ArtsAutosBooksBusinessEducationEntertainmentFamilyFashionFoodGamesGenderHealthHolidaysHomeHubPagesPersonal FinancePetsPoliticsReligionSportsTechnologyTravel

Free Your Mind: Mindfulness Without Conformity

Updated on April 30, 2020
NateB11 profile image

I have spent a lot of time reading about Eastern philosophy since my youth and mostly have given particular attention to J Krishnamurti

Many people believe that responsibility means conformity: That when someone is bad, they simply need to fall in line. For this reason, we talk of reforming people: Putting them back in line.

We switch the patterns. One wonders why. How can the answer be in patterns at all? Let's investigate.

Regimented and rigid thinking is inculcated early in our lives. It only serves to induce struggle and division.
Regimented and rigid thinking is inculcated early in our lives. It only serves to induce struggle and division. | Source

What We Have: Patterns

Since childhood, we have followed patterns: Old patterns. Patterns set forth by the family, by school, by the economic system, and by religious orders. We have no minds of our own. We simply conform.

And it hasn't proven effective. There is still conflict, corruption, and misery. I'm afraid we've failed.

The economic system creates conflict, competition, struggle and, therefore, total inward and outward confusion and misery. The religious divisions are ways of being in conflict between groups, ways of subjugating, distorting thinking rather than lending clarity and lucidity, and make thought and perception stagnant in a pool of doctrine people are forced to follow. That is conformity.

One may have to find a way out of the Matrix.
One may have to find a way out of the Matrix. | Source

What's Wrong with the Patterns?

Patterns are old.We can't superimpose some tired doctrine on a situation which is alive and moving and expect it to give us true answers. That thinking is backward. And thinking that way will lead us backwards.

The problem is not specific patterns but the tendency to follow and imitate. And in falling in line with the pattern, identifying with it, we become separate from the rest of humanity; each person and group contained in their supposedly safe units, fearing and fighting each other. We have gone terribly wrong.

Krishnamurti On Responsibility

Fear Stops Change

What is different, what is new, what is not the pattern, is far removed from safety and security. For this reason, we avoid it. We would rather rot in a jail cell than come out for fresh air. Because, locked up in the pattern, we are assured the right job, food on the table, and lots of friends.

Yet, we fail to realize that our own minds deteriorate, caught up in the same movement, and wearing down in the process. We fail to see that our thinking divides, divides us inwardly, and divides us from each other. In that division is conflict, distortion, misery, pain, confusion and a constant struggle. In it, there is no clarity, lucidity, no understanding, and,so, no love, care, attention, compassion, or true affection.

Because we won't take that leap into what is not known, we stay where we are, stuck in the machine of our own making, the machine of conformity and complacency.

What We Try to Do: Reversion and Concoction

Having become accustomed to patterns, feeling safe and secure in them, we feel the answer to the world's problems is either a reversion to old patterns or concoction of new ones.

Patterns mean conformity. Conformity means comparison. Comparison means division, conflict, chaos, confusion, and violence. There can be no adequate answer there, in that milieu of fantasy. That milieu is merely the operation of thought in psychological time. The repetition and reliance on patterns does not change a thing. It is, in fact, the problem. And we expect to answer the problem with the thing causing the problem.

Conformity

Comparison
Patterns
Repetition
Leads to struggle and competition
Leads to complacency and division
There is nothing new or whole in conformity
Wholeness and freedom from the known brings a bright new day.
Wholeness and freedom from the known brings a bright new day. | Source

The Answer to the Problem

The first thing to do is to stop looking for an answer. We've already concocted answers. Answers are conclusions and if you conclude first, then you can't begin.

We have to start at the right point. We have to look at the problem directly, correctly, not hampered by conclusion. The conclusions are the patterns of conformity, the obedience and fear, the struggle for security and fear of loss.

We must be able to face ourselves, face our concocted divisions and separations, face our illusory authorities, and face our time-based psychological fear which keeps us stuck in the circle, keeps us trapped in the machine.

It is then, when we see all that clearly and with no inward interference, that we are whole and see comprehensively into the totality of the problem, without division, without confusion, but with direct and clear insight. This will be the dissolution of the problem and the end of all barrier to total awareness.

Krishnamurti on Conformity and Revolution

working

This website uses cookies

As a user in the EEA, your approval is needed on a few things. To provide a better website experience, hubpages.com uses cookies (and other similar technologies) and may collect, process, and share personal data. Please choose which areas of our service you consent to our doing so.

For more information on managing or withdrawing consents and how we handle data, visit our Privacy Policy at: https://corp.maven.io/privacy-policy

Show Details
Necessary
HubPages Device IDThis is used to identify particular browsers or devices when the access the service, and is used for security reasons.
LoginThis is necessary to sign in to the HubPages Service.
Google RecaptchaThis is used to prevent bots and spam. (Privacy Policy)
AkismetThis is used to detect comment spam. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide data on traffic to our website, all personally identifyable data is anonymized. (Privacy Policy)
HubPages Traffic PixelThis is used to collect data on traffic to articles and other pages on our site. Unless you are signed in to a HubPages account, all personally identifiable information is anonymized.
Amazon Web ServicesThis is a cloud services platform that we used to host our service. (Privacy Policy)
CloudflareThis is a cloud CDN service that we use to efficiently deliver files required for our service to operate such as javascript, cascading style sheets, images, and videos. (Privacy Policy)
Google Hosted LibrariesJavascript software libraries such as jQuery are loaded at endpoints on the googleapis.com or gstatic.com domains, for performance and efficiency reasons. (Privacy Policy)
Features
Google Custom SearchThis is feature allows you to search the site. (Privacy Policy)
Google MapsSome articles have Google Maps embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
Google ChartsThis is used to display charts and graphs on articles and the author center. (Privacy Policy)
Google AdSense Host APIThis service allows you to sign up for or associate a Google AdSense account with HubPages, so that you can earn money from ads on your articles. No data is shared unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Google YouTubeSome articles have YouTube videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
VimeoSome articles have Vimeo videos embedded in them. (Privacy Policy)
PaypalThis is used for a registered author who enrolls in the HubPages Earnings program and requests to be paid via PayPal. No data is shared with Paypal unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook LoginYou can use this to streamline signing up for, or signing in to your Hubpages account. No data is shared with Facebook unless you engage with this feature. (Privacy Policy)
MavenThis supports the Maven widget and search functionality. (Privacy Policy)
Marketing
Google AdSenseThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Google DoubleClickGoogle provides ad serving technology and runs an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Index ExchangeThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
SovrnThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Facebook AdsThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Unified Ad MarketplaceThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
AppNexusThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
OpenxThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Rubicon ProjectThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
TripleLiftThis is an ad network. (Privacy Policy)
Say MediaWe partner with Say Media to deliver ad campaigns on our sites. (Privacy Policy)
Remarketing PixelsWe may use remarketing pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to advertise the HubPages Service to people that have visited our sites.
Conversion Tracking PixelsWe may use conversion tracking pixels from advertising networks such as Google AdWords, Bing Ads, and Facebook in order to identify when an advertisement has successfully resulted in the desired action, such as signing up for the HubPages Service or publishing an article on the HubPages Service.
Statistics
Author Google AnalyticsThis is used to provide traffic data and reports to the authors of articles on the HubPages Service. (Privacy Policy)
ComscoreComScore is a media measurement and analytics company providing marketing data and analytics to enterprises, media and advertising agencies, and publishers. Non-consent will result in ComScore only processing obfuscated personal data. (Privacy Policy)
Amazon Tracking PixelSome articles display amazon products as part of the Amazon Affiliate program, this pixel provides traffic statistics for those products (Privacy Policy)
ClickscoThis is a data management platform studying reader behavior (Privacy Policy)