1. Be new. Pure awareness, free of thought, is ever new.
2. Be fresh. Old judgments, arrived at through limited knowledge, are no more valid. Drop them.
3. Be open. Let new outlooks emerge, and lighten your burden.
4. Be watchful. Let your mind’s false beliefs surface. Let them get exposed and leave you.
5. Be still. Once in a while, see something (a flower, a child’s face, the blue sky) with no interference of thought.
6. Be good-humored. After all, it is all a big sad joke.
7. Be unbiased. See things as they are.
8. Be alone. Conquer loneliness. Enjoy space; give space.
9. Be. Do not worry about ‘becoming’. Let it happen.

1. We are caught in the web of thoughts. The WAI inquiry takes us to the root cause of this web.
2. Our joys and sorrows are centered in our memories. The WAI inquiry helps us go to the basis of memories.
3. A self-image feeds memories, which in turn feed the self-image. The WAI inquiry hits at the self-image.
4. The self-image (aham-vritti) is rooted in memories. The WAI inquiry thus shakes the foundations of memories.
5. Memories and the self-image are a vicious circle. The WAI inquiry cuts this vicious circle.
6. Changing people, places, positions or situations cannot lead to ending of sorrow. Sorrow ends in the silence of pure awareness.
7. The self-image is the only obstacle to pure awareness. The WAI inquiry therefore questions the true credentials of the self-image.
8. Millions of thoughts – good and bad – revolve around the self-image (aham-vritti, I-thought). WAI puts the axe to the base of the tree (of samsAra).
9. To think that we can arrive at freedom is wrong. We need to question the reality of our bondage.
10. Body and mind keep changing in time. The liberating insight has nothing to do with time, for it is not an activity (karma).
11. See.

1. How we live really matters; what we preach does not.
2. What we do matters; the image people have of us does not.
3. Understanding life’s purpose matters; hordes of ideas from books do not.
4. Constant awareness matters; success in self-discipline does not, when it consists of a set of rules that we borrow and impose on ourselves.
5. Being awake in the present moment matters; the past, however glorious, does not.
6. Teachings matter; the figure of the teacher does not.
7. Quality of work matters; the quantity does not.
8. Search for truth matters; attachment to a belief does not.
9. Sensitivity to beauty and suffering matters; being scholarly does not.
10. Inner transformation matters; external cultivation (of compartmentalized values) does not.
11. An open mind matters; lofty opinions (with rigidity) do not.

1. In pure love and harmony, there is no 'me' separate from 'you' or 'them'.
2. The wise have no ego. (Hard to comprehend, is it not?)
3. Most of us are otherwise. We have this center in us, psychologically, that desires (for example) success.
4. Have we understood this urge to have some position of authority, power or prestige?
5. The rise of this center denies love, and makes us violent.
6. Does the ego disappear by merely deciding to be selfless?
7. Only unbiased attention can lead us to the roots of our ego.
8. Mechanical steps cannot help.
9. Can meditation be mechanical?
10. Anything that has well-defined steps is mechanical.
11. The 'Who am I?' inquiry requires tremendous attention.
12. It is not steps (doing); it is a search (looking).

1. All of us value a life of virtue and look down at bad conduct or vice.
2. We have hundreds of ideas of how we should be.
3. There is a gap between how we should be and how we are. Therefore there is conflict.
4. Afraid of judgment by others, we hasten about some virtues. We build and protect an image of ours.
5. There are two perils in this hasty character building.
6. First, the values we seem to have are shallow. They are part of our behavior to the extent others can notice, and not further.
7. Secondly, we neglect many other values that people around may not attach importance to.
8. True values bring peace and energy. The first problem above is reflected in our not having peace or energy despite the (socalled) value.
9. True virtue brings fearlessness. The pursuit of virtue for respectability does not free us from fear.
10. Clever cultivation of values, however carefully done, does not lead to blossoming of virtue.
11. True virtue blossoms when we see -- in its entirety -- the vulgarity of our living, when we suffer our inadequacy in quiet observation.

1. They have no boundary to their sense of “I”.
2. Great good happens around them.
3. Their identity is submerged in the universal truth.
4. They are awake. (The dream of worldly gain and loss has ended.)
5. They are drawn to God like iron filings to a magnet.
6. They have tremendous energy.
7. The excitement of personal aspiration has subsided in them.
8. Their bliss is not born of any comparison.
9. Their primary vision remains changeless.
10. Natural austerity (not forced in any manner) brings increased glow to their personality.
11. They are unmoved by the play of (their own or others’) mind.
12. They are in touch with silence amidst all noise.

1. The ego is born in forms (roopa), stays in forms, and consumes forms.
2. It drops one form, and without delay, takes another form.
3. Its inner truth is without form!
4. Its forms disappear upon inquiring, “Who am I?” (The essence – Pure Awareness without forms – remains).
5. It is neither the body nor the Awareness. It is something ‘in between’.
6. It assumes the ‘form’ of the body and pretends to ‘know’ as Awareness does.
7. Its names are many: ego, knot, bondage, subtle body, mind, worldliness and individual soul.
8. Its appearance breathes life into the appearances of ‘he, she, it and they’.
9. Its advent makes ‘past, present and future’ (time divisions) look real.
10. Its emergence brings a sense of reality to ‘here and there’ (space divisions).
11. Its rise makes all our problems look real.
12. Searching for it is the way to complete victory in life.

1. Sri Ramana Maharshi highlighted the question – Who am I? The teachings of Jiddu Krishnamurti prompt us to inquire – What am I? (Or what is I?)
2. What makes the self? Is not the sense of ‘I’ just a construction of thoughts?
3. In our fear, who (what) is afraid? In our pride, who (what) is proud? Who (what) is hurt, when we feel hurt? Is there a self other than fear, desire, doubt and envy?
4. Is the self a physical entity or a mental affair? (Hardware or software?)
5. Is the self a summation of our conditionings? Is it a product of memories?
6. Why are some pleased, but others displeased, in the same situation? Are not all of us programmed differently? Are we mere programs?
7. Considering the repetitive nature of our responses to situations, does it not seem that the self in us is almost a dumb machine?
8. In creative moments, we break habitual patterns of thinking. Do we not feel then that ‘something else’ within us operated then? (Was the self in abeyance?)
9. In saintly equanimity, is there no ‘me’ to feel the insult or relish the praise?
10. In great objectivity, unbiased observation, where does the (little) self go?
11. Can we understand the structure of the ego? Can such an attempt itself weaken the self?
12. Can an intense observation of say, insecurity, lead to its disappearance?

1. Strength is life; weakness is death. – Swami Vivekananda
2. One gains strength from within; wisdom makes one immortal. – Kenopanishad
3. Energy is always here, but normally it is involved in pursuing thought and is expended in thinking. (J. Krishnamurti)
4. When there are selfish thoughts, we are caught in a small domain.
5. Your own responses occupy your attention and use up your energy; the real world becomes secondary. (J.K.)
6. “Who I am, what I need to become and how my worth will grow etc.” are examples of thoughts that cloud pure perception.
7. Drawn from memories, restructured through analysis and modified by many forms of indulgence and resistance, the ego in us prevents us from living in harmony with the world around.
8. The ego, though an illusion, appears as a real wall.
9. Personal and institutional boundaries are all false.
10. We need to see that our fears and desires are a big humbug. It is seeing, not doing.
11. When there is no division between you and the world around you, the energy flows freely. (J.K.)

1. Clinical death is when the body ceases to function. You and I will thus die surely one day.
2. People asked Swami Chinmayanandaji, “What happens after death?” to which he replied, “I am more interested in what happens BEFORE death.”
3. Spiritual masters tell us of a different death. When we know how to die, we know how to live.
4. Normally we seek a continuity of our status, position and of our relation with our children, spouse etc.
5. The ending of such seeking (of continuity) is a form of dying.
6. Normally we live for a cause, for something very dear to our heart. We are afraid to let go of that cause – work, person or object. Living in fear is no living at all. Ending of fear is to live fully.
7. When we truly let go of that cause, there is a dying. There is in it a great renewal.
8. To live without a cause – strange, as it may seem – has the purest form of love in it.
9. Violence in our heart comes to an end when we let go of our attachment.
10. A very respected ideal, a much praised institution or a revered life-style may also be the content of our attachment (cause to live).
11. In unbiased observation, personal seeking ends. The seeker, the seeking and the sought dissolve in a silent understanding.
12. In such dying we are born again. Every day is a fresh leaf – green, bright and tender.

1. Notice directly how your thoughts are drawn from (the trash can of) the past.
2. Can you have thoughts without a single shadow of the past? Try.
3. When you brood over the past, you breathe fresh life into both pride and hurt.
4. Judgments – she was wrong; I was right etc – get reinforced in brooding.
5. Blame is like a smoke that covers the flame of attention.
6. Brighten the flame; drop gently all blaming – others or yourself.
7. Do not suppress thoughts either.
8. Intelligent living requires rising above habit. Moment by moment, pay attention to actuality.
9. For example, be gently aware of your entire room – of its beauty and its disorder.
10. Be aware of the whole of your thought structure – its pretty and ugly dimensions.
11. Do not add fuel to any attachment or to any aversion.
12. Just do it and see how, without your engineering it, the mind goes through a transformation.

1. You cannot have the cake and eat it too. You cannot dissipate emotional energy in worldly matters and aspire to touch the infinite also.
2. Speak what is necessary and appropriate.
3. Avoid unnecessary talk including uncalled for humor.
4. Mature control over speech is the entry point to yoga.
5. Keep wealth that is necessary to function in life with dignity.
6. Avoid pomp and put an end to greedy, mindless acquisition.
7. Pursue genuine, heartfelt desires for realistic goals of life.
8. Give up ill-conceived and improper desires.
9. Have healthy activities.
10. Leave aside activities that are born of restlessness, comparison and unhealthy competition.
11. Honor a few decent friendships.
12. Learn to enjoy being alone.

1. Creativity is something that ‘happens’ in a certain state of mind.
2. When there is an inner silence – even amidst challenges possibly – certain flashes occur.
3. We need to let go of all fear or anxiety to arrive at this state.
4. Creativity cannot be a means to an end.
5. Such concerns as to become famous or successful, to gain respectability or social esteem etc come in the way of inner silence.
6. The pressure to earn a living and provide for our dependents also is opposed to living in true creativity.
7. True creativity is when the ‘I, me and my’ are suspended.
8. It takes place when the ‘tomorrow’ does not bother us.
9. When comparison (with others) stops and the desire to be superior subsides, creativity is facilitated.
10. Psychological time (the distance between ‘what I am’ and ‘what I should be’) disappears making way to creativity.
11. A vast silence is the backdrop of the burst of new energy.
12. True creativity transforms us into fine human beings. It is not limited to mere inventions of science or creations of literature.

Surge Forty Six (Advanced): Inner Strength-A Holistic View

Surge Forty Seven (Advanced): Embracing True Spirituality

Surge Forty Eight (Advanced): The Shinning Example