Think On These Things. ~J.K.

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"Is it the function of a teacher to be an example to the student? Are there not already enough examples, heroes, leaders, without adding another to the long list? Is example the way of education? Is it not the function of education to help the student to be free, to be creative? And is there freedom in imitation, in conformity, whether outward or inward? When the student is encouraged to follow an example, is not fear sustained in a deep and subtle form? If the teacher becomes an example, does not that very example mould and twist the life of the student, and are you not then encouraging the everlasting conflict between what he is and what he should be? Is it not the function of a teacher to help the student to understand what he is?"

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"When we lost touch with nature, with the universe, with the clouds, lakes and birds, when we lost touch with all that, the priests came in. Then the superstition, fears and exploitation began. The priest became the mediator between the human and the so-called divine."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"The whole tradition, both Buddhist, Hindu and Christian, every... all the religious and non-religious attitude is caught up in time, in evolution - I will be better, I will be good, I will eventually blossom in goodness."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"We are the society; we have built this society. Our parents and the parents before them have produced this structure, which is corrupt, and we are the product of that. You are the society, you are the world, and if we don’t change ourselves radically, really very, very deeply, there is no possibility of changing the social order. I think most of us don’t realise this."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"Conformity is death. It is but the formation of habit, the strengthening of the unconscious."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"I know the pursuit of gurus, teachers, guides, masters, is the indoor sport of many, the sport of the thoughtless all over the world. People say: How can we prevent this chaotic misery and cruelty, unless those who are free, the enlightened, come to our aid and save us from our sorrow? Or they create a mental image of a favoured saint and hang all their troubles round his neck. Or they believe that some super-physical guide watches over them and tells them what to do, how to act. The search for a guru, a master, indicates an avoidance of life."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"The organization of phrases, the cultivation of respect, is not culture, but a trap to hold the thoughtless. Our minds have become so slavish to habitual values that we have lost all affection and deep respect for human life. Where there is exploitation there can be no respect for human dignity. If you demand respect just because you are aged and have authority, it is exploitation."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"The showing of respect to the aged is generally a habit. Fear can assume the form of veneration. Love cannot become a habit, a practice. There is no respect in the aged for the young nor in the young for the aged, but only the show of authority and the habit of fear."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"Most young people don't feel secure because they are frightened. They are afraid of their elders, of their teachers, of their mothers and fathers, so they never really feel at home. But when you do feel at home, there happens a very strange thing. When you can go to your room, lock the door and be there by yourself unnoticed, with no one telling you what to do, you feel completely secure; and then you begin to flower, to understand, to unfold."

Jiddu Krisnamurti

[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

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

20 April 1982

"We have invented God. If God did exist and if he created us, he must be a pretty poor God. We have created him; the image that exists all over the world is the result of thought. Thought is not sacred; it is born of experience, knowledge and memory. There is nothing sacred in that; it is a material process."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"You have to find out for yourself what you are, how you think, what you think, what the causes of your distortions are; be aware of your prejudices and opinions."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"Politicians all over the world are only thinking in terms of their little country, which is tribalism, and are not thinking of humanity."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"There is no path to truth. Truth must be discovered, but there is no formula for its discovery. What is formulated is not true. You must set out on the uncharted sea, and the uncharted sea is yourself. You must set out to discover yourself, but not according to any plan or pattern, for then there is no discovery. Discovery brings joy – not the remembered, comparative joy, but joy that is ever new. Self-knowledge is the beginning of wisdom in whose tranquillity and silence there is the immeasurable."

Jiddu Krishnamurti

[jiddu-krishnamurti]

"Choice exists when there is confusion. A mind that sees clearly has no choice - it is doing."

Jiddu Krishnamurti