Sunday, October 31, 2010

Try to remain with a feeling, and see what happens. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Try to remain with a feeling, and see what happens. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Try to remain with a feeling, and see what happens.

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Try remaining with the feeling of hate, with the feeling of envy, jealousy, with the venom of ambition; for after all, that's what you have in daily life, though you may want to live with love, or with the word `love'. Since you have the feeling of hate, of wanting to hurt somebody with a gesture or a burning word, see if you can stay with that feeling. Can you? Have you ever tried? Try to remain with a feeling, and see what happens. You will find it amazingly difficult. Your mind will not leave the feeling alone; it comes rushing in with its remembrances, its associations, its do's and don'ts, its everlasting chatter. pick up a piece of shell. Can you look at it, wonder at its delicate beauty, without saying how pretty it is, or what animal made it? Can you look without the movement of the mind? Can you live with the feeling behind the word, without the feeling that the word builds up? If you can, then you will discover an extraordinary thing, a movement beyond the measure of time, a spring that knows no summer. - Commentaries On Living Series III Chapter 37 Aloneness Beyond Loneliness

Saturday, October 30, 2010

A question of intensity - JKOnline Daily Quotes

A question of intensity - JKOnline Daily Quotes


A question of intensity

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...in answering these questions, I would like to say that I am not persuading you to think along my particular line. We are trying to find the right answer together. I am not answering for you just to accept or deny. We are going to find out together what is true, and that requires an open mind, an intelligent mind, an enquiring mind, an alert mind; not a mind that is so prejudiced that it merely denies, or so eager that it accepts. And, in answering these questions, one fundamental thing must be borne in mind. It is that they are merely a reflection of the ways of our own thinking, they reveal to us what we think. They should act as a mirror in which we perceive ourselves. After all, these discussions, these talks, have only one purpose, and that is the pursuit of self-knowledge. For, as I said, it is only in knowing ourselves first deeply, profoundly, not superficially - that we can know truth. And it is extremely arduous to know ourselves deeply, not superficially. It is not a matter of time, but a question of intensity; it is direct perception and experience that are important. - Collected Works, Ojai 9th Public Talk 13th August 1949

Friday, October 29, 2010

There is no psychological evolution. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

There is no psychological evolution. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


There is no psychological evolution.

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So one may ask: time may be the enemy of man, psychologically. There is no psychological evolution. If you and the speaker are the result of forty thousand years or more, and we have come to this peculiar state that we are in, will we, give me another forty thousand years, change? You understand the question? It seems so absurd, nonsensical. Which is, I am violent; through time, through evolution, I will be without any violence. And if I am eventually going to be non-violent, the end of violence, in the meantime I am violent. - Collected Works, New York 1st Public Talk 9th April 1983

Thursday, October 28, 2010

Problems burden the mind with fear. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Problems burden the mind with fear. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Problems burden the mind with fear.

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Consciously or unconsciously we refuse to see the essentiality of being passively aware because we do not really want to let go of our problems; for what would we be without them? We would rather cling to something we know, however painful, than risk the pursuit of something that may lead who knows where. With the problems, at least, we are familiar; but the thought of pursuing the maker of them, not knowing where it may lead, creates in us fear and dullness. The mind would be lost without the worry of problems; it feeds on problems, whether they are world or kitchen problems, political or personal, religious or ideological; so our problems make us petty and narrow. A mind that is consumed with world problems is as petty as the mind that worries about the spiritual progress it is making. Problems burden the mind with fear, for problems give strength to the self, to the "me" and the "mine." Without problems, without achievements and failures, the self is not. - Commentaries on Living, Series I, Chapter 49, Problems and Escapes.

Wednesday, October 27, 2010

A life of fullness - JKOnline Daily Quotes

A life of fullness - JKOnline Daily Quotes


A life of fullness

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Is there a way by which we can end conflict and sorrow without destroying creative intelligence and integral completeness? Can there ever be choiceless living, that is, can there ever be action without denial or aggressive want? Can there be action which is spontaneous and thus free of the conflict of opposites? Can there ever be a life of fullness without the withering process of discipline, denial, fear and frustration? Is such a state of deep comprehension ever possible? I wonder how many of you are vitally conscious of this conflict in the battlefield of the mind. A life of fullness, a life of choiceless action, a life free from the withering process of subjugation and substitution, is possible. How is this state to be realized? Systems and methods cannot produce this happy state of mind. This condition of choiceless life must come about naturally, spontaneously; it cannot be sought after. It is not to be understood or realized or conquered through a discipline, through a system. One can condition the mind through training, discipline, and compulsion, but such conditioning cannot nourish thought or awaken deep intelligence. Such a trained mind is as the soil that is barren. - Collected Works. Vol. III Ommen Camp, Holland, 1st August, 1936

Tuesday, October 26, 2010

Mercy is denied to the successful - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Mercy is denied to the successful - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Mercy is denied to the successful

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Any achievement, whether of the individual or of the collective, becomes a means to power. Success in this world, and the power that self-control and self-denial bring, are to be avoided; for both distort understanding. It is the desire for success that prevents humility; and without humility how can there be understanding? The man of success is hardened, self-enclosed; he is burdened with his own importance, with his responsibilities, achievements and memories. There must be freedom from selfassumed responsibilities and from the burden of achievement; for that which is weighed down cannot be swift, and to understand requires a swift and pliable mind. Mercy is denied to the successful, for they are incapable of knowing the very beauty of life which is love. - Commentaries on Living Series I Chapter 33, Power

Monday, October 25, 2010

The complete stillness of the brain is an extraordinary thing. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

The complete stillness of the brain is an extraordinary thing. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


The complete stillness of the brain is an extraordinary thing.

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The complete stillness of the brain is an extraordinary thing; it is highly sensitive, vigorous, fully alive, aware of every outward movement but utterly still. It is still as it is completely open, without any hindrance, without any secret wants and pursuits; it is still as there is no conflict which is essentially a state of contradiction. It is utterly still in emptiness; this emptiness is not a state of vacuum, a blankness; it is energy without a centre, without a border. Walking down the crowded street, smelly and sordid, with the buses roaring by, the brain was aware of the things about it and the body was walking along, sensitive, alive to the smells, to the dirt, to the sweating labourers but there was no centre from which watching, directing, censoring took place. During the whole of that mile and back the brain was without a movement, as thought and feeling; the body was getting tired, unaccustomed to the frightful heat and humidity though the sun had set some time ago. It was a strange phenomenon though it had happened several times before. One can never get used to any of these things for it is not a thing of habit and desire. It is always surprising, after it is over. - Krishnamurti s Notebook Part 6

Sunday, October 24, 2010

The meaning of Religion. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

The meaning of Religion. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


The meaning of Religion.

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The word 'religion', the root of it, has not been established. I think from observing and looking into various dictionaries, it really means gathering together all energy to find out the truth. I think that is what it means, after looking at various French, English, Italian dictionaries. It implies also diligence and negligence. A mind must be utterly diligent to find out what is truth. And if there is any kind of negligence it is a distraction and a wastage of energy. We are not stating this, it is a fact. Where the mind is dissipating itself in all the trivialities, in gossip, in getting hurt and wounding others, violence, caught up in its own self-centred activity, all that is negligence. Whereas a religious mind demands diligence to be precise, to be accurate, objectively and inwardly, so that there is no illusion, no deception, total integrity. That is what can be called a mind that is religious. But religion as it exists is not religion at all. All the propaganda, the images in the West, and the images in the East, you know, the whole rituals, the whole dressing up and all that business, has nothing whatsoever to do with religion. You may disagree with this. If you are a devout Christian, a practising Catholic, probably you will even not listen. And when the speaker goes to India he tells them the same thing, that their religion, their superstitions, their images, all the nonsensical meaningless rituals have nothing to do whatsoever with truth. And many of them have said, "You should be burnt"! Or sent to a concentration camp. Probably, if you were living in the Middle Ages you would be: tortured, called a heretic, burnt in the name of god, peace and all the rest of it. In India they are a little more absorbing, they see a part of all this, but it is not meant for you, for us, you go away.  - Brockwood Park 4th Public Talk 7th September 1980

Doubt is an extraordinarily important thing, not scepticism.

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Doubt is an extraordinarily important thing, not scepticism. To observe every experience that one has, doubt that very experience, doubt that very thought, doubt that very feeling, so the brain becomes extraordinarily cleansed of all our accumulated experiences, tradition and so on. This is what we are going to do during all these talks. This is no personal, or personality cult. Please understand this. We all want to cling or worship, or feel near some one person. We are accustomed to that. And we are saying this is not a personality cult at all. So please don't build an image about him, the speaker. The speaker is not very valuable. What is valuable, what has significance, is what he is saying. And to understand what he is saying you must question, not accept a thing. Which means you have to observe, one has to observe one's own reactions, one's own attitudes, justifications, defences and so on. Then it is possible for both of us to communicate with each other, not theoretically, not in abstraction but actually, because we are going to take a very long journey together, no detours at all. We are going together to watch this whole phenomenon of life, of which you are. And also please bear in mind that this is not an entertainment. Because we are used to being entertained, it is our habit; cinema, television, books, novels, we want to be entertained. And religions have become that too, a form of entertainment. So please bear in mind throughout these talks that this is not in any way entertainment. The speaker is not trying to help you. Please bear that in mind very seriously. Because if he is out to help you then he becomes the leader, a man who then conducts you, tells you what to do and so on. - Saanen 1st Public Talk 8th July 1984

Are you free of authority

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...even intellectually, do you have a quick perception of what is the whole nature and structure of authority? Authority of books, authority of professors, authority of scientists, authority of the religious priests, and so on and so on. Or your own experience, which has become your authority. To have an immediate insight into this then you are free totally of all authority. Then you don't have to fight and struggle to say "I accept this authority, I don't accept that. The authority of my guru is marvellous but I reject the authority of the priest". They are exactly the same thing. So in discussing, in being challenged and challenging each other, are you free of authority? There is the authority of the policeman, the authority of the law, the authority of the surgeon - that perhaps has its right place - but is there psychological authority of a belief, of a dogma, of a conclusion, of an ideology, the Communist, Socialist or whatever authority, religious, inwardly? If you have then you will never find out what is right action - obviously. Right? So enquiring step by step into this are you actually, if I may most respectfully ask, free of authority, including the authority of this person sitting on the platform at this moment? If you are not, find out why you accept authority inwardly. Objectively you need authority - right? You can't drive on the right hand side in England, you would have accidents. If you reject authority of some State laws you will be punished and so on and so on - there authority has its right place. But inwardly, deeply, not to have any form of authority. - Brockwood Park 1st Public Talk 26th August 1978

Images and Relationship

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So we have to understand what relationship is. Are we related? Is one human being related to another? We mean by relationship, don't we?, to be in contact intellectually, emotionally. psychologically. Are we in such contact? Or, is there contact, relationship, between the image that you have about yourself and the image you have about another? You have an image about yourself, ideas about yourself, concepts, experiences and so on. You have your particular idiosyncrasies, tendencies - all that has built an image about yourself. Please listen to it, observe it in yourself. Do not, as I said, merely listen to words - they have little meaning. But, in hearing the words, if the words reveal your own consciousness, your own state, then the words have meaning. If you observe, you have an image about yourself: that you are this, you are that; that you had this experience and that experience; that you are ugly or you are beautiful; that you want to be this or you want to be that. You have an image, an idea, a conclusion about yourself: that you are spiritual, that you are the Atman, that you are the soul or whatever it is. You have an image carved by the mind, or carved through your experience, through tradition, through circumstances, through strange pressures. There is that image of yourself, and the other person also has an image about himself. So these two images come into contact, and that is what we call relationship. Whether it is the most intimate relationship between a husband and wife, or the image that you have created about Russia, about America, about Vietnam, about this or that, the contact between the two images is what we call relationship. Please do follow this. That is all the relationship we know. - Collected Works, VOL XVI Bombay 1st Public Talk 13th February 1966

Wednesday, October 20, 2010

Awareness - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Awareness - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Awareness

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Once the speaker was travelling with some people in a car, there was a chauffeur driving and I was sitting beside him. There were three gentlemen behind discussing awareness very intently and asking me questions about awareness. Unfortunately at that moment the driver was looking somewhere else and ran over a goat - the three gentlemen were still discussing awareness (laughter) - and yet were totally unaware, unconscious, that they had run over a goat. And the chauffeur was not in the least concerned. When we pointed out this lack of attention, or awareness, on the part of the people who were trying to be aware, it was a total surprise to them. And it is the same with most of us. We are not aware either of outward things or of inward things. - Talk and Dialogues, Saanen, 6th Public Dialogue, 7th August, 1967

Tuesday, October 19, 2010

Education - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Education - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Education

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What we now call education is a matter of accumulating information and knowledge from books, which anyone can do who can read. Such education offers a subtle form of escape from ourselves and, like all escapes, it inevitably creates increasing misery. Conflict and confusion result from our own wrong relationship with people, things and ideas, and until we understand that relationship and alter it, mere learning, the gathering of facts and the acquiring of various skills, can only lead us to engulfing chaos and destruction. - Education And The Significance Of Life

Monday, October 18, 2010

You must question the structure of society. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

You must question the structure of society. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


You must question the structure of society.

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It seems to me that the first thing to enquire into is `society' - what is the structure, and what is the nature of society - because we are social beings.  You cannot live by yourself; even if you withdraw into the Himalayas, or become a hermit or a sannyasi, you cannot live by yourself; you are in relationship with another, and relationship with another creates the structure which we call 'society'.  That structure controls relationship - that is, you and I have relationship, we are in communion with each other; in that communion, in that relationship, we create, we build a structure called society.  That society controls our minds, shapes our hearts, shapes our actions - whether you live in a Communist society, or a Hindu society, or a Christian world.  Society with its structure shapes the mind of every human being, consciously or unconsciously. The culture in which we live, the traditions, the religions, the politics, the education - all that, the past as well as the present, shapes our thought.  And to bring about a complete revolution - there must be a revolution, a crisis in consciousness - you must question the structure of society. - J. Krishnamurti Bombay 1st Public Talk 21st February 1962

Sunday, October 17, 2010

The art of living in our daily life - JKOnline Daily Quotes

The art of living in our daily life - JKOnline Daily Quotes


The art of living in our daily life

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This freedom is not an ideal, a thing to take place eventually. The first step in freedom is the last step in it. It is the first step that counts, not the last step. What you do now is far more essential than what you do at some future date. Life is what is happening this instant, not an imagined instant, not what thought has conceived. So it is the first step you take now that is important. If that step is in the right direction, then the whole of life is open to you. The right direction is not towards an ideal, a predetermined end. It is inseparable from that which is taking place now. This is not a philosophy, a series of theories. It is exactly what the word philosophy means - the love of truth, the love of life. It is not something that you go to the university to learn. We are learning about the art of living in our daily life. - Letters to the Schools Vol. 1

Saturday, October 16, 2010

Comfort is one thing, and truth another - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Comfort is one thing, and truth another - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Comfort is one thing, and truth another

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Comfort is one thing, and truth another; they lead away from each other. If you seek comfort, you may find it in an explanation, a drug or a belief; but it will be temporary, and sooner or later you will have to begin over again. And is there such a thing as comfort? It may be that you will first have to see this fact: that a mind which seeks comfort, security, will always be in sorrow. A satisfactory explanation, or a comforting belief, can put you soothingly to sleep; but is that what you want? Will that wipe away your sorrow? Is sorrow to be got rid of by inducing sleep? - Commentaries On Living, Series III, Chapter 13

Friday, October 15, 2010

The word is never the thing. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

The word is never the thing. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


The word is never the thing.

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The eagle in its flight does not leave a mark, only the scientist does. And in enquiring into this question of freedom there must be not only the scientific observation, but also the flight of the eagle that does not leave a mark at all; both are required; which is, both the verbal explanation and the non-verbal perception, bearing in mind that the description is never the described, the explanation is never that thing which is explained, that is the word is never the thing. - The Flight of the Eagle, London 2nd Public Talk 16th March 1969

Thursday, October 14, 2010

To watch - JKOnline Daily Quotes

To watch - JKOnline Daily Quotes


To watch

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To watch constantly from day to day, from moment to moment, without drawing the conclusion or living in that conclusion, to watch in relationship without judgment, without comparison, but with constant awareness requires a great deal of persistency. Without doing that, all study of sacred books, all systems, have very little meaning; on the contrary, they are harmful to the mind which is stuffing itself with other people's ideas. - The Collected Works, Vol. VII Madras 2nd Public Talk 6th December 1953

Wednesday, October 13, 2010

Repetition of truth is a lie. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Repetition of truth is a lie. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Repetition of truth is a lie.

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Question: I would like to help you by doing propaganda for your teachings. Can you advise the best way? Krishnamurti: To be a propagandist is to be a liar. (Laughter.) Don't laugh, Sirs. Because, propaganda is merely repetition, and repetition of a truth is a lie. When you repeat what you consider to be the truth, then it ceases to be the truth. Say, for instance, you repeat the truth concerning man's relationship to property, the truth which you have not discovered for yourself; what value has it? Repetition has no value; it merely dulls the mind, and you can only repeat a lie. You cannot repeat truth, because truth is never constant. Truth is a state of experiencing, and what you can repeat is a static state; therefore it is not the truth. - The Collected Works, Vol. V Bombay 10th Public Talk 14th March, 1948

Tuesday, October 12, 2010

Education. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Education. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Education.

Posted:

What we now call education is a matter of accumulating information and knowledge from books, which anyone can do who can read. Such education offers a subtle form of escape from ourselves and, like all escapes, it inevitably creates increasing misery. Conflict and confusion result from our own wrong relationship with people, things and ideas, and until we understand that relationship and alter it, mere learning, the gathering of facts and the acquiring of various skills, can only lead us to engulfing chaos and destruction. - Education and significance of life

Monday, October 11, 2010

Only to the silent mind that the heavens are opened - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Only to the silent mind that the heavens are opened - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Only to the silent mind that the heavens are opened

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The mind is silent only with the abundance of energy, when there is that attention in which all contradiction, the pulling of desire in different directions, has ceased. The struggle of desire to be silent does not make for silence. Silence is not to be bought through any form of compulsion; it is not the reward of suppression or even sublimation. But the mind that is not silent is never free; and it is only to the silent mind that the heavens are opened. The bliss which the mind seeks is not found through its seeking, nor does it lie in faith. Only the silent mind can receive that blessing which is not of church or belief. For the mind to be silent, all its contradictory corners must come together and be fused in the flame of understanding. The silent mind is not a reflective mind. To reflect, there must be the watcher and the watched, The experiencer heavy with the past. In the silent mind there is no centre from which to become, to be, or to think. All desire is contradiction, for every centre of desire is opposed to another centre. The silence of the total mind is meditation. - Commentaries On Living, Series III, Chapter 51, Time, Habit And Ideals

Sunday, October 10, 2010

Religion is not belief - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Religion is not belief - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Religion is not belief

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Religion, surely, is the uncovering of reality. Religion is not belief. Religion is not the search for truth. The search for truth is merely the fulfilment of belief. Religion is the understanding of the thinker; for what the thinker is, that he creates. Without understanding the process of the thinker and the thought, merely to be caught in a dogma is surely not the uncovering of the beauty of life, of existence, of truth. - The Collected Works, Vol VI 3rd Public Talk, 1949 Rajahmundry, India

Saturday, October 9, 2010

The way to Intelligence - JKOnline Daily Quotes

The way to Intelligence - JKOnline Daily Quotes


The way to Intelligence

Posted:

Sorrow is the result of a shock, it is the temporary shaking up of a mind that has settled down, that has accepted the routine of life. Something happens - a death, the loss of a job, the questioning of a cherished belief - and the mind is disturbed. But what does a disturbed mind do? It finds a way to be undisturbed again; it takes refuge in another belief, in a more secure job, in a new relationship. Again the wave of life comes along and shatters its safeguards, but the mind soon finds still further defence; and so it goes on. This is not the way of intelligence, is it? - Commentaries On Living, Series 3, Chapter 36

Friday, October 8, 2010

Creation is always new. - JKOnline Daily Quotes

Creation is always new. - JKOnline Daily Quotes


Creation is always new.

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Questioner: You are advocating that we liquidate the environment within us.  Why do you advocate that?  What is the use of it? Krishnamurti: I am not advocating anything.  But you know, the cup is useful only when it is empty.  With most of us, the mind is clouded, cluttered up with so many things - pleasant and unpleasant experiences, knowledge, patterns or formulas of behaviour, and so on.  It is never empty.  And creation can take place only in the mind that is totally empty.  Creation is always new, and therefore the mind is made constantly fresh, young, innocent; it doesn't repeat, and therefore doesn't create habits. I don't know if you have ever noticed what sometimes happens when you have a problem, either mathematical or psychological.  You think about it a great deal, you worry over it like a dog chewing on a bone, but you can't find an answer.  Then you let it alone, you go away from it, you take a walk; and suddenly, out of that emptiness, comes the answer.  This must have happened to many of us.  Now, how does this take place?  Your mind has been very active within its own limitations about that problem, but you have not found the answer, so you have put the problem aside.  Then your mind becomes somewhat quiet, somewhat still, empty; and in that stillness, that emptiness, the problem is resolved.  Similarly, when one dies each minute to the inward environment, to the inward commitments, to the inward memories, to the inward secrecies and agonies, there is then an emptiness in which alone a new thing can take place.  I am not advocating it, I am not doing propaganda for that emptiness - good God!  I am only saying that unless that emptiness comes into being we shall continue with our sorrow, with our anxiety, with our despair, and our activities will bring more and more confusion.To bring about a different human being, and therefore a different society, a different world, there must be the ending of sorrow; for it is only with the ending of sorrow that there is a new life. - Saanen 10th Public Talk 1st August 1965