煩惱是人想出來的 Suffering originates from the mind

I overheard a guy mention this on TV the other night 煩惱是人想出來的 (suffering originates from the mind). How true this is. My mind makes me think. Thinking makes me judge, compare, choose, decide. When I get what I want, I think I’m happy. When I don’t get what I want, I become unhappy and that leads to suffering.

A while back, when I had nothing to do, I became bored, my mind started to get restless causing me mental suffering. Last week, I had so much work to do, I didn’t really want to work so hard but the thought of earning extra money for my travelling plans made me push myself to do it. I suffered again…12 hours of work a day made me so tired mentally and physically. Why so much suffering? Because my mind told me it’s not what I want, I’m unhappy and suffering. What then do I want? I don’t really know. I only know what I don’t want.

Suffering originates from the mind but where does the mind originate from? Krishnamurti said “The self is a problem that thought cannot resolve.” So the answer is not to think? O_o

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Thinker and Thought - J Krishnamurti
… a man who will understand the end of sorrow must understand this, must find, must go beyond this duality between the thinker and the thought, the experiencer and the experienced. That is, when there is a division between the observer and the observed, there is time, and therefore there is no ending of sorrow. Then, what is one to do? You understand the question? I see, within myself, the observer is always watching, judging, censoring, accepting, rejecting, disciplining, controlling, shaping. That observer, that thinker, is the result of thought, obviously. Thought is first; not the observer, not the thinker. If there was no thinking at all, there would be no observer, no thinker; then there would only be complete, total attention.

Book of Life - August 15th

A Concept About Myself

If I had no concept about myself, what would happen to me?
Why have I, who have lived forty, fifty, sixty — or whatever number of years it is that one has lived — why have I gathered this store-houseful of what I think, what I feel, what I am, what I should be, this accumulation of experience, knowledge? And if I had not done that, what would happen? Do you understand? If I had no concept about myself, what would happen to me? I would be lost, wouldn’t I? I would be uncertain, terribly frightened of life. So I build an image, a myth, a concept, a conclusion about myself, because without this framework life would become for me utterly meaningless, uncertain, fearful: there would be no security. I may be secure outwardly; I may have a job, a house, and all the rest of it, but inwardly also I want to be completely secure. And it is the desire to be secure that compels me to build this image of myself, which is verbal. Do you understand? It has no reality at all; it is merely a concept, a memory, an idea, a conclusion.
- Krishnamurti

Nini: 2004-2007

Nini died on Tuesday night. He was still ok in the morning before I left for work. I remember stroking him on his nose bridge when he looked up at me from his cage. My mum said he was still eating well in the afternoon when she fed him before she went out. But he was found lying motionless when she came back home in the evening. Not sure how he died. But I think he was traumatised by all the banging and drilling sound from the construction and renovation works that has been ongoing in my estate in the last few weeks.

I believe he must be having a good time now in the astral world. I do hope he can be reborn into a better realm in his next life and doesn’t need to be caged up anymore. Below are some of the last pictures of him I took in June. Wanted to post it then but never got down to doing it. Goodbye for now my rabbit friend.

Heart is filled with things of the mind

Heart and mind cluttered and unclear.
Heart is filled with things of the mind.
Mind keeps creating, heart keeps reacting.
How to flush them out?
No judgement, no evaluation, no opinion, no fear.
Yeah…how not to?

Still going round in circles;
Still living in a world of my own.
Will this ever end?

身心安全的保障:
臨危險，不恐懼
逢歡樂，不狂喜
得之不以為多，失之不以為少
逆之不以為厭，順之不以為欣

眼前一直重複著那句「應無所住而生其心」
不住於統一，也不住於對立；
不執著，也不在乎。
有相對之心才能用智慧來處理；
有統一之心才能斷煩惱；
有超越之心才能既不執空也不落有。

但還是帶著自我在走;
還是活在個人的世界裡。
到底還要走多久啊？