Showing results by author "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?

Why is it that we dominate, consciously or unconsciously? To submit oneself to another is the negative form of domination. We shall not be able to solve this problem by thinking in terms of opposites. Is not domination a process of isolation, which denies relationship? Can there be relationship between two people if there is any sense of domination or submissiveness? Q: Is not the experience of the past a help towards freedom and right action in the present? Q: Is my believing in survival after death a hindrance to liberation through self-knowledge?

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.

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?

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?

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.

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

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.

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?

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.

Without self-knowledge, we cannot go beyond the self-projected illusions of the mind. It’s only in relationship that one can know oneself as one is. A mind that is filled with beliefs, dogmas, assertions and quotations is an uncreative, repetitive mind. Can we look at ourselves without beliefs? A mind that is quiet because it understands fear and understands itself is creative.

In listening to you, I feel that the distinction or space between ideal and practice is illusory.

What is the relationship to society of a man who has insight? What is his action with regard to war and the whole world?