1. beginning
Commitment
Look right into the heart of subjects, and see what is there: no matter what is found, no matter how this alters our identity or life work. See and reject limited or false knowing: premature and dogmatic belief, appeal to authority, retreat to previous insights, narrow perspective, and superficial awareness. Be willing to challenge and dissolve the signposts and milestones of our very identity. In this great evanescence of forms, faithfulness in the healing power of what lies within carries us through.

“A self-denial, no less austere than the saint’s, is demanded of the scholar. He must worship truth, and forego all things for that, and choose defeat and pain, so that his treasure in thought is thereby augmented. God offers to every mind its choice between truth and repose. Take which you please, -- you can never have both. Between these, as a pendulum, man oscillates. He in whom the love of repose predominates, will accept the first creed, the first philosophy, the first political party he meets, -- most likely, his father’s. He gets rest, commodity, and reputation; but he shuts the door of truth. He in whom the love of truth predominates, will keep himself aloof from all moorings and afloat. He will abstain from dogmatism, and recognize all the opposite negations between which, as walls, his being is swung. He submits to the inconvenience of suspense and imperfect opinion, but he is a candidate for truth, as the other is not, and respects the highest law of his being.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Intellect, 202

Reach the humble beginning
Each new meeting, each living connection, is fixed and fitted into a pre-existing structure. This great categorization is a labyrinth which fills every open space, each silent moment. It’s composed of several parts. The instinctual, which creates feelings that are in the service of biological imperatives. The cultural, which forms and idolizes groups, such as teams, parties, religions, and nations. The ideological, which makes ideas secondary to the personal causes which they serve. Each is a seeking of security, and a secret focusing of attention on one’s own self.
We submit to the authority of biology, culture, and idea, because we want limitation. We follow instincts, we yield to customs, we seek out leaders. Gifted with freedom, we relish dependence, because it soothes and satisfies the self.
When the attachment to arbitrary motives ends, humility begins.

Ask the impossible question
What are the enigmas, which lie at the root of each topic or situation? At the heart of each enigma is an original, irrevocable question. Find these questions and dwell in them, without premature resolution: eventually the primal elements will become luminous and speak for themselves.
The limited mind categorizes and separates, creating obstacles, which we must then remove. Understanding seeks out and resolves paradoxes, which the mind itself creates. This circuitous route ends at the simple awareness of what existed before distorted perceiving.

“We never put the impossible question—we are always putting the question of what is possible. If you put an impossible question, your mind then has to find the answer in terms of the impossible—not of what is possible. All the great scientific discoveries are based on this, the impossible. It was impossible to go to the moon….The impossible question is this: can the mind empty itself of the known? – itself, not you empty the mind. That is an impossible question. If you put it with tremendous earnestness, with seriousness, with passion, you’ll find out. But if you say, ‘Oh, it is possible,’ then you are stuck.” Krishnamurti, The Impossible Question, 157

2. seeing
View the totality
What is actually happening now? Looking past your own mind and your old beliefs, observe and be truly present. Utilize all your senses and capacity to perceive. See all the aspects of the subject.
Look at each basic quality: matter, the physical form; relation, the interaction of subjects; doing, the nature of choice; and being, the purpose or source.

“Happy is the hearing man: unhappy the speaking man. As long as I hear truth, I am bathed by a beautiful element, and am not conscious of any limits to my nature. The suggestions are thousandfold that I hear and see. The waters of the great deep have ingress and egress to the soul. But if I speak, I define, I confine, and am less.” Ralph Waldo Emerson, Intellect, 202

See the causes and effects
Under what circumstances, and for what purpose, was the subject created? What is its place in the political and economic and moral order? Whose interests does it serve?
The present is eternal—it never ceases to exist—but this does not mean that it alone has significance. Each moment, past and future, continues its moral life, impinging on the present.

Look past circumstances
See, but then see through and beyond circumstances: the inessential, peripheral and transient qualities, which give form but not substance. These may include place and time, age and gender, race and culture.
What in the subject is illusory and has no continuing existence? What has permanence? The particular is a container of cosmic reality. Lift off the lid. Uncover the universal elements.

3. discerning
Find the flaw
In our structuring of identity and society, flaws proliferate. But imperfection is not inevitable: purity is possible. We must find the flaws. Courageously specify what is wrong, superficial, or destructive.

Locate the center
All things, however complex, have a center. Within the complexity of existing beings and things there is a core truth, which determines their identity, and justifies their position.
Cultivate one’s ability to see deeply. Find the core or center. We can see a person or thing truly. We can look right into its heart, and rest there.

“Souls that are focused and do not falter at first sight, falling back on words and ready-made notions with which the memory is replete, can behold the mountains as if they were gestures of exaltation. To them all sight is suddenness, and eyes which do not discern the flash in the darkness of a thing perceive but series of clichés.” Man is Not Alone, Heschel, 15

Comprehend the inner effect
Take the opportunity and utilize your entire being to see the effect on what is most important: the living, pure, gentle spirit within. Find the relation to reality, truth, and love. Determine its moral quality, and its spiritual integrity. How is it hindered, and how can it be nourished?

Focus on the good
In miserable times, in darkness and deprivation, an ember of goodness continues to burn. Focus here. When the source of purity is assailed, reaction is only more destructive. Nurture the injured; find the ways to redeem it.
Do not deny what is injurious, but concentrate your attention on the healing power which also exists. Cultivate this beautiful, majestic capacity to focus on the good: it is a source of freedom and a path towards the transcendent.

Face your own relation
What is your own relation to the subject: its peripheral and core elements? Are your intentions genuine? What are your secret motives? What are you evading? What is authentic, helpful, and just?