Jiddu Krishnamurti famous quotes
Last updated: Sep 5, 2024
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In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Meditation is the most extraordinary thing if you know how to do it, and you cannot possibly learn from anybody; and that's the beauty of it. It isn't something you learn, a technique, and therefore there is no authority. Therefore if you will learn about yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, the way you talk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy. If you are aware of it without any choice, all that is part of meditation, and as you go, as you journey, as that movement goes, all that movement is meditation. Then that movement is endless, timeless.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Meditation is not a means to an end. It is both the means and the end.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Happiness is strange; it comes when you are not seeking it. When you are not making an effort to be happy, then unexpectedly, mysteriously, happiness is there, born of purity, of a loveliness of being.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
When the mind is relaxed, no longer making an effort, when it is quiet for just a few seconds, then the problem reveals itself and it is solved. That happens when the mind is still, in the interval between two thoughts, between two responses. In that state of mind, understanding comes.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
When there is love, there is no duty. When you love your wife, you share everything with her-your property, your trouble, your anxiety, your joy. You do not dominate. You are not the man and she is not the woman to be used and thrown aside, a sort of breeding machine to carry on your name. When there is love, the word duty disappears.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves; and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not to leave it to others to transform themselves or to bring about a modified change through revolution, either of the left or of the right. It is important to understand that this is our responsibility, yours and mine...
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
It is love alone that leads to right action. What brings order in the world is to love and let love do what it will.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The mind has to be empty to see clearly.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The only freedom is the freedom from the known.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Thought is so cunning, so clever, that it distorts everything for its own convenience.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
There can only be a relationship between human beings when we accept what is, not what should be.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
You can only be afraid of what you think you know.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
But if one observes, one will see that the body has its own intelligence; it requires a great deal of intelligence to observe the intelligence of the body.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The description is not the described; I can describe the mountain, but the description is not the mountain, and if you are caught up in the description, as most people are, then you will never see the mountain
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Being discontented, we either seek a different job or merely succumb to environment...instead of causing us to question life, the whole process of existence.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Fear is the destructive energy in man. It withers the mind, it distorts thought, it leads to all kinds of extraordinarily clever and subtle theories, absurd superstitions, dogmas, and beliefs.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Its beautiful to be alone. To be alone does not mean to be lonely. it means the mind is not influenced and contaminated by society.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
In obedience there is always fear, and fear darkens the mind.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
It is a great art to have an abundance of knowledge and experience - to know the richness of life, the beauty of existence, the struggles, the miseries, the laughter, the tears - and yet keep your mind very simple; and you can have a simple mind only when you know how to love.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Pain itself destroys pain. Suffering itself frees man from suffering.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
If you lose touch with nature you lose touch with humanity.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Is there a meditation that is not the ego trying to become? Is meditation conscious if every effort implies time?
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
What you are the world is. And without your transformation, there can be no transformation of the world.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
What is important in meditation is the quality of the mind and the heart.It is not what you achieve, or what you say you attain, but rather the quality of a mind that is innocent and vulnerable.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
You may remember the story of how the devil and a friend of his were walking down the street, when they saw ahead of them a man stoop down and pick up something from the ground, look at it, and put it away in his pocket. The friend said to the devil, "What did that man pick up?" "He picked up a piece of the truth," said the devil. "That is a very bad business for you, then," said his friend. "Oh, not at all," the devil replied, "I am going to help him organize it."
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
All paths do not lead to truth. There is no path to truth, it must come to you.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
You must look most intimately and discover for yourself; then it is your own, not somebody else’s, not something that you have been told, because there is no teacher and no follower.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Religion is the frozen thought of man out of which they build temples.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Truth is more in the process than in the result.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
It is necessary for all of us to awaken in ourselves this spirit of cooperation, for then it will not be a mere plan or agreement which causes us to work together, but an extraordinary feeling of togetherness, the sense of joy in being and doing together without any thought of reward or punishment.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Change in society is of secondary importance; that will come about naturally, inevitably, when you as a human being bring about the change in yourself.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say, `That is an oak tree', or `that is a banyan tree', the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the tree you have to put your hand on it and the word will not help you to touch it.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Living in the present is the instant perception of beauty and the great delight in it without seeking pleasure from it.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is; and to awaken this capacity, in oneself and in others, is education.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
True understanding is possible only when we are fully conscious of our thought, not as an operative observer on this thought, but completely and without the intervention of a choice.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody, that is the beauty of it.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Freedom comes with self-knowledge, when the mind goes above and beyond the hindrances it has created for itself.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Goodness is not in the backyard of the individual nor in the open field of the collective; goodness flowers only in freedom from both.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Only the free mind knows what Love is.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
It is much easier to condemn a child than to understand a child.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
I don't mind what happens. That is the essence of inner freedom. It is a timeless spiritual truth: release attachment to outcomes, deep inside yourself, you'll feel good no matter what.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The fundamental factor of self-deception is this constant desire to be something in this world and in the world hereafter.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
In awareness there is no becoming, there is no end to be gained. There is silent observation without choice and condemnation, from which there comes understanding.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Where there is love, do what you will, it will be right action. It will never bring conflict to one's life. In the flame of love, all fear is consumed.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
When we stop fighting with ourselves, we aren't creating anymore conflict in our mind. Then our mind can for the first time relax and be still. Then for the first time our consciousness can become whole and unfragmented. Then total attention can be given to all of our thoughts and feelings. And then there will be found a gentleness and a goodness in us that can embrace all that is been given in the world. Then a deep love for everything will be the result of this deep attention. For this total attention, this soft and pure consciousness that we are, is nothing but Love itself.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
While one is young is the time to investigate, to experiment with everything. The school should help its young people to discover their vocations and responsibilities, and not merely cram their minds with facts and technical knowledge; it should be the soil in which they can grow without fear, happily and integrally.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Real learning comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Relationship is a mirror in which you can see yourself, not as you would wish to be, but as you are.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The ending of sorrow is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge is always within the shadow of ignorance. Meditation is freedom from thought and a movement in the ecstasy of truth. Meditation is explosion of intelligence.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
When you once see something as false which you have accepted as true, as natural, as human, then you can never go back to it.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
There's a great and unutterable beauty in all this.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
If you lose touch with nature you lose touch with humanity. If there's no relationship with nature then you become a killer; then you kill baby seals, whales, dolphins, and man either for gain, for "sport," for food, or for knowledge. Then nature is frightened of you, withdrawing its beauty. You may take long walks in the woods or camp in lovely places but you are a killer and so lose their friendship. You probably are not related to anything to your wife or your husband.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Follow the wandering, the distraction, find out why the mind has wandered; pursue it, go into it fully. When the distraction is completely understood, then that particular distraction is gone. When another comes, pursue it also.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
It is very easy to conform to what your society or your parents and teachers tell you. That is a safe and easy way of existing; but that is not living...To live is to find out for yourself what is true...
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Is there a thinker apart from thought?
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Surely, life is not merely a job, an occupation; life is something extraordinarily wide and profound, it is a great mystery, a vast realm in which we function as human beings.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Have you ever sat very quietly with closed eyes and watched the movement of your own thinking? Have you watched your mind working?or rather, has your mind watched itself in operation, just to see what your thoughts are, what your feelings are, how you look at the trees, at the flowers, at the birds, at people, how you respond to a suggestion or react to a new idea? Have you ever done this?
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end - you don't come to an achievement, you don't come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
We never see anything completely. We never see a tree, we see the tree through the image that we have of it, the concept of that tree; but the concept, the knowledge, the experience, is entirely different from the actual tree.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Analysis does not transform consciousness.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
All authority of any kind, especially in the field of thought and understanding, is the most destructive, evil thing. Leaders destroy the followers and followers destroy the leaders. You have to be your own teacher and your own disciple. You have to question everything that man has accepted as valuable, as necessary.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments – and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely - the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears- when you give your whole attention to it.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
If you find out what it is you love to do and give your whole life to it, then there is no contradiction, and in that state your being is your doing.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn't merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
A mind that is always comparing, always measuring, will always engender illusion. If I am measuring myself against you, who are clever, more intelligent, I am struggling to be like you and I am denying myself as I am. I am creating an illusion.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
You yourself are the Teacher, and the Pupil, you're the Master, you're the Guru, you are the Leader, you are Everything! And, to understand, is to transform what Is.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
When the mind goes beyond the thought of 'the me,' the experiencer, the observer, the thinker, then there is a possibility of a happiness that is incorruptible.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
In our relationship with children and young people, we are not dealing with mechanical devices that can be quickly repaired, but with living beings who are impressionable, volatile, sensitive, afraid, affectionate; and to deal with them we have to have great understanding, the strength of patience and love.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
Free yourself from the psychological structure of society, which is to free yourself from the essence of conflict.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti -
When I understand myself, I understand you, and out of that understanding comes love. Love is the missing factor; there is a lack of affection, of warmth in relationship; and because we lack that love, that tenderness, that generosity, that mercy in relationship, we escape into mass action which produces further confusion, further misery. We fill our hearts with blueprints for world reform and do not look to that one resolving factor which is love.
-- Jiddu Krishnamurti
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