Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes

Sunday, August 9, 2009

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If we are not familiar with our own conditioning

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So it seems to me that if we are to bring about a fundamental change, it is first necessary to understand the background in which we have been brought up, the pattern in which the mind operates. If we do not understand that pattern, if we are not familiar with our own conditioning, if the whole trend of our education, in which the mind is caught, is not understood, then we merely follow a tradition, which invariably leads to mediocrity. Tradition invariably cripples and dulls the mind. So it is imperative, surely, to bring about a fundamental change within ourselves because, though we may be very clever and know a great deal, most of us are very mediocre, empty, shallow, inwardly insufficient, are we not? And to bring about such a change, it is necessary to understand the totality of our background. Until we understand that background, however much we may struggle to change ourselves, it will lead us nowhere.The Collected Works vol X, 11

Saturday, August 8, 2009

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You are the master of time

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You are the past, the present, and the future. You are that. You are the master of time, and you can shorten the time or lengthen the time. If you are violent and you say, “I will become non-violent”, that is extending time. During that interval of time, you are being violent, and there is no end to that kind of activity. If you realize that you are the master of time, that time is in your hands, which is an extraordinarily important thing to find out, that means you face the fact of violence. You don’t pursue non-violence, but face the fact of violence, and in that observation there is no time at all, because in that observation there is neither the observer nor all the past accumulation, there is only pure observation. In that there is no time. Are you doing this? When the speaker is talking about it, are you actually seeing the truth of it and therefore doing it? Suppose I have a particular habit, physical or psychological, can the habit end immediately? Or will I take time to end a habit? Suppose you smoke; can you end that habit immediately? The craving of the body for nicotine is different from the perception that you are the master of time. You can shorten the time, and therefore that perception is not a decision not to smoke. On Love and Loneliness, p 94

Friday, August 7, 2009

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Time as a movement of the infinite past

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Every human being is caught in time. I am not talking about time by the watch, chronological time which does influence thought, but of time at a different level, time as a movement of the infinite past, moving through the present to some future. As long as I am caught in that, there is no end to sorrow. I say to myself, “I’ll be happy tomorrow; I’ll escape from my present misery, my deep inner psychological disturbance which brings about sorrow. I’ll gradually get over it, forget it, rationalize it, escape from it or invent some future hope.” But to end suffering I must understand time. Time must come to an end, because thought has created sorrow, thought is time, thought has said, “I’m lonely; I’m of incapable of functioning; I’m not loved; my ambition, my capacity is not fulfilling itself. I must have time to do this, and time to achieve, to become, to change.” The Collected Works vol XVI, p 142

Thursday, August 6, 2009

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Time is like a river flowing endlessly

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Time is like a river flowing endlessly, but man has broken it up into three parts: the past, the present, and the future. The past is heavily burdened, and the future he does not know. Giving significance to life, a life that has no meaning, no purpose, no beauty, he says, “Let me live in the present.” He invents a philosophy of life of the present. But to live in the present, man must understand the past and the future. It’s a movement; you can’t take this river and say, “ I live just there.” It’s like a river that is flowing, and in this stream of time man is caught. Unless there is an end to time, there is no ending to sorrow.The Collected Works vol XVI, p 141

Wednesday, August 5, 2009

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Is there a tomorrow, psychologically?

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When we are talking about time, we do not mean chronological time, time by the watch. That time exists, must exist. If you want to catch a bus, if you want to get to a train or meet an appointment tomorrow, you must have chronological time. But is there a tomorrow, psychologically, which is the time of the mind? Is there psychological tomorrow, actually? Or is the tomorrow created by thought because thought sees the impossibility of change, directly, immediately, and invents this process of gradualness? I see for myself, as a human being, that it is terribly important to bring about a radical revolution in my way of life, thinking, feeling, and in my actions, and I say to myself, “I’ll take time over it; I’ll be different tomorrow, or in a month’s time.” That is the time we are talking about: the psychological structure of time, of tomorrow, or the future, and in that time we live. The Collected Works vol XVII, p 26

Tuesday, August 4, 2009

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Psychologically, is there evolution?

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There is an evolution of the primate to the so-called man. There is evolution from not-knowing to knowing. Evolution implies time; but psychologically, inwardly, is there evolution? Are you following the question? Outwardly one can see how architecture has advanced from the primitive hut to the modern building, mechanics from the two-wheel cart to the motor, the jet plane, going to the moon, and all the rest of it—it is there, obviously there is no question whether these things have evolved or not. But is there evolution inwardly, at all? You believe so, you think so, do you? But is there? Do not say “there is” or “there is not”. Merely to assert is the most foolish thing, but to find out is the beginning of wisdom. Now, psychologically, is there evolution? That is, I say “I shall become something”, or “I shall not be something”; the becoming or the not being involves time—does it not? “I shall be less angry the day after tomorrow”, “I shall be more kind and less aggressive, more helpful, not be so self-centred, selfish”, all that implies time—“I am this” and “I shall be that”. I say I shall evolve psychologically—but is there such evolution? Shall I be different in a year’s time? Being violent today, my whole nature is violent, my whole upbringing, education, the social influences and the cultural pressures have bred in me violence; also I have inherited violence from the animal, the territorial rights and sexual rights and so on—will this violence evolve into non-violence? Can violence ever become love?Talks with American Students, pp 177-178

Monday, August 3, 2009

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The ending of a quality is not a matter of time

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The ending of a quality such as violence or greed is not a matter of time, and it does not come about through ideals; it has to be done immediately, not through time. We get caught up in the gradualism of ideals when we are concerned with time.Please do not jump to conclusions or say, “Without ideals I shall be lost”, but rather listen to what is being said. I know all the arguments, all the justifications of ideals. Just listen, if you kindly will, without a conclusion, and try to understand what the speaker is talking about; do not block your understanding by saying “I must have ideals.”Ideals have existed for centuries. Various religious teachers have talked of ideals, but they may all be wrong and probably are. To adhere to an ideal is obviously to postpone freeing the mind from violence, greed, envy, ambition and the desire for power. If one is concerned, as one should be, with righteousness, which is the foundation upon which rests all true inquiry into what religion is, then one must investigate the possibility of ridding the mind of violence, of greed, of envy, of acquisitiveness, not at some time in the distant future, but now. The Collected Works vol X, pp 224-225

Sunday, August 2, 2009

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A change that is not of time

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Surely, this is the fundamental question that one ought to put to oneself—how to bring about a change which is not of time, which is not a matter of evolution, which is not a matter of slow growth. I can see that if I exercise will, control, if I discipline myself, there are certain modifications; I am better or worse, I am changed a little bit. Instead of being bad tempered or angry or vicious or jealous I am quiet; I have repressed all that, I have held it down. Every day I practise a certain virtue, repeat certain words, go to a shrine and repeat certain chants, and so on and so on. They all have a pacifying effect; they produce certain changes but these changes are still of the mind, they are still within the field of time, are they not? My memory says, “I am this, and I must become that.” Surely, such activity is still self-centred; though I deny greed, in seeking non-greed I am still within the self-enclosing process of the “me”. And I can see that it leads nowhere, do what I will; though there may be change, as long as my thinking is held within the process of the “me”, there is no freedom from struggle, pain. The Collected Works vol VII, pp 8-9

Saturday, August 1, 2009

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To remain with a fact without trying to change

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To say, “I am angry” and remain with that fact without trying to change, without trying to explain it away, is very difficult. I do not know if you have noticed that to live with an ugly thing without its corrupting you is very difficult. To live with an ugly picture and not let it pervert your sensitivity is very difficult because to live with an ugly thing releases a tremendous amount of energy, just as living with a beautiful thing does. You see a lovely tree in your garden, and you are proud of it, or you are used to it. Or, you see a filthy road, and you get used to it. To live with it and not let that dirty road corrupt you, or to live with something very beautiful without getting used to it, you need a great deal of energy, you need a great deal of sensitive awareness, don’t you? Otherwise you get used to both; you become dull to beauty and to ugliness. So a mind that has become accustomed to ideals has become dull; it accepts postponing, and postponement is a facile habit. If you deny ideas, if you deny ideals, then you are free to face the fact.The Collected Works vol XII, p 290

Friday, July 31, 2009

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That is not change

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For most of us, change implies the continuation of ourselves in a modified form. If we are dissatisfied with a particular pattern of ideas, of rituals, of conditioning, we throw it aside and pick up the same pattern in a different milieu, a different colour, with different rituals, different words. Instead of Latin it is Sanskrit, or some other language, but it is still the old pattern repeated over and over and over again; and within this pattern we think we are moving, changing. Because we are dissatisfied with what we are, we go from one teacher to another. Seeing confusion about us and in ourselves, seeing perpetual wars, ever-increasing destruction, devastation and misery, we want some haven, some peace; and if we can find a refuge that gives us a sense of security, a sense of permanency, with that we are satisfied.So, when the mind projects an idea and clings to it, struggles towards it, surely that is not change, that is not transformation, that is not revolution, because it is still within the field of the mind, the field of time. To clear away all that, we must be conscious of what we are doing, we must be aware of it.The Collected Works vol VII, pp 7-8