Jiddu Krishnamurti Teachings Discourses J Krishnamurti Quotes Talks Videos

Jiddu Krishnamurti video : Fear Destroys Love

2011-05-25T04:30:00.001-07:00

osho rajneesh on sensitivity, 5 senses and the 6th sense

2010-11-26T07:21:00.000-08:00

enlightened mystic swami rajneesh speaks on the 5 senses the 6th sense and sensitivity. visit swami rajneesh site http://www.oshorajneesh.net

Jiddu Krishnamurti on difference between aggression and competition

2010-11-26T07:17:00.000-08:00

Questioner: Is there no difference between aggression and competition? They look different to me right now.

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Madame, please, I'll go into it, don't bother about that. Either you write the questions, I'll answer them, or let me talk a little about this.

You can see what aggression does. Right? You are aggressive, I am aggressive for the same job, the same this, that, the other. And so we are fighting each other all along the way - right? - both psychologically and physically. And we carry on. That's part of our pattern, part of our social education, and to break that pattern we say we must exercise our will. Right? Which is another aggression. I don't know if you follow this. Right? Right? Are you following this, sir? When I exercise my will, will is another form of 'I must'. You understand. That's another form of aggression.

So can you have an insight into aggression? You have understood my question, or is it too difficult? You understand my question sir? That is, I am aggressive - thank god I am not, I have never been, I don't want to be (laughs) - suppose I am aggressive and that's the pattern from childhood, that is the education, the mother, the father, and the society, the boys around me, are all aggressive, and I see, and I like that, it gives me pleasure. And I accept it and I also become aggressive. Right? Then as I grow up somebody shows me the nature of aggression, what it does in society, how competition is destroying human beings. It is not only the speaker is saying this, scientists are beginning to say this - so perhaps you will accept the scientists. So you explain it very carefully, all the reason, the cause, and the destructive nature of competition, which is to compare, always comparing. You understand?

Now a mind that doesn't compare at all - you understand? - is a totally different kind of mind. It has got much more vitality. So one explains all this, and yet we go on being aggressive, competitive, comparing ourselves with somebody, always something much greater, not with the poorer, with always something greater. So there is this pattern established, this cadre, this framework, and in which the mind is caught. And listening to it you say, 'I must get out of it, I must do something about it', which is what? Another form of aggression. You understand? I wonder if you see that. So can you, can we have an insight into aggression? You follow? Not explanations, not the remembrance of all the implications of it and so on and so on, which is constant examination, then coming to a conclusion, and acting according to that conclusion. That's not insight. Whereas if you have immediate insight into it - you understand? - then you have broken the whole pattern of aggression.

That is, sir, we compare - don't we? - both physically - you have long... I wish I could look as nice as you look, or psychologically, there is constant comparison. Which means what? I don't know if you have gone into this. To compare oneself with somebody else, greater, more intelligent, bright, and so on, is to what? Deny what you are and change what you are. I wonder if you understand this. Am I making this clear? Look, I compare myself with you and I say you are awfully clever, all that, and in that comparison I say, by Jove, I realise I am very dull. Right? You are following this? But if I have no comparison, am I dull? I begin then to discover the things 'as is'. I wonder if you see.

So what we shall do with the way we are living? Sorry to bring it home. What shall we do? You will attend meetings, other forms of other kinds of meetings, discussions, philosophers explaining their philosophy, the latest psychologist, non-Freudian, non-this, and non-that, but the latest, he will explain to you. You understand? We are doing this all the time, moving from one thing to another, and that's called an open mind. But we never say look, this is so, I am like this, let me find out why am I like this. Why I have wounds, psychological bruises - you understand? - why. Why do I live with them? I don't know if you are following all this. But reading somebody like, books of... books, attending Krishnamurti's talks, and then quoting back, it is so... I know all this by heart! (Laughter) I have been at this for sixty years and more, so you don't have to quote to me. But if you don't quote, and find out for yourself - you understand, sir? - there is greater energy, more fun, more alive, you become much more alive.

This is a good question because it affects us. That is, what is attention, what is the relationship of thought to attention, is there in attention freedom? Right? Is this a question that affects us? That is, we know what concentration is. Right? Most of us do from childhood we are trained to concentrate, and the implications of that concentration is narrowing down all energy to a particular point, and holding to that point. Right? A boy in a school is looking out of the window, looking at all the birds and the trees and the movement of the leaves, or the squirrel climbing up the tree, and the educator says, 'Look, you are not paying attention, concentrate on the book.' Right? 'Listen to what I am saying', and so on and so on. Which is what? Go into it, sir. Which is what? You are making concentration far more important than attention. That is, if the boy is looking out of the window watching that squirrel, I would help him to watch - if I am the educator - I would help him to watch that squirrel completely. You follow? Watch it. Watch the movement of the tail, the mouth, the nozzle, how its claws are, everything, watch it. Then if he learns to watch that attentively he will pay attention to the beastly book! (Laughter) You follow what I am saying? So there is no contradiction.

So attention is a state of mind in which there is no contradiction. Right? There is no entity, or a centre, or a point, which says, I must attend. In that state there is no wastage of energy. Whereas in concentration there is always the controlling process going on: I want to concentrate on that page but thought wanders off, and then you pull it back, the constant battle going on. Whereas in attention, if you go into it, it is very simple really. When somebody says, 'I love you', and he means it, you are attending, you don't say, do you love me because I look nice, or I have money, or sexual, or this or that - you follow what I am saying? So attention is something totally different from concentration.

And this attention, the questioner asks, what is the relationship of this attention to thought? Right? None, obviously. I don't know if you follow this. Concentration has a relationship to thought because thought directs: I must learn, I must concentrate in order to control myself. Right? Thought then gives a direction from one point to another point. Whereas in attention thought has no place - you attend.

And is there a gap between attention and thought. Good lord. Sir, as we explained the other day, if you once understand, if one once has a grasp of the whole movement of thought you wouldn't put this question. You understand sir? I am not... I'll answer it, but first one has to, understand what thought is. You understand? Not somebody tell you what thought is. But to see what thought is, how it comes into being. And if you will go with me, I will do it again, we will go into it.

There can be no thought if there is total amnesia. Right? But fortunately, or unfortunately we are not in a state of amnesia. And one wants to find out what thought is, what place it has in life. You understand? So one begins to examine thinking. So what is thinking? Thinking takes place as a reaction to memory. Obviously. Memory responds to a challenge, to a question, to an action, or responds in relationship to something, or to an idea, to a person. Right? You see all this in life. So what is thinking, what is thought, how does thought exist in the human mind? So one asks then, what is memory? You understand? What is memory? Memory is you have trodden on some insect that has bitten you. That memory, that pain is registered and stored in the brain, that pain, which becomes a memory, it is not actual pain. That pain is over but the memory remains. So next time you are careful. So there is experience as pain, which has become knowledge, and that knowledge, experience is memory, that memory responds as thought. Right? That memory is thought. And knowledge, however wide, however deep, however extensive, must always be limited. Right? There is no complete knowledge. I don't know if you are following all this.

So thought is always partial, limited, divisive because in itself it isn't complete, in itself it can never be complete; it can think about completeness. You understand? It can think about totality, whole, but it's not, thought itself is not whole. So whatever it creates philosophically, religiously, it is still partial, limited, fragmentary, because knowledge is part of ignorance. You understand, sir? I don't know if you understand this. As knowledge can never be complete it must always go hand in hand with ignorance. Right? That's logical, rational. And if one understands the nature of thought, and understands what concentration is, then thought cannot attend because attention is giving all energy - you understand? - without any restraint. I wonder if you understand this. If you are listening now, I hope you are, if you are listening and attending, what takes place? There is no 'you' attending. Right? There is no centre that says, 'I must attend'. You are attending because it is your life, your interest. If you are not interested, lying down in the sun, saying, well I'll listen partly, that's a different matter. But if you are serious and giving attention you will soon find out all your problems, all that is gone - at least for the moment.

So to resolve problems is to attend. I wonder if you have got it. You understand this? It's not a trick! (Laughs)

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Fourth Public Question & Answer Meeting in Ojai

osho rajneesh - what is conditioning

2010-11-26T07:07:00.000-08:00

Enlightened Mystic Swami Rajneesh speaks in italy with italian translation - on conditioning and misunderstanding of therapists.
visit swami rajneesh website http://www.oshorajneesh.net

Jiddu Krishnamurti on Sensitivity and Consideration for others

2010-07-18T10:00:00.000-07:00

Question - Could we talk about sensitivity and consideration for others?
Jiddu Krishnamurti : Man has always wanted something holy, sacred. Just being kind to others, being sensitive, polite, considerate, thoughtful and affectionate: that hasn't got depth, it hasn't got vitality. Unless you find out in your life something really sacred which has depth, which has tremendous beauty, which is the source of everything, life becomes very superficial. You may be happily married, with children, a house and money, you may be clever and famous, but without that perfume everything becomes like a shadow that has no substance.

Seeing what is happening around the world, will you, in your daily life, find out something that is really true, really beautiful, holy, sacred? If you have that, then politeness has meaning, then consideration has meaning, has depth. Then you can do anything you like, there will always be that perfume. How will you come to this? It is part of your education, not only to learn mathematics, but also to find this out.

You know, to see something very clearly - even that tree - your mind must be quiet, mustn't it? To see that picture I must look at it, but if my mind is chattering, saying `I wish I were outside', or `I wish I had a better pair of trousers', if my mind is wandering, I will never be able to see that picture clearly. To see something very clearly I must have a very quiet mind. See the logic of it first. To watch the birds, to watch the clouds, to watch the trees, the mind must be extraordinarily still to follow.

There are various systems in Japan and India to control the mind so that it becomes completely quiet. And being very quiet you then experience something immeasurable - that is the idea. So they say: first the mind has to be quiet, control it, don't let it wander, because when you have a quiet mind life is extraordinary. Now when you control or force the mind you are distorting it, aren't you? If I force myself to be kind, that is not kindness. If I force myself to be extremely polite to you that is not politeness. So if I force my mind to concentrate on this one picture then there is so much strain, effort, pain and suppression. Therefore such a mind is not a quiet mind - you see? So we have to ask: is there a way of bringing about a very quiet mind without any distortion, without any effort, without saying, "I must control it"?

Of course there is. There is a quietness, a stillness without any effort. That requires understanding of what effort is. And when you understand what effort, control, suppression is understand it not just verbally but really see the truth of it - in that very perception the mind becomes quiet.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "Beginnings of Learning"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - One can understand suffering only

2010-06-26T07:21:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Mere verbal explanation of suffering, mere intellection, the perception of the causes of suffering, does not resolve suffering. That is an obvious fact; but as most of us are fed on words, and as words have become of such immense importance, we are easily satisfied by explanations. We read the Bhagavad Gita, the Bible, or any other religious book which explains the cause of suffering, and we are satisfied; we take the explanation for the resolution of suffering.

Words have become much more significant than the understanding of suffering itself; but the word is not the thing. Any amount of explanation, any amount of reasoning, will not feed a hungry man. What he wants is food, not the explanation of food, or the smell of food. He is hungry, and he must have the substance that nourishes. Most of us are satisfied by the explanation of the cause of suffering. Therefore, we don't take
suffering as a thing to be radically resolved, a contradiction in ourselves that must be understood. How is one to understand suffering?

One can understand suffering only when explanation subsides and all kinds of escapes are understood and put aside, that is, when one sees the actual in suffering. But you see, you don't want to understand suffering; you run away to the club, you read the newspaper, you do puja, go to the temple, plunge into politics or social service - anything rather than to face that which is. So, the cultivation of escapes has become much more important than the understanding of sorrow; and it requires a very intelligent mind, a mind that is very alert, to see that it is escaping and to put an end to escapes.

Source - J Krishnamurti Book "Choiceless Awareness"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - All our thinking, our feeling, is limited by words

2010-06-24T01:44:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - It is obviously an absolute necessity to bring about within each one a radical revolution, a change in mutation at the very root of consciousness. I feel that unless this takes place totally, the many confusing and contradictory problems in all our relationships at all the levels of our consciousness can never be solved. The search for truth, for reality, is not possible in a world in which there is not only outward contradiction but inward self-contradiction. It is not possible for one to discover that extraordinary thing called reality if there is no corresponding total clarity, not according to any particular formula or a concept, but that clarity that comes about through understanding through the awareness of the total boundary of one's consciousness.

You know it is very difficult to understand the meaning of words and also to be free of words. Most of us who understand English understand more or less the meaning of words. Words have their reference in the dictionary, or we give a particular significance to words. And I feel it is very important not to be caught in words. Most of us live with words; for us words have an extraordinary significance. All our thinking, our feeling, is limited by words. Words and symbols play an enormous part in our life; and to really comprehend those words and to be free of words and to go beyond the words is very important for the man who would really understand what is truth.

Source - J Krishnamurti Book "The New Mind"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Self-image leads to pain

2010-05-23T07:46:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Why divide problems as major and minor? Is not everything a problem? Why make them little or big problems, essential or unessential problems? If we could understand one problem, go into it very deeply however small or big it is, then we would uncover all problems. This is not a rhetorical answer.

Take any problem: anger, jealousy, envy, hatred—we know them all very well. If you go into anger very deeply, not just brush it aside, then what is involved? Why is one angry? Because one is hurt, someone has said an unkind thing; and when someone says a flattering thing you are pleased. Why are you hurt? Self- importance, is it not? And why is there self-importance?

Because one has an idea, a symbol of oneself, an image of oneself, what one should be, what one is or what one should not be. Why does one create an image about oneself?

Because one has never studied what one is, actually. We think we should be this or that, the ideal, the hero, the example. What awakens anger is that our ideal, the idea we have of ourselves, is attacked. And our idea about ourselves is our escape from the fact of what we are. But when you are observing the actual fact of wha t you are, no one can hurt you.

Then, if one is a liar and is told that one is a liar it does not mean that one is hurt; it is a fact. But when you are pretending you are not a liar and are told that you are, then you get angry, violent. So we are always living in an ideational world, a world of myth and never in the world of actuality. To observe what is, to see it, actually be familiar with it, there must be no judgment, no evaluation, no opinion, no fear.

Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes and Sayings

2010-05-11T13:00:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes and Sayings

It is only the perception of truth that liberates; and to see, to receive truth, there must be the focusing of attention, which means that you must give your heart and mind to see and to understand.
Relationship is a mirror in which I see myself as I am.
The mind cannot see the new because it is constantly living in the past, the past which is the system. When you say 'I am a Christian', or 'I am a Hindu', it is the past which speaks and cannot see anything new.
The world is not something separate from you and me; the world, society, is the relationship that we establish or seek to establish between each other. So you and I are the problem, and not the world, because the world is the projection of ourselves, and to understand the world we must understand ourselves. That world is not separate from us; we are the world, and our problems are the world’s problems.
Quietness of the mind comes into being only when you see the whole implication of fear, of authority, of time and the separation between the observer and the observed when you see the whole structure. To see the whole structure, obviously your mind must be quiet; one has to learn how to look - not at the most complex things, but just to look at a tree or a flower, at a cloud - without any movement of thought - just to look.
Truth has no tradition, it cannot be handed down.
A mind that is ambitious can never know what it is to sympathize, to have pity, to love. An ambitious mind is a cruel mind—whether spiritually or outwardly or inwardly.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Is love a feeling?

2010-04-28T01:34:00.000-07:00

Question: Is love a feeling?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: The gentleman asks: is the love that you talk about a feeling? What is feeling? Feeling is like thought. Feeling is a sensation. I see a flower and I respond to that flower, I like it or dislike it. The like or the dislike is dictated by my thought, and the thought is the response of the background of memory.

So, I say, `I like that flower', or `I do not like that flower; `I like this feeling' or `I do not like that feeling'. Now, is love related to feeling? What is your answer? Look at what my question is. Listen to it. Is love a feeling? Feeling is sensation, obviously - sensation of like and dislike, of good and bad, of good taste and all the rest of it. Is that feeling related to love? That is the question; and what does love mean to you?

Do you associate love with women or men, do you associate love with sex? You must, because you have denied beauty; all your saints have denied beauty. And beauty is associated with women.

So, you have said, `No feeling; and so you have cultivated rough personalities, crude egos which deny beauty. Have you watched your street, have you watched the way you live in your houses, the way you sit, the way you talk? And have you noticed all your saints whom you worship? For them passion is sex, and therefore they deny passion, therefore they deny beauty - deny in the sense of putting those aside. So, with sensation you have put away love because you say, `Sensation will make me a prisoner, I will be a slave to sex-desire; therefore I must cut'.

Therefore you have made sex into an immense problem. Sex is a problem to all of you; and all your gods whom you want to reach, say that you must be without feeling, you must never look at a woman, never look at a man, never look at the tree, at the river, at the beauty of the earth.

So is love a feeling? When you have understood feeling completely, not partially, when you have really understood the totality of feeling, then you will know what love is. When you can

see the beauty of a tree, when you can see the beauty of a smile, when you can see the sun setting behind the walls of your town - see totally - then you will know what love is.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti EBook "A Psychological Revolution"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - You know What Death is?

2010-04-28T01:20:00.001-07:00

Question: Can one live in this world without any contradiction, psychologically?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Is it possible to live in this world in a state in which, psychologically, there is no contradiction? I want to experience that state. It must be there. How do I proceed. That is too difficult. Let me take something simpler.

You know what death is? You have seen death being carried away to be burnt, and the burning of death is the continuity of death. I want to know what it is to die, while I am living - not when I am old, diseased. I want to know what it is to die, while living with my faculties fully alive and while my brain can reason, while it is not diseased. I want to know the state, the feeling of dying, of being dead. I want to know it, not because I am frightened, but because I have said a motive cannot take me very far - then the motive dictates the journey.

Therefore, I see that a mind that wishes to know what is death, must be free from fear. So, I must enquire into the whole question of fear. Is it possible to live in this world without fear? So, I enquire, I see, I cross-examine, I am aware of every movement of thought. And it is only then, when there is no fear and therefore no motive, that I can find out what death is. That means, I must totally abandon everything I know. I must die to everything known - to my family, to my tradition, to my virtue, to everything.

Is it possible to die? I say it is possible, but it has no validity for you; it has validity only when you die to all the known. When you die to the known, every day, never accumulating then you will find out what death is. And the discovery of what death is comes with the understanding of the totality of fear and therefore being free of fear; and the freedom from fear is the source of energy.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "A Psychological Revolution"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Explanations are as so much dust to a discerning mind

2010-02-18T23:09:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Some of you may think that I am repetitive, and I may be so, for the questions that have been sent in, the interviews and general conversations I have had with people, have given me the impression that there is little understanding of what I have been
saying; and so I have to repeat the same thing in different words.

I hope those of you who have more or less grasped the fundamental ideas will have the patience to listen again to what I have to say. There is so much suffering, in such a variety of ways, that one agonizes over it. This is not an empty phrase. One perceives so much exploitation and cruelty around one, that one is constantly asking oneself what is the cause of sorrow and by what means can it be dissipated.

There are some who firmly believe that the misery of the world is the result of some evil misfortune beyond the control of man, and that happiness and freedom from sorrow can exist only in another world, when man returns to God. This attitude towards life is completely erroneous, from my point of view, for this chaos is of man's own making.

To discern the process of suffering, each one must comprehend himself. To understand oneself is one of the most difficult tasks and demands the most strenuous effort and constant alertness, and very few have the inclination or the desire to comprehend deeply this process of suffering and sorrow. We have more opportunities to dissipate our energies through absurd amusements, futile conversations and vain pursuits, than to search out, to penetrate deeply into our own psychological demands, needs, beliefs and ideals. But this involves strenuous effort on our part, and as we do not wish to exert ourselves, we would rather escape into all manner of easy satisfactions.

If we do not escape through diversions, we escape through beliefs, through the activities of organizations with their loyalties and commitments. These beliefs become a shield, preventing us
from comprehending ourselves. Religious societies promise to help us to understand ourselves, but unfortunately we are exploited and we merely repeat their phrases and succumb to the authority of their leaders.

So these organizations, with their increasing restrictions and secret promises, lead us away into further complications which make us incapable of understanding ourselves. Once we have committed ourselves to a particular society, to its leaders and their friends, we begin to develop those loyalties and responsibilities which prevent us from being wholly honest with ourselves. There are of course other forms of escape, through various superficial activities.

To understand oneself profoundly, one needs balance. That is, one cannot abandon the world, hoping to understand oneself, or be so entangled in the world that there is no occasion to comprehend oneself. There must be balance, neither renunciation nor acquiescence.

This demands alertness and deep awareness. We must learn to observe our actions, thoughts, ideals, beliefs, silently and without judgment, without interpreting them, so as to be able to discern their true significance. We must first be cognizant of our own ideals, pursuits, wants, without accepting or condemning them as being right or wrong. At present we cannot discern what is true and what is false, what is lasting and what is transient, because the mind is so crippled with its own self-created wants, ideals and escapes that it is incapable of true perception. So we must first learn to be silent and balanced observers of our limitations and frictions which cause sorrow.

If you begin to observe, you will see that you are seeking new explanations, definitions, satisfactions, ideals, graphic images and pictures, as substitutes for the old. You accepted the old beliefs, explanations and pictures because they satisfied you; and now, through friction with life, you are finding out that they no longer give you what you crave.

So you seek new explanations, new hopes, new ideals and escapes, but with the same background of want and satisfaction. Then you begin to compare the old explanations with the new, and choose those which give you the greatest security and contentment. You think that by accepting these new explanations and ideals, you will find happiness and peace. As your demand is for contentment and satisfaction, you help to create and accept beliefs and explanations that fulfil your want, and then you begin to shape your thought and conduct according to these new moulds.

If you observe, you will perceive that this is so. As there is so much suffering, both within and without, you desire to know the cause, but you are easily satisfied with explanations and you continue to suffer. Explanations are as so much dust to a discerning mind.

Some of you believe in the idea of reincarnation. You come and ask me what I believe, whether reincarnation is a fact or not, whether I remember my past lives, and so on. Now, why do you ask me? Why do you want to know what I think about it? You want a further confirmation of your own belief, which you call a fact, a law, because it gives you a hope, a purpose in life. Thus belief becomes to you a fact, a law, and you go about seeking confirmation of your hope. Even though I may confirm it, it cannot be of vital importance to you. Whatever it may be to me, real or false, what is important for you is that you should discern for yourself these conceptions, through action, through living, and not accept any assertions.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Understanding of the self requires a great deal of intelligence

2010-01-31T09:21:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Understanding of the self requires a great deal of intelligence, a great deal of watchfulness, alertness, watching ceaselessly, so that it does not slip away. I who am very earnest, want to dissolve the self. When I say that, I know it is possible to dissolve the self.

Please be patient. The moment I say “I want to dissolve this,” and in the process I follow for the dissolution of that, there is the experiencing of the self; and so, the self is strengthened. So, how is it possible for the self not to experience? One can see that creation is not at all the experience of the self. Creation is when the self is not there, because creation is not intellectual, is not of the mind, is not self-projected, is something beyond all experiencing, as we know it. Is it possible for the mind to be quite still, in a state of non-recognition, which is, non-experiencing, to be in a state in which creation can take place—which means, when the self is not there, when the self is absent? Am I making myself clear or not?...

The problem is this, is it not? Any movement of the mind, positive or negative, is an experience which actually strengthens the “me”. Is it possible for the mind not to recognize? That can only take place when there is complete silence, but not the silence which is an experience of the self and which therefore strengthens the self.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - All becoming is disintegration

2010-01-31T09:18:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The mind has an idea, perhaps pleasurable, and it wants to be like that idea, which is a projection of your desire. You are this, which you do not like, and you want to become that, which you like. The ideal is a self-projection; the opposite is an extension of what is;
it is not the opposite at all, but a continuity of what is, perhaps somewhat modified. The projection is self- willed, and conflict is the struggle towards the projection....

You are struggling to become something, and that something is part of yourself. The ideal is your own projection. See how the mind has played a trick upon itself. You are struggling after words, pursuing your own projection, your own shadow. You are violent, and you are struggling to become nonviolent, the ideal; but the ideal is a projection of what is, only under a different name.

When you are aware of this trick which you have played upon yourself, then the false as the false is seen. The struggle towards an illusion is the disintegrating factor. All conflict, all becoming is disintegration. When there is an awareness of this trick that the mind has played upon itself, then there is only what is. When the mind is stripped of all becoming, of all ideals, of all comparison and condemnation, when its own structure has collapsed, then the what is has undergone complete transformation. As long as there is the naming of what is, there is relationship between the mind and what is; but when this naming process—which is memory, the very structure of the mind—is not, then what is is not. In this transformation alone is there integration.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : It's pride that prevents me from looking at myself

2010-01-31T09:11:00.000-08:00

Questioner: I feel Sir, that we cannot totally give up our images and motives. We can lessen them or see them, but I fear that we cannot give them up completely.

Jiddu Krishnamurti: You are saying we must keep a few images, we cannot drop all our images. It is said we cannot drop those images in which we take pride, which give us pleasure, and look at ourselves without the image of opinion, judgment and so on.

Surely, if I want to look at something clearly, want to understand it, see what is actually going on in myself, then do I have to have any image? From observation I can go further, but not if I come to it with a conclusion. (I don't know if you're following.) After observing myself I'm capable of doing that; I can then proceed. But if I come to it with an image, with an opinion, with a conclusion, with pride obviously it is going to block me. Please see the reason of it! Not your opinion or my opinion. I can proceed if I can look at myself without any image and see the causes of my activity: why I think this way why I behave that way, why I'm aggressive. But if I look at myself saying, 'I must not be aggressive', that is an ideological escape, which has no value at all.

See how very important this is, because most of us take pride in free will: 'I am free to choose'. Perhaps you are free to choose this colour or that colour the colour of the hat you are going to wear choose ( I mustn't use the word 'choose') your husband! But is there such a thing as free will? Will being desire to do or not to do to choose or not to choose. And is there a law in which there is no choice of will at all? I don't know if you're following this? If there is complete harmony within oneself (this is one of the most difficult things, don't think you are perfectly harmonious, you are not, we are broken up fragments) but if one has this complete harmony, awareness in oneself, then probably one is in harmony with the universal law then it is not a question of obeying or following, then there is only that. Sorry, I may have gone a little too far. We cannot go into that unless we can really look at ourselves anew, afresh, so that we see what we are.

It's pride that prevents me from looking at myself and it is pride that is inventing the ideology which says 'I should be'. I don't like what I am and my pride says, 'I must be that'. This is the ideological philosophy which man has invented, the formula, the 'should be'. Pride creates this conflict between what is and what should be, and pride says: I must be that, this is ugly, this is stupid, this is unintelligent, this is unreasonable. So I put on a mask of what I should be, and hence there is a conflict, a kind of hypocritical activity going on. Is it possible to look at oneself without the image of pride? I'm only putting in other words what we were talking about yesterday. But one has such extraordinary images of oneself haven't you? No? I am a great writer, I am this, I am that, I am a Jew, a Christian, a Catholic, a Communist, all the images that one has built about oneself. Why? Is it pride? Or, have we invested in these images values other than the actual state of one's own being?

One is aggressive and for various reasons one is ashamed of that and one has the ideology of non-aggression. This ideology is invented by one's pride, by one's desire to be other than 'what is', and by giving great value to 'what should be'. Please, see what we are doing; we put on so many masks, depending on whom we meet, with whom we talk, the game we play with ourselves. Can one look at oneself without the images that man has created through fear and pride and therefore see without any image, and hence with great silence, in which there is humility to observe?

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti talk at Saanen,1968

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Can the mind be aware of its conditioning

2010-01-31T08:59:00.001-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Can the mind be aware of its conditioning, can it look at it without any distortion, without any bias? That is the problem. Is it possible to look at anything, the tree, the cloud, the flower, the child, the face of a woman or a man, as though you are looking at it for the first time? That is really the central issue real freedom to look.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Human beings are conditioned

2010-01-31T08:57:00.001-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Human beings are conditioned, the whole of their behaviour pattern, their outlook, their activities, their aggressiveness, their contradictory states of mind, hate and love, pleasure and pain, the despair and hope, this constant battle in the whole field of our consciousness, the inventions of gods and beliefs and faiths, is the outcome of this conditioned mind. Our nationalities, the division of people, racial and so on, is the result of our education and of the influence of the society which we have built; and so there we are, that is the field of our so obviously conditioned consciousness. How is one to be free, completely, of this, so that there is no conflict of any kind? The conflict, the struggle and battle, is a waste of energy. Our whole life is spent in this way, one desire opposing another desire, one demand, urge, instinct, contradicted by another. That is our life and one asks oneself if it is possible to step completely out of it and if so, how is this to be done? Is it at all possible?

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Meditation implies a quality of mind that can completely attend

2010-01-29T22:53:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Meditation implies a quality of mind that can completely attend, therefore, a mind that can be completely still. The mind is always chattering, always talking, either to itself, within itself or to somebody, always in movement. How can such a mind which is everlastingly chattering, how can it perceive anything? Only a mind that is completely attentive has the total energy to observe: because you need tremendous energy to observe.

The religious monks and others say that you cannot waste energy, therefore no sex if you want to be a saint. And when you become a celibate and have taken vows of celibacy there is havoc in you, because you are denying the whole biological system and there is a wastage of energy, you're battling, battling, battling. Or you go to the other extreme, indulge, which is another form of wasting energy. Whereas, if you are attentive it is the greatest form of all summation of energy. It means intensity, passion, and you cannot be passionate if you are wasting. Without any effort the mind can become completely quiet and therefore full of energy without any distortion.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Have diet and regularity any significance in the growth of a child

2010-01-29T08:28:00.000-08:00

Questioner: Have diet and regularity any significance in the growth of a child?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Obviously they have. Have you the proper food to give the child today? But those who have the food are so unintelligent about their diet; they merely eat to satisfy the palate, they love to eat. Look at your body. Do not smile and pass it by. You just eat what you have been accustomed to. If you are accustomed to highly condimented food and if you are deprived of it, you are lost. You have actually given no consideration to diet. If you did, you would soon find out how simple it is to know what to eat. I cannot tell you what to eat, obviously, because each person has to think out and organize what is most suitable for him. Therefore, one must experiment for a week, for a month. You do not want to experiment because you want to continue with what you have been eating for the past ten or twenty years.

Most obviously, children need a regular life; at their tender age when they are growing up bodily, they must have the right amount of sleep, the right diet, right care. These are obvious necessities in the life of a child. But you do not love the child; you quarrel with your wife and you take it out on the child, or your wife takes it out on the child. When you come home late, you expect the child to keep awake for your amusement. The child becomes a toy to play with and a means to pass on your name. You are not interested in the child; you are interested in yourself.

Sir, if you were interested, you would have a revolution tomorrow; if you really loved the child, you would break up this educational system, this social environment. Then you would consider what he eats, whether he leads a regular life, and what is going to happen to him, whether he is going to be fodder for cannon. Then you would investigate the causes of wars, not merely quote others, and have a pattern of action.

If you really loved the child, you would have no sovereign governments, no isolated nationalities, no separate religions with their ceremonies and organized dogmatism. If you really loved the child, all these things would change overnight, you would avoid them because they lead to chaos, they lead to destruction, they lead to sorrow and suffering. But you do not love the child, you do not care what happens to him as he grows up and looks after you when you are old, or carries on your name. That is what you are interested in, and you are not interested in the child. If you were, you would not have so many children; you would have one or two, and see to it that your child develops intelligence and the right culture. The pity of it is, sirs, that it is not the fault of the educational system, but of ourselves - our hearts are so empty, so dull. We do not know love.

When we say to a person, ''I love you,'' that love is purely gratification - sexual pleasure, or the pride of possession, ownership. Mere pleasure and pride of possession are clearly not love. But it is only those two things that we care about; we are not concerned about our children, we are not concerned about our neighbor. The beggar as we go down the street gets no help, but we talk loudly about how we should help the unfortunate people. You join groups, you join systems, but the man in need goes empty-handed. If you were really interested, your hearts would be rich with feeling and you would be ready to act, and you would change the system overnight.

So, diet and regularity are necessary not only for the child but for each one of us. To find out what is necessary, we must investigate, we must experiment with ourselves first and not with the child. At least we can give him clean food, see that he has a regular time for sleep and rest. It is because we have never thought about it that most children are so small, stunted, and hungry. I am sure you are listening very attentively, and you will go home and make a noise, shout to see if the child is asleep and stuff his mouth with sugar to show how much you love him! I do not think you know what you are doing, that is the pity and the misery of it. We are not aware of our actions, we are not aware of the words we use, we are not aware of the significance of our means of livelihood - we just live, drift, breed, and die.

When we have one foot in the grave, we talk about God because we want to be secure when we land on the other side; living a wretched, monstrous, ugly life here, we expect a beautiful life at the end of it. Beauty consists in living a rich life, living reality from the beginning to the end. There is no beauty in a life of exploitation, of greed and hatred, in seeking titles and possessions, and it is odd that you add one more object to your accumulations - God. What you are doing is too ugly for words, it has no meaning, no depth. Most of you live on words, and naturally your child is the same, he also grows up like you. There can be regeneration only when there is transformation of the mind and heart.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti talks in india 1948

J. Krishnamurti - About Life and Death

2010-01-26T09:41:00.001-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti video - New York 1928, Ojai 1930

2010-01-24T23:48:00.000-08:00

A rare video of the young Jiddu Krishnamurti in New York (1928) and Ojai (1930), reading what he had said at the Ommen Camp on August 3, 1929 (dissolution of the Order of the Star).

Jiddu Krishnamurti - How you approach your problem

2010-01-13T22:51:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - I see that I always regard my problem in the light of judgment - either condemning, accepting, or trying to transform it - or looking at it through glasses, through the screen of formulas of what somebody has said in the Bhagavad-Gita, what the Buddha or the Christ has said. So my mind, being crippled by these formulas, judgments, quotations, can never understand the problem, can never look at it. So can the mind free itself from these accumulated judgments?

Please follow this carefully - not my words, but how you approach your problem. What we are always doing is pursuing the hope and everlastingly being frustrated. If I fail with one hope, I substitute another, and so I go on and on. And as I do not know how to approach, how to understand the problem itself, I resort to various escapes. But if I knew how to approach the problem, then there is no necessity for hope. So what is important is to find out how the mind regards the problem.

Your mind looks at a problem. It looks at it obviously with a condemnatory attitude. It condemns it in distinguishing it, in reacting to it, or it wants to change it into something which it is not. If you are violent, you want to change into nonviolence. Nonviolence is unreal, it is not factual; what is real is violence. Now to see how you approach the problem, with what attitude - whether you condemn it, whether you have the memories of what the so-called teachers have said about it - that is what is important.

Can the mind eradicate these conditions, free itself from these conditions and look at the problem? Can it be unconcerned with how to free itself from these conditions? If it is concerned with it, then you create another problem out of it. But if you can see how these conditions prevent you from looking at the problem, then these conditions have no value because the problem is important, pain is important, sorrow is important. You cannot call sorrow an idea and brush it aside. It is there.

So, as long as the mind is incapable of looking at the problem, as long as it is not capable of resolving the problem, there must be various escapes from the problem, and the escapes are hopes; they are the defense mechanism.

The mind will always create problems. But what is essential is that when we make mistakes, when we are in pain, to meet these mistakes, these pains, without judgment, to look at them without condemnation, to live with them and to let them go by. And that can only happen when the mind is in the state of noncondemnation, without any formula; which means, when the mind is essentially quiet, when the mind is fundamentally still; then only is there the comprehension of the problem.

J Krishnamurti - To examine, there must be freedom from personal views

2010-01-07T09:43:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - What is necessary is to examine unemotionally, not merely intellectually. Because the intellect doesn't solve any problem; it can only invent a lot of ideas, theories. Nor can emotion dissipate the urgency of the problems that one has to face and resolve.

What is necessary, it seems to me, is a mind that is capable of examination. To examine, there must be freedom from personal views, with a mind that is not guided by one's own temperament, inclination, nor is compelled by circumstances. And that's quite a difficult task because we are accustomed to examine everything from a personal point of view: of like or dislike, to certain commitments, to certain philosophies, to certain formulas.

And therefore we're always translating these problems according to our particular limitation; but, if we would translate or understand these problems deeply and fully, it seems to me that one must look at them, not as an individual, but as a human being.

I think there is a vast difference between the two. The individual is the local entity, the American, the man who lives on the West Coast or the East Coast, or in the Midwest. The individual is the Indian, far away, with his outlook, with his limitations, with his superstitions, with his innumerable religions and doctrines and beliefs. The individual is caught in his nationalities, by the division of the sectarian spirit, whether it be Catholic or Protestant, or the various nationalistic divisions with their Democratic, Republican political parties, and so on and on and on. In that frame the individual exists.

But I think the human being supersedes the individual. Whether they live in Russia, China, India, America, or in any other part of the world, human beings have the same common factor of sorrow, of joy, of unresolved miseries, despairs, the immense loneliness of modern existence, the utter meaninglessness of life as it is lived now throughout the world - the wars, the continuation of hatred, the national divisions, the utter despair of life. At that level is the human being, though the individual does partake of all that; but if we merely consider the individual, we shall not inquire much, very deeply. It is like cultivating one's own little backyard, and to cultivate that little backyard is necessary. But that little land is in relation to the whole of the earth upon which man lives as a human being, in travail, in despair, in agony - this endless sorrow, this fleeting love, and the ending of life.

So, if we could consider these problems as human beings, not as an American unrelated to the rest of the world, unrelated to the vast hungry East, but rather as a human being with all the innumerable problems, then perhaps we can intelligently, with care, resolve our problems.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti talks in USA - 1966

Jiddu Krishnamurti - One has to learn the art of Looking, Observing

2010-01-07T09:39:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Let's go briefly into learning the art of observation.

To observe, to see. To observe, it is again very simple: to observe you must have clear eyes. To look at the trees you must have unclouded eyes. You may have to wear glasses, but it makes your eyes see clearly. Right? So to observe the outward things of life. Right? How the world is divided, why it is divided, the Hindu against the Muslim, the Muslim against somebody else. You follow? To observe all the facts, what is actually happening, which does not demand theories, but it requires that you observe.

So from observing the outer you come to observe the inner. But if you do not know how to observe the outer, you have no criterion to see if you are observing correctly in yourself. You understand how important it is to start observing the outer and from the outer moving to the inner. Not moving suddenly to the inner, because you may be misjudging.

So, one has to learn the art of looking, observing. You cannot observe what is happening actually in the world if you are attached to one particular part of that world. If I am attached to this country saying, I am a Hindu, I am proud of being a Hindu, I am ancient, blah, blah, blah, blah - all that, if I am attached to that, I cannot possibly observe the division that is going on in the world - the Arab, the Jew, the Communists, the Socialists and so on, so on, so on.

So, to learn to observe without personal distortion entering into the factor? Can you do it? That requires tremendous alertness, watching. Then to observe what is going on inwardly, what is actually going on. This becomes extraordinarily interesting. Now, which is... I must stop - nearly quarter to seven. I'll just briefly go into it, we'll continue tomorrow. Can you watch, can you observe inwardly what actually is happening, actually at the moment of happening? Not after the event.

You understand my question? That is, to observe my violence - violence in different forms. I won't go into that, we will discuss it much more in detail tomorrow - if you want to. That is, to observe that which is actually taking place, which is at the moment of anger to observe it; not after, or train your mind so carefully that you watch before it happens; but actually as it is flowering, beginning to grow, the actual movement of it. Which demands a mind, a brain that is not caught in the past, which is not a slave to words, which is violence. That very word is a distorting factor, and therefore when you observe with that word, you have already distorted it.

You understand how subtle it is? So to learn the art of it, therefore, you are watching the movement which is out of time. So the brain is capable of observing without distortion. You understand? So we'll continue tomorrow, if you will.

Source - J Krishnamurti Book "To Be Human"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Is there security, psychologically? - 1of 4

2010-01-06T22:32:00.002-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti's third public talk at Saanen, Switzerland in 1979. Audio comes in after 60 seconds.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Is there security, psychologically? - 2 of 4

2010-01-06T22:32:00.001-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Is there security, psychologically? - 3of 4

2010-01-06T22:31:00.002-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Is there security, psychologically? - 4 of 4

2010-01-06T22:31:00.001-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Love And Freedom part 1-8

2010-01-06T22:27:00.001-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Love And Freedom part 2-8

2010-01-06T22:26:00.002-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Love And Freedom part 3-8

2010-01-06T22:26:00.001-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Love And Freedom part 4-8

2010-01-06T22:25:00.004-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Love And Freedom part 5-8

2010-01-06T22:25:00.003-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Love And Freedom part 6-8

2010-01-06T22:25:00.001-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Love And Freedom part 7-8

2010-01-06T22:24:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Love And Freedom part 8-8

2010-01-06T22:22:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Real Revolution - Part 1 of 2

2010-01-06T22:00:00.000-08:00

This 30-minute documentary is the first from an original series of eight made for television in 1966. They were the earliest sound-films of Jiddu Krishnamurti speaking to audiences.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The Real Revolution - Part 2 of 2

2010-01-06T21:59:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Can one observe without Effort

2009-12-23T23:44:00.000-08:00

Questioner: Can one observe without effort and if you observe without effort will this observation dissolve fears?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: I have been talking about it the whole evening. Can you observe without effort? Now, can you observe with effort? (audience - no...) Don't yell sir, find out, can you observe anything with effort? If I want to see you, must I make an effort to see you? Can't I see you because I am interested in seeing you? We have made everything into an effort. To get up is an effort, to go to bed is an effort, everything has become an effort. Why? Why is it we can't do anything simply, easily, happily, why? Why has all of life, the way we live, become a constant struggle, conflict and effort?

First, let us look at it very simply. You make effort because you are comparing. You are comparing yourself with another, yourself with an idea, yourself as you think you should be. You are comparing. In education when you are a little boy the teacher compares you with the other boy who is still more clever. The mother compares herself with another woman, so, where there is measurement, comparison, there must be effort.

Can you live without comparing? Never to compare, that means never to have an ideal, never to have a hero, by which you measure yourself with another. When you see a man riding in a big car, you look at it and you compare. You compare yourself with a man who is clever, bright, and you say, 'I am dull'. Therefore, recognising through comparison you are dull, you make an effort to be bright. Please see this, the truth of it, that when you compare yourself with another or identify yourself with another, which is a form of comparison, there must be conflict. Can you live without comparison at all, which means seeing what is, and never comparing what is with what should be? You have understood?

Never to compare, which means when you don't compare, you have to observe yourself and therefore through observation you become a light to yourself. Light doesn't compare itself with anything, it is light. When you are tremendously joyous, there is no comparison; but when you are comparing, when there is comparison you say, I had pleasure yesterday and I want more of it. To wipe out in our vocabulary in our thinking, the 'better', the 'more'. The better is the enemy of the good. If there is conformity there must be effort, if you are conforming to the social pattern, to what people say, conforming to an ideal, conforming to the past image of yourself or the future image of yourself, there is constant comparison, constant conformity. You train the child to conform. That is what the Stalins, Hitlers and all the tyrannical rulers of the world have done; conform.

All the religious people have conformed and that's why there are saints. Can the mind not compare, not conform? That you can only find out by being aware, every day, seeing how you are comparing, how you are conforming, deeply, not at a superficial level, putting on these trousers or some other trousers, but deeply, inwardly conforming, comparing.

Then you can live a life without conflict, when there is no comparison and there is no conformity, because then life is intelligence and that intelligence is not yours or mine, but intelligence, which is wisdom.

J. Krishnamurti Talks and Dialogues Sydney 1970

Jiddu Krishnamurti - You should be aware of everything that is happening around you and within yourself

2009-12-23T09:39:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Is it not very important, while we are young, to be loved, and also to know what it means to love? But it seems to me that most of us do not love, nor are we loved. And I think it is essential, while we are young, to go into this problem very seriously and understand it; for then perhaps we can be sensitive enough to feel love, to know its quality, its perfume, so that when we grow older it will not be entirely destroyed. So let us consider this question.

What does it mean to love? Is it an ideal, something far away, unattainable? Or can love be felt by each one of us at odd moments of the day? To have the quality of sympathy, of understanding, to help someone naturally, without any motive, to be spontaneously kind, to care for a plant or a dog, to be sympathetic to the villager, generous to your friend, to a neighbour - is this not what we mean by love? Is not love a state in which there is no sense of resentment, but everlasting forgiveness? And is it not possible, while we are young to feel it?

While we are young many of us do experience this feeling - a sudden outgoing sympathy for the villager, for a dog, for those who are little or helpless. And should it not be constantly tended? Should you not always give some part of the day to aiding another, to caring for a tree or a garden, to helping in the house or in the hostel, so that, as you grow to maturity, you will know what it means to be considerate naturally, without enforcement, without motive? Should you not have this quality of real affection?

Real affection cannot be brought into being artificially, you have to feel it; and your guardian, your parents, your teachers must also feel it. Most people have no real affection; they are too concerned with their achievements, their longings, their knowledge, their success. They give to what they have done and want to do, such colossal importance that it ultimately destroys them.

That is why it is very important, while you are young, to help look after the rooms, or to care for a number of trees which you yourself have planted, or to go to the assistance of a sick friend, so that there is a subtle feeling of sympathy, of concern, of generosity - real generosity which is not just of the mind, and which makes you want to share with somebody whatever you may have, however little. If you do not have this feeling of love, of generosity, of kindness, of gentleness, while you are young, it will be very difficult to have it when you are older; but if you begin to have it now, then perhaps you can awaken it in others.

To have sympathy and affection implies freedom from fear, does it not? But you see, it is very difficult to grow up in this world without fear, without having some personal motive in action. The older people have never thought about this problem of fear, or they have thought about it only abstractly, without acting upon it in daily existence. You are still very young, you are watching, inquiring, learning, but if you do not see and understand what causes fear, you will become as they are. Like some hidden weed, fear will grow and spread and twist your mind. You should therefore be aware of everything that is happening around you and within yourself - how the teachers talk, how our parents behave, and how you respond - so that this question of fear is seen and understood.

Most grown-up people think that some kind of discipline is necessary. Do you know what discipline is? It is a process of making you do something which you do not want to do. Where there is discipline, there is fear; so discipline is not the way of love. That is why discipline at all costs should be avoided - discipline being coercion, resistance, compulsion, making you do something which you really do not understand, or persuading you to do it by offering you a reward. If you don't understand something, don't do it, and don't be compelled to do it. Ask for an explanation; don't just be obstinate, but try to find out the truth of the matter so that no fear is involved and your mind becomes very pliable, very supple.

When you do not understand and are merely compelled by the authority of grown-up people, you are suppressing your own mind, and then fear comes into being; and that fear pursues you like a shadow throughout life. That is why it is so important not to be disciplined according to any particular type of thought or pattern of action. But most older people can think only in those terms. They want to make you do something for your so-called good. This very process of making you do something for your own 'good', destroys your sensitivity, your capacity to understand, and therefore your love. To refuse to be coerced or compelled is very difficult, because the world about us is so strong; but if we merely give in and do things without understanding, we fall into a habit of thoughtlessness, and then it becomes still more difficult for us to break away.

So, in your school, should you have authority, discipline? Or should you be encouraged by your teachers to discuss these questions, go into them, understand them so that, when you are grown up and go out into the world, you will be a mature human being who is capable of meeting intelligently the world's problems? You cannot have that deep intelligence if there is any kind of fear. Fear only makes you dull, it curbs your initiative, it destroys that flame which we call sympathy generosity, affection, love. So do not allow yourself to be disciplined into a pattern of action, but find out - which means that you must have the time to question, to inquire; and the teachers must also have the time; if there is no time, then time must be made. Fear is a source of corruption, it is the beginning of degeneration, and to be free of fear is more important than any examination or any scholastic degree.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "Life Ahead"

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Can you live without any image

2009-12-23T09:23:00.000-08:00

Questioner: Can one live without an image?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Can one live without an image. Can one live without an image? What is an image? The image created by hand that exists in churches and temples, that image is the projection of one's own desires put in stone or in marble, or in clay. Can't you live without that? And it becomes much more difficult to be free of the image created by thought. You have an image about your wife or husband, haven't you? Or your girlfriend, haven't you?

Obviously. She has about you and you have it about her. And the relationship is between these two images created through time, it may be one day or ten years. And can you live without those images? If you can then you are really related, then you become extraordinarily responsible. But you become rather irresponsible, which is happening in the world now, when your responsibility is based on your image that you have about another.

So the question is: can you live without any image, image being not only the thing made by the hand, out of clay, marble, wood or precious stone, and the image created by thought in relationship - can you live without any image at all? Probably you have never even asked that question. If you have, and I hope you are doing it now, what does it mean - to live without a single image. Image may be an idea, a symbol, a conclusion, a concept.

So can you live without a single concept? And you will find out how extraordinarily difficult it is to live without a concept, because all our life from childhood, through school, college, university, through all the business and everywhere about us, our world is made up of concepts, projected by thought according to its desires, comforts, fears and pleasures.

And the questioner asks: can you live without an image. Of course one can. But that demands attention. Attention at the moment when the image is being formed, when somebody insults you, at that moment to be completely attentive. Or at the moment when somebody flatters you, to be totally aware. Then you will find no image is formed, which means there is no recording of that insult or flattery on the brain.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "Meeting Life"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - What is the place of art and religion in education

2009-12-18T04:59:00.000-08:00

Questioner: What is the place of art and religion in education?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : What do you mean by art and what do you mean by religion? Is art the hanging up of a few pictures in a classroom, drawing a few lines? What do you mean by art? What do you mean by religion? Is religion the spreading of organized belief? Is art merely imitating or copying a tree? Surely, art is something more than that. Art implies appreciation of beauty; while it may express itself in writing a poem, painting a picture, composing, it is the appreciation of beauty, that creative richness, the feeling of joy which comes from looking at a tree, at the stars, at the moonlight on still waters.

Surely, art does not consist in the mere purchase of a few pictures and hanging them in a room. If you happen to have money and feel that it is safer to invest your money in pictures than in stocks, you do not become an artist, do you? Because you happen to have money and you invest your money in jewels, it obviously does not mean that you appreciate beauty. Surely, beauty is something different from mere security, is it not? Have you ever sat down to look at the waters as they run by; have you ever sat still and watched the moon? Have you ever noticed the smile on a face? Have you ever observed a child laughing or a man crying?

Obviously you have not. You are too busy thinking about action, repeating your mantras, making money, being carried away by lustful desires. Not having the appreciation of beauty, we surround ourselves with so-called beautiful things. Don't you know how the rich man surrounds himself with such things? There is an atmosphere of outward beauty, but inwardly it is empty as a drum. (Laughter) Do not laugh at the rich man, sirs; he is a reflection of life as a whole, and you want to be in that position too.

So, the appreciation of beauty does not come through mere attachment to the outward expression of beauty. You may put on a lovely sari, powder your face, paint your lips, but that obviously is not beauty, is it? That is merely a part of it. Beauty comes, surely, when there is inward beauty; and there is inward beauty only when there is no conflict, when there is love, when there is mercy, when there is generosity. Then your eyes have meaning, your lips have riches, and your words have significance. Because we lack these things, we merely indulge in an outward show of beauty, we buy jewelry, pictures.

Surely, those are not the actions of beauty. As most of our lives are hideous, ugly, dull, and empty beyond words, we surround ourselves with things that we call beautiful. We collect things when the heart is empty; we create a world of ugliness about us because to us things matter enormously. And as most of us are in that state, how can we have art, beauty in the school or in education? When there is no art or beauty in your heart, how can you educate your children? What happens today is that the teacher is hampered with a hundred boys and girls - naughty and mischievous, as they should be.

So you put up a picture and talk about art. Your schools indicate an empty mind, an empty heart. Surely, in such a school, in such education, there is no beauty. The light of a smile, the expression of a face - art is to see that these are beautiful, it is not merely the admiring of a picture painted by somebody else. Since we have forgotten how to be kindly, how to look at the stars, the trees, the reflections in the water, we require pictures; therefore, art has no meaning in our lives except as a topic of discussion in the club.

Similarly, religion has very little importance in our lives. You may go to the temple, do puja, wear the sacred thread, repeat words and mantras ad nauseam, but that does not mean you are a religious person. That is merely the expression of a mechanical mind of very little content. Surely, religion consists in seeking truth, reality, not in surrounding yourself with substitutes and false values. The search for reality does not lie far off - it lies very near, in what you are doing, in what you are thinking, what you are feeling.

Therefore, truth must be found, not beyond your horizon, but in you, in your words, actions, relationships, and ideas. But we do not want such a religion. We want belief, we want dogma, we want security. As a rich man seeks security in pictures and diamonds, so you seek security in organized religion, with its dogmas, with its superstitions, with its exploiting priests and all the rest of it. There is not much difference between the so-called religious person and a man of the world - both are seeking security, only at different levels.

Surely, that is not religion, that is not beauty. Appreciation of beauty, of life, comes only when there is enormous uncertainty, when you are paying attention to every movement of truth, when you see the movement of every shadow, of every thought and feeling, when you are awake to every movement of your child. It comes only when the mind is extremely pliable, and the mind can be pliable only when it is not tethered to a particular form of belief, whether belief in money or belief in an idea.

When the mind is free to observe, to give full attention - only then is there creative realization. How extraordinary that most of us have become spectators in life, and not players. Most of us read books, and when we read, it is such twaddle, such piffle. We have lost the art of beauty, we have lost religion. It is the rediscovery of beauty and of reality that is important.

Rediscovery comes only when we acknowledge the emptiness of our own mind and heart, when we are aware not only of that emptiness but of its depth, and when we are not trying to run away from it. We seek to run away through pictures, money, diamonds, saris, mantras, innumerable outward expressions. It is only creative intelligence, creative understanding, that can bring to you a new culture, a new world, and a new happiness.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Talks in India, 1948

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Discipline in Education and in Schools

2009-12-18T04:53:00.000-08:00

Questioner: Obviously there must be some kind of discipline in schools, but how is it to be carried out?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Surely, sir, there have been experiments in England and in other places in which schools have had no discipline of any kind at all; the children were allowed to do what they liked and never interfered with. Those schools obviously feel that children need some kind of discipline in the sense of guidance - no rigid do's and don'ts, but some kind of warning, some kind of hint or intimation by way of showing the difficulties. Such a form of discipline, which is really guidance, is necessary.

The difficulty arises when discipline is merely forcing the child into a particular pattern of action through compulsion, through fear. The character of such a child is obviously distorted, his mind is made crooked through discipline, through the many taboos of do and don't; so he grows up, as most of us have done, with fear and a sense of inferiority. When discipline forces the child into a particular framework, surely he cannot become intelligent; he is merely the product of discipline, and how can such a child be alert, creative, and therefore grow into an integrated, intelligent man? He is merely a machine functioning very smoothly and efficiently, a machine without human intelligence.

So, the question of discipline is quite a complex problem because we think that without discipline in life, we shall spill over, we shall become too lustful. That is the only problem with which we really concern ourselves: how not to become too lustful. You may spill over in any other direction - seek position, be greedy, violent, do anything - as long as you are within limits regarding sexuality. It is very strange, is it not, that no religion really attacks exploitation, greed, envy, but they are all interested in the sexual act, frightfully concerned about sexual morality. It is very odd that organized religions should be so concerned about that particular morality and let the other things rip. One can see why organized religions place their emphasis on sexual morality. They do not look into the problem of exploitation because organized religions depend on society and live on it, and therefore they dare not attack the root and foundation of that society, so they play with sexual morality.

Though most of us talk of discipline, what do we mean by that word? When you have a hundred boys in a class, you will have to have discipline; otherwise, there will be complete chaos. But if you had five or six in a class and an intelligent teacher with a warm heart, with understanding, I am sure there would be no need for discipline; she would understand each child and help him in the way required.

Discipline in schools becomes necessary when there is one teacher to a hundred boys and girls - then you jolly well have to be very strict - but such discipline will not produce an intelligent human being. And most of us are interested in mass movements - large schools with a great many boys and girls - we are not interested in creative intelligence; therefore, we put up huge schools with enormous attendances. At one of the universities I believe there are 45,000 students. What are you going to do, sirs, when we are educating everybody on such a vast scale? Under such circumstances, naturally there must be discipline. I am not against educating everybody, it would be too stupid of me to say so. I am for right education, which is the creation of intelligence, and this can come about, not through mass education, but only through consideration of each child - studying his difficulties, his idiosyncrasies, his tendencies, his capacities, taking care of him with affection, with intelligence. Only then is there a possibility of creating a new culture.

There is a lovely story, an actual fact, about a bishop who read the Bible to the illiterate people of the South Seas, and they were delighted to listen to these stories. He thought to himself that it was marvelous, and that it would be a good thing if he went back to America, collected money, and founded schools all over the South Sea Islands. So he collected a great deal of money in America, returned to the islands, founded schools, and taught the people how to read. At the end of it they were reading the comic papers, the Saturday Evening Post, Look, and other exciting, suggestive magazines! That is exactly what we are doing.

Also, it is an extraordinary thing that the more people read, the less revolt there is. Sirs, have you ever considered how we worship the printed word? If the government issues an order or gives information in print, we accept it, we never doubt it. The printed word has become sacred. The more you teach people, the less there is a possibility of revolution - which does not mean that I am against teaching people to read, but just see the danger involved in it. Governments control people, dominate their minds and hearts, through cunning propaganda. That is happening not only in totalitarian countries, but all over the world. The newspaper has taken the place of thought, the headline has taken the place of real knowledge and understanding.

So, the difficulty is that in the present social structure, discipline has become an important factor because we want large numbers of children to be educated together and as quickly as possible. Educated to be what? To be bank clerks or super-salesmen, capitalists or commissars. When you are a superman of some kind, a super-governor or a subtle parliamentary debater, what have you done? You are probably very clever, full of facts. Anybody can pick up facts, but we are human beings, not factual machines, not beastly routine automatons.

But again, sirs, you are not interested. You are listening to me and smiling at each other, and you are not going to do a thing about radically changing the educational system; so it will drag on until there is a monstrous revolution, which will merely be another substitution - there will be much more control because the totalitarian governments know how to shape the minds and hearts of the people, they have learned the trick. That is the misery, that is the unfortunate weakness in us; we want somebody else to alter, to reform, to build. We listen and remain inactive, and when the revolution is successful and others have built a new structure and there are guarantees, then we step in. Surely, that is not an intelligent, creative mind; such a mind is only seeking security in a different form. To seek security is a stupid process. To be secure psychologically you must have discipline, and the discipline guarantees the result - the making of human beings into routine officeholders, whether bank clerks, commissars, kings, or prime ministers.

Surely, that is the greatest form of stupidity, for then human beings are merely machines. See the danger of discipline - the danger is that the discipline becomes more important than the human being, the pattern of thought, the pattern of action, far more important than the people who fit into them. Discipline will inevitably exist as long as the heart is empty, for then it is a substitute for affection. As most of us are dry, empty, we want discipline. A warm heart, a rich, integrated human being is free - he has no discipline. Freedom does not come through discipline; you do not have to go through discipline to be free. Freedom and intelligence begin near, not far away, and that is why to go far one must begin intelligently with oneself.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Talks in India, 1948

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Is not the worship of God true religion?

2009-12-11T23:16:00.000-08:00

Questioner: Is not the worship of God true religion?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : First of all, let us find out what is not religion. Isn't that the right approach? If we can understand what is not religion, then perhaps we shall begin to perceive something else. It is like cleaning a dirty window - one begins to see through it very clearly.

So let us see if we can understand and sweep out of our minds that which is not religion; don't let us say, ''I will think about it'' and just play around with words. Perhaps you can do it, but most of the older people are already caught; they are comfortably established in that which is not religion and they do not want to be disturbed.

So, what is not religion? Have you ever thought about it? You have been told over and over again what religion is supposed to be - belief in God and a dozen other things - but nobody has asked you to find out what is not religion; and now you and I are going to find out for ourselves.

In listening to me, or to anyone else, do not merely accept what is said, but listen to discern the truth of the matter. If once you perceive for yourself what is not religion, then throughout your life no priest or book can deceive you, no sense of fear will create an illusion which you may believe and follow. To find out what is not religion you have to begin on the everyday level, and then you can climb. To go far you must begin near, and the nearest step is the most important one.

So what is not religion? Are ceremonies religion? Doing puja over and over again - is that religion?

True education is to learn how to think, not what to think. If you know how to think, if you really have that capacity, then you are a free human being - free of dogmas, superstitions ceremonies - and therefore you can find out what religion is.

Ceremonies are obviously not religion, because in performing ceremonies you are merely repeating a formula which has been handed down to you. You may find a certain pleasure in performing ceremonies, just as others do in smoking or drinking; but is that religion? In performing ceremonies you are doing something about which you know nothing. Your father and your grandfather do it, therefore you do it, and if you don't they will scold you. That is not religion, is it?

And what is in a temple? A graven image fashioned by a human being according to his own imagination. The image may be a symbol, but it is still only an image, it is not the real thing. A symbol, a word, is not the thing it represents. The word 'door' is not the door, is it? The word is not the thing. We go to the temple to worship - what? An image which is supposed to be a symbol; but the symbol is not the real thing. So why go to it? These are facts; I am not condemning; and, since they are facts, why bother about who goes to the temple, whether it be the touchable or the untouchable, the Brahman or the non-Brahman? Who cares? You see, the older people have made the symbol into a religion for which they are willing to quarrel, fight, slaughter; but God is not there. God is never in a symbol. So the worship of a symbol or of an image is not religion.

And is belief religion? This is more complex. We began near, and now we are going a little bit farther. Is belief religion? The Christians believe in one way, the Hindus in another, the Moslems in another, the Buddhists in still another, and they all consider themselves very religious people; they all have their temples, gods, symbols, beliefs. And is that religion? Is it religion when you believe in God, in Rama, Sita, Ishwara, and all that kind of thing? How do you get such a belief? You believe because your father and your grandfather believe; or having read what some teacher like Shankara or Buddha is supposed to have said, you believe it and say it is true. Most of you just believe what the Gita says, therefore you don't examine it clearly and simply as you would any other book; you don't try to find out what is true.

We have seen that ceremonies are not religion that going to a temple is not religion, and that belief is not religion. Belief divides people. The Christians have beliefs and so are divided both from those of other beliefs and among themselves; the Hindus are everlastingly full of enmity because they believe themselves to be Brahmans or non-Brahmans, this or that. So belief brings enmity, division, destruction, and that is obviously not religion.

Then what is religion? If you have wiped the window clean - which means that you have actually stopped performing ceremonies, given up all beliefs, ceased to follow any leader or guru - then your mind, like the window, is clean, polished, and you can see out of it very clearly. When the mind is swept clean of image of ritual, of belief, of symbol, of all words, mantrams and repetitions, and of all fear, then what you see will be the real, the timeless, the everlasting, which may be called God; but this requires enormous insight, understanding, patience, and it is only for those who really inquire into what is religion and pursue it day after day to the end. Only such people will know what is true religion. The rest are merely mouthing words, and all their ornaments and bodily decorations, their pujas and ringing of bells - all that is just superstition without any significance. It is only when the mind is in revolt against all so-called religion that it finds the real.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "This Matter of Culture"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - If you are not being educated to live, then education has no meaning

2009-12-11T23:13:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - WHY ARE YOU here listening to me? Have you ewer considered why you listen to people at all? And what does listening to somebody mean? All of you here are sitting in front of one who is speaking. Are you listening to hear something that will confirm, tally with your own thoughts or are you listening to find out? Do you see the difference? Listening to find out has quite a different significance from listening merely to hear that which will confirm what you think. If you are here merely to have confirmation, to be encouraged in your own thinking, then your listening has very little meaning. But, if you are listening to find out, then your mind is free, not committed to anything; it is very acute, sharp, alive, inquiring, curious, and therefore capable of discovery. So, is it not very important to consider why you listen, and what you are listening to?

Have you ever sat very silently, not with your attention fixed on anything, not making an effort to concentrate, but with the mind very quiet, really still? Then you hear everything, don't you? You hear the far-off noises as well as those that are nearer and those that are very close by, the immediate sounds - which means, really that you are listening to everything. Your mind is not confined to one narrow little channel. If you can listen in this way, listen with ease, without strain, you will find an extraordinary change taking place within you, a change which comes without your volition, without your asking; and in that change there is great beauty and depth of insight.

Just try it sometime, try it now. As you are listening to me, listen not only to me, but to everything about you. Listen to all those bells, the bells of the cows and the temples; listen to the distant train and the carts on the road; and if you then come nearer still and listen to me also, you will find there is a great depth to listening. But to do this you must have a very quiet mind. If you really want to listen, your mind is naturally quiet, is it not? You are not then distracted by something happening next to you; your mind is quiet because you are deeply listening to everything. If you can listen in this way with ease, with a certain felicity, you will find an astonishing transformation taking place in your heart, in your mind - a transformation which you have not thought of, or in any way produced.

Thought is a very strange thing, is it not? Do you know what thought is? Thought or thinking for most people is something put together by the mind, and they battle over their thoughts. But if you can really listen to everything - to the lapping of the water on the bank of a river, to the song of the birds, to the crying of a child, to your mother scolding you, to a friend bullying you, to your wife or husband nagging you - then you will find that you go beyond the words, beyond the mere verbal expressions which so tear one's being.

And it is very important to go beyond the mere verbal expressions because, after all, what is it that we all want? Whether we are young or old, whether we are inexperienced or full of years, we all want to be happy, don't we? As students we want to be happy in playing our games, in studying, in doing all the little things we like to do. As we grow older we seek happiness in possessions, in money, in having a nice house, a sympathetic wife or husband, a good job. When these things no longer satisfy us, we move on to something else. We say, ''I must be detached and then I shall be happy''. So we begin to practise detachment. We leave our family, give up our property and retire from the world. Or we join some religious society, thinking that we shall be happy by getting together and talking about brotherhood, by following a leader, a guru, a Master, an ideal, by believing in what is essentially a self-deception, an illusion, a superstition.

Do you understand what I am talking about?

When you comb your hair, when you put on clean clothes and make yourself look nice, that is all part of your desire to be happy, is it not? When you pass your examinations and add a few letters of the alphabet after your name, when you get a job, acquire a house and other property, when you marry and have children, when you join some religious society whose leaders claim they have messages from unseen Masters - behind it all there is this extraordinary urge, this compulsion to find happiness.

But, you see, happiness does not come so easily, because happiness is in none of these things. You may have pleasure, you may find a new satisfaction, but sooner or later it becomes wearisome. Because there is no lasting happiness in the things we know. The kiss is followed by the tear, laughter by misery and desolation. Everything withers, decays. So, while you are young you must begin to find out what is this strange thing called happiness. That is an essential part of education.

Happiness does not come when you are striving for it - and that is the greatest secret, though it is very easily said. I can put it in a few simple words; but, by merely listening to me and repeating what you have heard, you are not going to be happy. Happiness is strange; it comes when you are not seeking it. When you are not making an effort to be happy, then unexpectedly, mysteriously happiness is there, born of purity, of a loveliness of being. But that requires a great deal of understanding - not joining an organization or trying to become somebody. Truth is not something to be achieved. Truth comes into being when your mind and heart are purged of all sense of striving and you are no longer trying to become somebody; it is there when the mind is very quiet, listening timelessly to everything that is happening. You may listen to these words but, for happiness to be, you have to find out how to free the mind of all fear.

As long as you are afraid of anyone or anything, there can be no happiness. There can be no happiness as long as you are afraid of your parents, your teachers, afraid of not passing examinations, afraid of not making progress, of not getting nearer to the Master, nearer to truth, or of not being approved of patted on the back. But if you are really not afraid of anything, then you will find - when you wake up of a morning, or when you are walking alone - that suddenly a strange thing happens: uninvited, unsolicited, unlooked for, that which may be called love, truth, happiness, is suddenly there.

That is why it is so important for you to be educated rightly while you are young. What we now call education is not education at all, because nobody talks to you about all these things. Your teachers prepare you to pass examinations, but they do not talk to you about living, which is most important; because very few know how to live. Most of us merely survive, we somehow drag along, and therefore life becomes a dreadful thing. Really to live requires a great deal of love, a great feeling for silence, a great simplicity with an abundance of experience; it requires a mind that is capable of thinking very clearly, that is not bound by prejudice or superstition, by hope or fear.

All this is life, and if you are not being educated to live, then education has no meaning. You may learn to be very tidy, have good manners, and you may pass all your examinations; but, to give primary importance to these superficial things when the whole structure of society is crumbling, is like cleaning and polishing your fingernails while the house is burning down. You see, nobody talks to you about all this, nobody goes into it with you. As you spend day after day studying certain subjects - mathematics, history, geography - so also you should spend a great deal of time talking about these deeper matters, because this makes for richness of life.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "This Matter of Culture"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - There is an art of listening: to listen to what is being said

2009-12-03T22:04:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - One does not listen to another actually. If you do listen, there is always a defence, there is always a resistance to anything that is said, to something new. There is an immediate reaction to resist because it might be disturbing. So, there is an art of listening: to listen to what is being said, not interpret what is being said to suit your own convenience, to your own traditional language, but to listen to the word, the meaning of that word, to see that we understand each other.

To listen, one has to have not only a certain quality of attention but also a sense of affection, a sense of trying to understand what the other fellow is saying. Communication is possible at depth only when both of us are concerned about the same subject, about the same ideas, or concerned about a certain thing. Then we are both in communication with each other.

But if you resist, as perhaps you are going to resist a great deal of what the speaker is going to say, then communication is not possible. One has to learn the art of listening. When you listen to music which you like, there is no resistance. You go with it, you shake your head, you clap your hands, you do all kinds of things to express your appreciation, your understanding of the quality of the music, and so on. There is no form of defence, no form of resistance; you are going with it; you are flowing with it. In the same way, kindly listen, not to be instructed, not to be told what to do, but to understand what is being said.

So, please learn the art of listening, not to the speaker only, but to your wife, to your husband, to your children, to the birds, to the wind, to the breeze, so that you become extraordinarily sensitive in listening. When you listen, you catch up quickly, you don't have to have a lot of explanations, analyses and descriptions; you are flowing with each other. We are talking together as two friends sitting in a park, or in a wood, quiet, birds are singing, there's plenty of light coming through the leaves on the floor and there is a sense of appreciation of beauty. When you so listen, the miracle takes place. When you so listen, it is like sowing a seed. If the seed is vital, strong, healthy, and the ground is properly prepared, it inevitably grows. So one has to learn the art of listening. If you listen very, very carefully, you capture it so quickly, the meaning of what the other is saying.

Perhaps many of you have listened to the speaker for a number of years, unfortunately; and you get used to it; you get used to his language, his gesture, how he looks and so on, and you gradually slip off. And you say, 'Why haven't I, after years of listening to this man, changed?' It is because you have actually not listened with your heart, with your mind, with your whole energy. So, don't blame the speaker, but rather learn, if one may suggest most respectfully, the way of listening. There is great beauty in listening to a bird, to the wind among the leaves, and to a word that is spoken with depth, with meaning, with passion.

Source - J Krishnamurti Book "Mind with out Measure"

Jiddu Krishnamurti - To begin very closely is to observe our relationship with another

2009-11-07T22:00:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Look at it very closely in another direction. We have problems in relationship between man and woman, or between man and man - homosexuality, in this country, more and more, not that it doesn't exist in other countries, but here it is becoming - you know all about it. Look at it very closely, observe it, not try to change it, try to direct it, say, it must not be this way, or it must be that way, or help me to get over it, but just to observe. You can't change the line of that mountain, or the flight of the bird, or the flow of the water, swift, you just observe it, and see the beauty of it. But if you observe and say, that is not so beautiful as the mountain I saw yesterday, you are not observing, you are merely comparing.

So let's observe very closely this question of relationship. Relationship is life. One cannot exist without relationship. You may deny relationship, you may withdraw from relationship because it is frightening, because in that there is conflict, hurt. So most of us build a wall round ourselves in relationship. So let's look very closely - observe, not learn. There is nothing to learn, but only to observe. You see the beauty of it? Because we always want to learn and put it into the category of knowledge. Then we feel safe. But whereas if you observe without any direction, without any motive, without any interference of thought, just to observe, not only with the naked eye visually, but also with a mind and heart and brain that is free to observe without any prejudice. Then you discover for yourself the beauty of relationship. But we have not that beauty.

So let's look at it closely. What is relationship? To be related, not blood relationship, but to be related to another. Are we ever related to another? Except perhaps sexually, or holding hands, but psychologically, inwardly, deeply, are we ever related to anybody at all? Or we want to be so deeply related and we don't know how it could happen. So our relationship with another is full of tears, occasional joy, occasional pleasure, and the repetition of sexual pleasure.

So if you observe, are we related to anybody at all? Or we are related to another through thought, through the image that thought has built about your husband and your wife, the image that you have about her or him. Obviously. So our relationship is between the image you have about her and she has about you. And each one carries this image, and each one goes in his own direction - ambition, greed, envy, competition, seeking power, position. You know what is happening in relationship, each one moving in opposite directions, or perhaps parallel, and never meeting. Because this is the modern civilisation, this is what you are offering to the world. And so there is constant struggle, conflict, divorce, changing of so-called mates. You know what is happening.

So when you observe all this it is rather frightening. And this is called freedom. So when you observe the fact - if you observe the fact very closely without any motive, without any direction, the fact begins to change because you are giving your complete attention to observe. You follow this? When you give complete attention to something you bring, as it were, light upon the subject. Then that light clarifies, and that clarification dissolves that which is.

You understand this? Are we meeting each other in this? That is the fact is there is an image which thought has created during twenty, thirty, five days, or ten years, an image, and she, the other has an image, and each one is ambitious, greedy, wanting to fulfil sexually, this way, that way, you know, all the turmoil that goes on in this so-called relationship. And the observation of that, pure observation of that. It is only when you want to escape from it that all the neurotic business begins, and then you have all the psychologists helping you to become more neurotic. Face the problem, look at it, give your total attention to it. When you do give so complete attention, with your heart, with your brain, with your nerves, with everything that you have, all your energy to look, then in that attentive observation there is clarification. And that which is clear has no problem. Then relationship becomes something entirely different.

So life, for most of us is becoming an enormous problem, because life is relationship. And if we are not related, as we are not, from that all problems arise. And we have created a society which is born out of the lack of relationship. And the communists, the socialists, the democrats, the politicians, are trying to change the nature, the structure of society. The basic question is to have right relationship with another. If you have it with one person you have it with everybody, with nature, with all the things of the beauty of the earth.

So one has to go back and enquire very deeply, again why thought has created this havoc in our lives, because it is thought that has put together this image about my wife and myself, and me and another. You cannot escape from this unless you resolve it, look at it - going to church, prayers, those are all too childish, utterly immature, because they have not solved any problem. One must begin very close to go very far.

To begin very closely is to observe our relationship with another, whatever it is, with your boss, with your, if you are a carpenter, if you are a master carpenter, if you are a foreman, if you are a worker, with your wife, husband, all that. Life is a movement in relationship. And we have destroyed that relationship by thought. And thought is not love. Love is not pleasure, it is not desire. But we have reduced everything to that. We will go into all that next Saturday and Sunday. But day after tomorrow, Tuesday and Thursday, we will have questions. Finished.

Jiddu Krishnamurti on being Honest - Is it possible to be totally honest?

2009-11-07T21:19:00.000-08:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - You know, one of the most difficult things in life is to be honest. To be honest to what? You understand my question? I want to be honest - honest being the word, not the actual state of mind that is honest. The meaning of that word, the semantic meaning, is to think very clearly, precisely, and to say exactly what you mean - not to say one thing, think another thing, and do still another thing. That is what most idealists do.

They think one thing, do another thing, and say something else. To me that is total dishonesty. Honesty exists only when you say exactly what you mean, without double meaning, double thinking, and not conforming to any pattern, any principle, any ideal. Then you are honest to yourself: what you think, what you do, is not contradictory to what you feel, what you assert, and so on.

Most of us are quite dishonest to ourselves because we adjust ourselves very quickly to what other people want, to what other people say. We suppress our own feelings, our own ideas, our own intentions, because we meet somebody who is bigger and more popular and influential; so, we become hypocritical. You can observe this very clearly in the politicians throughout the world - and there is a politician in each one of us.

So, is it possible to be totally honest? - not honest to an ideal or a principle, for that is not honesty. If I practice an ideal, I am leading a double life. Observe it in yourself. If I practice nonviolence because I am violent, what takes place inwardly, psychologically? The fact is one thing, the ideal is the other. Actually, I am violent and I am trying not to be violent, but in doing so I am sowing the seeds of violence - for the fact is one thing, the ideal another. This may be a very drastic saying, but look at it, examine it. An idealist is dishonest. The man who follows a principle is a dishonest man. When a man is practicing something which he is not, then he is dishonest. But, when he acknowledges what he is, then he is very honest.

So, the problem is, how to go beyond what is. You understand? Say, for instance, you are sensual, with all its complexity, and you try not to be sensual because you have read, or have been told, that if you are sensual you cannot possibly come to truth, that you cannot be this or cannot be that. You try to suppress sensuality, but the fact is, you are sensual. And, when you try not to be sensual, you are playing a dishonest game with yourself. Then the question arises: How is it possible to go beyond this sensuality? That is the question, not how to become nonsensual. If a man is angry and says, ''I will not be angry,'' he is not playing an honest game with himself. But if he says, ''I am angry; I acknowledge it; I see that I am angry. How am I to go beyond it?'' - that is an honest question. Not, how to become, but how to have a mind which is not capable of anger. You understand?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Are your teachings intended only for the sannyasis or for all of us with families and responsibilities?

2009-11-04T00:39:00.000-08:00

Questioner: Are your teachings intended only for the sannyasis or for all of us with families and responsibilities?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: These teachings are meant for all, for those who have renounced the world and for those who are in it. The renouncer is still in the world of his burning desires, as the man of the world. They are both held in bondage - the bondage of sensate values or the bondage of the mind.

These teachings bring freedom to both. Reality is not found either in things made by the hand or by the mind; truth is the liberator, the truth of what is. One has to understand what is - the passions and the envies, the ill will and the acquisitiveness - and the understanding of what is is its own liberation. One realizes at rare moments, when the mind is riot occupied with itself, when the self is absent, that truth which liberates.

The man of family is caught in the world of his own responsibilities. The more there is confusion about him, the more he is concerned with his family, with himself, and so seeks security, which only adds further confusion. Instead of understanding the significance of confusion himself, he looks to the security of his family, which he calls responsibility. He must bring peace and order within himself and not escape from this fact through the apprehensive search for security. The man who has renounced the world - he too is caught in the desire for security; he is not different for he is burdened with the formulations of his own mind; they too bring him confusion and sorrow. Creation, reality, is when the mind ceases to create.

Is it possible to live in the world without greed and ill will, without stupidity and those passions that destroy man? Yes, it is possible. You may laugh but it is possible. Try and see if it is not possible. To live without greed and ill will, you must be very alert, aware of every thought and feeling; following a leader, accepting conclusions and formulas indicate the lack of awareness which alone can free you from conflict and misery. Without love, family has no significance, and love alone can bring about regeneration and a happy world.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - It is only by dying each day that there can be eternal renewal

2009-10-30T05:44:00.000-07:00

Questioner: You say that life and death are one and the same thing. Please elaborate this startling statement.

Jiddu Krishnamurti: We know birth and death, existence and nonexistence; we are aware of this conflict between the opposites: the desire to live, to continue, and the fear of death, of noncontinuance. Our life is held in the pattern of becoming and nonbecoming. We may have theories, beliefs, and accordingly, experience, but they are still within the field of duality, of birth and death.

We think-feel in terms of time, of living, of becoming, or of not becoming, or of death, or of extending this becoming beyond death. The pattern of our thought-feeling moves from the known to the known, from the past to the present to the future; if there is fear of the future, it clings to the past or to the present. We are held in time and how can we, who think-feel in terms of time, experience the reality of timelessness, in which life and death are one?

Have you not experienced in moments of great intensity the cessation of time? Such a cessation is generally forced upon one; it is accidental, but depending upon our pleasure in it, we desire to repeat the experience again. So, we become once more prisoners of time. Is it not possible for the mind-heart to stop formulating, to be utterly still and not forced into stillness by an act of will? Will and determination are still self-continuation and so within the field of time. Does not the determination to be, the will to become, imply self-growth, time, which makes for the fear of death?

As the stump of a dead tree in the middle of a stream gathers the floating wreckage, so we gather, we cling to our accumulation; thus we and the deathless stream of life are separate. We sit on the dead stump of our accumulation and consider life and death; we do not let go the ever-accumulating process and be of the living waters. To be free from accumulation there must be deep self-knowledge, not the superficial knowledge of the few layers of our consciousness. The discovery and the experience of all the layers of consciousness is the beginning of true meditation. In the tranquillity of mind-heart are wisdom and reality.

Reality is to be experienced, not speculated upon. This experience can only be when the mind-heart ceases to accumulate. Mind-heart does not cease to accumulate through denial or through determination, but only through self-awareness; through self-knowledge the cause of accumulation is discovered. It is experienced only when the conflict of the opposites ceases. Only right thinking, which comes with self-knowledge and right meditation, can bring about the unity of life and death. It is only by dying each day that there can be eternal renewal.

It is difficult to so die if you are in the process of becoming, if you are gathering, sitting on the stump of dead accumulation. You must abandon it, plunge into the ever-living waters; you must die each day to the day's gathering, die both to the pleasant and the unpleasant. We cling to the pleasant and let the unpleasant go; so we strengthen in gratification and know death. Without seeking reward, let us abandon our gatherings and then only can there be the immortal. Then life is not opposed to death or is death a darkening of life.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - We go from one inspiration, stimulation, to another, each bringing its own disappointment and weariness

2009-10-30T05:38:00.001-07:00

Questioner: You are very depressing. I seek inspiration to carry on; you do not cheer us with words of courage and hope. Is it wrong to seek inspiration?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Why do you want to be inspired? Is it not because in yourself you are empty, uncreative, lonely? You want to fill this loneliness, this aching void; you must have tried different ways of filling it, and you hope to escape from it again by coming here. This process of covering up the arid loneliness is called inspiration. Inspiration then becomes a mere stimulation, and as with all stimulation, it soon brings its own boredom and insensitivity.

So we go from one inspiration, stimulation, to another, each bringing its own disappointment and weariness; thus the mind-heart loses its pliability, its sensitivity; the inner capacity of tension is lost through this constant process of stretching and relaxing. Tension is necessary to discover, but a tension that demands relaxation or a stimulation soon loses its capacity to renew itself, to be pliable, to be alert. This alert pliability cannot be induced from the outside; it comes when it is not dependent upon stimulation, upon inspiration.

Is not all stimulation similar in effect? Whether you take a drink or are stimulated by a picture or an idea, whether you go to a concert or to a religious ceremony, or work yourself up over an act, however noble or ignoble - does not all this blunt the mind-heart? A righteous anger, which is an absurdity, however stimulating and inspiring it may be, makes for insensitivity; and is not the highest form of intelligence, sensitivity, receptivity, necessary to experience reality? Stimulation breeds dependence, and dependence, whether worthy or unworthy, causes fear. It is relatively unimportant how one is stimulated or inspired, whether through organized church or politics or through distraction, for the result will be the same - insensitivity caused through fear and dependence.

Distractions become stimulations. Our society primarily encourages distraction, distraction in every form. Our thinking-feeling itself has become a process of wandering away from the center, from reality. So it is extremely difficult to withdraw from all distractions, for we have become almost incapable of being choicelessly aware of what is. So, conflict arises, which further distracts our thought-feeling, and it is only through constant awareness that thought-feeling is able to extricate itself from the net of distractions.

Besides, who can give you cheer, courage, and hope? If we rely on another, however great and noble, we are utterly lost, for dependence breeds possessiveness in which there is endless struggle and pain. Cheer and happiness are not ends in themselves; they are, as courage and hope, incidents in the search of something that is an end in itself. It is this end that must be sought after patiently and diligently, and only through its discovery will our turmoil and pain cease.

The journey towards its discovery lies through oneself; every other journey is a distraction leading to ignorance and illusion. The journey within oneself must be undertaken not for a result, not to solve conflict and sorrow; for the search itself is devotion, inspiration. Then the journeying itself is a revealing process, an experience which is constantly liberating and creative. Have you not noticed that inspiration comes when you are not seeking it? It comes when all expectation has ceased, when the mind-heart is still. What is sought after is self-created and so is not the real.

J Krishnamurti & Annie Besant - Truth, of which I speak

2009-10-29T03:29:00.000-07:00

Questioner: The one regret of Dr. Besant is said to have been the fact that you failed to rise to her expectations of you as the World Teacher. Some of us frankly share that regret and that sense of disappointment, and feel that it is not altogether without some justification. Have you anything to say?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Nothing, sirs. (Laughter) When I say, ''Nothing,'' I mean nothing to relieve your disappointment or Dr. Besant's disappointment - if she were disappointed, for she often expressed to me the contrary. I am not here to justify myself; I am not interested in justifying myself. The question is, why are you disappointed, if you are? You had thought to put me in a certain cage, and since I did not fit into that cage, naturally you were disappointed. You had a preconceived idea of what I should do, what I should say, what I should think.

I say that there is immortality, an eternal becoming. The point is not that I know, but that it is. Beware of the man who says, ''I know.'' Ever-becoming life exists, but to realize that, your mind must be free of all preconceived ideas of what it is. You have preconceived ideas of God, of immortality, of life. ''This is written in books,'' you say, or, ''Someone has told me this.'' Thus, you have built an image of truth, you have pictured God and immortality. You want to hold to that image, that picture, and you are disappointed in anyone whose idea differs from yours, anyone whose ideas do not conform to yours. In other words, if he does not become your tool, you are disappointed in him. If he does not exploit you - and you create the exploiter in your desire for security - then you are disappointed in him. Your disappointment is based not on thought, not on intelligence, not on deep affection, but on some image of your own making, however false it may be.

You will find people who will tell you that I have disappointed them, and they will create a body of opinions holding that I have failed. But in a hundred years' time I don't think it will matter much whether you are disappointed or not. Truth, of which I speak, will remain - not your fantasies or your disappointments.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Meditation is not separate from daily living

2009-10-28T23:59:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Are you getting tired? Sorry, allow me another five minutes, it's all over for you then.
So to meditate: in meditation there must be no effort. What you call meditation is to repeat some words, repeat a mantra. I have been told the meaning of that word is to ponder over not becoming, which is, not measuring. And also it means to absolutely deny all self-centred activity. I believe that is the root meaning of that word: not becoming, and totally not living in a self-centred way. You can repeat all the words, mantras, breathe properly, you know, follow system after system, if one system does not suit you, take another system, methods, go off to Japan to learn Zen - right? - or the latest guru who will tell you how to meditate. All that implies control. Where there is control, there must be conflict and there must be measurement and that is not meditation. We are going to go into it a little bit.

Meditation is to live a diligent life. Meditation is not separate from daily living, going off into a little corner, meditating for twenty minutes every day or every afternoon, every evening; that is just going to sleep, having a siesta - you know what a siesta is? Having a sleep in the afternoon. So there is no system. System implies practice. Practice means measurement from what you are to what you want to be. And you may be practising the wrong note. And probably you are. And you call that meditation. And that meditation is so totally separate from your daily living.

So find out whether it is possible to live a daily life of meditation, which means no measurement at any time. You know, this is a dangerous... what the speaker is saying, so please understand it very carefully. In meditation there is no control, because the controller is the controlled. I went into it the other day, I won't go into it again now. In meditation there is no will because will is desire. The essence of desire is will - 'I will meditate, I will practice this day after day' - discipline. In meditation there is no effort at all because there is no controller. No, you don't know anything.

And meditation implies awareness: awareness of the earth, the beauty of the earth, the dead leaf, the dying dog, the dog that is diseased, not just awareness of something or the other, to be aware of your environment; to be aware of your neighbour; to be aware of the colours you carry, wear, why you wear that colour and those beads, to be aware of that; to be aware of the beauty of the wind among the leaves; to be aware of your thoughts, your feelings. That means to be aware without choice - just to observe, just to be aware. That heightens your sensitivity. To observe diligently everything. When you say, I will do something, do it, never forgetting what you have said. Don't say something you don't mean. That is part of meditation.

That is, to be aware of your feelings, your conditioning, your opinions, judgments, and your beliefs, so that in that awareness, there is no choice - just to be aware of the beauty of the earth, the skies and the lovely waters. And when you are so aware, then there is attention. To attend: to attend to what the speaker is saying - not only to the speaker, to attend to what your wife is telling you, or your husband is telling you or your children are telling you, what the politicians are telling you - their trickery, their search for power, position; to attend. When you so profoundly attend, there is no centre as the 'me' to attend. That is also meditation.

Then if you have gone that far, if your mind - not your mind - if you have moved that far, if the mind has moved that far, then what is religion? Religion is none of these things that you have: the temples, and the content of the temples, the puja, the tirupatis, the churches, and all that is not religion. The rituals, the beliefs that are put together by thought, which is a material process and you worship that which thought has created, which is what you have created. Have you ever realized, all the gods, you have created them out of your fear, out of your wanting security, and the rituals, day after day, puja, the mass is another form of entertainment.

I know you don't agree, but listen to it. You will go on doing it because your mind is conditioned, afraid, wants some kind of security, it's not here but perhaps somewhere else. So a religious man doesn't belong to any group, to any religion, has no belief, because his mind is free, unafraid, because intelligence is the highest supreme form of ultimate security, not the intelligence of cunning thought. Intelligence of compassion. And that intelligence has no doubt, no uncertainty, no fear, which is something immense and universal.

And where there is attention there is silence - if you attend. If you attend now to what the speaker is saying, attend with your ears, with your eyes, with your nerves, with your whole body attend, then in that quality of attention there is great silence, unfathomable silence. That silence has never been touched by thought. And only then, for which man has searched from time immemorial, something sacred, something nameless, supreme. It is only that mind that is so utterly free from all the travails of life, it is only such a mind that can find the supreme. That means meditation, which is the expression of daily activity.

Jiddu Krishnamurti searchable CD-ROM Complete Text Collection

2009-10-28T23:48:00.000-07:00

All Jiddu Krishnamurti's published works from 1933 to 1986 have been collected in a CD-ROM and The text in the CD is searchable. The full text retrieval facility allows one to access any topic on the basis of a single word or a combination.

The Windows version of the CD-ROM presents the text collection of all Krishnamurti's published works, whether in book, audio, or video form. It consists of 2662 texts, including 70 additional transcripts not featured in previous versions. All the audio and video texts have been verified for accuracy.

It stores and makes available the equivalent of two hundred books. Detailed and easy to use, the CD-ROM is a practical tool for anyone interested in exploring the teachings from the time Krishnamurti established his own voice to the last talk in 1986. The CD-ROM is invaluable as a library and personal resource.

Please note: the CD-ROM is a read-only research and reference facility and it does not enable printing of texts. You may, however, print lists of the items containing the topics of your interest. This version has a 'bookmark' and notes feature.

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Jiddu Krishnamurti : I can understand it only when I am passively aware of what it is

2009-10-28T00:53:00.000-07:00

Questioner: How on earth can we tame the tiger in us, and in our children, without a Pattern of clear purpose and cause sustained by vigorous practice?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : This implies that you know your purpose, and you know the cause, too; doesn't it? Do you know the purpose? Do you know the purpose of life, the end of life, and the way to achieve it? Is that why you must have a vigorous course of action through discipline, through practice, to attain what you want? Isn't it very difficult to find out what you want, the purpose you have in view? Political parties may have a purpose, but even then they are finding it extremely difficult. But can you say, ''I know the purpose''? And is there such a thing as a purpose?

Please, one has to go into this very carefully - not that I am casting doubt on your purposes. We must understand it. At a certain period of our life, we have a purpose - to be an engine driver, to be a streetcar driver, to be a fireman, this or that - and later on we come to have a different purpose. As we grow much older, again we have a different purpose. The purpose varies all the time, doesn't it, according to our pains and pleasures. You may have a purpose to be a very rich man, a very powerful man; but surely, that is not what we are discussing here for the time being. The ambitious man may have a purpose, but he is antisocial; he can never find reality. An ambitious man is merely one who is projecting himself into the future and wanting to be something, spiritually or secularly. Such a man, obviously, is not capable of finding reality because his mind is only concerned with success, with achieving, with becoming something. He is concerned about himself in relation to what he wants.

But most of us, though we are somewhat ambitious - wanting a little more money, a little more friendship, a little more love, a little more beauty, a little more this and that, and so on, many things - do we know what we want ultimately, not just through passing moods? Most religious people say yes, they do; they want reality, they want God, they want the highest. But to desire the highest, you must know what it is; it may be quite different from what you think, and probably it is. Therefore, you cannot want that. If you want it, it is another form of ambition, another form of security.

Therefore, it is not reality that you want. So, when you ask, ''How can we tame the tiger in us, and in our children, without a pattern of clear purpose and cause sustained by practice?'' you mean, do you not, how can we live in relationship with others and not be antisocial, selfish, bound by our own prejudices, and so on. To tame the tiger, we must first know what kind of an animal it is, not just give it a name and try to tame it. You must know what it is made up of. So, if you call it a tiger, it is already a tiger because you have the image, the picture of what the tiger is, or what greed is; but if you do not name it but look at it, then surely, it has quite a different significance. I don't know if you are following all this. We will discuss the same problem at various times because there is only one problem put in different ways.

So, without calling it a tiger, without saying, ''I have a purpose, and to fulfill it there must be discipline,'' let us inquire into the whole process. Don't approach it with a conclusion because, as I said, the problem is always new, and it requires a new mind to look at it, a mind that is not verbalizing, which is extremely difficult. Because, we can only think in terms of words - our thought is word. Try to think without words and see how difficult it is.

So, our point is, how to tame the tiger without discipline, whether in ourselves or in our children, if we are parents. To tame something, you must understand it, know it. The moment you do not know something, you are frightened of it. You say, ''I feel there is a conflict in me, an opposing desire, which I call the tiger; and how is that to be tamed, to be calmed down?'' Only by understanding it, and I can understand it only when I look at it. I cannot look at it if I condemn it or give it a name or justify it or identify myself with it.

I can understand it only when I am passively aware of what it is, and there is no passive awareness as long as I am condemning it. So, my problem is to understand it, not to call the thing by a name. I must understand why I condemn. Because, it is so much easier, isn't it, to condemn something first. It is one of the ways to get rid of it, push it away - call it a German, a Japanese, a Hindu, a Christian, a Communist, or God knows what else, and push it away. And we think we have understood it by giving it a name. So the name, the naming, prevents understanding. That is one fact.

Also, what prevents understanding is judging because we look at a thing already with a bias, with a prejudice, with a want, with a demand. We look at a thing because we want a result from it. We have a purpose, we want to tame it, we want to control it in order that it may be something else.

The moment you see that, surely, your mind is passively quiet, watching the thing. It is no longer naming the tiger as the tiger; it has no name, and therefore your relationship to it is direct, not through words. It is because we have no relationship to it directly that there is fear. The moment you are related to something, experience something directly, immediately, fully, there is no fear, is there? So, you have removed the cause of fear, and therefore you are able to understand it, and hence you are able to resolve it.

That which you have understood is resolved; that which is not understood continues to be a problem. This is a fact. And our difficulty is to see always what is without interpretation because the function of the mind is to communicate, to store up, to translate, according to its fancies and desires - not to understand.

To understand, none of these things must take place. To understand, there must be quiet, and a mind that is occupied with judging, with condemning, with translating, is not a quiet mind.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Just be aware - without any sense of justification

2009-10-28T00:48:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - When you are aware, you see the whole process of your thinking and action, but it can happen only when there is no condemnation. That is, when I condemn something, I do not understand it, and it is one way of avoiding any kind of understanding. I think most of us do that purposely; we condemn immediately, and we think we have understood. If we do not condemn but regard it, are aware of it, then the content, the significance of that action begins to open up. Experiment with this and you will see for yourself. Just be aware - without any sense of justification - which may appear rather negative, but is not negative. On the contrary, it has the quality of passivity which is direct action, and you will discover this if you experiment with it.

After all, if you want to understand something, you have to be in a passive mood, do you not? You cannot keep on thinking about it, speculating about it, or questioning it. You have to be sensitive enough to receive the content of it. It is like being a sensitive photographic plate. If I want to understand you, I have to be passively aware; then you begin to tell me all of your story. Surely, that is not a question of capacity or specialization. In that process, we begin to understand ourselves - not only the superficial layers of our consciousness, but the deeper, which is much more important because there are all of our motives or intentions, our hidden, confused demands, anxieties, fears, appetites. Outwardly we may have them all under control, but inwardly they are boiling. Until those have been completely understood through awareness, obviously there cannot be freedom, there cannot be happiness, there is no intelligence.

So, is intelligence a matter of specialization? - intelligence being the total awareness of our process. And is that intelligence to be cultivated through any form of specialization? Because, that is what is happening, is it not? You are listening to me, probably thinking that I am a specialist - I hope not. The priest, the doctor, the engineer, the industrialist, the businessman, the professor - we have the mentality of all that specialization. And we think that to realize the highest form of intelligence - which is truth, which is God, which cannot be described - to realize that, we have to make ourselves specialists. We study, we grope, we search out; and with the mentality of the specialist, or looking to the specialist, we study ourselves in order to develop a capacity which will help to unravel our conflicts, our miseries.

So, our problem is, if we are at all aware, whether the conflicts and the miseries and the sorrows of our daily existence can be solved by another; and if they cannot, how is it possible for us to tackle them? To understand a problem obviously requires a certain intelligence, and that intelligence cannot be derived from or cultivated through specialization. It comes into being only when we are passively aware of the whole process of our consciousness, which is to be aware of ourselves without choice, without choosing what is right and what is wrong.

Because, when you are passively aware, you will see that out of that passivity - which is not idleness, which is not sleep, but extreme alertness - the problem has quite a different significance, which means there is no longer identification with the problem, and therefore there is no judgment, and hence the problem begins to reveal its content. If you are able to do that constantly, continuously, then every problem can be solved fundamentally, not superficially. And that is the difficulty because most of us are incapable of being passively aware, letting the problem tell the story without our interpreting it. We do not know how to look at a problem dispassionately - if you like to use that word.

Unfortunately, we are not capable of doing that because we want a result from the problem, we want an answer, we are looking to an end; or we try to translate the problem according to our pleasure or pain; or we have an answer already, how to deal with the problem. Therefore, we approach a problem, which is always new, with the old pattern. The challenge is always the new, but our response is always the old, and our difficulty is to meet the challenge adequately, that is, fully. The problem is always a problem of relationship, there is no other problem; and to meet the problem of relationship, with its constantly varying demands - to meet it rightly, to meet it adequately - one has to be aware, passively; and this passivity is not a question of determination, of will, of discipline; to be aware that we are not passive is the beginning.

To be aware that we want a particular answer to a particular problem - surely, that is the beginning: to know ourselves in relationship to the problem and how we deal with the problem. Then, as we begin to know ourselves in relationship to the problem - how we respond, what are our various prejudices, demands, pursuits, in meeting that problem - this awareness will reveal the process of our own thinking, of our own inward nature, and in that there is a release.

So, life is a matter of relationship, and to understand that relationship, which is not static, there must be an awareness which is pliable, an awareness which is alertly passive, not aggressively active. And as I said, this passive awareness does not come through any form of discipline, through any practice. It is to be just aware, from moment to moment, of our thinking and feeling, not only when we are awake, for we will see, as we go into it deeper, that we begin to dream, that we begin to throw up all kinds of symbols which we translate as dreams.

So, we open the door into the hidden, which becomes the known; but to find the unknown, we must go beyond the door - surely, that is our difficulty. Reality is not a thing that is knowable by the mind because the mind is the result of the known, of the past; therefore, the mind must understand itself and its functioning, its truth, and only then is it possible for the unknown to be.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - The true teacher is inwardly rich

2009-10-27T23:41:00.001-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - We say so easily that we love our children; but is there love in our hearts when we accept the existing social conditions, when we do not want to bring about a fundamental transformation in this destructive society? And as long as we look to the specialists to educate our children, this confusion and misery will continue; for the specialists, being concerned with the part and not with the whole, are themselves unintegrated.

Instead of being the most honoured and responsible occupation, education is now considered slightingly, and most educators are fixed in a routine. They are not really concerned with integration and intelligence, but with the imparting of information; and a man who merely imparts information with the world crashing about him is not an educator.

An educator is not merely a giver of information; he is one who points the way to wisdom, to truth. Truth is far more important than the teacher. The search for truth is religion, and truth is of no country, of no creed, it is not to be found in any temple, church or mosque. Without the search for truth, society soon decays. To create a new society, each one of us has to be a true teacher, which means that we have to be both the pupil and the master; we have to educate ourselves.

If a new social order is to be established, those who teach merely to earn a salary can obviously have no place as teachers. To regard education as a means of livelihood is to exploit the children for one's own advantage. In an enlightened society, teachers will have no concern for their own welfare, and the community will provide for their needs.

The true teacher is not he who has built up an impressive educational organization, nor he who is an instrument of the politicians, nor he who is bound to an ideal, a belief or a country. The true teacher is inwardly rich and therefore asks nothing for himself; he is not ambitious and seeks no power in any form; he does not use teaching as a means of acquiring position or authority, and therefore he is free from the compulsion of society and the control of governments. Such teachers have the primary place in an enlightened civilization, for true culture is founded, not on the engineers and technicians, but on the educators.

Source - J Krishnamurti Book " Education and Significance of Life"

Jiddu Krishnamurti : What is the place of Art in Education?

2009-10-23T08:55:00.000-07:00

Question: What is the place of art in education?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : I don't quite know what you mean by art. Do you mean by hanging pictures in your school room or do you mean helping the child to draw a picture, according to a pattern because you have learnt a little technique or do you mean by teaching the child to be sensitive not to you as the teacher, to what you say, but to be sensitive to life, sensitive to the miseries, to the confusions, to the sorrows, or do you want merely to instruct him how to paint or do you want him to be under the influence of beauty, not of any particular picture or of any statue, but beauty, Sir in modern civilization, beauty, apparently is on the skin, how you dress, how you paint your face, you comb your hair, how you walk.

We are discussing art, whether beauty is surface, or is it a matter of loving. When it is a matter of love, whether it is surface or inward, whether it is outward or understanding the inward process of thought. And, as our society structure is constructed, we are more concerned with the outward expression, the looks, with the sari; It does not matter what you are within, but present a respectable appearance, put on rouge, lip-stick. It does not matter what you are inside. So, we are more concerned with the technique rather than living, and more expression rather than love.

Therefore, we use ourselves as a means of covering up our inner ugliness, our inward confusion. We listen to music to escape from our own sorrow. In other words, we become the spectators and not the players. To be a painter, you must know yourself and to know yourself is extremely difficult; but to learn a technique of painting is comparatively easy.

So, when we talk about art in education, I don't know exactly what you mean. Obviously, you mean the outward superficial environmental results and influences. They have their place but obviously when the outer is emphasised, the inner beauty, the inner confusion, the inner understanding, is denied and without inward beauty, how can there be the outward expression of it? And to cultivate inward beauty, you must first be aware of the inward confusion, the inward ugliness, because beauty does not come into being by itself. You must understand both the ugly and the confused and the sensitive and it is only when there is order out of confusion there is beauty.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Whom would you call a perfect teacher?

2009-10-23T08:53:00.000-07:00

Question: Whom would you call a perfect teacher?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Obviously, not the teacher who has an ideal, obviously not the teacher who is making profit out of teaching or who has built up an organisation, obviously not the teacher who is the instrument of the politician, obviously not the man who is bound to a belief, to a country; but a perfect teacher is one surely who does not ask anything for himself, who is not caught up in politics, in power, in position. He does not ask anything for himself, because inwardly he is rich.

His wisdom does not lie in books; his wisdom lies in experiencing and experiencing is not possible if he is seeking an end. Experiencing is not possible to him for whom the result is far more important than the means; to him who wants to show that he has turned out so many pupils who have passed brilliant exams: how many pupils have come out of it first class, M.As., B.As., or whatever it is.

Obviously, as most of us want a result, we don't care what means are employed and therefore we can never be perfect teachers. Surely, sir, a teacher who is perfect must be beyond and above the control of society. He must teach and not be told what to teach, which means, he must have no position in society. He must have no authority in society, because the moment he has authority, he is part of society; and society is always disintegrating and a teacher who is part of a society can never be the perfect teacher.

He must be out of it, which means, he cannot ask anything for himself; which means, society must be so enlightened that it must support him in his needs. But, we don't want such enlightened society, nor such teachers. If we had such teachers, then the present society would be in danger. Religion is not organized belief. Religion is the search of truth, which is of no country, which is of no organized religion, and which does not lie in any temple, church, or mosque and without the search of truth, no society can exist and if it exists it is bound to bring about disaster.

Surely, the teacher is not merely the giver of information, but the teacher is one who points the way to wisdom and the pointer to wisdom is not the guru. Truth is far more important than the teacher. Therefore you, who are the seeker of truth, have to be both the pupil and the teacher. In other words, you have to become the perfect teacher to create a new society and to create a new teacher, to bring a new teacher into being, you have to understand yourself.

Wisdom begins with self-knowledge and without self-knowledge, more information leads to destruction. Without self-knowledge, aeroplane becomes the most destructive instrument in life; but with self-knowledge, it is a means of human help. So, a teacher is obviously one who is not within the clutches of society, who does not play power politics or seek position or authority. In himself he has discovered that which is eternal and therefore he is capable of imparting that knowledge which will help another to discover his own means to enlightenment.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Place of Discipline in Education?

2009-10-23T08:49:00.000-07:00

Question: What is the place of discipline in education?
Jiddu Krishnamurti : I should say, none. Just a minute. I will explain it further. What is the purpose of discipline? What do you mean by discipline? You, being the teacher, when you discipline, what happens? You are forcing, compelling, compulsion, however nice, however kind, you are compelling, which means conformity, which means imitation, which means fear. And, without discipline, you will say, how can a large school be run? It cannot.

Therefore, large schools cease to be educational institutions. It is a profitable institution, for the boss or for the government, for the head-master or the owner or for the State. Sir, if you love your child, do you discipline it? Do you compel it? Do you force him to a habit into a pattern of thought? You watch him, don't you? You try to understand him, you try to discover what are the motives, the urges, the drives, that are behind him or her and by understanding him, you bring about the right environment, the amount of right sleep, the right food, the amount of right play. All that is implied, when you love a child; but we don't love children. Because we have no love in our own hearts.

We just breed children. And naturally, when you have many of them, you must discipline them and discipline becomes an easy way out of the difficulty. After all, discipline means resistance. You create resistance against that which you are disciplining against. Do you think resistance will bring about understanding, thought, affection? Discipline can only build walls about you. Disciplines are always exclusive whereas understanding is inclusive.

Understanding comes when you investigate, when you enquire, when you search out, which means, care, consideration, thought, affection. Therefore, in a school, a large school, such things are not possible. Only in a small school. But, small schools are not profitable to the private owners or to government, but since you, who are the owners of government, since you are not interested, since you are not really interested in your children, what does it matter? If you really love your children, not just as a means of toys, as playthings to amuse you for a little while and a nuisance after it; if you have loved your children, would you have allowed all these things to go on?

Wouldn't you want to know what they ate, where they slept, what they did all along? Whether they are beaten, whether they are crushed, whether they are destroyed? which means an enquiry, consideration of another, whether it is your child or another's. But, we have no consideration, neither for your children, for your wife or husband. So, how can you have consideration for the effects of discipline? So, sirs, the matter lies in your hands, not in the hands of governments and systems. If all of us really care, really, truly care for children, we would have a new society tomorrow; but we really do not care.

We have no times. We have time for Puja, we have time for earning money, we have time for clubs, we have time for amusements, but no time for thought or the care for the child. I am not being rhetoric. This is a fact, and we don't want to face the fact. Because, to face the fact means, you have to give up all those amusements or distractions and do you mean to say you are going to give them up? Certainly not.

So, you throw them into the schools, and the teacher no more cares for the child than you. Why should they? He is there for his job, for his money and so it goes on; and we come for an evening to discuss education. It is really a marvellous world we have got. It is such a phoney, superficial world, so ugly behind, if you look behind the curtain and we are decorating the curtain and hoping that everything will be right behind the curtain. Sir, I don't think you realise how serious things are? Neither the educator nor the parents. It is obvious; the catastrophe that is going on in this country. You don't want to strip it all bare and begin again, anew. You want to do patchwork reform and that is why all these questions arise.

Sir, you have to start anew. There can be no patchwork reform. Because the building is crumbling, the walls are giving way, there is fire destroying. You must leave the building and start anew in a different place, with different values, with different foundations. But, the man who is making profit out of education, either the State or the individual, will go on. Because he does not see the destruction, the deterioration, the degradation. But, those who really see the whole catastrophe, not just in a few spots, the world over, have to strip themselves of everything and start anew. I don't mean stripping the outward knowledge, the technical knowledge.

I know it can never be stripped, but strip themselves inwardly, see themselves as they are, their ugliness, their brutality, their ruthlessness, their deceptions, their dishonesty, their utter lack of love, and start it all anew and become honest, clear, simple, direct. Surely, then only, there is a possibility of a new world and a new order. Peace does not come through patchwork reform. Peace does not come through mere adjustment of things as they are.

Peace comes only when we understand what is, beyond the superficial. Peace can only come into being when the wave of destruction is stopped, which is the wave of our own action. Sir, how can we have love. Not through the pursuit of the ideal of love, but when there is no hatred, when there is no greed, when there is consideration, when there is generosity. But a man who is occupied with exploitation, with greed, with envy, can never know love, and when there is love, systems become of very little importance. When there is love, there is care, there is consideration, not only of the children, but of every human being.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : War acts as a release to criminal instincts

2009-10-23T08:43:00.001-07:00

Questioner: What do you advise us to do when war breaks out?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Instead of seeking advice, may I suggest that we examine the problem together? To follow the advice of another in moments of crisis leads to our own destruction; whereas, if we were able to understand the whole implication of war, then we would be able to act truly for ourselves. We would not act according to our conditioning, and that conditioning is strengthened through propaganda and by various other means to impress upon us the necessity of going to war. As we are now conditioned by the so-called love of the country, by economic frontiers, by ideologies - religious or political - we will inevitably jump to arms. To such people, there is no problem; their action is definite and clear-cut; it is called duty and responsibility, and they become the cannon fodder.

You have a problem only when you begin to question the causes of war, which are not merely economic, as some would like to make out, but much more psychological. War is only a bloody and a spectacular projection of your daily life. War comes into being only when you, in your relationship with another, breed conflict, which is the result of your inward strife and misery. This is projected outwardly as antisocial action, and causes disaster and misery. Through greed, acquisitiveness, and envy you are killing, destroying, and maiming thousands.

So, when you begin to inquire into the causes of war, you are beginning to understand your relationship with another, you are questioning your whole way of living. According to this inquiry, intelligent or superficial, you will respond when war comes. A man who is nonviolent - who is not the idealist who is striving to become nonviolent - to him war is a great disaster and not productive of peace. So, he will not enter it naturally; he may be shot or he may be imprisoned. He will naturally disregard the consequences.

The idealist, as I have previously explained, is incapable of being free from violence. As your life is based on conflict and violence, if you do not understand that way of life now, how can you act tomorrow with understanding when there is a calamity? How can you, who have been conditioned by nationalism, by class security, by envy, be free of your conditioning at the moment of war? You have to free yourself from these causes of disaster before war comes into being.

War breeds its irresponsibility, and many like this freedom from responsibility. The government will feed you and your family and so on. War gives you an escape from the boring routine of your daily life. It is an ugly business, killing, but at least it is exciting. Also, war acts as a release to criminal instincts. We are criminals in our daily life - in the world of business, in our relationships - but it is all very carefully hidden, covered over with a righteous blanket and legalized. War gives a release from this hypocrisy, and at last we can be openly violent. So, it depends upon your conditioning, how you will act when you are called to arms. But those of us who are earnest, if we can understand how we are violent in our daily life and understand it by actually facing it, if we can be aware of violence in our speech, in our thoughts, in our feelings, and in our actions, we will see that when war comes, we shall be able to act truly.

It is only by being aware of what is and not trying to transform it, trying to make it into something else, that understanding comes. A man who is pursuing an ideal will act falsely because his response will be based on frustration. If you are aware of your daily thoughts and actions without choice and condemnation or justification, then you will be free from those causes that bring about war.

J Krishnamurti : Its sadness is the vain effort to possess

2009-10-23T05:37:00.001-07:00

J Krishnamurti : The sadness of Life is this - the emptiness that we try to fill with every conceivable trick of the mind. But that emptiness remains. Its sadness is the vain effort to possess. From this attempt comes domination and the assertion of the me, with its empty words and rich memories of things that are gone and never will come back. It is this emptiness and loneliness that isolating thought breeds and keeps nourished by the knowledge it has created.

It is this sadness of vain effort that is destroying man. His thought is not so good as the computer, and he has only the instrument of thought with which to meet the problems of life, so he is destroyed by them.

It is this sadness of wasted life which probably he will be aware of only at the moment of his death - and then it will be too late.

So the possessions, the character, the achievements, the domesticated wife, become terribly important, and this sadness drives away love. Either you have one or the other; you cannot have both. One breeds cynicism and bitterness which are the only fruit of man; the other lies beyond all woods and hills.

J Krishnamurti - We can only understand something when we see the totality of it

2009-10-23T01:22:00.000-07:00

J Krishnamurti - We can only understand something when we see the totality of it, when we see its whole structure and the meaning of it. You cannot see the whole pattern of life, the whole movement of life, if you merely take one part of it and are tremendously concerned about that particular part. It is only when we see the whole map that we can see where we are and choose a particular road.

So we are not concerned with individual salvation or individual liberation, or whatever the individual is trying to seek but rather with the whole movement of life, the understanding of the whole current of existence; then perhaps the individual problems can be approached entirely differently. It becomes extremely difficult to see the whole issue, to understand it - it demands attention. One cannot understand anything intellectually - you may hear words, give explanations, find out the cause, but that is not understanding.

Understanding - as one observes oneself - takes place only when the mind, including the brain, is totally attentive. And one is not attentive when one is interpreting and translating what one sees according to one's background. You must have noticed - obviously most of us have - that when the mind is completely quiet - not demanding, not fussing around, not tearing to pieces the problem, but I really facing the problem with complete quietness - then there is an understanding.

That very understanding is the action, the liberating force or energy, which frees us from the problem. So we are using the word 'understand' in that sense, not intellectual or emotional understanding. And this understanding is rather a negation of the positive, the positive being understanding with the motive to do something about it.

Most of us, when we have a problem, are inclined to worry about it, to tear it to pieces, to analyse it, to find a formula for dealing with it. And thought - as one may observe - is always the response of the old; thought is never new, yet the problem is always new. We translate the new, the problem, in terms of thought, and thought which is old is therefore positive, and active to do something about it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Why do we not see this truth is it

2009-10-22T01:08:00.001-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - We believe in the system! Why? That is your conditioning. Your conditioning dictates all the time, it prevents you from seeing the truth of one of the major factors of life, which conditions man to accept the system, the class difference, the system of war and the system that promises peace, which in turn is destroyed by nationality which is another system. Why do we not see this truth is it because we have vested interest in the system? If we saw the truth of it we might lose money, we might not get a job, we would be alone in a monstrously ugly world. So, we consciously or unconsciously say, 'I understand very well what you are talking about but I cannot do it, good morning' and that's the end of that; that would be most honest.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - understanding is one thing and action is another

2009-10-22T01:05:00.001-07:00

Questioner: It is very easy to follow you verbally, in words; in ideas it is not very difficult...

Jiddu Krishnamurti: ...but to actually shake off the acceptance of systems is quite another matter: Isn't that right, Sir? What do you mean, Sir, when you say, 'I follow you verbally, clearly?, Do you mean, we understand the words you are speaking, hear the words, and nothing else which means, what? You are listening to words and obviously you can listen to words that have no meaning whatsoever.

The question is, how is it possible to listen to the words so that at the same time the very listening is the action? One says, 'I intellectually understand what you are talking about the words are clear, perhaps the reasoning is fairly good, somewhat logical' and so on and so on 'I understand all that intellectually, but the actual action does not take place I am not free of the acceptance of systems, completely'.

Now, how is this gap between the intellect and the action to be bridged? Is that clear? I understand, from the words, intellectually, what you have said this morning, but there is no actual freedom derived from that understanding; how is this intellectual concept to become action, instantly? Now, why is it that we think we understand intellectually? Why do we place intellectual understanding first? Why does that become dominant? You understand my question? I am sure you all feel you understand intellectually, very well, what the speaker is talking about, then you say to yourself, 'how am I to put that into action?'

So understanding is one thing and action is another, then we are battling to bridge the two. But is there understanding, at all, intellectually; it may be a false statement which becomes a block, a hindrance? You see, look, watch it carefully, for that becomes a system you follow? the system which everybody uses, 'intellectually I understand' and it may be utterly false. All that we mean is, 'I hear what you are talking about', hear the vibrations of those words pass through my ears and that is all, nothing happens. It is like a man or a woman who has plenty of money and who hears the word 'generosity' and feels vaguely the beauty of it yet goes back to miserliness, to ungenerosity.

So, do not let us say, 'I understand', do not let us say, 'I have grasped what you are talking about' when we have merely heard a lot of words. Then, the question is, why do you not see the truth that no system outwardly or inwardly is going to bring freedom, free man from his misery? Why do you not see the truth of it, instantly? That is the problem, not, how to bridge the gap between the intellectual grasp of something and the putting of it into action. Why do you not see complete truth of this fact what is preventing you?

Belief is corruption because behind belief and morality lurks the 'mine', the self

2009-09-27T09:52:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Fortunately, while one is quite young, the main conflicts of life, the worries, the passing joys, the physical disasters, death, and the mental twists do not affect us. Fortunately, most of us, while we are young, are out of the battlefield of life, but as we grow older the pains, the disasters, the questionings, the doubts, the economic and inward struggles crowd in on us, and we want to find the significance of life, we want to know what it is all about. We are not easily satisfied by economic explanations or by any particular definitions.

We want to know all about the struggles, the pains, the poverty, the disasters; why some are well-placed and others are not; why one is a healthy, intelligent human being, gifted, capable, while another is not. We want to know why, and we soon are caught in a hypothesis, in a theory, in a belief because we must find an answer. It is never the true answer, but we invent it; we have a theory, a belief about it. So, we start out with an inquiry, and not having enough self-reliance, vigor, intelligence, and innocence, we are soon caught in theories, in beliefs.

We realize that life is ugly, painful, sorrowful; we want some kind of theory, some kind of speculation or satisfaction, some kind of doctrine which will explain all this, and so we are caught in explanation, in words, in theories, and gradually, beliefs become deeply rooted and unshakable because behind those beliefs, behind those dogmas, there is the constant fear of the unknown. But we never look at that fear; we turn away from it.

The stronger the beliefs, the stronger the dogmas. And when we examine these beliefs - the Christian, the Hindu, the Buddhist - we find that they divide people. Each dogma, each belief, has a series of rituals, a series of compulsions which bind man and separate man. So, we start with an inquiry to find out what is true, what the significance is of this misery, this struggle, this pain; and we are soon caught up in beliefs, in rituals, in theories. We have not the self-reliance nor the vigor nor the innocence to push all aside and inquire. So, belief begins to act as a deteriorating factor.

Belief is corruption because behind belief and morality lurks the 'mine', the self - the self growing big, powerful, and strong. We consider belief in God, the belief in something, as religion. We consider that to believe is to be religious. You understand? If you do not believe, you will be considered an atheist, you will be condemned by society. One society will condemn those who believe in God, and another society will condemn those who do not. They are both the same. So, religion becomes a matter of belief, and belief acts and has a corresponding influence on the mind; the mind then can never be free. But it is only in freedom that you can find out what is true, what is God, not through any belief because your very belief projects what you think ought to be God, what you think ought to be true.

You understand? If you believe God is love, God is good, God is this or that, that very belief prevents you from understanding what is God, what is true. But, you see, you want to forget yourselves; you want to sacrifice yourselves; you want to emulate, to abandon this constant struggle that is going on within you; you want to pursue virtue.

There is constant struggle, there is pain, there is suffering, there is ambition; in all that, there is constant pain and transient pleasure, pleasure that comes and goes, but your mind wants something enormous to cling to, something beyond itself, something with which you can identify yourself.

So, that thing which it wants beyond itself, it calls God, it calls truth, and so it identifies itself with it through belief, through convictions, through rationalization, through various forms of discipline and moralities. But this identifying - that is, the recognition of the thought as something vast, which the mind invents and which creates speculation - is still part of the 'me', is still part of the struggle, is still projected by the mind in its desire to escape from the turmoils of life. You identify yourself with a country - India or England or Germany or Russia or America - you identify yourself as a Hindu.

Why? Have you ever looked at it, gone behind the meaning of the word, behind the words that have captured your mind? Why do you identify yourself with India? Because you are living in a small town, leading a miserable life with your struggles, with your family quarrels, because you are dissatisfied, discontented, miserable, you want to identify yourself with a thing called India. This gives you a sense of vastness, a bigness, a psychological satisfaction, so you say, "I am an Indian," and for this, you are willing to die, to kill and to be maimed.

In the same way, because you are very small, because you are in constant battle with yourself, because you are confused, miserable, uncertain, because you search and know there is death, you want to identify yourself with something beyond, something vast, significant, full of meaning, which you call God. So, you say that is God, and you identify yourself with that; this gives you an enormous importance and significance, and you feel happy. So with the identifying process comes the self-expansive process; that is still the 'me', that is still the self, struggling.

So, religion, as we generally know it or acknowledge it, is a series of beliefs, of dogmas, of rituals, of superstitions, of worship of idols, of charms, and gurus that will lead you to what you want as an ultimate goal. The ultimate truth is your projection, that is what you want, which will make you happy, which will give you a certainty of the deathless state. So, the mind caught in all this creates a religion - a religion of dogmas, of priest craft, of superstitions, and idol-worship - and in that, you are caught, and the mind stagnates. Is that religion? Is religion a matter of belief, a matter of knowledge of other people's experiences and assertions? Or is religion merely the following of morality?

You know it is comparatively easy to be moral - to do this and not to do that. Because it is easy, you can imitate a moral system. Behind that morality lurks the self, growing, expanding, aggressive, dominating. But is that religion?

You have to find out what truth is because that is the only thing that matters, not whether you are rich or poor, not whether you are happily married and have children, because they all come to an end, there is always death. So, without any form of belief, you must find out; you must have the vigor, the self-reliance, the initiative, so that for yourself you know what truth is, what God is. Belief will not give you anything; belief only corrupts, binds, darkens. The mind can only be free through vigor, through self-reliance.

Surely, it is the function of education, especially here, to create such individuals who are not bound by any form of belief, of morality, of respectability. For, behind it lurks the 'me' that is so important and that seeks to become respectable. Surely it is the function of an educational center of this kind to make individuals truly religious - that is, the religion of discovery, of direct experiencing of what God is, what truth is. That experiencing is not possible, is never possible, through any form of belief, of rituals, of following another, of worshipping another. That religion is free from all gurus. You as an individual can, as you grow through life, discover the truth from moment to moment; you are capable of being free.

You think that to be free from the material things of the world is the first step towards religion. It is not. That is one of the easiest things to do. The first thing is to be free to think fully, completely, and independently - not to be crushed by any belief, by circumstances, by environment - so that you are an integrated human being, capable, vigorous, self-reliant, so that your mind being free, unbiased, unconditioned, can find out what God is, what truth is.

Surely, it is for that purpose that this center exists, to help each individual that comes here to be free to discover reality, not to follow any system nor any belief nor any ritual, nor any guru; the individual has to awaken his intelligence through freedom, not through any form of discipline - which means resistance, compulsion, coercion - so that through that intelligence, through that freedom, the individual can find out that which is beyond the mind.

Because, it is only when directly experienced that the immensity of the thing will be known - the thing that is not nameable, the thing that is not measurable by words, that is limitless, in which there is that love which is not of the mind. The mind cannot conceive all that, and as it cannot conceive it, the mind must be very quiet, astonishingly still, without any demand or any desire. Then only is it possible for that extraordinary thing, what we call God or reality, to come into being.

J Krishnamurti - Meditation is something entirely different

2009-09-22T22:22:00.000-07:00

J Krishnamurti - Meditation is something entirely different. In order to understand it, we must put away drugs and reject all methods, including the repetition of words in order to reach some peculiar state of silence, which is really stagnation. We must put away every form of desire for further experience. This is very difficult because most of us are so saturated with the ugliness, the brutality, the violence, and the despair of life that we want something more.

We are longing for new experiences, whether outward experiences such as going to mass or inward deeper experiences. But one has to put all these away; only then is there freedom. The manner of putting away these things is of great importance. I can put away wanting this or that because it is too silly, but inwardly I may still want experiences. I may not want to see Christ or Buddha, or this or that person - that's too obviously silly because it's a projection of one's own background. I may rationally, logically reject that. But inwardly I want my own experience which is not contaminated by the past.

But all experiences, all visions, are contaminated by the past. I have to understand the depth, the height, the significance, the quality of the past; and in the understanding, I am dying to it, the mind is dying to it. The mind is the past; the whole structure of the brain, with all its associations, is the result of the past. It is put together by time, two million years of time, and you can't put it all away by a gesture. You have to understand it as every reaction arises. Since most of us still have a great deal of the animal in us, we have to understand all that; and to understand it, one has to be aware of it. To be aware is to watch it, listen to it, not condemn it or justify it.

By becoming aware outwardly and inwardly, by being aware and riding on that awareness of the outward movement as a tide that goes out and a tide that comes in, riding on that, the mind then begins to discover its own reactions, responses, demands, compulsions; and to understand these demands, urges, responses, you must not condemn; if you do, then you don't understand. It's like condemning a child because that's the easiest way to deal with the child. We condemn, and we think we understand, but we don't.

We have to find out why we condemn. Why do you condemn? Why do you rationalize? Why do you justify? Condemnation, justification, rationalization are forms of escape from the fact. The fact is there, what is; it is there. Why should I rationalize it? Why should I condemn it? Why should I justify it? When I do that, I am wasting energy. Therefore, to understand the fact, you must live with it completely, without any distance between the mind and the fact, because the fact is the mind.

You have rejected drugs and the urge for experience because you understand that when you want to escape from this ugly, monstrous world into something extraordinary, you invite experiences, and they again become escapes from the fact. Since the mind and the brain are the result of the past, one has to understand the conscious as well as the unconscious past. One can understand it immediately, not take time, months, years, going to the analyst, or analyzing oneself; one can understand the whole thing immediately, with one look, if one knows how to look. So we are going to find out how to look. One cannot look if there is any sense of condemnation, any sense of justification of what one sees. That must be completely clear. To understand a child you can't condemn it; you must watch it, watch it while it is playing, crying, laughing, sleeping. What is more important is not the child but how you watch the child.

We are now considering not how to look, not the method. We are trying to understand whether it is possible, by one look - not with your vision, not with your eyes only, but an inward look - to understand the whole structure and be free of it. That is what we mean by meditation, nothing else.

The mind has come to this point because it has rejected drugs, experiences, authority, following, repetition of words, control, forcing oneself in one direction. It has looked at it, studied it, gone into it, observed it - not said it is right or wrong. What has happened? The mind now has become naturally alert and sensitive, not through drugs, not through any form of stimulant. It has become exceedingly sensitive.

There is a difference between concentration and attention

2009-09-22T22:15:00.000-07:00

J Krishnamurti - We ought to consider together what we mean by attention. Most of us learn what concentration is; from childhood we are compelled to concentrate on something which generally we don't like. This breeds a kind of rebellion from being forced to do something we dislike. Education has become a funnelling of many subjects into our brain, conditioning us to conform. Millions and millions throughout the world are being educated and are finding no jobs.

The whole pattern of society in which we live has become so abnormal, so dangerous, that we must find a new way of living together. This requires sensitivity and very objective observation and thinking. One questions whether this concentration, which is the narrowing down of perception, will help to bring about a different quality of mind.

For what are you being educated? What are you going to become as a human being? Mediocrity prevails from the highest political structure to the highest religious establishment. Are you being educated to fit into this pattern? Are you going to become a mediocre human being without any passion, in conflict with yourself and with the world? This is really a serious question you have to ask yourself. Can this concentrated, aggressive, competitive human being bring about a different order in our existence?

As we said, we ought to consider what it means to be attentive. This may be the clue to a harmonious existence. As things are, the intellect, the whole activity of the brain, which is thinking, dominates our existence. This naturally brings about contradiction in ourselves, peculiar behaviour. When only one part of our whole being is in dominance, it will inevitably bring about neurotic behaviour. Attention is the awareness of this dominance of intellect, without the instinctive urge to control it, or allowing emotion to take its place. This awareness brings about subtlety, clarity of mind.

There is a difference between concentration and attention. Concentration is to bring all your energy to focus on a particular point. In attention there is no point of focus. We are very familiar with one and not with the other. When you pay attention to your body, the body becomes quiet, which has its own discipline; it is relaxed but not slack and it has the energy of harmony. When there is attention, there is no contradiction and therefore no conflict.

When you read this pay attention to the way you are sitting, the way you are listening, how you are receiving what the letter is saying to you, how you are reacting to what is being said and why you are finding it difficult to attend. You are not learning how to attend. If you are learning the how of attending, then it becomes a system, which is what the brain is accustomed to, and so you make attention something mechanical and repetitive, whereas attention is not mechanical or repetitive. It is the way of looking at your whole life without the centre of self-interest.

Source - J. Krishnamurti Letters to the Schools Volume 2 1982

Jiddu Krishnamurti : What do we mean by attention?

2009-09-18T01:58:00.001-07:00

Questioner: You spoke the other day of the urgency of total attention. Please explain what you mean by total attention.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : It is not a question of what I mean by total attention, but let us inquire into it together, and then perhaps we shall be able to find out what total attention is.

What do we mean by attention? You are listening to what is being said, and you have other thoughts - your mind goes wandering off, and you pull it back in order to listen. Is that attention? You want to look out of the window because you are bored with what is taking place in the room, but politeness and courtesy demand that you listen, so you pull your thought back from the sea and listen. Is that attention? Is there attention when you make an effort to listen, when you try to concentrate in order to understand, in order to find out? That is what you do, is it not? You make an effort to listen, and that process of concentration is really exclusion; you want to think of other things, but you force your mind to come back because you want to get somewhere or achieve a result.

Is there attention as long as there is incentive? A schoolboy pays attention when the teacher tells him to because he has the incentive of passing an examination. Such attention is effort, concentration, which is the exclusion of every other thought and putting your mind on a particular thought in order to achieve a result. So there is an incentive, a motive, and as long as there is this motive to achieve something, is there attention? That is the concentration which we all know and in which there is obviously exclusion, the shutting out of everything else in order to concentrate on a particular subject. Surely, that is not attention, is it? If there is effort, is there attention? And there must be effort as long as there is incentive.

Now, is attention possible without incentive, without motive? We know attention or concentration through motive; I want to meditate, or I want to pass an examination, or I want to achieve a certain position, so I exclude everything else and concentrate. If I do not exclude, I dissipate, so in order not to dissipate I force myself to concentrate, which is a process of exclusion. This involves a constant strain, a constant waste of energy, because there is effort, resistance; and where there is resistance, is there attention? Attention, surely, means a state of mind in which there is no resistance. The moment you create resistance, you are merely concentrating, which is entirely different from attention.

Now, if you are listening to what is being said, not in order to find God, or to get somewhere, or to achieve a result, but without any incentive so that there is no strain of any kind, then you will discover that your mind is so extensively aware that you are also listening to the crows, to the train, to the noise of buses, to all the various sounds; and when there is this attention without motive, without incentive, it can turn to concentration without exclusion, it can look, observe, watch, without resistance.

You try and you will find out for yourself that as long as there is mere concentration, there must be effort - even though you are so interested in what you are doing that you are absorbed in it - such concentration is a process of exclusion, and therefore there is resistance. Absorption is not attention because in absorption there is exclusion. Concentration is not attention because in it there is incentive, motive; and where there is incentive, motive, there must be resistance. Whereas, if you listen to this, which is an obvious fact, and understand the truth of it, then you will see that there is attention without incentive, attention without any fixed point; the mind is not resisting, it is completely open, and such a mind, being full of attention, can turn and concentrate without resistance.

Sirs, when there is a moment of creativeness, of great joy, there is no resistance. In that moment of creative reality, the mind is completely quiet and attentive, it has no motive. The translation of what it has seen into words, into a poem, into some form of communication, may require concentration, a focusing - let us leave out the word concentration - but that focusing is not resistance. All that we know is resistance, which means really that we are doing things which we do not love; our hearts are not in what we do, and so the mind has to invent motives or incentives in order to achieve. But if you understand the whole process of incentive, concentration, effort, see the actual fact of it, how your mind operates, then you will also see what an extraordinary thing it is to have attention without motive, a mind that is completely alert, fully aware, sensitive. Only such a mind can focus without resistance.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Listening is an act, an immediate act

2009-09-18T01:55:00.001-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Listening is an act, an immediate act, which reveals the whole problem. It's like seeing. I do not know if you have ever tried to look at flower, a cloud or a tree. Are you looking at that flower, that cloud or that tree through the images you have about them? If you are, then you are not really looking at the flower, but at the image you have built about that flower. In the same way you look at another through the image, the wife looking at the husband with the image she has built throughout the years of marriage or non-marriage. And he has built an image about her, the image being the pleasure and the pain, the flattery and sexual gratification, the arguments and insults; you know how one builds in relationship.

So neither do you look at the flower without the image nor at your husband, your wife or your neighbour - so you never look! You never look at a flower nor at a beautiful statue; you have an image, a symbol, you want to find out who made it, only then do you begin to admire. So when you are listening to this talk, please listen - don't have images! Then you will see that if you actually give your whole mind and heart to it, you will have nothing whatever to do, you will have done it. Therefore an enormous change takes place

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Awareness means to observe the whole movement of like and dislike

2009-09-14T01:50:00.000-07:00

Questioner: When one is aware of one's sexual appetites, they seem to disappear. Can that awareness, that attention, be maintained all the time?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Watch the danger of this question. ''When I am aware of my sexual desires they seem to disappear.'' So awareness is a trick which will help me to make things, which I don't like, disappear. I don't like anger, therefore I am going to be aware of it and perhaps it will disappear. But I do like my fulfilment, I want to become a great man, and I won't be aware of that. I believe in God and I worship the State, but I won't be aware of all the dangers involved in that, although it separates, it destroys, it tortures people.

So I am going to be aware of the things that are most unpleasant, but unaware of all those things which I want to keep. Awareness is not a trick, it is not something that will help me to dissolve the things we don't want. Awareness means to observe the whole movement of like and dislike, of your suppressions. If you are old-fashioned you don't talk about sex, you suppress it, but you go on thinking about it - one has to be aware of all that.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - What is meditation

2009-09-11T05:41:00.000-07:00

Question: What is meditation?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Perhaps you and I can find out together what meditation is, so let us go into it. You are not waiting for an answer from me so that you can be satisfied by words, by explanations. You and I are going to find out what meditation actually is.

What is meditation? Sitting quietly, cross-legged, or lying down, relaxed? Obviously, there must be relaxation of the body, but though! your body is relaxed, your mind is very active, chattering away endlessly. Being aware of this, you say, "I must control it, I must stop it, there must be a certain sense of quietness."

So, you begin to control, to discipline your mind. Please follow all this, and you will see. You spend years in controlling, disciplining your chattering mind; your energy is spent in\ making the mind conform to a desired pattern, but you never succeed, and if you do succeed, your mind becomes so weary, lethargic, empty, dull. Obviously, that is not meditation. On the contrary, the mind must be supremely alert, not caught in a routine of habit, discipline.

So, I see that my mind, though it is chattering endlessly, cannot be disciplined, made to fit into a particular pattern of thought. Then how is it to be calmed? How is the chattering mind to be quiet? Just see the implications of the problem. If the observer, the analyzer, imposes a discipline on the chattering mind, then there is a conflict between the observer, the analyzer, and the thing he has observed, analyzed. The thinker is struggling to make his thought conform to the pattern which he desires, which is to calm the mind, so he disciplines it, he controls, dominates, suppresses it, in which is involved the conflict of duality.

There is a division between the observer and the observed, and in that division there is conflict, and meditation is obviously not an endless process of conflict.

So, how is the mind, which is ceaselessly chattering, to be quiet? When I ask that question, what is the state of your mind? Please watch yourself. What is the state of your mind when I put that question? You are accustomed to discipline, control, but now you see its absurdity, its illusory nature; therefore, the state of your mind is that you do not know how to quiet the mind.

You are finished with explanations, with knowledge, which is conditioning; the actual fact is that your mind is chattering, and you do not know how to quiet it. So, what is the state of your mind? You are really inquiring, are you not? You are watching, you have no answer. All that you know is that your mind is chattering, and you want to find out how the mind can be quiet - but not according to a method.

Surely, the moment you put to yourself the question, "How is the mind to be quiet, cease from chattering?" you have already entered the realm in which the mind is quiet, have you not? You know that your mind is active, ceaselessly battling, one layer against another layer, the observer fighting the observed, the experiencer wanting more; you are aware of the incessant vagaries of thought, and you actually do not know how to reduce it, how it is to be quiet. You reject all methods because they have no meaning. To follow a method, to copy a pattern only cripples the mind through habit. Habit is not meditation. The routine of a discipline does not free the mind so that it can discover the new.

So, you reject all that completely, but you still have the question, How is the mind to be quiet? The moment you put that question to yourself really, vitally, actually, what then is the state of your mind? Is it not quiet? It is no longer chattering, analyzing, judging; it is watching, observing, because you don't know. The very state of not knowing is the beginning of quietness. You discover that as long as there is the struggle between the desired pattern and that which you are, there must be a battle, and this battle is a waste of energy, which creates inertia. So, the mind sees the falseness of all that and rejects it. As it observes, the mind becomes quiet, yet there is still the problem of the thinker apart from thought, so there is again a battle.

Meditation is all this process, not just a limited process with a particular end. It is this vast searching, groping, not being caught in any particular idea, belief, or experience, being aware that any projection of the mind is illusion, hypnosis. And if you go into it more and more deeply, not with a motive, not with any desire for a particular result, but simply watching the whole process of yourself, then you will see that without any form of compulsion, suppression, or discipline, the mind becomes creatively empty, still.

That stillness will not give you any riches in this world - do not translate it so quickly into dollars. If you approach it with a begging bowl, it will offer you nothing. That stillness is free from all sense of continuity; in it there is no experiencer who is experiencing. When the experiencer is there, it is no longer stillness, it is merely a continuation of sensation. Meditation is all this process which brings about a state in which the mind is still, no longer projecting, desiring, defending, judging, experiencing. In that state the new can be. The new is not to be verbalized; it has no words to explain it; therefore, it is not communicable. It is something that comes into being when the mind itself is new, and this whole complex process of self-knowledge is meditation.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Suffering is not to be denied

2009-09-11T05:39:00.000-07:00

Question: What is suffering?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Let us inquire and find out. There is the physical pain which gradually becomes a mental suffering, and which the mind uses to create situations, problems, either to strengthen or to diminish itself. Then there is the suffering caused by not being loved sufficiently, by wanting love; there is suffering through death, when you love somebody and that somebody is gone; there is suffering through frustration, the suffering which comes when you are ambitious and cannot achieve your ambition; there is suffering through the loss of your property, through ill health. What does all this indicate?

What is this thing that we call suffering? Is it not that through these activities of the mind the self-enclosing process of the 'me' becomes more and more accentuated, strengthened? When you become aware that you are enclosed, held, is that not suffering? Does not suffering exist when you are conscious of yourself, of your battles, of your strivings, of your frustrated ambitions? The more you are caught in the conflicts of the self, the more there is of suffering. So, suffering is a reaction of the self, and to understand the implications of suffering is to go into the whole process of the 'me', of the

Suffering is an indication of the activities of the mind. Suffering is not to be denied, but most of us try to cover it up; we run away from it through explanations, through satisfying words. We do not go into the problem of suffering, which is to expose the 'me' in its nakedness, and when it is suddenly exposed, we do not dwell with it, we do not watch it, we try to escape. In escape there is resistance, and that very resistance creates further conflict, further struggle, so we are caught in this everlasting process of suffering. Whereas, if, when suffering comes, we are capable of looking at that nakedness, that loneliness, that emptiness which is the self, only then is there a possibility of going beyond it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Can the mind observe that anger without recognition

2009-09-09T23:22:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - All right, let me put it differently: I am angry, is that anger different from me? Me, the observer, who says 'I am angry'. Or that anger is part of me. It seems so simple. No? And when I realise that, that the observer is the observed, that the anger which I recognise is part of me, not something apart, then what am I to do with that anger? I am not separate from that anger. I am anger. I am not separate from violence. I am that violence. That violence has come about through my fear, that fear has brought about aggression. So I am all that. Then what takes place?

Let us look at it a little more: when I am angry, each response which I call anger, is recognised, recognised because I have been angry before. So next time I am angry I recognise it and that makes that anger still stronger. Right? I wonder if you see this. Because I am looking at this new response with the recognition of a previous anger. Right? So I am merely recognising anger. I am not going beyond it, I am merely recognising it each time.

So can I, can the mind observe that anger without recognition, without using the word anger, which is a form of recognition? Look: we are violent human beings, in so many ways. We may have a gentle face and quiet voice but deeply we are violent people. And there are violent activities, violent speech and all the rest of it. Now is that violence different from me, from the observer? I see that the observer is part of that violence, it is not the observer is non-violent, therefore he looks at violence, but the observer himself is part of that. Then what shall he do? You understand my question?

If I am part of that violence, which I am, and before I have separated myself from that violence saying, 'I must suppress it, I must conquer it, I must go beyond it' and therefore there is a conflict between that and myself. Now I have eliminated that absurdity. I see the fact that I am violent, the very structure of me is violent. Then what takes place? Obviously there is no desire to overcome it because I am part of that. Please see this.

There is no question of my trying to overcome it, suppress it. And suppression, overcoming, escaping is a form of wastage of energy - isn't it? Now when the observer is the observed I have all the energy. Are we meeting? I have all that energy, which has been dissipated before by escapes, by suppression, by overcoming it. Now I have that tremendous energy which comes about when the observer is the observed, and that energy can go beyond itself, which is violence. I wonder if I am making myself clear.

We need energy, don't we, to do anything. I need energy to go beyond violence, and I have wasted that energy through suppression, through conformity, through escape, through rationalisation, through all kinds of forms of escapes and justifications. And when I see the observer is the observed and all that energy is concentrated, and when there is that total energy there is no violence. It is only fragments that create violence. Have you got it?

When one meets life with images, then there are problems

2009-09-09T00:13:00.001-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - A problem exists only when we are incapable of dealing with it completely. It only exists when we deal with a total psychological problem fragmentarily, or emotionally, or escape from it. Apparently we are not capable of meeting a problem entirely. First of all one has to be aware not only of the problem, the nature of the problem, the structure of the problem, but also one has to be able to meet it - not eventually, not gradually, taking time over it - but to meet it immediately and resolve it immediately, so that the problem doesn't take root in the mind.

So the first question is: all life is a problem, living is a problem, and there is no escape from it but how to meet it entirely, completely, as it arises, and be beyond it, so that it does not take root in the soil of the mind? And how is this to be done? Because the more one allows a problem of any kind to linger, to endure for a day or for a month or even for a few minutes, it obviously distorts the mind; is it possible to meet a problem without any distortion and be completely free of it, immediately? I do not know if you have thought about it; if you have, you must have gone into it.

You must have seen that in every movement of life unless there is a complete, total meeting of it there is a problem; the inadequate meeting of this movement in life is a problem. And can I - as a human being - meet these problems as they arise and not let a memory, a scratch on the mind, remain? These memories are the images which we carry about with us, and these images meet this extraordinary thing called life and hence there is a contradiction, because life is very real - life is not an abstraction. When one meets life with images, then there are problems.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - We are very serious about rather trivial things

2009-09-08T10:54:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - We are very serious about rather trivial things but very few of us are serious and earnest about the fundamental issues of life. We are serious in demanding and fulfilling our desires and pleasures. We are serious in self-expression or in continuing a particular activity to which we are committed. We are serious about nationalism, about wars, about our particular prejudices, dogmas and beliefs. At least we are superficially serious, but unfortunately we are not serious about the deep issues of life. And the more one is serious about the radical implications of life the more one has vigour, vitality, and the drive that is necessary to go through to the very end. It seems to me that here in this tent we should be clear, at least for the time being, clear and serious in what we are talking about.

What we are inwardly exposes itself outwardly. You may introduce many laws, many injunctions, sanctions and tortures outwardly, but unless there is an inward revolution, inward change, the mere outward structure of what 'should be' is ultimately broken down; you may put man in a frame work so tight, as in the communist world, yet it will break up. So we are in this world that is so confused, so miserable, at war; can we, living in this world, as human beings, bring about a change in ourselves? That seems to me the fundamental issue, not what you believe, or what you don't believe whether you are a Christian, non-Christian, whether you are a Catholic, Protestant and all the immature structures which the mind has built upon fear.

How is one to be free from any problem which is disturbing

2009-09-08T09:14:00.000-07:00

Questioner: How is one to be free from any problem which is disturbing?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: To understand any problem we must give our undivided attention to it. Both the conscious and the unconscious, or the inner mind, must take part in solving it, but most of us unfortunately try to dissolve it superficially, that is, with that little part of the mind which we call the conscious mind, with the intellect only. Now our consciousness or our mind-feeling is like an iceberg, the greater part of it hidden deep down, only a fraction of it showing outside. We are acquainted with that superficial layer, but it is a confused acquaintance; of the greater, the deep unconscious, the inner part, we are hardly aware. Or, if we are, it becomes conscious through dreams, through occasional intimations, but those dreams and hints we translate, interpreting according to our prejudices and to our ever-limited intellectual capacities. And so those intimations lose their deep, pure significance.

If we wish to really understand our problem, then we must first clear up the confusion in the conscious, in the superficial mind, by thinking and feeling it out as widely and intelligently as possible, comprehensively and dispassionately. Then into this conscious clearing, open and alert, the inner mind can project itself. When the contents of the many layers of consciousness have been thus gathered and assimilated, only then does the problem cease to be.

Let us take an example. Most of us are educated in nationalistic spirit. We are brought up to love our country in opposition to another, to regard our people as superior to another, and so on. This superiority or pride is implanted in the mind from childhood and we accept it, live with it and condone it. With that thin layer which we call the conscious mind let us understand this problem and its deeper significance. We accept it, first of all, through environmental influences and are conditioned by it. Also, this nationalistic spirit feeds our vanity. The assertion that we are of this or that race or country feeds our petty, small, poor egos, puffs them out like sails, and we are ready to defend, to kill or be maimed for our country, race, and ideology.

In identifying ourselves with what we consider to be the greater, we hope to become greater. But we still remain poor; it is only the label that looms large and powerful. This nationalistic spirit is used for economic purposes and is used, also, through hatred and fear, to unite one people against another. Thus, when we become aware of this problem and its implications, we perceive its effects: war, misery, starvation, confusion. In worshiping the part, which is idolatrous, we deny the whole. This denial of human unity breeds endless wars and brutalities, economic and social division, and tyranny.

We understand all this intellectually, with that thin layer which we call the conscious mind, but we are still caught up in tradition, opinion, convenience, fear, and so on. Until the deep layers are exposed and understood, we are not free from the disease of nationalism, patriotism.

Thus in examining this problem, we have cleared the superficial layer of the conscious into which the deeper layers can flow. This flow is made stronger through constant awareness - by watching every response, every stimulation of nationalism or of any other hindrance. Each response, however small, must be thought out, felt out, widely and deeply. Thus you will soon perceive that the problem is dissolved and the nationalistic spirit has withered away.

All conflicts and miseries can be understood and dissolved in this manner - to clear the thin layer of the conscious by thinking out and feeling out the problem as comprehensively as possible; into this clarity, into this comparative quietness, the deeper motives, intentions, fears, and so on can project themselves; as they appear examine them, study them and so understand them. Thus the hindrance, the conflict, the sorrow is deeply and wholly understood and dissolved.

Source - J Krishnamurti book "Reflections on the Self"

Be aware; there is a fundamental difference between being and becoming

2009-09-08T09:12:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti: We often have religious experiences, sometimes vague, sometimes definite - experiences of intense devotion or joy, of being deeply vulnerable, of fleeting unity with all things - we try to utilize these experiences in meeting our difficulties and sorrows. These experiences are numerous, but our thought - caught in time, turmoil, and pain - tries to use them as stimulants to overcome our conflicts.

So we say God, or truth, will help us in our difficulties, but these experiences do not actually resolve our sorrow and confusion. Such moments of deep experience come when thought is not active in its self-protective memories; these experiences are independent of our striving, and when we try to use them as stimulants for strength in our struggles, they only further the expansion of the self and its peculiar intelligence. So we come back to our question: ''How can this intelligence, so sedulously cultivated, cease?'' It can cease only through passive awareness.

Awareness is from moment to moment, it is not the cumulative effect of self-protective memories. Awareness is not determination nor is it the action of will. Awareness is the complete and unconditional surrender to what is, without rationalization, without the division of the observer and the observed. As awareness is nonaccumulative, nonresidual, it does not build up the self, positively or negatively. Awareness is ever in the present and so, nonidentifying and nonrepetitive; nor does it create habit.

Take, for instance, the habit of smoking and experiment with it in awareness. Be aware of smoking, do not condemn, rationalize, or accept - simply be aware. If you are so aware, there is the cessation of the habit; if you are so aware, there will be no recurrance of it; but if you are not aware, the habit will persist. This awareness is not the determination to cease or to indulge.

Be aware; there is a fundamental difference between being and becoming. To become aware you make effort, and effort implies resistance and time and leads to conflict. If you are aware in the moment, there is no effort, no continuance of the self-protective intelligence. You are aware or you are not; the desire to be aware is only the activity of the sleeper, the dreamer. Awareness reveals the problem completely, fully, without denial or acceptance, justification or identification, and it is freedom which quickens understanding. Awareness is a unitary process of the observer and the observed.

With kindly dispassion, craving must be deeply understood and so transcended

2009-09-08T09:08:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Unless we understand this problem of opposites with its conflicts and miseries, our efforts will be in vain. Through self -awareness, craving to become, the cause of conflict, must be observed and understood; but understanding ceases if there is identification, if there is acceptance or denial or comparison. With kindly dispassion, craving must be deeply understood and so transcended.

For a mind that is caught in craving, in duality, cannot comprehend reality. Mind must be extremely still, and this stillness cannot be induced, disciplined, compelled through any technique. This stillness comes about only through the understanding of conflict. And you cannot compel conflict to cease. You cannot by will bring it to an end. You may cover it up, hide it away, but it will come up again and again.

A disease must be cured, but to treat merely the symptom is of little use. Only when we become aware of the cause of conflict, understand and transcend it, can we experience that which is. To become aware is to think out, feel out the opposites as much as you can, as widely and deeply as possible, without acceptance or denial, with choiceless awareness. In this extensional awareness you will find there comes a new kind of will or a new feeling, a new understanding which is not begotten out of the opposites.

Right thinking ceases when thought-feeling is bound, held in the opposites. If you become aware of your thoughts and feelings, your actions and responses, you will find that they are caught in the conflict of opposites. As each thought-feeling arises, think it out feel it out fully, without identification. This extensional awareness can take place only when you are not denying, when you are not rejecting nor accepting nor comparing. Through this extensional awareness there will be discovered a state of being which is free from the conflict of all opposites.

This creative understanding is to be discovered, and it is this understanding which frees the mind from craving. And it is this extensional awareness in which there is no becoming, with its hope and fear, achievement and failure, with its self-enclosing pain and pleasure, that will free thought-feeling from ignorance and sorrow.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Cessation of sorrow is not so difficult

2009-09-07T08:58:00.000-07:00

Questioner: May we request you to state clearly whether there is God or not?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Why do you seek my confirmation? Either I will strengthen you in your belief or shake you away from it. If I confirm, you will be pleased and you will go on with your rough and ugly ways. If I disturb you, you will soon cover up that disturbance and carry on with your daily routine. But why do you want to know? This is far more important - to find out why you want to know - than if there is or if there is not God. To know reality, to know God, you must not seek Him. If you seek, you are escaping from what is. You want to escape from suffering to an illusion which you call God. Your books are full of God. The temples, with their images, do not hold God.

For reality to come into being, suffering must cease, and the mere search for truth, for God, for immortality, is an escape from suffering. It is more pleasant to discuss whether there is or there is not God than to dissolve the causes of suffering. He who discusses the nature of God can never know God. Reality cannot be caught in a garland of words. You cannot catch the wind in a fist. You cannot capture reality in a temple nor in ceremonies.

All escapes are on the same level, whether the escape is through the temple or through a drink. The search for God may not be so harmful to society as the escape through acquisitiveness, but this search for God cannot bring about the realization of God. Until you understand and transcend suffering, reality cannot come into being. So, your inquiry whether there is or there is not God is vain: it has no meaning. Your inquiry can but lead to illusion. How can the mind that is caught in the turmoil of daily greed and suffering, in ignorance and envy, know that which is illimitable, unutterable? How can the mind which is the product of time know the timeless? It cannot. So, to think about truth, about God, is another form of escape. Thought is the result of time, the product of memory. So, how can thought find that which is timeless, eternal? It cannot.

When the thought process comes to an end - which is to understand suffering and not escape from it - suffering, which is not only on the superficial level but at different levels of consciousness, is transcended. This means we must be open, vulnerable to suffering. You are suffering, with an occasional ray of sunshine.

Since you suffer, why not understand it thoroughly and resolve it finally? This cessation of sorrow is not so difficult. For a mind that is caught in the net of suffering, it is more difficult to search out God, for He is the unknown and you cannot search for the unknown. But you can be aware of suffering, and in this awareness the cause of it is known.

Since you run away from sorrow through many forms of escape, be aware of these escapes, and come directly, actually, face to face with suffering. Only then can sorrow come to an end. Then the mind is tranquil. This tranquillity is not a result; it is not the product of a disciplined, controlled mind. As the lake is still when the breezes stop, so the mind is still. Such a mind is a blessing, for it is then capable of receiving the highest. The experiencing of reality is not an illusion, but the experience which comes through an escape which you call God is an illusion.

So, to seek God is not to find Him, but to understand suffering and for the mind to free itself from its own self-created problems brings tranquillity. Then only, reality can come into being.

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Awareness cannot be disciplined

2009-09-07T08:57:00.000-07:00

Questioner: Is extensional awareness the same as creative emptiness? Is not awareness passive and therefore not creative? Is not the process of self -awareness tedious and painful?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: If awareness is practiced, made into a habit, then it becomes tedious and painful. Awareness cannot be disciplined. That which is practiced is no longer awareness, for in practice is implied the creation of habit, the exertion of effort and will. Effort is distortion. There is not only the awareness of the outer - of the flight of birds, of shadows, of the restless sea, the trees and the wind, the beggar and the luxurious cars that pass by - but also there is the awareness of the psychological process, the inward tension and conflict. You do not condemn a bird in flight; you observe it, you see the beauty of it. But, when you consider your own inward strife, you condemn it or justify it. You are incapable of observing this inward conflict without choice or justification.

To be aware of your thought and feeling without identification and denial is not tedious and painful, but in search of a result, an end to be gained, conflict is increased and the tedium of strife begins. In awareness there is no becoming, there is no end to be gained. There is silent observation without choice and condemnation, from which there comes understanding. In this process when thought and feeling unfold themselves - which is only possible when there is neither acquisition nor acceptance - then there comes an extensional awareness. In this extensional awareness, all the hidden layers and their significance are revealed. This awareness reveals that creative emptiness which cannot be imagined or formulated. This extensional awareness and the creative emptiness are total process and are not different stages.

When you silently observe a problem without condemnation or justification, there comes passive awareness. In this passive awareness, the problem is understood and dissolved. In awareness there is heightened sensitivity, in which there is the highest form of negative thinking. When the mind is formulating, producing, there can be no creation. It is only when the mind is still and empty, when it is not creating a problem - in that alert passivity there is creation. Creation can only take place in negation, which is not the opposite of the positive. Being nothing is not the antithesis of being something. A problem comes into being only when there is a search for result. When the search for result ceases, then only is there no problem.

Buddha, or Krishnamurti, or X becomes the authority

2009-09-06T23:38:00.000-07:00

Question: I read the Buddha because it helps me to think clearly about my own problems, and I read you and some others in the same way. You seem to suggest that such help is superficial and does not bring about a radical transformation. Is this a casual suggestion on your part, or do you mean to indicate that there is something very much deeper which cannot be discovered through reading?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Do you read in order to be helped? Do you read in order to confirm your own experiences? Do you read in order to amuse yourself, to relax, to give your mind, this constantly active mind, a rest? The questioner says he reads because it helps him to solve his problems. Are you really helped by reading? - it does not matter who it is. When I go out seeking help, am I helped? I may find temporary relief, a momentary crack through which I can see the way, but surely, to find help, I must go within myself, must I not? Books can give you information about how to move towards the door which will solve your problems, but you must walk, must you not? You see, that is one of our difficulties - we want to be helped. We have innumerable problems, devastating, destructive problems in which we are caught, and we want help from somebody: the psychologist, the doctor, the Buddha, whoever it is.

The very desire to be helped creates the image to which we become a slave, so the Buddha, or Krishnamurti, or X becomes the authority. We say, "He helped me once, and my goodness, I am going back to him again" - which indicates the shallow mind, the mind that is seeking help. Such a mind creates its own problems and then wants somebody else to solve them, or it goes to somebody to help it to uncover the process of its own thinking.

So, unconsciously, the one who seeks help creates the authority: the authority of the book, the authority of the state, the authority of the dictator, the authority of the teacher, of the priest, you know, the whole business of it. And can I be helped, can you be helped? I know we would like to be. Fundamentally, can you and I be helped?

Surely, it is only by understanding ourselves patiently, quietly, unobtrusively that we begin to discover, experience something which is not of our own creation, and it is that which brings about help, which begins to clear the field of our vision. But you cannot ask for that help; it must come to you darkly, uninvited. But when we are suffering, when we are in real psychological pain, we want somebody to give us a hand, and so the church, the particular friend, the teacher, or the state, becomes all-important. For that help, we are willing to become slaves.

So, we have to go into this problem of how we are caught in our own sorrows, we have to understand and clear it up for ourselves; for reality, God, or what you will, is not to be experienced through another. It must be experienced directly, it must come to you without any intermediary; but a mind that is seeking help, that is petitioning, that is asking, begging - such a mind can never find the other because it has not understood its own problems, it has not studied the process of its own activities. It is only when the mind is quiet that there is light. That light is not to be worshipped by the mind; the mind must be utterly silent, not asking, not hoping for experience. It must be completely still. Only then is there a possibility of that light which will dispel our darkness.

Source - from J Krishnamurti book "The Revolution from with in" - August 3, 1952

Jiddu Krishnamurti - If you are aware of the shallowness, then there is a possibility of transformation

2009-09-06T23:34:00.000-07:00

Question: How is one who is superficial to become serious?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Let us find out together. First of all, we must be aware that we are superficial, must we not? And are we? What does it mean to be superficial? Essentially, to be dependent, does it not? To depend on stimulation, to depend on challenge, to depend on another, to depend psychologically on certain values, certain experiences, certain memories - does not all that make for superficiality?

When I depend on going to church every morning, or every week, in order to be uplifted, in order to be helped, does that not make me superficial? If I have to perform certain rituals to maintain my sense of integrity or to regain a feeling which I may once have had, does that not make me superficial? And does it not make me superficial when I give myself over to a country, to a plan, or to a particular political group? Surely, this whole process of dependence is an evasion of myself; this identification with the greater is the denial of what I am. But I cannot deny what I am; I must understand what I am, and not try to identify myself with the universe, with God, with a particular political party, or what you will. All this leads to shallow thinking, and from shallow thinking there is activity which is everlastingly mischievous, whether on a worldwide scale or on the individual scale.

So, first of all, do we recognize that we are doing these things? We don't; we justify them. We say, "What shall I do if I don't do these things? I'll be worse off; my mind will go to pieces. Now, at least, I am struggling towards something better." And the more we struggle, the more superficial we are. So, I have to see that first, have I not? And that is one of the most difficult things - to see what I am, to acknowledge that I am stupid, that I am shallow, that I am narrow, that I am jealous. If I see what I am, if I recognize it, then with that I can start. Surely, a shallow mind is a mind that escapes from what it is, and not to escape requires arduous investigation, the denial of inertia.

The moment I know I am shallow, there is already a process of deepening - if I don't do anything about the shallowness. If the mind says, "I am petty, and I am going to go into it, I am going to understand the whole of this pettiness, this narrowing influence," then there is a possibility of transformation; but a petty mind, acknowledging that it is petty and trying to be nonpetty by reading, by meeting people, by traveling, by being incessantly active like a monkey, is still a petty mind.

Again, you see, there is a real revolution only if we approach this problem rightly. The right approach to the problem gives an extraordinary confidence which I assure you moves mountains - the mountains of one's own prejudices, conditionings. So, being aware of a shallow mind, do not try to become deep. A shallow mind can never know great depths. It can have plenty of knowledge, information, it can repeat words - you know, the whole paraphernalia of a superficial mind that is active.

But if you know that you are superficial, shallow, if you are aware of the shallowness and observe all its activities without judging, without condemning, then you will soon see that the shallow thing has disappeared entirely without your action upon it. But that requires patience, watchfulness, not an eager desire for a result, for a reward, for achievement. It is only a shallow mind that wants an achievement, a result. The more you are aware of this whole process, the more you will discover the activities of the mind, but you must observe them without trying to put an end to them because the moment you seek an end, you are again caught in the duality of the 'me' and the 'not-me' - which is another problem.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Education and the present world crisis

2009-09-01T13:30:00.000-07:00

Question: What part can education play in the present world crisis?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : First of all, to understand what part education can play in the world crisis, we must understand how the present crisis has come into being. Without understanding that, merely to build on the same values, on the same grounds, on the same foundation, will bring about further wars, further disasters. So, we must first investigate how the present crisis has come into being. And, in understanding what are the causes, you will inevitably understand what kind of education to bring about.

Obviously, the present crisis is the result of wrong values, of wrong values with regard to man's relationship to property, to people and to ideas, which is property, which has become nationalistic, economic frontiers, expansion of sensate value and therefore the predominance of those values, which necessarily creates this poison of nationalism, sovereign separate governments and the patriotic spirit, which excludes cooperation between man and man for the benefit of man and his relationship with people, which creates society. And, if his relationship is wrong, inevitably the structure of society is bound to collapse and is relationship to ideas, which has become the justification of an ideology, whether of the left or of the right, whether the means employed is right or wrong, in order to achieve an end.

Obviously, all these are the causes of the present disaster, mutual distrust, lack of goodwill, the justification of achieving an end through wrong means and justifying the wrong means for the right end, the sacrificing of the present for a future ideal: all these are obviously the cause of the present disaster. Of course, it will take an awfully long time to go into these in detail. But, one can see at a glance how this chaos, this degradation, has come into being.

Surely, obviously, these are based on wrong values and the dependence on authority, on leaders. Surely, leaders and authority are the deteriorating factors in a culture. The moment you depend on another, there is no self-confidence, and where there is no self-confidence, self-dependence, obviously there must be brought about a conformity, and eventually leading to totalitarian states of dictatorships, whether it is in the small school or big universities.

So, realising all these things, realising what are the causes of war, of this present catastrophe, the present moral and social crises, when one sees what the results are, naturally the causes are perceived. Surely, then the function of education is to create new values, not merely implant them in the mind of the pupil, which merely conditions the pupil, and not gives them intelligence. But, when the educator himself has not seen the causes of this present catastrophe, how can he implant, how can he give intelligence, how can he prevent the future civilization, the future generation from not following the same steps leading ultimately to further catastrophe.

So, is it not important for the educator not merely to implant certain ideals, which is merely information, but to give all his thoughts, all his care, all his affection, the right environment, the right atmosphere, so that when the child or the boy grows up into maturity, he is capable of dealing with any problem, any human problem, that confronts him. So, the present crisis and education are intimately related, realising the world crisis is the outcome of wrong education. Which all the educators, at least in Europe and in America, are seeing. They want to transform and they can only transform it in emphasising the educator, in educating the educator and not merely creating a new pattern, a new system of action.

Through self-awareness and self-knowledge there is order, clarity, and right thinking

2009-09-01T13:20:00.001-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - To become aware of ignorance is the beginning of candor, of honesty. To be unaware of ignorance breeds obstinacy and credulity. Without being aware of ignorance, to try to become honest only leads to further confusion. Without self-knowledge mere sincerity is narrowness and gullibility. If one begins to be self-aware and observes what is candor, then confusion yields to clarity. It is the lack of clarity that leads to dishonesty, to pretension. To be aware of escapes, distortions, hindrances, brings order and clarity. Ignorance, which is the lack of self-knowledge, leads to confusion, to dishonesty. Without understanding the contradictory nature of the self, to be candid is to be hard and to produce more and more confusion. Through self-awareness and self-knowledge there is order, clarity, and right thinking.

One needs extraordinary simplicity to understand oneself

2009-09-01T13:16:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Simplicity is not sincerity. One who is sincere can never be simple because the one who is trying to be sincere has always the desire to fashion or to approximate himself to an idea. And one needs extraordinary simplicity to understand oneself - the simplicity which comes when there is no desire to attain, to achieve, to gain something; and the moment we desire to gain something through self-knowledge, there is self-consciousness in which we get caught, which is a fact.

If you do not merely examine what the various psychologists and saints have said but experiment with yourself, you will come to a point when you will see that unless there is not sincerity but complete simplicity, you cannot proceed. Self-consciousness arises only when there is a desire to achieve something - happiness, reality, or even understanding - through self-knowledge.

That is, when there is a desire for achievement through self-knowledge, there is self-consciousness, which prevents going further into the problem. And as most of us, especially so-called religious people, try to be sincere, we have to understand this question, this word sincerity. Because sincerity develops will, and will is essentially desire. You have to be sincere in order to approximate yourself to an idea, and hence the pattern and the carrying out of that pattern become most important.

To carry out a pattern, you must have will, which denies simplicity. Simplicity comes into being only when there is freedom from the desire to achieve and when you are willing to go into self-knowledge without any end in view. And I think that that is really important to think over. What is required is not sincerity, not the exertion of will to be or not to be something, but to understand oneself from moment to moment, spontaneously, as things arise. How can you be spontaneous when you are approximating yourself to something?

When do you discover anything in yourself? Only at unexpected moments, when you are not consciously, deliberately, shaping your mind, your thoughts, and feelings; only when there is a spontaneous response to the incidents of life.

Then, according to those responses, you find out. But a man who is trying to be sincere to an idea can never be simple, and therefore there can never be full, complete self-knowledge. And self-knowledge can be discovered more fully, more deeply and widely, only when there is passive awareness, which is not an exertion of will. Will and sincerity go together; simplicity and passive awareness are companions. Because, when one is passively aware, deeply, then there is a possibility of immediate understanding. As we discussed, when you want to understand something, if you are all the time consumed with the desire to understand it, making an effort to understand it, naturally there is no understanding.

But if there is a passive, alert awareness, then there is a possibility of understanding. Similarly, to understand oneself ever more deeply and widely, there must be passive awareness, which is extremely difficult, for most of us either condemn or justify. We never look at anything passively. We project ourselves upon the subject - a painting, a poem, or anything else - especially where we are concerned. We are incapable of looking at ourselves without any condemnation or justification, and that is essential, surely, if we are to understand more and more widely and deeply.

As most of us, in the search of self-knowledge, get caught in self-consciousness, the danger is that, being caught, we make that in which we are caught the most important thing. To go beyond self-consciousness, there must be freedom from the desire to achieve a result. Because, after all, the attainment of a result is what the mind wants; it wants to be secure, to be safe, and therefore projects, out of its own momentum, an image, an idea, in which it takes shelter. And to avoid all the illusions that the mind creates, to avoid being caught in them, is possible only when there is no desire for a result, only when one is living from moment to moment.

Jiddu Krishnamurti on meditation and use of drugs - LSD

2009-08-27T00:46:00.000-07:00

Questioner: I think it is possible under certain drugs to know myself - there is no conflict.

Jiddu Krishnamurti: Does any drug really expose the totality of the content of consciousness, or does it bring about chemically a certain state of mind, which is totally different from the understanding of oneself? I have watched many people in India taking drugs and I have also watched students at universities in America, and others, who have been taking psychedelic drugs. These drugs do affect the mind, the brain cells themselves - they destroy the brain.

If you have talked to those who have taken drugs, you see they can't reason, they can't pursue a logical sequence of thought. I am not asking you not to take drugs, it's up to you; but you can see the effect of it on people. They have no sense of responsibility, they think they can do anything they like - and how many hospitals are full of people who are mentally unbalanced through drugs. We are talking of something which is non-chemical. If LSD, or any other drug, could bring about a state of mind in which there is no conflict, and at the same time one could maintain complete responsibility and a logical sequence of thought and action, that would be marvellous.

We are asking: how is one to expose the whole hidden content at one glance? Not through a series of dreams, not through analysis, all that implies time and wastage of energy. This is an important question because I want to understand myself - myself being all my past, the experiences, the hurts, the anxieties, the guilt, the various fears. How am I to comprehend all that immediately? To understand all that immediately gives immense energy. Now how do you do that? Is that an impossibility? We have to ask the impossible question to find a way out of it. Unless we ask the most impossible question we shall always be dealing with what is possible, and what is possible is very little.

So I am asking the most impossible question, which is: to have this whole content of consciousness exposed and understand it, see it totally, without time - which means without analysis, exploration and seeing layer after layer, which is an expenditure of time. How is the mind to observe this whole content with one look?

If that question is put to you, as it is being put now, if you are really listening to that question, what is your response? You obviously say ''I can't do it''. You really don't know how to do it. Are you waiting for somebody to tell you? If I say to myself, ''I don't know'', am I waiting for somebody to inform me - am I expecting an answer? When I am expecting an answer, then I already know. Are you following this? When I say, ''I don't know, I really don't know'' - I am not waiting for anybody to tell me, I am not expecting anything because nobody can answer it.

So I actually don't know, What is the state of the mind that says ''I really don't know''?, I can't find it in any book, I can't ask anybody, I can't go to any teacher or priest, I really don't know. When the mind says ''I do not know'', what is the state of the mind? Please, don't answer me. Do look at it, because we always say we know. I know my wife, I know mathematics, I know this, 1 know that. We never say, ''I really don't know''. I am asking; what is the state of the mind that honestly says, ''I don't know''? Don't verbalize immediately. When I really mean I don't know, the mind has no answer. It is not expecting anything from anybody. It is not waiting, it is not expecting. So what happens? Is it not completely alone? It is not isolated - isolation and aloneness are two different things. In that quality of aloneness there is no influence, there is no resistance, it has shed itself from all the past, it says, ''I really don't know.'' Therefore the mind has emptied itself of all its content. Have you understood this?

I have asked the impossible question and I have said, ''I don't know.'' Therefore the mind empties itself of everything, of every suggestion, every probability, every possibility; so the mind is completely active and empty of all the past - which is time, analysis, the authority of somebody. So it has exposed all the content of itself by denying the content. Do you understand now? As we said, meditation can only begin with the total understanding of myself; that is part of the beginning of meditation. Without understanding myself the mind can deceive itself, it can have illusions according to its particular conditioning. When you know your conditioning and are free of it, then there is no possibility of any kind of illusion, and that is absolutely essential because we can deceive ourselves so easily.

So when I investigate into myself, I see that consciousness is emptying itself of all its content through knowing itself, not by denying anything, but by understanding the whole content; that brings about great energy, which is necessary, because that energy transforms completely all my activity. It is no longer self-centred and therefore the cause of friction.

Meditation is a way of putting aside altogether everything that man has conceived of himself and of the world. So he has a totally different kind of mind. Meditation also means awareness, both of the world and of the whole movement of oneself, to see exactly what is, without any choice, without any distortion. Distortion takes place the moment you bring in thought. Yet thought has to function, but when there is an observation and thought interferes with that observation as image, then there is distortion and illusion.

So to observe actually what is, in oneself and in the world, without any distortion, a quiet, very still mind is necessary. One knows that it is necessary to have a quiet mind, therefore there are various systems to help you to control it, and all that means friction. If you want to observe passionately, with intensity, the mind inevitably becomes quiet. You don't have to force it - the moment you force it, it is not quiet, it is dead. Can you see this truth, that to perceive anything you must look? - and if you look with prejudice you cannot see. If you see that, your mind is quiet.

Now what takes place in a quiet mind? We are enquiring not only into that quality of energy in which there is no friction, but also into how to bring about a radical change within oneself. One's self is the world and the world is oneself - the world is not the fruit separate from me: I am the world. It is not just an idea, but an actual fact, that I am the world and the world is ''me''. So there is a radical revolution, a change in me that will inevitably affect the world, because I am part of the world.

In this enquiry into what meditation is, I see that any wastage of energy is caused by friction in my relationship with another. Is it possible to have a relationship with another in which there is no friction whatsoever? That is possible only when I understand what love is, and the understanding of what love is, is the denial of what love is not. Jealousy, ambition, greed, self-centred activity, obviously all that is not love. When in the understanding of myself there is the total setting aside of all that which is not love, then it is. The observation takes a second, the explanation and the description takes a long time, but the act of observation is instantaneous.

In this observation I have found no system, no authority, no self-centred activity, therefore there is no conformity, no comparison of myself with another; to observe all this the mind must be extraordinarily quiet. If you want to listen to what is being said just now, you have to give attention, haven't you? You can't listen if you are thinking about something else. If you are bored with this, I can get up and go, but to force yourself to listen is absurd. If you are really interested in it passionately, intensely, then you listen completely, and to listen completely the mind must be quiet - this is very simple. All this is meditation; not just sitting for five minutes by yourself, cross-legged, breathing properly - that is not meditation, that is self-hypnosis.

I want to find out what is the quality of the mind that is completely still and also what takes place when it is still. I have observed, I have recorded, I have understood and I have finished with that. But there is another enquiry: what is the state of the mind, of the brain cells themselves? The brain cells store up the memories that are useful, that are necessary for their self-protection, memories of what might lead to danger. Haven't you noticed this? I suppose you read a lot of books? Personally I don't, therefore I can look into myself and find out, watch myself, not according to somebody - but just watch. I am asking myself what is the quality of such a mind, what has happened to the brain? The brain records, that is its function. It functions only through memory which protects it, otherwise it can't function. The brain may find security in some neurosis; it has found security in nationalism, in a belief in the family, in having possessions, which are all various forms of neurosis. The brain must be secure to function and it may choose to find that security in something that is False, unreal, illusory, neurotic.

When I have examined myself thoroughly, all this disappears. There is no neurosis, no belief, no nationality, no desire to hurt anybody, nor to recall all the hurts. So the brain then is a recording instrument, without thought using it as the ''me'' in operation. So meditation implies not only the body being still but also the brain being quiet. Have you ever watched your brain in operation? Why you think certain things. Why you react to others, why you feel desperately lonely, unloved, with nothing to rely on, no hope - you know this tremendous sense of loneliness? Though you may be married, have children and live in a group, there is this feeling of complete emptiness. Seeing it, one tries to escape from it, but if you remain with it, do not escape from it, just look at it completely without condemning it or trying to overcome it, but observe it actually as-it is, then you will see that what you considered to be loneliness ceases to be.

So the brain cells record, and thought as the ''me'' - my ambitions, my greed, my purposes, my fulfilment - comes to an end. Therefore the brain and the mind become extraordinarily quiet and only function when necessary. Therefore your brain, your mind, enters into quite a different dimension of which there is no description; because the description is not the described. What we have done this morning is description, explanation, but the word is not the thing, when one realizes that then one is free of the word. The quiet mind then enters into the immeasurable.

All our life is based on thought which is measurable. It measures God, it measures its relationship with another through the image. It tries to improve itself according to what it thinks it should be. So unnecessarily we live in a world of measurement, and with that world we want to enter into a world in which there is no measurement at all. Meditation is the seeing of what is and going beyond it - seeing the measure and going beyond the measure. What takes place when the brain, the mind and the body are really quiet and harmonious - when the mind, the body and the heart are completely one? Then one lives a totally different kind of life.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti Book "Awakening of Intelligence"

J Krishnamurti on creativity | State of creative emptiness

2009-08-21T07:38:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - It is only when the mind is empty that there is a possibility of creation; but I do not mean this superficial emptiness which most of us have. Most of us are superficially empty, and it shows itself through the desire for distraction. We want to be amused, so we turn to books, to the radio, we run to lectures, to authorities; the mind is everlastingly filling itself. I am not talking of that emptiness which is thoughtlessness. On the contrary, I am talking of the emptiness which comes through extraordinary thoughtfulness, when the mind sees its own power of creating illusion and goes beyond.

Creative emptiness is not possible so long as there is the thinker who is waiting, watching, observing in order to gather experience, in order to strengthen himself. Can the mind ever be empty of all symbols, of all words with their sensations, so that there is no experiencer who is accumulating? Is it possible for the mind to put aside completely all the reasonings, the experiences, the impositions, authorities, so that it is in a state of emptiness? You will not be able to answer this question, naturally; it is an impossible question for you to answer, because you do not know, you have never tried. But, if I may suggest, listen to it, let the question be put to you, let the seed be sown; and it will bear fruit if you really listen to it, if you do not resist it.

It is only the new that can transform, not the old. If you pursue the pattern of the old, any change is a modified continuity of the old; there is nothing new in that, there is nothing creative. The creative can come into being only when the mind itself is new; and the mind can renew itself only when it is capable of seeing all its own activities, not only at the superficial level, but deep down. When the mind sees its own activities, is aware of its own desires, demands, urges, pursuits, the creation of its own authorities, fears; when it sees in itself the resistance created by discipline, by control, and the hope which projects beliefs, ideals - when the mind sees through, is aware of this whole process, can it put aside all these things and be new, creatively empty?

You will find out whether it can or cannot only if you experiment without having an opinion about it, without wanting to experience that creative state. If you want to experience it, you will; but what you experience is not creative emptiness, it is only a projection of desire. If you desire to experience the new, you are merely indulging in illusion; but if you begin to observe, to be aware of your own activities from day to day, from moment to moment, watching the whole process of yourself as in a mirror, then, as you go deeper and deeper, you will come to the ultimate question of this emptiness in which alone there can be the new.

Truth, God or what you will, is not something to be experienced, for the experiencer is the result of time, the result of memory, of the past, and so long as there is the experiencer there cannot be reality. There is reality only when the mind is completely free from the analyser, from the experiencer and the experienced. Then you will find the answer, then you will see that the change comes without your asking, that the state of creative emptiness is not a thing to be cultivated - it is there, it comes darkly, without any invitation; only in that state is there a possibility of renewal, newness, revolution.

Source - J. Krishnamurti book "The First and Last Freedom"

Authority prevents a human being from being a light to himself

2009-08-21T07:37:00.001-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Authority gives a great deal of satisfaction to the man who exercises it in whatever name he does so he derives immense pleasure and therefore he is the most...! One has to be tremendously aware of such a person; from the beginning of these talks let us be very clear on this one point, at least.

Seriousness entails non-acceptance of any authority, including the speaker. There are those who come from the East, unfortunately, who maintain that they have most extraordinary experiences, that they can show the past to another, that they know how to give some word which will help you to meditate most excellently. I do not know if you are caught in those kinds of traps many people are, thousands, millions are.

Such authority prevents a human being from being a light to himself. When each one of us is a light to himself then only can we co-operate, then only can we love, then only is there a sense of communion with each other. But if you have your particular authority, whether that authority be an individual or an experience which you yourself have felt, have known, then that experience, that authority, that conclusion, that definite position, prevents communication with each other. It is only a mind that is really free that can commune, that can co-operate.

J Krishnamurti - One must become aware of the ideas, beliefs

2009-08-21T07:35:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - One must first see the extraordinarily subtle activities of the 'me', of the mind, one must become aware of the ideas, beliefs, speculations and put them all aside, for they are deceptions, are they not? Others may have experienced reality; but if you have not experienced it, what is the good of speculating about it or imagining that you are in essence something real, immortal, godly?

That is still within the field of thought and anything that springs from thought is conditioned, is of time, of memory; therefore it is not real. If one actually realizes that - not speculatively, not imaginatively or foolishly, but actually sees the truth that any activity of the mind in its speculative search, in its philosophical groping, any assumption, any imagination or hope is only self-deception - then what is the power, the creative energy that brings about this fundamental transformation?

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Can the mind be totally attentive?

2009-08-19T22:53:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - When you do feel totally, is there a center which says, ''I feel totally''? Please do not answer. Please follow this right through. It is very important to be free of this conditioning, obviously, because every way you look at it, it is so utterly stupid.

To be conditioned as a Catholic, as a Protestant, as a Hindu, as a communist, or this or that; to be conditioned by a label, a word, and all the content behind the label and the word - it is so silly. Now, can the mind wipe it all away with one stroke? You see, virtue lies in that perception. The only virtuous man is the man who sees the totality of his conditioning and wipes it away. The rest are not virtuous at all; they are merely playing about with the toys of so-called civilization.

This means, really, can the mind be totally attentive? Can you be completely aware with all your senses, with all your body, with all your mind? Even if you are so aware for a fleeting second, then you will never ask, ''How am I to be totally aware? Is it possible?'' You see, I feel we miss so much beauty and love and such a profound sense of immensity when we surround ourselves with all our words, quarrels, beliefs, dogmas, and all such things. We do not kick them out, and so we are slaves to time.

Jiddu Krishnamurti quote on Compassion

2009-08-19T06:35:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Compassion comes only when you understand the meaning of sorrow, not only the sorrow of yourself, but of your neighbour, of all the mothers, of all the sisters, all the wives that have been killed, who are shedding tears, who have shed tears. When you understand what sorrow means and remain - to understand it one has to remain with it, look at it, not escape from it, not try to justify it, then out of that total negation of all escapes, then out of that comes passion, and with it compassion which is love. Right, sirs.

What is the relationship between meditation and love

2009-08-19T06:30:00.000-07:00

Jiddu Krishnamurti - We started out by asking: what is the relationship of thought to meditation and to love? Right? We went into the question that our mind contains, or is the result, of the senses, the emotions, crooked, sane, irrational, illusory and so on, the sentiments, the judgements, the evaluations, the memories, the hurts, the anxieties, all that, which is under the umbrella of thought.

Thought is the central factor. And as thought is the result of knowledge, and knowledge is always limited and therefore with knowledge goes ignorance, thought is fragmented, broken up, limited. And when thought says, 'I must meditate, I must find out truth, I must achieve enlightenment', thought is playing games with itself. That is obvious. So meditation has nothing to do with thought. When you sit down and deliberately meditate, it may be pleasant, it may give you certain relaxation, you may have certain pleasurable experience, but all that is a deliberate action by thought and desire to achieve a certain result. Therefore that is not meditation.

And what is the relationship of thought to love? That is what you were asking madame. Love - this becomes rather difficult - love is free from thought. Love is not the product of thought. If it is, it is still part of desire, obviously. So love is independent, is free from all the activities, and chicanery, dishonesty, desires, sensations, sex. That is not love. Where love is, the 'me' is not. Obviously. The 'me', the ego, with all its arrogance, conceits, aggressiveness, humility, pretension to humility, rather, all that is the ego. What has that got to do with love? You understand?

So love is beyond thought. Then what is the relationship between meditation and love? When one deliberately, purposefully, actively participates in the so-called meditation, that meditation leads to illusion, and that illusion has no relationship with love.

But there is a meditation, if you are interested in it, which is not deliberate, which has nothing whatsoever to do with desire. There is a meditation which must be totally undesired, totally free of thought. And to find that meditation - I am not offering it as a reward - if you are interested in it you have to go into the question of desire, give it its right place, whether desire has any place at all, and also thought has to find its own place and remain there. Then meditation becomes something totally different from what you are doing.

That is, one has to find out what is reality and what is truth. Reality is also illusion - do you understand? The reality of these mountains, the hills, the groves, the meadows, the river, that is reality, you can see it. And also reality is all the illusions, like nationality, like your beliefs, your dogmas, your rituals, your saviours, your Krishnas, all that, those are all illusions. They might have existed - might - but what we have made of them is illusion. That's a reality. Go into a church, into a temple, into a mosque, that is a reality. That is all the product of thought. Right? Of course.

So reality has to be understood, seen. Reality - everything that thought has created, the atom bomb. The atom existed before thought investigated and created the bomb. Thought did not create nature, but thought has used nature. The chair one is sitting on is made by thought out of wood. And truth has nothing whatsoever to do with reality. To find that is meditation. To begin to establish right relationship with human beings, not the everlasting battle between sexes, between human beings, killing each other, terrorising each other, destroying the earth and so on, so on. If we don't stop that, what is the good of your meditation?

Sir, first you have to be good. By your goodness you bring about a good society. And if you are not good inside - good - I am using that word specifically because it is not the goodness, 'Be a good child', I don't mean that. We will go into that perhaps tomorrow, another day. But if there is not goodness in you, you cannot produce a good society. And without goodness in you, you can meditate till doomsday, go to India, go to Tibet, visit various monasteries, and attend various gurus who say this, and who deny that, you know, play that game if it amuses you but don't deceive yourself saying 'That is meditation, I have meditated'. Right? So if you have no love in your heart, your meditation will be destructive.

To understand our human problems there must be Love

2009-08-09T12:07:00.000-07:00

Questioner: Is marriage a need or a luxury?

Jiddu Krishnamurti: The sexual urge is legalized by marriage. Society demands the protection of children. That is one of the reasons for the so-called marriages. Marriage also takes place because of psychological reasons. One needs a companion, a person to possess, to dominate, who will give one psychological as well as physical comfort. Thus, either the man or the woman dominates and makes the other a dependent. Sexual possession or economic possession gives gratification.

So, possession becomes extraordinarily important in relationship, which leads to all kinds of agony, distrust, and suspicion. Where there is possessiveness and gratification, there can be no love. How can there be love when in your livelihood you are ruthless; when in your business you are cunning and competitive? You cannot exploit your neighbor, starve him out, go home, and have affection in your heart for your wife and children. The exploitation of another destroys the love for your wife and children. When children become the means of self-perpetuation or are used as self-fulfilment or treated as mere toys, then there can be no love. Only love and intelligence can solve the complex problem of marriage.

To understand our human problems there must be love. Mere legislation cannot bring about the tender intelligence which brings understanding in relationship. You cannot be ambitious and yet tender. You cannot be a captain of industry, a politician, the head of an organization, and be merciful. Our human problems need to be understood and not condemned or justified. This understanding comes through being aware of what is.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti talk at bombay, 1948

Jiddu Krishnamurti on education : What is right education?

2009-08-05T05:20:00.001-07:00

Question: What is right education? As teachers and as parents, we are confused.
Jiddu Krishnamurti : Now, how are we going to find the truth of this matter? Merely forcing the mind into a system, a pattern, is obviously not education. So, to discover what is right education, we must find out what we mean by "education." Surely, education is not to learn the purpose of life, but to understand the meaning, the significance, the process of existence; because if you say life has a purpose, then the purpose is self-projected.

Surely, to find out what is right education, you have first to inquire into the whole significance of life, of living. What is present education? Learning to earn a few rupees, acquiring a trade, becoming an engineer, a sociologist, learning how to butcher people, or how to read a poem. If you say education is to make a person efficient, which means to give him technical knowledge, then you must understand the whole significance of efficiency. What happens when a person becomes more and more efficient? He becomes more and more ruthless. Don't laugh. What are you doing in your daily life? What is happening, now in the world?

Education means the development of a particular technique, which is efficiency, which means industrialization, the capacity to work faster and produce more and more, all of which ultimately leads to war. You see this happening every day. Education as it is leads to war, and what is the point of education? To destroy or be destroyed. So, obviously, the present system of education is utterly futile.

Therefore, what is important is to educate the educator. These are not clever statements to be listened to and laughed off. Because, without educating the teacher, what can he teach the child except the exploiting principles on which he himself has been brought up? Most of you have read many books. Where are you? You have money or can earn it, you have your pleasures and ceremonies - and you are in conflict; and what is the point of education, of learning to earn a few rupees, when your whole existence leads to misery and war?

So, right education, surely, must begin with the educator, the parent, the teacher; and inquiry into right education means inquiry into life, into existence, does it not? What is the point of your being educated as a lawyer if you are only going to increase conflict and maintain litigation? But there is money in that, and you thrive on it.

So, if you want to bring about right education, you must obviously understand the meaning, the significance, of existence. It is not only to earn money, to have leisure, but to be able to think directly, truly - not "consistently," because to think consistently is merely to conform to a pattern. A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person; he merely repeats certain phrases and thinks in a groove.

To find out what is right education, there must be the understanding of existence, which means the understanding of yourself, because you cannot understand existence abstractly. You cannot understand yourself by theorizing as to what education should be. Surely, right education begins with the right understanding of the educator.

Look at what is happening in the world. Governments are taking control of education - naturally, because all governments are preparing for war. Your pet government, as well as the foreign government, must inevitably prepare for war. A sovereign government must have an army, a navy, an air force; and to make the citizens efficient for war, to prepare them to perform their duties thoroughly, efficiently, ruthlessly, the central government must control them. Therefore, they educate them as they manufacture mechanical instruments, to be ruthlessly efficient.

If that is the purpose and end of education - to destroy or be destroyed - then it must be ruthless, and I am not at all sure that that is not what you want. Because, you are still educating your children in the same old fashion. Right education begins with the understanding of the educator, the teacher, which means that he must be free of established patterns of thought.

Education is not merely imparting information, knowing how to read, gathering and correlating facts; but it is seeing the whole significance of education, of government, of the world situation, of the totalitarian spirit which is becoming more and more dominant throughout the world. Being confused, you create the educator who is also confused, and through so-called education you give power to destroy the foreign government.

Therefore, before you ask what right education is, you must understand yourself, and you will see that it does not take a long time to understand yourself if you are interested to find out. Sir, without understanding yourself as the educator, how can you bring about a new kind of education? Therefore, we come back to the eternal point - which is yourself - and you want to avoid that point; you want to shift the responsibility onto the teacher, onto the government. The government is what you are, the world is what you are; and without understanding yourself, how can there be right education?

Jiddu Krishnamurti Schools

2009-08-05T05:11:00.000-07:00

List of official Jiddu Krishnamurti Schools around the world is:

USA - Oak Grove School

* 220 W. Lomita Ave., Ojai, California 93024-1560 USA
* Tel: (805) 646-8236 Fax: (805) 646-6509
* Email: office@oakgroveschool.com
* Admissions: enroll@oakgroveschool.com
* Web: www.oakgroveschool.com
UK - Brockwood Park School

* Bramdean, Hampshire, SO24 OLQ, England
* Tel: 011-44 (0)1962 771744 Fax: 011-44 (0)1962 771875
* Email: info@brockwood.org.uk
* Web: www.brockwood.org.uk
India - Uttarkashi Education Center

* Devidhar Dunda 249 151, Uttar Pradesh, India
* Tel: 011 91 13712 5417
* Fax: 011 91 13712 5406
India - Rishi Valley Education Center

* Rishi Valley - 517 352, Chittoor District, Andhra Pradesh, India
* Tel: 011 91 8571 62037
* Fax: 011 91 8571 68622
* Web: www.rishivalley.org
India - Rajghat Education Center Rajghat Fort

* Varanasi - 221 001, Uttar Pradesh
* Tel: 91-542-2430336/2432536
* Email: kcentrevns@satyam.net.in
India - The School "Damodar Gardens"

* Besant Avenue, Chennai - 600 020 India
* Tel:011 91 44 491 5845
* Web: www.theschoolkfi.org
India - Bal Anand, Mumbai

* Akash Deep, 28 Dongersey
* Road Malabar Hill, Mumbai--400 006
India - The Valley School Bangalore Education Center

* "Haridvanam", 17th K.M. Kanakapura Road,
* Thatguni Post, Bangalore - 560 062 India
* Tel: 011-91-80-843-5240
* Fax: 011-91-80-843 5242
* Email: kfiblr@blr.vsnl.net.in
* Web: www.jkstudy.org
India - Sahyadri School

* Sahyadri School, Post Tiwai Hill, Tal. Rajgurunagar, Dist. Pune 410 513
* Thatguni Post, Bangalore - 560 062 India
* Tel: 011 91 2135 84270/84271/84272
* Fax: 011 91 2135 84269
* Email: sahyadrischool@freeyellow.com
* Web: www.sahyadrischool.org

Source - Jkrishnamurti.org

Jiddu Krishnamurti on Awareness

2009-07-23T23:25:00.000-07:00

Questioner: I should like to know what you mean by awareness because you have often said that awareness is really what your teaching is about. I've tried to understand it by listening to your talks and reading your books, but I don't seem to get very far. I know it is not a practice, and I understand why you so emphatically repudiate any kind of practice, drill, system, discipline or routine. I see the importance of that, for otherwise it becomes mechanical, and at the end of it the mind has become dull and stupid. I should like, if I may, to explore with you to the very end this question of what it means to be aware. You seem to give some extra, deeper meaning to this word, and yet it seems to me that we are aware of what's going on all the time. When I'm angry I know it, when I'm sad I know it and when I'm happy I know it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : I wonder if we really are aware of anger, sadness, happiness? Or are we aware of these things only when they are all over? Let us begin as though we know nothing about it at all and start from scratch. Let us not make any assertions, dogmatic or subtle, but let us explore this question which, if one really went into it very deeply, would reveal an extraordinary state that the mind had probably never touched, a dimension not touched by superficial awareness. Let us start from the superficial and work through.

We see with our eyes, we perceive with our senses the things about us - the colour of the flower, the humming bird over the flower the light of this Californian sun, the thousand sounds of different qualities and subtleties, the depth and the height, the shadow of the tree and the tree itself. We feel in the same way our own bodies, which are the instruments of these different kinds of superficial, sensory perceptions. If these perceptions remained at the superficial level there would be no confusion at all. That flower, that pansy, that rose, are there, and that's all there is to it. There is no preference, no comparison, no like and dislike, only the thing before us without any psychological involvement. Is all this superficial sensory perception or awareness quite clear? It can be expanded to the stars, to the depth of the seas, and to the ultimate frontiers of scientific observation, using all the instruments of modern technology.

Questioner: Yes, I think I understand that.

Jiddu Krishnamurti : So you see that the rose and all the universe and the people in it, your own wife if you have one, the stars, the seas, the mountains, the microbes, the atoms, the neutrons, this room, the door, really are there. Now, the next step; what you think about these things, or what you feel about them, is your psychological response to them. And this we call thought or emotion.

So the superficial awareness is a very simple matter: the door is there. But the description of the door is not the door, and when you get emotionally involved in the description you don't see the door. This description might be a word or a scientific treatise or a strong emotional response; none of these is the door itself.

This is very important to understand right from the beginning. If we don't understand this we shall get more and more confused. The description is never the described. Though we are describing something even now, and we have to, the thing we are describing is not our description of it, so please bear this in mind right through our talk. Never confuse the word with the thing it describes. The word is never the real, and we are easily carried away when we come to the next stage of awareness where it becomes personal and we get emotional through the word.

So there is the superficial awareness of the tree, the bird, the door, and there is the response to that, which is thought, feeling, emotion. Now when we become aware of this response, we might call it a second depth of awareness. There is the awareness of the rose, and the awareness of the response to the rose. Often we are unaware of this response to the rose. In reality it is the same awareness which sees the rose and which sees the response. It is one movement and it is wrong to speak of the outer and inner awareness.

When there is a visual awareness of the tree without any psychological involvement there is no division in relationship. But when there is a psychological response to the tree, the response is a conditioned response, it is the response of past memory, past experiences, and the response is a division in relationship. This response is the birth of what we shall call the ''me'' in relationship and the ''non-me''. This is how you place yourself in relationship to the world. This is how you create the individual and the community.

The world is seen not as it is, but in its various relationships to the ''me'' of memory. This division is the life and the flourishing of everything we call our psychological being, and from this arises all contradiction and division. Are you very clear that you perceive this? When there is the awareness of the tree there is no evaluation. But when there is a response to the tree, when the tree is judged with like and dislike, then a division takes place in this awareness as the ''me'' and the ''non-me'', the ''me'' who is different from the thing observed. This ''me'' is the response, in relationship, of past memory, past experiences.

Now can there be an awareness, an observation of the tree, without any judgement, and can there be an observation of the response, the reactions, without any judgement? In this way we eradicate the principle of division, the principle of ''me'' and ''non-me'', both in looking at the tree and in looking at ourselves.

Oak Grove School is co-sponsoring a two-week program on Education

2009-07-23T23:15:00.000-07:00

Together with the University of California Santa Barbara, Jiddu Krishnamurti Oak Grove School is co-sponsoring a two-week program on Education.

Event Description:
Co-sponsored by Oak Grove School and University of California, Santa Barbara's Gevirtz Graduate School of Education

Courses credited by UCSB Extension (4 units per course)
Session 1: Sunday July 26th to Saturday August 1st
Theme: Re-envisioning education

This session will explore and grapple with the following questions:
What are the aims of education and schooling? What does it mean to be well-educated? What is the nature of attention, learning, goodness and intelligence?
What does it mean to work together as teachers, students, parents and administrators?
What is the culture of education?
What are the implications of technology and economics on the direction and future of education?
What are the challenges of living in the modern world and how can education prepare students to meet them?
Participants' questions and emergent questions will also be explored.

Session 2: Sunday August 2nd to Saturday August 8th

Theme: The art, science and craft of teaching and learning

This session will explore and grapple with the following questions:
What is teaching? What is learning?
What is the relationship between the teacher, the student and the subject matter?
What is the role of the teacher?
What are the daily concerns of teachers and how can we address them?
What is the culture of a classroom?
What works and does not work for individual teachers in their everyday classroom practices and activities?
What is intelligent and compassionate communication?
Participants' questions and emergent questions will also be explored.

Time: July 26, 2009 to August 8, 2009
Location: Krishnamurti Education Center,
East End at 1098 McAndrew Road (formerly Mary Zimbalist and K's residence),
Pine Cottage, KFA in Ojai,
Organized By: Gopal Krishnamurthy and Karen Hesli

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Is science really beneficial to man?

2009-07-11T08:34:00.000-07:00

Questioner: It is said that science has produced benefit as well as misery. Is science really beneficial to man?

Jiddu Krishnamurti : Before I answer that question, I should like to know if you listened to what I have just been saying? The question came right on top of what I was saying. There was no gap, no interval. I am not criticizing you; I am not saying you are right or wrong. But is it not important to find out what the other man is saying? You really were not listening to what I was saying because your question was going on in your mind. You know, I have said this half a dozen times so far, and yet you go on doing it. Does it not show a lack of consideration? If you were really interested in what was being said, you would have listened. It requires thought because we are dealing with difficult subjects, and so if you want to listen, you cannot just jump into questions.

May I suggest that tomorrow you write out your questions? Take the trouble to put them down on a piece of paper. Then when I have spoken, wait a few minutes or seconds and then ask. This will help you to see how your own mind is working. What I am saying is not very complicated. I am putting into words the operation of your own mind. If you want to understand, if you want to see how your mind works - and that is the only way we can look at life - it is very important to understand what is being said.

You say science has brought great benefits to man and also great misery and destruction. Is it on the whole beneficial or destructive? What do you think? Communication has improved. You can send letters to America in a couple of days. You can have the latest news from all over the world tomorrow morning or this evening. Extraordinary miracles are going on in surgical operations.

At the same time, there are warships and submarines which are most destructive. The latest submarines can go round the world indefinitely under water, never coming to the top, run by atomic power. There are airplanes with bombs that can destroy thousands of human beings in a few seconds. Is it science that is wrong, or the human beings that use science? I am a Hindu or a Muslim or a Christian, so I have a particular idea which I think is more important than anybody else's idea, and I am very nationalistic. You know what that means? I feel I want to dominate, I want to control not only individuals but also groups of people. So, I use destructive means, I use science. It is me that is misusing science, not that science in itself is wrong. Jet planes are not wrong in themselves, but it is how America or Russia or England uses them. Is this not so?

Can human beings change? Can they cease to be Hindus, Muslims? There is a division between India and Pakistan, between Russia and America, England and Germany, France and other countries. Can we be human beings without being Frenchmen or Indians so that we can live together? Can we have a government which looks after all of us, not India or America only, but all of us together as human beings?

When human beings misuse science, we blame science. But it is you and I, the Russian and the American, the Frenchmen and the German, who are responsible for all this. That is why, in a school of this kind, there should be no feeling of nationality, no feeling of class, no feeling that you are a Brahmin and I am an Untouchable. We are all human beings, whether we live in Banaras or New York or California or Moscow. It is our world. This world is ours, yours and mine, not the Russians' or the Englishmen's, not the Indians' or the Pakistanis'; it is ours. And with that feeling, science will become an extraordinary thing, but without that feeling we are going to destroy each other.

Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti talks in India, 1954

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Supreme Intelligence - A talk with students - Part 1

2009-07-09T04:52:00.003-07:00

Intelligence - Authority - The Art of Questioning