts. That honesty has been organized as science. Science is nothing but an organized and intelligent
17:06 study of facts. The facts of the material world. That is what science is. That is why science is
17:13 so beautiful. That is why the scientist, if he pays just a little attention to being centered,
17:24 is so close to being truly spiritual. Because he will not entertain himself with fancies.
17:33 And he has a dislike for intellectual dishonesty. If he does not know anything,
17:41 he just would not say that. He works on proofs and solid proofs. If there is even a 1% probability
17:50 of something turning out to be false, he would write that as a disclaimer. When he would propose
17:57 a theory, he would also state what would belie that theory. He would say that if such and such
18:05 proofs can be presented, then my theory would stand falsified. Such is the honesty of the scientist.
18:14 That given my situations, given my experiments, and given the breadth of my intellectual
18:25 space, this is what I am proposing right now. It is tentative. It is tentative. If you can
18:34 come up with something better, in all humility, I stand to reiterate. Are you getting me? We do
18:48 not live in facts. We live in our opinions about facts. These are two very different things,
18:54 mind you. She is sitting close to you, that is fact. She is probably your best buddy because
19:04 she is sitting close to you. That is my own personal quoting upon the fact. That is my
19:13 own personal inference. You can call it a judgment. We just do not say, she is sitting close to her.
19:22 We say that with our own personal touches. Oh, there are much more than touches.
19:41 Whenever you come across a problem, first thing, you do not know the problem. Do not begin by
19:56 saying that this is the problem and now I am going to solve it. If you come across the problem,
20:07 first of all, drop all your pretensions about your understanding. Oh, there is a problem. Then,
20:14 I do not know anything. Then you must stand with a clear mind. I do not know anything. So,
20:21 I have to start from an absolute zero. I cannot start by saying, I already know the problem,
20:28 now let us attack it. That is the surest way to misattack. That is the surest way to misidentify
20:39 the culprit. Any problem, just say, now something is gone wrong, but I am not going to assert that
20:52 I know what has gone wrong. I repeat, there is a problem. Well, something is amiss somewhere,
21:01 but I would not claim what is amiss where. By observation, when you do not know what has gone
21:17 wrong, what do you do? You observe. When you claim that you know what has gone wrong, then
21:24 what do you do? You remain smug. I know. What is the need to observe? What is the need to learn?
21:36 I already know. And that is such a sloppy conclusion, is it not? So, there is a problem.
21:51 My heart reports are all in red. Of course, sure. It is something that deserves attention. Look at
22:05 it. You look at it. And you just do not jump to a conclusion saying that it is because I have not
22:12 been jogging rightly. It has got something to do with my jogging habits. Come on. You seriously
22:24 think that with the kind of family environment you have, you will manage to have a healthy heart?
22:29 Do not you see that this is pointing at the entire spectrum of your relationships? Do not
22:39 you see that? But you would not see that if you have quick inferences. You have a heart problem.
22:49 Do not you see it has got something to do with your work life? You have a heart problem. Do
22:57 not you see it has got to do with the way you exhaust yourself out through the week?
23:06 And why do you exhaust yourself out? Out of charity? Do not you see that you are living
23:16 in a deep sense of incompleteness that is compelling you to earn more and more? Now,
23:25 that is dangerous. So, very dangerous. To look at a medical report and come to a spiritual problem.
23:32 Well, unfortunately, for most of us, whenever you look at any problem and you will want to
23:41 come to the genesis of it, you will need to come to the genesis of creation itself, which is God.
23:46 Because there is no other source of anything. God is the source of your deepest delights. And
23:55 God is also the source of your most intractable problems. There is no other source. If you are
24:02 facing any problem, you will have to trace it back to God. Very bad. That is why Krishna
24:12 Murthy is saying, do not pretend that you know, because to know even the smallest problem,
24:18 you will have to know God. Krishna Murthy is actually in his own mysterious way,
24:25 trapping you. He is saying, come on, know the problem. Come on, come on. You still do not know
24:30 it. Yeah, proceed, proceed. Know it fully. You have not known it, if you have known it only
24:37 partially. Knowing, it has got to be full. Partial knowing is not knowing at all. Come on,
24:43 yeah, take a few steps more, deeper, deeper into the problem. Yes, come on, move, move, move. And
24:47 at the end of the problem lies the mother problem. The mother problem is God himself.
24:53 Krishna Murthy is leading you there. What will stop you in between? Conclusions. A false belief
25:03 that you know the problem. He will keep reminding you, you do not know, you do not know, look deeper
25:10 into it, look more deeply, look more deeply, look more deeply, more deeply, more deeply. There is
25:18 only one real depth possible and that possibility is called God of the heart. That is where our old
25:28 man is leading us. Do you get this? To the mind not immersed in existence, there are only problems.
25:43 Otherwise, there is no problem. It is not obvious to whom is the problem. A problem is only when
25:59 there is a contradictory desire. You want something and what you get in your hands is
26:06 the opposite of that. Then you call it a problem, right? You want to go somewhere and you find the
26:12 road closed, you call it a problem. The road is closed, you do not go. Is there a problem anymore?
26:16 Come on, is there a problem anymore? There is that beautiful Zen clip about the monk. He was
26:31 going east and there was a strong wind towards the west. How does he respond? He starts walking
26:38 towards the west. Here is the problem.
26:42 [MUSIC PLAYING]
26:45 [music]