Knowing without names — on J. Krishnamurti

Following is an excerpt from a samvaad (dialogue) session with Acharya Prashant.

When you teach a child that a bird is named ‘bird’,
the child will never see the bird again.

~ J.Krishnamurti ~

Acharya Prashant: Beautiful quotation.

Because naming comes with a total bundle of association, references, memories, past, prejudices.

Having named something, having tagged or labelled something, you are no more in direct touch with that thing. Now, you are in touch with the name and not the thing.

It takes a beauty; beauty that lies in mystical unknowing. Now, you know. We have four rabbits here (at AdvaitBodh Sthal), we have deliberately we have refrained from naming them, one of them carries a name but the other three do not have names. It is beautiful and we often do not know who is who. They are all white, alike.

What else are identities, what else are relationships?

Names.

When something takes a name, it takes a lot of meaning. Now, it is not merely a person; the fellow is now a story. The name is the pointer to that story.