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You can’t be serious without having fun.
Krishnamurti: Do you
remember we said the other day that meditation is to observe? That is
the beginning of meditation. You cannot observe this map if you have the
slightest distortion in your mind, if your mind is distorted by
prejudice, by fear. To look at this map is to look without prejudice. So
learn in meditation what it is to be free of prejudice; that is part of
meditation, not just sitting cross-legged in some place. It makes you
tremendously responsible, not only for yourself and your relationship
but everything else, the garden, the trees, the people around you –
everything becomes tremendously important.
To be serious is also to
have fun. You can’t be serious without having fun. We talked the other
day about yoga, didn’t we? I showed you some breathing exercises. You
must do it all with fun, enjoy things – you follow?
Student: There are certain
things like learning. I don’t think it’s possible to discuss them with a
sense of fun.
Krishnamurti: Oh yes! It
is. Look, learning is fun. To see new things is great fun; it gives you
tremendous energy if you make a great discovery for yourself – not if
someone else discovers it and tells you about it, then it’s second-hand.
When you are learning it is fun to see something totally new, like
discovering a new insect, a new species. To discover how my mind is
working, to see all the nuances, the subtleties: to learn about it is
fun.
(Krishnamurti in
Beginnings of Learning ch.13, p.185)
Doubt must be kept on a leash.
Krishnamurti: I’m asking,
does silence, does the sense of the immeasurable, come about by my
questioning?
Prof. Anderson: No.
K: No. Perception sees the
false and discards the false. There is no question, it sees, and it’s
finished. But if I keep on questioning I keep on doubting; doubt has its
place but it must be kept on a leash.
A: Now, let me ask you a
question here, if I may. The act of perceiving is, as you have said, the
doing. There is absolutely no interval.
K: I see danger and I act.
A: Exactly. Now, in this perceiving, the
act is totally free and the every energy pattern is free to become
changed.
K: Yes, quite, sir.
A: No more hoarding to itself…
K: No regrets.
A: …all that it has worked for all its
life. And amazingly though, it seems to me, there is a corollary to
this. Not only is the pattern free to be changed but the energy is free
to pattern itself.
K: Or not to pattern.
A: Or not to pattern.
K: There it patterns. In knowledge it has
to pattern.
A: Of course.
K: But here it can’t
pattern, pattern for what? If it patterns it has become thought again.
And therefore thought, if it is divisive, is superficial. Somebody was
telling me the other day that in the Eskimo language ‘thought’ means the
outside. Very interesting. When they say, go outside, the word is
‘thought’. So thought has created the outer and the inner. If thought is
not, then there is neither the outer nor the inner: that is space. It
isn’t that I’ve got inner space.
(Krishnamurti in A Wholly Different Way
of Living p.266)
Our lives are not just on the surface…
“It is comparatively easy to understand
and dissolve our conscious fears. But unconscious fears are not even
discovered by most of us, for we do not allow them to come to the
surface; and when on rare occasions they do come to the surface, we
hasten to cover them up, to escape from them. Hidden fears often make
their presence known through dreams and other forms of intimation, and
they cause greater deterioration and conflict than do the superficial
fears.
Our lives are not just on
the surface, their greater part is concealed from casual observation. If
we would have our obscure fears come into the open and dissolve, the
conscious mind must be somewhat still, not everlastingly occupied; then,
as these fears come to the surface, they must be observed without let or
hindrance, for any form of condemnation or justification only
strengthens fear. To be free from fear, we must be awake to its
darkening influence, and only constant watchfulness can reveal its many
causes.”
(Krishnamurti in
Education and the Significance of Life, p.59)
Undivided energy.
“To
solve a problem immediately, you have to understand the problem. Is the
understanding of a problem a matter of time or is it a matter of
intensity of perception, an intensity of seeing? Let us say that I have
a problem: I am vain. It is a problem with me in the sense that it
creates a conflict, a contradiction within me. It is a fact that I am
vain and there is also another fact that I do not want to be vain.
Firstly, I have to understand the fact that I am vain. I have to live
with that fact. I must not only be intensely aware of the fact but
comprehend it fully. Now, is comprehension a matter of time? I can see
the fact immediately, can’t I? And the immediacy of perception, of
seeing, dissolves the fact. When I see a cobra there is immediate
action. But I do not see vanity in the same way—when I see vanity either
I like it and therefore I continue with it, or I do not want it because
it creates conflict. If it does not create conflict there is no problem.
Perception and
understanding are not of time. Perception is a matter of intensity of
seeing, a seeing that is total. What is the nature of seeing something
totally? What gives one the capacity, the energy, the vitality, the
drive, to deal with something immediately, with one’s undivided energy?
The moment you have divided energy you have conflict and therefore there
is no seeing, there is no perception of something total. Now, what gives
you the energy to make you jump when you see a cobra? What are the
processes that make the organic as well as the psychological, the whole
being, jump, so that there is no hesitation, so that the reaction is
immediate? What has gone into that immediacy? Several things have gone
into that action which is immediate: fear, natural protection, which
must be there, the knowledge that the cobra is a deadly thing.
Now,
why have we not the same energetic action with regard to the dissolution
of vanity? I am taking vanity as an example. There are several reasons
that have gone into my lack of energy. I like vanity; the world is based
on it; it is the basis of the social pattern; it gives me a certain
sense of vitality, a certain quality of dignity and aloofness, a sense
that I am a little better than another. All this prevents that energy
which is necessary to dissolve vanity. Now, either I analyse all the
reasons which have prevented my action, prevented my having energy to
deal with vanity, or I see it immediately. Analysis is a process of time
and a process of postponement. While I am analysing, vanity continues
and time is not going to end it. So I have to see vanity totally and I
lack the energy to see. Now, to gather the dissipated energy requires a
gathering not only when I am confronted with a problem such as vanity,
but a gathering all the time, even when there is no problem. We do not
have problems all the time. There are moments when we have no problems.
If at those moments we are gathering energy, gathering in the sense of
being aware, then, when the problem arises, we can meet it and not go
through the process of analysis.”
(Krishnamurti in On Education, ch.4: On
the True Denial, p.94-95)
Astonishingly precise, yet extraordinarily tender.
Have you ever looked very closely at a
flower? How astonishingly precise it is, with all its petals; yet there is
an extraordinary tenderness, a perfume, a loveliness about it. Now, when a
man tries to be orderly, his life may be very precise, but it has lost
that quality of gentleness which comes into being only when, like with the
flower, there is no effort. So our difficulty is to be precise, clear and
expansive without effort.
You see, the effort to be orderly or tidy
has such a narrowing influence. If I deliberately try to be orderly in my
room, if I am careful to put everything in its place, if I am always
watching myself, where I put my feet, and so on, what happens? I become an
intolerable bore to myself and others. It is a tiresome person who is
always trying to be something, whose thoughts are very carefully arranged,
who chooses one thought in preference to another. Such a person may be
very tidy, clear, he may use words precisely, he may be very attentive and
considerate, but he has lost the creative joy of living.
So, what is the problem? How can one have
this creative joy of living, be expansive in one’s feeling, wide in one’s
thinking, and yet be precise, clear, orderly in one’s life? I think most
of us are not like that because we never feel anything intensely, we never
give our hearts and minds to anything completely. (…)
Orderliness, tidiness, clarity of thinking
are not very important in themselves, but they become important to a man
who is sensitive, who feels deeply, who is in a state of perpetual inward
revolution.
(Krishnamurti in Think on These Things,
p.72-73)
Communication ceases when there is a dialogue.
K: I am talking of being completely free of
fear, not momentary cessation of fear. Are you willing to listen to find
out? If you are, then we’ll proceed, then we’ve established communication.
Our minds are together, then. Right? But if you say, ‘Well, show me first
and then I’ll do it’, then we’ll break off. But when we are in
communication, our minds, our brains are working together. Right, sir?
T: That requires you to be listening in the
same way.
K: Of course. I’m listening to you very
carefully. So we are doing it together; our minds, our brains are working
together. The first thing is that we are listening, so we are in
communication. When we discuss, or have a dialogue, our minds are not in
communication, because then you’re thinking for yourself. Here both of us
want to find out, go into it, explore the whole thing, so our brains are
communicating with each other, so there is not me and you, battling about
it. Right?
T: Is there fear, then?
K: Wait! I don’t know. I say we have
established communication, first. Right? Then you must carefully pursue
this, together, not go off and then come back again. We must keep at the
same level all the time.
T: Does that also mean that neither of us
knows what’s at the end of this, that there is no end to this
communication?
K: We both are seeing, we both are in
communication to find out if it is possible to be free of fear completely.
(…) I made it perfectly clear that the
moment it is a dialogue there is separation between your brain and my
brain. But when we are communicating together over something, we are both
thinking about that, watching it. Therefore, we are in constant
communication. We are both together, in exploring this fact, whether it’s
possible to be free or not.
(…) We are both investigating fear, not
conclusions or anything else. I’m simply saying we must establish
communication. And communication ceases when there is a dialogue, or
questioning. But when we are thinking, when we are concerned, about the
same thing, then both of us are in communication, because we’re looking at
the same thing. The moment dialogue or discussion takes place, there is
breakage of communication.
(Krishnamurti in A Flame of Learning,
Krishnamurti With Teachers, p.166-169)
Highly sensitive to everything
“It matters very much that from now on you
become very sensitive. Have strong feelings; do not be frightened of them.
Love somebody with all your being – with your heart, with your mind, with
everything. Love a bird. Love a tree that you have planted; look after it.
Keep your room in a spotless condition. Then you will begin to care, to
care what you are. Then when you have a husband or a wife and children,
you will care. Then you will know what to do. Then you will give your
children the right education.
You see, in our lives we have very little
love, very little affection, very little sympathy. And without sympathy,
affection, and love, we might just as well be dead. You may be very clever
at building a bridge, going to the moon, flying a jet at a
thousand-five-hundred or two-thousand miles an hour, but if you have not
got the substance of life – which is sensitivity, feeling, affection,
vitality, energy – you will merely become a cog in the vast machine which
is called society; and everybody is, unfortunately, concerned about
reforming that cog, that piece of machinery.
So, if I may point out, right education is
to make a human being highly sensitive to everything – not just to
mathematics and geography, but highly sensitive to everything – because
the highest form of sensitivity is the highest form of intelligence.”
(Krishnamurti in A Timeless Spring, p.70)
Moving without leaving an imprint.
To study this tenuous, living, changing
subject – which is my own quality of brain, which has lived and still
lives in disorder, confusion and fear – is far more difficult than reading
a book. It requires swiftness, subtlety, moving without leaving an
imprint. Do I have such a quality? In asking that question of myself I am
not only studying who puts that question but also the intent behind the
question.
So I am studying the whole phenomenon very
cautiously, never coming to a definite conclusion. This constant
watchfulness, never allowing any shadow to slip by without careful
observation, is making the brain, the whole activity of thought, quieten
down without becoming dull. I take a rest and pick it up again. The rest
is as important as the renewal of observation. I am capturing the perfume
of that intelligence, the extraordinary subtlety of it, and so the whole
physical organism is becoming more alive, aware, and is beginning to have
a different rhythm. It is creating its own atmosphere.
Now I go to a class under a tree or in a
room where I am supposed to teach mathematics, knowing that the students
have to qualify in it, and for the first five or ten minutes I talk to
them explaining very clearly what I have been studying, how it is possible
for them to study it too. I am teaching them the art of studying. I am
really deeply interested in conveying to them my deep intention and they
are enveloped in my ardour. I explain to them how I approach this question
of intelligence step by step. I point out to them the order and beauty of
a tree, which is not put together by thought. I insist that they see this
clearly – that nature and the heavens and the wild animals of the forest
are not the product of thought, though thought may use them for its own
convenience or destruction. Thought in its activity has brought about
great destruction and also great passing beauty.
During every opportunity, without boring
myself and the students, I talk about these matters with humour and
seriousness. This is my life for this intelligence is supreme.
(Krishnamurti in Letters to the Schools II,
p.43-45)
Education, in the true sense, is the understanding of
oneself.
“The ignorant man is not the unlearned, but
he who does not know himself, and the learned man is stupid when he relies
on books, on knowledge and on authority to give him understanding.
Understanding comes only through self-knowledge, which is awareness of
one’s total psychological process. Thus education, in the true sense, is
the understanding of oneself, for it is within each one of us that the
whole existence is gathered.
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.
As society is now organized, we send our
children to school to learn some technique by which they can eventually
earn a livelihood. We want to make the child first and foremost a
specialist, hoping thus to give him a secure economic position. But does
the cultivation of a technique enable us to understand ourselves?
While it is obviously necessary to know how
to read and write, and to learn engineering or some other profession, will
technique give us the capacity to understand life? Surely, technique is
secondary; and if technique is the only thing we are striving for, we are
obviously denying what is by far the greater part in life.
Life is pain, joy, beauty, ugliness, love,
and when we understand it as a whole, at every level, that understanding
creates its own technique. But the contrary is not true: technique can
never bring about creative understanding.
Present-day education is a complete failure
because it over-emphasized technique. In over-emphasizing technique we
destroy man. To cultivate capacity and efficiency without understanding
life, without having a comprehensive perception of the ways of thought and
desire, will only make us increasingly ruthless, which is to engender wars
and jeopardize our physical security.”
(Krishnamurti in Education and the
Significance of Life, p.17-18))
Don’t say one noise is better than another noise.
K: If I had a son or a daughter, I would
ask, ‘How are they going to be educated in the field where they themselves
don’t take an interest?’ And the others don’t know how to help them to
understand that enormous field that has been neglected.
So I know what I would do in the sense that
I would say to a daughter or a son: Look, listen to all this, listen to
all the noise that is going on in the world, don’t take sides, don’t jump
to any conclusions but just listen. Don’t say one noise is better than
another noise; they are all noises, so just listen, first. And listen also
to your own noise, your chattering, your wishes – ‘I want to be this and I
don’t want to be that’ – find out what it means to listen. Find out, don’t
be told. Discuss it with me and find out what it means first. Find out
what it means to think, why you think, what is the background of your
thinking. Watch yourself, don’t become self-centred in that watching, be
tremendously concerned in watching, which is further enlargement of
oneself.
Q: Did you say to be tremendously concerned
with watching is further enlargement of the self?
K: I said watch yourself. If I were a
parent I would be tremendously concerned with the problem, the question
how to educate people in this field where there is no real understanding
or help. That is what I meant. But I said later on: if you watch yourself
there is a danger of self-centredness – a tremendous danger. I must watch
that too.
I also said I would discuss with the group,
find out how you think, why you think and what you think. Not in order to
change it, not to suppress it, not to overcome it, but to find out why you
think at all. Go on, question it! I don’t know if you have noticed that
most books, all the social, religious, moral, ethical structure, the
relationship between man and man and all the rest of it, are based on
thinking.
(Krishnamurti in Beginnings of Learning,
p.155-156)
Learning is ou t of time.
That is what I am interested in, which is,
to awaken the mind, to keep the mind tremendously alive. We say the mind
can be kept alive through knowledge and therefore we pour in knowledge
which only dulls the mind. A mind that functions in time is still a
limited mind. But a mind which does not function in time is
extraordinarily alive, is tremendously alive and can impart its aliveness
to a mind which is still seeking, enquiring, innocent. So we have
discovered something new. You and I have discovered something new. I have
imparted something to you. Together we have found that the mind functions
in time and the mind is the result of time. In that state, the mind can
only give information. Such a mind is limited. But a mind that is not
functioning, thinking in terms of time, though it uses time, will quicken
the mind of another and therefore knowledge will not destroy. You see,
such a mind is in a state of learning, not acquiring. Therefore it is
everlastingly alive; such a mind is young.
Some of the boys in this school are already
old, because they are merely concerned with acquiring knowledge, not with
learning. And learning is out of time. Now, how will you set about
quickening the mind, keeping it astonishingly alive all the time.
You have to understand the quality of a
mind in which mutation has taken place. It has taken place the moment you
deny time. You have thrown out the whole past. You are no longer a Hindu,
a Christian. Now, how will such a mind in which mutation has taken place
instruct, translate its action? How will it act in giving knowledge which
involves time, and yet keep the mind of the child in a state of intense
aliveness? Find out.
(Krishnamurti in On Education, p.92-93)
Observe how the mind wants to go to sleep through habit.
“Questioner: You have said that when one
sees something to be false, that false thing drops away. I daily see that
smoking is false, but it does not drop away.
Krishnamurti: Have you ever watched
grown-up people smoking, either your parents, your teachers, your
neighbours, or somebody else? It has become a habit with them, has it not?
They go on smoking day after day, year in and year out, and they have
becomes slaves to the habit. Many of them realize how stupid it is to be a
slave to something, and they fight the habit, they discipline themselves
against it, they resist it, they try in all kinds of ways to get rid of
it. But, you see, habit is a dead thing, it is an action which has become
automatic, and the more one fights it the more strength one gives to it.
But if the person who smokes becomes conscious of the habit, if he becomes
aware of putting his hand into his pocket, bringing out the cigarette,
tapping it, putting it in his mouth, lighting it and taking the first puff
– if each time he goes through this routine he simply watches it without
condemnation, without saying how terrible it is to smoke, then he is not
giving new vitality to that particular habit. But really to drop something
which has become a habit, you have to investigate it much more, which
means going into the whole problem of why the mind cultivates habit – that
is, why the mind is inattentive. If you clean your teeth every day while
looking out of the window, the cleaning of your teeth becomes a habit; but
if you always clean your teeth very carefully, giving your whole attention
to it, then it does not become a habit, a routine that is thoughtlessly
repeated.
Experiment with this, observe how the mind
wants to go to sleep through habit and then remain undisturbed.”
(Krishnamurti in Think on These Things,
p.119-120)
And so you will find the student is you.
Education is not merely the teaching of
various academic subjects, but the cultivation of total responsibility in
the student. One does not realise as an educator that one is bringing into
being a new generation. Most schools are only concerned with imparting
knowledge. They are not at all concerned with the transformation of man
and his daily life, and you – the educator in these schools – need to have
this deep concern and the care of this total responsibility.
In what manner then can you help the
student to feel this quality of love with all its excellence? If you do
not feel this yourself profoundly, talking about responsibility is
meaningless. Can you as an educator feel the truth of this?
Seeing the truth of it will bring about
naturally this love and total responsibility. You have to ponder it,
observe it daily in your life, in your relations with your wife, your
friends, your students. And in your relationship with the student you will
talk about this from your heart – not pursue mere verbal clarity. The
feeling for this reality is the greatest gift that man can have and once
it is burning in you, you will find the right word, right action and
correct behaviour. When you consider the student you will see that he
comes to you totally unprepared for all this. He comes to you frightened,
nervous, anxious to please or on the defence, conditioned by his parents
and the society in which he has lived his few years. You have to see his
background, you have to be concerned with what he actually is and not
impose on him your own opinions, conclusions and judgements. In
considering what he is it will reveal what you are, and so you will find
the student is you.
(Krishnamurti in Letters to the Schools,
volume 1, 15th December 1978)
There is a battle between the two images in me.
Krishnamurti: I want to be free of the past
hurts, because I see logically, with reason, with sanity, that if the mind
keeps those hurts it has no contact with anything – I am afraid all the
time. Now do I see that very clearly? Do you understand it, see it as
clearly as you see this table or chair? – which means you are giving
attention to what is being said and watching it in yourself. Are you doing
it, or are you casually looking at it with your mind somewhere else? If
you give your attention to the past hurts, they’ll obviously fall away.
The next thing is, how are you going to prevent further images being put
together? Suppose I come along and say, ‘How very intelligent you are!’ or
‘You are such an ass, you’re half asleep.’ What will you do? How will you
prevent immediately making an image when I say that?
Student: You are creating an image of me by
your saying that.
K: Obviously I’m an ass myself when I tell
you you’re an ass! But I’m asking you how to prevent images being formed –
whether they are pleasurable or painful.
St: You have to be awake to the
image-making process.
K: Help me to find out how to! Suppose I
say to you, ‘What a nice person you are,’ that immediately brings a
reaction and an image, doesn’t it? Now, how will you prevent that taking
place?
St: The image is there already, it’s been
made – can we not just see that we have made this image?
K: No. There are two things involved. First
the past and secondly the prevention of new images being made. Because
otherwise I’m going to be hurt again and I don’t want to hurt because I
want to live freely, I want to have no walls around me. So what am I to
do?
St: I want to find out why I am flattered
or hurt by what you say.
K: One is pleasure, the other is fear.
St: But what is the basis of this?
K: You depend on my statement, I don’t know
why, but you do. That’s not the point. How do you prevent this image being
formed? Do you want to know? What will you pay for it?
St: My life.
K: What is the price of that life – do you
know what it means, sir? It means you are really very serious not to form
any image about anybody, whatever they say. Are you willing to do that?
How would you do it? I’ll tell you. Each give me ten dollars. (Laughter)
St: We haven’t got it.
K: Watch it carefully. I’ve said this is a
very serious matter, far more important than taking a degree. You pay a
great deal to get educated, but you neglect this. Without this, life has
no meaning and you don’t even pay a cent to find out. Which means, you
don’t even give that much energy to find out. Jimmy says, ‘I’ll give my
life to find out,’ which means he’s willing to go to the very end of it to
find out. I said, ‘Look, Jimmy, you’ve been hurt, and that hurt reacts in
many ways. The root of that hurt is an image you had of yourself, and that
image doesn’t want to get hurt.’ You saw the truth of that. You are
willing to go into it and you saw the truth of that and you said, ‘I
understood, I know how to deal with it. Any time it arises I’m going to be
aware of it, pay complete attention to every moment when anybody says, “Do
this, don’t do that”!’ Now why don’t you give the same attention when
somebody says, ‘You’re an ass’? Then you won’t form an image. Only when
you are inattentive, the old habit asserts itself. That means the mind
says, ‘As long as there is any form of resistance, all relationship has no
meaning.’ I see that very clearly. Not verbally, but I touch it, feel it.
And I say, resistance exists because I don’t want to be hurt. And why am I
hurt? Because I have an image about myself, and I see that there is not
only the image about myself but there is another image in me which says,
‘I must get rid of this image.’ So there is a battle between the two
images in me – the ‘higher’ image and the ‘lower’ image. Both images are
created by thought. So I see all of that very clearly – clearly in the
sense as I see anything dangerous. Therefore, the clarity of perception is
its own action. Then I’ve finished with it, the past never comes again.
Now with that same attention I’m going to
see that when you flatter me, or insult me, there is no image, because I’m
tremendously attentive. Will you do this? It doesn’t matter what is said,
I listen, I don’t say, ‘You are prejudiced’ or ‘You are not prejudiced.’ I
listen because the mind wants to find out if it is creating an image out
of every word, out of every contact. I’m tremendously awake, therefore I
find in myself a person who is inattentive, asleep, dull, who makes images
and gets hurt – not an intelligent man. Have you understood it at least
verbally? Now apply it. Then you are sensitive to every occasion, it
brings its own right action. And if anybody says something to you, you are
tremendously attentive, not to any prejudices, but you are attentive to
your conditioning. Therefore you have established a relationship with him,
which is entirely different from his relationship with you. Because if he
is prejudiced, you are not; if he is unaware, you are aware. Therefore you
will never create an image about him. You see the difference? Will you do
this? You have no idea what vitality you’ll have.
St: I think we have to help each other to
do it.
K: That’s it, that is co-operation. You are
helping me and I am helping you. You are learning from me and I am
learning from you not to create images.
(Beginnings of Learning, ch.9, p.128-131)
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