Can humility be practiced? Surely, to be conscious that you are humble is not to be humble. You want to know that you have arrived. This indicates, does it not, that you are listening in order to achieve a particular state, a place where you will never be disturbed, where you will find everlasting happiness, permanent bliss? But as I said previously, there is no arriving, there is only the movement of learning–and that is the beauty of life. If you have arrived, there is nothing more. And all of you have arrived, or you want to arrive, not only in your business, but in everything you do; so you are dissatisfied, frustrated, miserable. Sirs, there is no place at which to arrive, there is just this movement of learning, which becomes painful only when there is accumulation. A mind that listens with complete attention will never look for a result because it is constantly unfolding; like a river, it is always in movement. Such a mind is totally unconscious of its own movement. Such a mind is totally unconscious of its own activity, in the sense that there is no perpetuation of a self; of a “me,” which is seeking to achieve an end.
January 23rd, 2020 ~ One of the things I am keeping in mind about meditation is humility. The other is stillness. Stillness is easier for me. Humility is not. Definition.com defines it this way: the quality or condition of being humble; modest opinion or estimate of one’s own importance, rank, etc.
That I don’t know what is really going on here. This reminder helps me to observe. K says the beauty of life is the movement of learning. My friend Ann, who is a Zen priest, mentioned on a recent drive home from evening meditation at the Zendo, that people say heaven is perfect and how great that would be. She said it would be pretty boring if that is the case. Maybe that is what is happening here on earth. Our lives are pretty boring so we create problems and fill our lives with technology, too much or too little work, a preoccupation with the latest fads, and more. Meditation is a place where it is a little easier to learn–and not accumulate so much.
This idea of practicing reminds me of how Krishnamurti talks about becoming non-violent from violent. But if we are becoming, we are still that quality that we are trying to change. We will never leave it behind. So we become free of that quality. We are not becoming something through an arrival of sorts. So, we ask the question: Can we be free of this quality? This feels more like learning, does it not? Let’s question our arrival, shall we?