Now, the question is this. I know that my mind is conditioned; and how am I to free my mind from conditioning when the entity that tries to free it is also conditioned? Do you understand the issue? When a conditioned mind realizes that it is conditioned and wishes to uncondition itself, that very wish is also conditioned; so what is the mind to do?
I am using the word learn in quite a different sense, not as a process of acquiring knowledge. Living with a thing and acquiring knowledge about it are two different states. To learn about something, you must live with it, and if you already have knowledge about it, you cannot live with it because then you are only living with your own knowledge. To find out for ourselves about the extraordinarily complex problem of time and death, one must learn, and therefore live with it; and this is completely impeded if we approach it with the accumulation of what we already know, with knowledge. I will go into it a little, and perhaps we shall be able to communicate with each other.
We were talking the other day about desire. We went into it fairly sufficiently, but I think we missed something—that desire is intimately connected with will. Will implies, surely, not only desire but also choice. Where there is choice, there is will, and therefore the problem of time arises.
Please, if I may suggest it, listen to the whole thing right to the end. Do not stick at parts of it with which you agree or disagree, but look at the totality of it, the whole content of it. It is a matter of perception, of seeing something directly, and when you see something very directly then you neither agree or disagree—it is so.
So, as I was saying, through conflict, outward and inward, we develop will. And will is a form of resistance, obviously, whether it is the will to achieve or the will to be, the urge to deny or the determination to sustain something. Will is the many threads of desire, and with that we live. And when we inquire into time, we require an insight which is quite different from the will to understand. I do not know if this is clear, but I will go along with it, and perhaps you will see it. This is an informal talk, not a prepared talk; it is more or less an inquiring into oneself, and to go into it publicly is one thing, and to go into it all by oneself is quite another. What we are trying to do is to communicate it to each other—this journey into time. The inquiry implies time also, and the putting of words together implies time, and all communication is based on time. And perhaps there is a comprehension of what is time and what is timelessness, not through words, not through verbal or intellectual communication, but perhaps by sidestepping the whole process. But unfortunately we must first inquire verbally, intellectually, into time. And this inquiry is the sense of learning about it—which is not remembering what you have read, or merely hearing the words I am saying, but the perception of it, seeing it directly for yourself. And I think that may have immense value.
The Collected Works of
J. Krishnamurti -Volume XII 1961
There Is No Thinker, Only Thought
Jiddu Krishnamurti
J. Krishnamurti, the great Indian philosopher and spiritual teacher, spoke and traveled almost continuously all over the world for more than fifty years attempting to convey through words – which are content – that which is beyond words, beyond content. At one of his talks in the later part of his life, he surprised his audience by saying, “Do you want to know my secret?” Everyone became very alert. Many people in the audience had been coming to listen to him for twenty or thirty years and still failed to grasp the essence of his teaching. Finally, after all these years, the master would give them the key to understanding. “This is my secret,” he said. “I don’t mind what happens.”
He did not elaborate, and so I suspect most of his audience were even more perplexed than before. The implications of this simple statement, however, are profound.
When I don’t mind what happens, what does that imply? It implies that internally I am in alignment with what happens. “What happens,” of course, refers to the suchness of this moment, which always already is as it is. It refers to content, the form that this moment – the only moment there ever is – takes. To be in alignment with what is means to be in a relationship of inner nonresistance with what happens. It means not to label it mentally as good or bad, but to let it be. Does this mean you can no longer take action to bring about change in your life? On the contrary. When the basis for your actions is inner alignment with the present moment, your actions become empowered by the intelligence of Life itself.
Eckhart Tolle, ‘A New Earth’
Though intellectually we may perceive the cause of suffering, it has but little influence on our lives. Though we may intellectually agree that so long as there is attachment there is fear and sorrow, yet our desire is so strongly possessive that it overcomes all reasoning. Even though we may know the cause of suffering, suffering will continue, for mere intellectual knowledge is not sufficient to destroy the cause. So when the mind through analysis discovers the cause of suffering, that very discovery itself may become a refuge. The hope that by discovering the cause of sorrow, suffering will cease, is an illusion.
Why does the mind seek the cause of sorrow? Obviously to overcome it. Yet in the moments of ecstasy there is no search for its cause; if there were, ecstasy would cease. In craving for ecstasy, we grope after those causes that stand in the way. This very craving for ecstasy and the intense desire to overcome sorrow prevent their fulfillment.
A mind that is burdened with the desire for reality, for happiness, for love, cannot free itself from fear. Fear deadens sorrow as also it distorts joy. Is our whole being in direct contact with sorrow as it is with happiness, with joy?
We are aware that we are not integral with sorrow; that there is a part of us which is trying to run away from it. In this process the mind has accumulated many treasures to which it clings desperately. When we realize this process of accumulation, then there is an urge to put a stop to it. Then we begin to seek methods, the way to get rid of these burdens. The very search for a method is another form of escape.
The choice of methods, of a way to rid yourself of those accumulated burdens, which cause resistance—this very choice is born of a desire not to suffer and is therefore prejudicial. This prejudice is the outcome of the desire for refuge, comfort.
The Collected Works of
J. Krishnamurti
Volume III 1936-1944
The Mirror of Relationship
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Though intellectually we may perceive the cause of suffering, it has but little influence on our lives. Though we may intellectually agree that so long as there is attachment there is fear and sorrow, yet our desire is so strongly possessive that it overcomes all reasoning. Even though we may know the cause of suffering, suffering will continue, for mere intellectual knowledge is not sufficient to destroy the cause. So when the mind through analysis discovers the cause of suffering, that very discovery itself may become a refuge. The hope that by discovering the cause of sorrow, suffering will cease, is an illusion.
Why does the mind seek the cause of sorrow? Obviously to overcome it. Yet in the moments of ecstasy there is no search for its cause; if there were, ecstasy would cease. In craving for ecstasy, we grope after those causes that stand in the way. This very craving for ecstasy and the intense desire to overcome sorrow prevent their fulfillment.
A mind that is burdened with the desire for reality, for happiness, for love, cannot free itself from fear. Fear deadens sorrow as also it distorts joy. Is our whole being in direct contact with sorrow as it is with happiness, with joy?
We are aware that we are not integral with sorrow; that there is a part of us which is trying to run away from it. In this process the mind has accumulated many treasures to which it clings desperately. When we realize this process of accumulation, then there is an urge to put a stop to it. Then we begin to seek methods, the way to get rid of these burdens. The very search for a method is another form of escape.
The choice of methods, of a way to rid yourself of those accumulated burdens, which cause resistance—this very choice is born of a desire not to suffer and is therefore prejudicial. This prejudice is the outcome of the desire for refuge, comfort.
The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti – Volume III 1936-1944: The Mirror of Relationship
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Question: If a man is in ignorance or at a loss to know what to do, is there no need of a guru to guide him?
KRISHNAMURTI: Can anyone help you to cross this aching void of daily life? Can any person, however great, help you out of this confusion? No one can. This confusion is self-created; this turmoil is the result of one will in conflict with another will. Will is ignorance.
I know the pursuit of gurus, teachers, guides, Masters is the indoor sport of many, the sport of the thoughtless all over the world. People say, “How can we prevent this chaotic misery and cruelty unless those who are free, the enlightened, come to our aid and save us from our sorrow?” Or they create a mental image of a favored saint and hang all their troubles round his neck. Or they believe that some super physical guide watches over them and tells them what to do, how to act. The search for a guru, a Master, indicates an avoidance of life.
Conformity is death. It is but the formation of habit, the strengthening of the unconscious. How often we see some ugly, cruel scene and recoil from it. We see poverty, cruelty, degradation of every kind; at first we are appalled by it, but we soon become unconscious of it.
We become used to our environment, we shrug our shoulders and say, “What can we do? It is life.” Thus we destroy our sensitive reactions to ugliness, to exploitation, cruelty, and suffering, also our appreciation and deep enjoyment of beauty. Thus there comes a slow withering of perception.
Habit gradually overcomes thinking. Observe the activity of your own thought and you will see how it is forming itself into one habit after another. The conscious is thus becoming the unconscious and habit hardens the mind through will and discipline. Forcing the mind to discipline itself through fear, which is often mistaken for love, brings about frustration.
The problem of gurus exists when you seek comfort, when you desire satisfaction. There is no comfort, but understanding; there is no satisfaction, but fulfillment.
The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti – Volume III 1936-1944: The Mirror of Relationship
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Question: With what special significance do you use the word intelligence? Is it graded and therefore capable of constant evolution and variation?
KRISHNAMURTI: I am using the word intelligence to convey the vital completeness of thought-action. Intelligence is not the outcome of intellectual effort nor of emotional fervor. It is not the product of theories, beliefs, and information. It is the completeness of action arising from the undivided comprehension of thought-emotion. In rare moments of deep love we know completeness.
Creative intelligence cannot be invited or measured, but the mind seeks definition, description, and is ever caught in the illusion of words. Awareness without choice reveals, in the very moment of action, the concealed distortions of thought and emotion and their hidden significance.
“Is it graded, and therefore capable of constant evolution and variation?” What is discerned completely cannot be variable, cannot evolve, grow. The comprehension of the process of the ‘I’ , with its many centers of self-protection, the discernment of the significance of anchorages, cannot be changeable, cannot be modified through growth. Ignorance can vary, develop, change, grow. The various self-protective centers of the mind are capable of growth, change, and modification. The process of substitution is not intelligence, it is but a movement within the circle of ignorance.
The flame of intelligence, love, can be awakened only when the mind is vitally aware of its own conditioned thought, with its fears, values, wants.
December 13, 1936
The Collected Works of
J. Krishnamurti
Volume III 1936-1944
The Mirror of Relationship
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Comment: We instinctively avoid pain and sorrow.
KRISHNAMURTI: The gentleman says that we instinctively avoid pain and sorrow. When you say you avoid pain and sorrow, then why do you suffer? Such a question has no meaning. If you say, “I instinctively avoid a snake,” then that has an answer; that is a fact. But when you say you instinctively want to avoid pain and suffering, you are living in suffering; you can’t avoid it. You are following all this, sirs? Why do you suffer? Go into it, sirs. That is your challenge. What is your response to that challenge, sirs? Why do you suffer?
Comment: Because we are not full, because our mind is not full. There is the utter emptiness of life.
KRISHNAMURTI: You have given explanations, and at the end of it you suffer—which means that you accept suffering as inevitable. A healthy mind does not accept suffering, sir. Now after explaining, do you want to go into it? How do you go into it so that when you leave this room, you are finished with suffering once and for all, you do not go back to the eternal wheel of sorrow?
Comment: Accept the fact that there is suffering. Attachment is the cause of sorrow.
KRISHNAMURTI: You say that attachment is the cause of sorrow. Therefore, you cultivate detachment, and in the meantime you are agonizing. You are in a state of agony, and you accept the fact that you are suffering. Why do you accept it? You don’t accept sunshine, do you? Suffering is there; you don’t have to accept it. Pain with its burning intensity is agonizing you, and you don’t say, “I must accept it.” It is there. You can explain, you can gradually push it away—that is what you are doing. You might say, “I accept it, I will bear with it,” but you can’t bear with an intense pain more than a few hours or so.
And the mind says sorrow is created by attachment—which means you will be free from sorrow if you are detached. So you begin to cultivate detachment which all the books talk about. Why are you attached first of all? You say that you are inwardly empty, and therefore you are attached to the wife, to the child, to an idea, to power, position, to fill that emptiness. You don’t tackle the emptiness, but you run away from the emptiness. So how do you face this fact of suffering?
The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti -Volume XII 1961: There Is No Thinker, Only Thought
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Action which springs from the self-preserving process of consciousness with its many layers of ignorance, tendencies, wants, fears cannot liberate the mind from its own self-created limitation, but merely intensifies sorrow and frustration. As long as this process continues, as long as there is no comprehension of this ‘I’ process, not only in its obvious form and expression, but also in its prodigious subtleties, there must be suffering and confusion. Yet this very suffering, from which we are ever trying to escape, can lead us to the comprehension of the ‘I’ process, to the profound knowledge of oneself, but all escapes into illusion must cease. The greater the suffering, the stronger is the indication of limitation. But if you do not suffer, it does not necessarily mean that you are free of limitations. On the contrary, it may be that your mind is stagnant within self-protective walls so that no provocations of life, no experiences, can stir it into activity and so awaken it to sorrow. Such a mind is incapable of discerning reality. Suffering can bring about the comprehension of oneself if you do not try to avoid it or to escape from it.
How can we bring to an end the ‘I’ process, so that our action does not create further limitations and sorrow? To bring this ‘I’ process to an end, there must be the consciousness of suffering, not the mere conception of suffering. Unless there is the vital provocation of life, most of us are apt to comfort ourselves to sleep and so allow unconsciously the ‘I’ process to continue. The essential requirement for the discernment of the ‘I’ process is to be fully conscious of suffering. Then there must be the utter certainty that there are no escapes whatsoever from suffering. All search for comfort and superficial remedies then wholly ceases. All ritualistic palliatives cease to have any significance. We then begin to perceive that no external agency can help us to bring this self-sustaining process of ignorance to an end. When the mind is in this state of openness, when it is wholly able to confront itself, then it becomes its own mirror, then there is undivided consciousness; it does not judge its actions by standards, nor is it controlled by the authority of ideal. It is then its own creator and destroyer. Environment with its conditioning influences, and heredity with its limiting characteristics, yield to the comprehension of the ‘I’ process. When the mind discerns this process integrally, it sees itself as the process, utilizing all action, all relationship to sustain itself. In the renewal of itself from moment to moment, through its own volitional activities, the ‘I’ process is perpetuating itself and merely engendering sorrow.
The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti – Volume III 1936-1944: The Mirror of Relationship
Jiddu Krishnamurti
Question: How does the psychoanalytic technique of dealing with fixations, inhibitions, and complexes strike you, and how would you deal with such cases?
KRISHNAMURTI: Can another free you from these limitations, or is it merely a process of substitution? The pursuit of the psychoanalyst has become a hobby of the well-to-do. (Laughter) Don’t laugh, please. You may not go to a psychoanalyst but you go through the same process in a different way when you look to a religious organization, to a leader, or to some discipline to free you from fixations, inhibitions, and complexes. These methods may succeed in creating superficial effects, but they must inevitably develop new resistances against the movement of life. No person and no technique can really free one from these limitations. To experience that freedom one must comprehend life deeply and discern for oneself the process of creating and maintaining ignorance and illusion. This demands alertness and keen perception, not the mere acceptance of a technique. But as one is slothful, one depends on another for comprehension and thereby increases sorrow and confusion. The comprehension of this process of ignorance and its self-sustaining activities, of this consciousness focused in and perceptible only to the individual, can alone bring about deep, abiding bliss to man.
June 4, 1936.
The Collected Works
of J. Krishnamurti
Volume III 1936-1944
The Mirror of Relationship
Jiddu Krishnamurti