GlobalSpa
09-Feb-2021
What does wellness truly entail in today’s time? Philosopher, speaker, and writer J. Krishnamurti shares with us his wisdom on what it means to be healthy, well, and in touch with our true self.
Exfoliation
We are all in search of ‘being well’, of being healthy and happy. We yearn for and keep working towards an end-state that would be unchangeable. Yet, all our experience shows us, without any doubt, that nothing is ever static. Life is in constant movement. And so, our desire to be in such a state of well-being puts us at odds with the ebb and flow of Life. It is a fact that our bodies are undergoing change all the time and so are our minds. Nevertheless, we resist the flow of change in an effort to have an unchanging state of well-being, and in this there is a constant struggle.
As J. Krishnamurti, sage, religious teacher and 20th century’s one of the most profound and influential thinkers said: “One is so accustomed to conflict and struggle; one even feels that when there is no conflict one is not growing, not developing, not creating, that one is not functioning properly.” Is wellbeing a state of mind, a physical state, or both? Last year I was laid low by a herniated disc. My first reaction was fear. Will I recover from this and be able to run again? Will I be able to keep myself fit at all? The orthopedic specialist suggested, as a first step, three-weeks of physiotherapy and then if there was no improvement, perhaps surgery. After a week of heat and other treatments, there was absolutely no change in my condition.
On a whim I decided to check with my Ayurveda doctor who has been my general physician for many years. He gave me advice that drew attention to the error in my approach to healing. “The body has the ability to heal itself”, he said, “if only you gave it the opportunity”. He prescribed rest and anti-inflammatory tablets for a few days. The back started healing, but it took 15 weeks for me to restart my physical exercise routine again. During the time I learnt how the body has a tremendous ability to heal itself. A body that is performing billions of various operations every moment surely had the ability to heal itself. But it can only do so if there is no interference of the mind and its various demands such as wanting to speed up one’s recovery to look and feel good.
Wellbeing is a state of mind. It has little to do with the body. The body is insentient. Whatever the body goes through, it is always the mind that reacts and decides what is best for the body. The body ends up bearing the brunt of our thinking, which is always directed towards fulfilling our desires that will make us feel pleasure. In this incessant push against the flow, we always end up in a state of constant strife, a state of ‘unwell-being’.
Krishnamurti puts it simply: “When pleasure, personal or collective, becomes the dominant interest in life—the pleasure of sex, the pleasure of asserting one’s own will, the pleasure of excitement, the pleasure of self-interest, the pleasure of power and status, the insistent demand to have one’s own pleasure fulfilled—there is degeneration. When human relationships become casual, based on pleasure, there is degeneration.”
In our search for well-being, our focus becomes the ‘me’. ‘I need to feel good any cost’ becomes our mantra. The seeking of pleasure then becomes our single-minded focus.
“The greater the pleasure, the greater is the strengthening of the ‘me’. When there is pursuit of pleasure, human beings are exploiting each other. When pleasure becomes dominant in our lives, relationship is exploited for this purpose, and so there is no actual relationship with another. Then relationship becomes merchandise. The urge for fulfilment is based on pleasure, and when that pleasureis denied or has not found means of expression, then there is anger, cynicism, hatred or bitterness. This incessant pursuit of pleasure is actually insanity”, explains Krishnamurti.
In this relentless pursuit of pleasure, we lose touch with our outer world. It is a conundrum because we seek pleasure from the same outer world. We place our well-being on external factors. Krishnamurti explains this succinctly, “When we lose contact with nature, we lose contact with each other. When you lose contact with the birds, the shy and timid quail, then you lose contact with your child and the person across the street. When you kill an animal to eat, you are also cultivating insensitivity which will kill that man across the border. When you lose contact with the enormous movement of life, you lose all relationship. Then you—the ego with all its fanciful urges, demands, and pursuits—become all-important, and the gulf between you and the world widens in endless conflicts.”
The real challenge to our well-being is the pursuit of well-being. Perhaps our very nature is being well. But it is for each one interested in seeking this real nature to find out for oneself. Krishnamurti opens a door to this search when he says: “So, what is the true work of man? Surely the true work of man is to discover truth, God; it is to love and not to be caught in his own self-enclosing activities. In the very discovery of what is true, there is love, and that love in man’s relationship with man will create a different civilization, a new world.”
If you are interested in pursuing further this issue, read the digital booklet The Real Crisis, put together by Krishnamurti Foundation India. With quotations drawn from six decades of Krishnamurti’s talks, dialogues and writings and translated into nine Indian languages, the booklet is available for free download from www.kfionline.org.
Disclaimer: The article is authored by Vivek Raju . The views and opinions expressed in this article are those of the author’s and do not represent those of GlobalSpa.