Showing results by author "Jiddu Krishnamurti" in All Categories

The problems of life do not demand a method, because they are so vital and alive that if we approach with a method we totally misunderstand and don’t adequately meet that problem. Where there is efficiency there is ruthlessness. The means and the end are not separate. Reality or God is something that cannot come by a technique, a means or through a long determined practice and discipline. Aloneness implies no means. You are not alone when you have a means.

You can learn easily when there is an atmosphere of freedom and friendship, a sense of happiness. That is denied when you are compelled. Compulsion is not righteous behaviour. Q: What is the foundation of religion? Q: Why does a man want success in life? What are you going to be when you grow up? Q: When bad thoughts come to our mind and we want to suppress them, even more bad thoughts come to our mind. Why is that? Q: How is one to keep happy and engaged, without external stimuli?

Order and disorder. Why does the mind accumulate? How do you receive something that is not of the mind? 

Wisdom, intelligence and truth. If there is attention, is there choice? Why has man divided perception? What is wisdom which is not the movement of thought. What place has the man who perceives truth in this world of reality? Truth operating in one brain clears that brain. Mustn’t there be emptiness for the perception of truth? Consciousness.

We are educated to follow, accept and conform. This is tradition, second-hand. When you become aware of conformity without reaction, is that awareness the act of intelligence? Does the mind realize the nature of conformity, intelligence and awareness? I am attentive for a minute and there is no border, no time, no ‘me’, no problem. The whole energy is involved in that attention. This is a tremendous movement. Attending, I can do things without effort and thought.

The word chaste means pure, clean, untouched. Have we a chaste mind, a mind that has not been hurt, has no image, is free from the pleasure of yesterday and is innocent? Is chastity a quality of the mind? Can the mind be free of the word, symbols and the condemnation and approval of the word? What is the nature of the mind when there is no attempt through will or desire for any way out through the known? If you are really serious, not just with words but burning with responsibility, then you ask whether the mind can ever be free from the known.

Krishnamurti’s ‘process’ and his early years. The Indian tradition says that there is a manifestation of goodness which happens very rarely.

What is the function of education? Some people say that we must live now and others say that we must be concerned further, beyond the present. Can man really be human without any effort? What is the difference between affection and love? How am I to know that I am bad? How am I to improve? Why does nature attract us?

We have accepted violence as a way of life and yet at the same time we want peace.

What takes place when one falls in love? Why has sex taken on such extraordinary importance? How will you know that it is stupid to be a nationalist? You see or understand only when the mind is quiet, when you are aware without any choice. When I say, ‘I love you,’ I have blocked myself from looking at you. Is it possible to look totally impersonally and yet be completely intimate? One takes a drug and has an extraordinary experience. At the base of this is the demand for wider and deeper experiences. Why do you want experience?

What is a religious mind? Must one go to an expert to tell us what the unconscious is or can one find it for oneself? Through the negation of disorder, order comes into being. It is only the meditative mind that can find out, not the curious mind or the mind that is everlastingly searching. To meditate implies to see very clearly. It is not possible to see clearly when there is space between the observer and the thing observed. It is only in silence that there is quite a different dimension. You have to find out for yourself; nobody can open the door for you.

Why do we divide the world, the human being and the divine? Do good and evil really exist or are they simply conditioned points of view? Is there a permanent ‘me’. Is there in me a place where there is no corruption, where there is real, absolute peace, order? Are the various scriptures of India and the Middle East similar to or in contradiction to your teaching? Is there any connection between the supernatural and religion?

What is the human mind’s relationship to the ‘ground’? Why has man accumulated knowledge? When you love somebody there is no ‘me’, it is love. In the same way, when I say I am humanity, it is so. It is not an idea; it is not a conclusion; it is part of me. There is only one thing, and that is to discover that what I have done is useless, ashes.

Can insight change the brain cells? In the brain, is there an activity that is not touched by consciousness? Insight is not dependent on the material process, which is thought. Where there is violence, peace cannot exist. Where there is peace, is there violence? As insight is causeless, is not born out of cause, that insight has a definite effect on that which has cause. The material process acts in ignorance, in darkness. 

We shall explore together into this life, existence, in which is included relationship, love and death, not merely as a phenomenon but as something tremendously significant, to be cherished, deeply lived. Meditation is the approach to this problem of living.

Only when the mind and heart are really simple is one able to solve the many problems that confront us. A religious man is he who is inwardly simple. Q: I have been a member of various religious organisations, but you have destroyed them all. I am utterly bored and work because hunger forces me to it. I am afraid to commit suicide. What on earth am I to do? Q: What have you to say to a person who, in quiet moments, sees the truth of what you say, who has a longing to keep awake but who finds himself repeatedly lost in a sea of impulse and small desires?

To understand reality, or for that immensity to come into being, one must understand the process of one’s own thinking. How is it possible to go into the deeper layers of consciousness? If we do not name, then perhaps it’s possible to go into the deeper layers of consciousness. To see things as they are requires enormous alertness of mind. Q: I understand intellectually that I am the resentment and hatred I feel, but I cannot cope with it. Can you show me a way?

Can there be a total perception which completely heals the brain? What benefit has culture? Does speech come before thought? Is it possible to say something without the operation of thought? Is there in the brain anything untouched by culture? Is attention a conscious process? Is love the factor of profound change?

To live in this world with intelligence, in spite of all the complications. Is it possible to be free of fear, not only the superficial fear in relationship but the deep-rooted fear? Thought nourishes, sustains and gives continuity to fear and pleasure. When you are learning, your mind is awake. Truth isn’t second-hand; you can’t get it through a guru, a book, you have to learn about it. The beauty of learning is that you don’t know what truth is. What is love?

Why is thought divisive? The desire to change in a particular direction gives an energy that is divisive. Will you free the mind taking time, through analysis, or can you look totally and therefore be totally free? Does choiceless rejection of the false give a different kind of energy? Does a foundation give me direction or does it bring confusion? Is the operation of intelligence insight? Questions from the audience followed the talk.