The concept of mindfulness is not a new one. It goes back thousands of years. The Buddha's teaching brought this into new light by highlighting the primary purpose of mindfulness practice as a gateway to eradicate suffering through the end of ignorance. However, as with any teaching, over the years, the message of the Buddha slowly took on different meanings according to the disciples' interpretations, which were based on their own contextual embeddedness. Today, we are at a crossroads. There are many interpretations, diverse practices, and varied approaches to mindfulness, but no one has yet found a way to eradicate suffering completely, as the Buddha expected. Although a very few masters like Ramana Maha Rishi conveyed the Buddha's message (there is no 'I', no permanent entity. This illusion 'I' created by ignorance leads to suffering), it was Jiddhu Krishnamurti who pushed the idea to the general public in a stronger way. His work paved the way for bringing back the key premise of mindfulness practice, 'observer is the observed'.  It was a radical concept in Buddha's time, and it was a radical concept in Krishnamurti's time, and it's a radical concept to this day. Very few people will experience this firsthand, as many are bound to their past due to cravings. 

This paper was written over a couple of months, but it was an outcome of a lifetime of experiences of the first author, who was born into a Buddhist family and has learned Buddhist teachings throughout his life. However, after two decades of search by reading the Pali canon, meeting various teachers in different traditions, and trying different meditation techniques, he encountered Krishnamurti's talks about six years ago. Since then, the meaning of the Buddha's teachings has begun to unravel in its most profound sense.  The second author brought insights from the Hindu traditions and perspectives. This paper is an outcome of all that experiential learning. It may be difficult to read and understand, and even some will find it conflicting and contradictory. We urge you to read this with an open mind, without rejecting or accepting what is written. Question the content through one's own sense experiences, rather than through knowledge (intellect). Go through the observation without being the observer, and then you will see things in a new light. You will see the illusion of psychological time, how mental images (past memory) connect the past to the present and project into the future. You will see the present movement as it is—the most beautiful state of being without becoming, which is 'you'.