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Know Him, without His names || Acharya Prashant, on J. Krishnamurti (2016)
Acharya Prashant
768 views
9 years ago
Naming
Memory
Identity
Mysticism
Direct Realization
Wonderment
Knowledge
Relationships
Description

Acharya Prashant explains that naming an object or a person creates a bundle of associations, memories, and prejudices that prevents a direct connection with reality. When a child is told that a creature is a bird, they stop seeing the bird itself and instead interact with the label and its associated meanings. This process removes the beauty found in mystical unknowing and replaces immediate realization with memory. He illustrates this by mentioning how they deliberately avoid naming the rabbits at the center to maintain a sense of wonder and avoid fixed identities. Naming transforms a person into a story, where the name or even a familiar face acts as an index to a past storybook of information. Acharya Prashant describes two ways of living: one that relies on memory, security, and past wounds, and another that is bold and comfortable, living directly in the present without being compelled to refer to past events. He notes that while memory exists, one should not be obligated to be sucked into it during every interaction. He further critiques education systems that fill individuals with knowledge, arguing that such systems destroy the sense of wonderment necessary for mysticism. A scholar who believes everything is knowable by the mind leaves no room for the unknown, effectively killing the possibility of a fresh and real relationship with life.