This morning the sky was gloomy, gray clouds drifting slowly over the Saigon sky. I sat on the porch, listening to the sound of vehicles passing through the alley, the sound of someone’s pigeons calling to each other…
A normal morning, but within that normality, I felt something opening.
I opened my meditation journal and asked myself:
“If I don’t use the concept of ‘dependent origination’, what can I see?”
That question brought me back to the spirit of JidduKrishnamurti – the one who always invites us to look at life without any conceptual framework.
No “dependent origination.”
No “non-self.”
No “emptiness.”
No “practice.”
No “system.”
Only pure observation.
No names at all
Just clouds drifting in the sky
The sky still wide open
I tried looking at this morning without naming anything.
Not calling it “clouds.”
Not calling it “the sound of vehicles.”
Not calling it “my mind.”
Just looking.
And strangely, when I didn’t name things, everything became more alive.
I saw the movement of clouds as if for the first time.
I heard the sound of vehicles as a stream of sound without a subject.
I sensed my mind like a lake with gentle ripples.
There was no “me” observing.
Only observation.
No observer here
Only the stream of seeing
Silent, yet so clear
In that moment, I understood another layer of dependent origination:
things relate to each other not through concepts, but through their very presence.
No need to say “this exists, therefore that exists.”
Just look – and you see it happening.
I remembered a sentence by Jiddu Krishnamurti that I really like:
“To observe without naming is the highest form of intelligence.”
(Quan sát mà không đặt tên là hình thức cao nhất của trí tuệ.)
In the past, I thought that sentence was only about psychology.
But today, I see it touches the spirit of dependent origination.
When we name something, we immediately separate ourselves from it.
When we don’t name, we become part of that flow.
And in that flow, we see the interrelationship of everything – not through reasoning, but through direct perception.
No name, no distance
Everything breathes together
One stream of arising
I looked at a leaf falling onto the yard.
If using concepts, I would say: “The leaf falls because of the wind.”
But without concepts, I only saw a gentle movement, a change in space, a moment of life.
And in that moment, I saw:
the leaf, the wind, the tree, the ground, and even myself – all relating to one another.
Nothing stands alone.
Nothing is separate.
Nothing “is itself” independently.
That is dependent origination – without needing to call it dependent origination.
The leaf falls wordless
The wind blows without knowing
All is one movement
I realized:
when we look at life without concepts, we see a truth deeper than any teaching can express.
Jiddu Krishnamurti does not want us to believe his words.
He wants us to see for ourselves.
And when we see for ourselves, we understand that all teachings – even dependent origination – are just fingers pointing to the moon.
What matters is not the finger.
What matters is the moon.
Finger pointing moon
Don’t keep staring at the finger
The moon is shining
Ending today’s meditation journal, I wrote a small question to carry with me:
“If I don’t name anything, what will I see in this moment?”
Perhaps just by keeping that question in my heart, I will see life become more open – not because I understand more, but because I am learning to look with new eyes.

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