Have
you ever sat very quietly without any movement? You try it, sit really
still, with your back straight, and observe what your mind is doing.
Don't try to control it, don't say it should not jump from one thought
to another, from one interest to another, but just be aware of how your
mind is jumping. Don't do anything about it, but watch it as from the
banks of a river you watch the water flow by. In the flowing river there
are so many things - fishes, leaves, dead animals - but it is always
living, moving, and your mind is like that. It is everlastingly
restless, flitting from one thing to another like a butterfly.
When you listen to a song, how do you listen to it? You may like the
person who is singing, he may have a nice face, and you may follow the
meaning of the words; but behind all that, when you listen to a song,
you are listening to the tones and to the silence between the tones, are
you not? In the same way, try sitting very quietly without fidgeting,
without moving your hands or even your toes, and just watch your mind.
It is great fun. If you try it as fun, as an amusing thing, you will
find that the mind begins to settle down without any effort on your part
to control it. There is then no censor, no judge, no evaluator; and
when the mind is thus very quiet of itself, spontaneously still, you
will discover what it is to be gay. Do you know what gaiety is? It is
just to laugh, to take delight in anything or nothing, to know the joy
of living, smiling, looking straight into the face of another without
any sense of fear.
Have you ever really looked anybody in the face? Have you ever looked
into the face of your teacher, of your parent, of the big official, of
the servant, the poor coolie, and seen what happens? Most of us are
afraid to look directly into the face of an- other; and others don't
want us to look at them in that way, because they also are frightened.
Nobody wants to reveal himself; we are all on guard, hiding behind
various layers of misery, suffering, longing, hope, and there are very
few who can look you straight in the face and smile. And it is very
important to smile, to be happy; because, you see, without a song in
one's heart life becomes very dull. One may go from temple to temple,
from one husband or wife to another, or one may find a new teacher or
guru; but if there is not this inward joy, life has very little meaning.
And to find this inward joy is not easy, because most of us are only
superficially discontented.
Do you know what it means to be discontented? It is very difficult to
understand discontent, because most of us canalize discontent in a
certain direction and thereby smother it. That is, our only concern is
to establish ourselves in a secure position with well-established
interests and prestige, so as not to be disturbed. It happens in homes
and in schools too. The teachers don't want to be disturbed, and that is
why they follow the old routine; because the moment one is really
discontented and begins to inquire, to question, there is bound to be
disturbance. But it is only through real discontent that one has
initiative.
Do you know what initiative is? You have initiative when you initiate
or start something without being prompted. It need not be anything very
great or extraordinary - that may come later; but there is the spark of
initiative when you plant a tree on your own, when you are
spontaneously kind, when you smile at a man who is carrying a heavy
load, when you remove a stone from the path, or pat an animal along the
way. That is a small beginning of the tremendous initiative you must
have if you are to know this extraordinary thing called creativeness.
Creativeness has its roots in the initiative which comes into being only
when there is deep discontent.
Don't be afraid of discontent, but give it nourishment until the
spark becomes a flame and you are everlastingly discontented with
everything - with your jobs, with your families, with the traditional
pursuit of money, position, power - so that you really begin to think,
to discover. But as you grow older you will find that to maintain this
spirit of discontent is very difficult. You have children to provide for
and the demands of your job to consider; the opinion of your
neighbours, of society closing in upon you, and soon you begin to lose
this burning flame of discontent. When you feel discontented you turn on
the radio, you go to a guru, do puja, join a club, drink, run after
women - anything to smother the flame. But, you see, without this flame
of discontent you will never have the initiative which is the beginning
of creativeness. To find out what is true you must be in revolt against
the established order; but the more money your parents have and the more
secure your teachers are in their jobs, the less they want you to
revolt.
Creativeness is not merely a matter of painting pictures or writing
poems, which is good to do, but which is very little in itself. What is
important is to be wholly discontented, for such total discontent is the
beginning of the initiative which becomes creative as it matures; and
that is the only way to find out what is truth, what is God, because the
creative state is God.
So one must have this total discontent - but with joy. Do you
understand? One must be wholly discontented, not complainingly, but with
joy, with gaiety, with love. Most people who are discontented are
terrible bores; they are always complaining that something or other is
not right, or wishing they were in a better position, or wanting
circumstances to be different, because their discontent is very
superficial. And those who are not discontented at all are already dead.
If you can be in revolt while you are young, and as you grow older
keep your discontent alive with the vitality of joy and great affection,
then that flame of discontent will have an extraordinary significance
because it will build, it will create, it will bring new things into
being. For this you must have the right kind of education, which is not
the kind that merely prepares you to get a job or to climb the ladder of
success, but the education that helps you to think and gives you space -
space, not in the form of a larger bedroom or a higher roof, but space
for your mind to grow so that it is not bound by any belief, by any
fear.
Questioner: Discontent prevents clear thinking. How are we to overcome this obstacle?
Krishnamurti: I don't think you can have listened to what I was
saying; probably you were concerned with your question, worrying about
how you were going to put it. That is what you are all doing in
different ways. Each one has a preoccupation, and if what I say is not
what you want to hear you push it aside because your mind is occupied
with your own problem. If the questioner had listened to what was being
said, if he had really felt the inward nature of discontent, of gaiety,
of being creative, then I don't think he would have put this question.
Now, does discontent prevent clear thinking? And what is clear
thinking? is it possible to think very clearly if you want to get
something out of your thinking? If your mind is concerned with a result,
can you think very clearly? Or can you think very clearly only when you
are not seeking an end, a result, not trying to gain something?
And can you think clearly if you have a prejudice, a particular
belief - that is, if you think as a Hindu, a communist, or a Christian?
Surely, you can think very clearly only when your mind is not tethered
to a belief as a monkey might be tethered to a stake; you can think very
clearly only when you are not seeking a result; you can think very
clearly only when you have no prejudice - all of which means, really,
that you can think clearly, simply and directly only when your mind is
no longer pursuing any form of security and is therefore free of fear.
So, in one way, discontent does prevent clear thinking. When through
discontent you pursue a result, or when you seek to smother discontent
because your mind hates to be disturbed and wants at all costs to be
quiet, peaceful, then clear thinking is not possible. But if you are
discontented with everything - with your prejudice, with your beliefs,
with your fears - and are not seeking a result, then that very
discontent brings your thought into focus, not upon any particular
object or in any particular direction, but your whole thinking process
becomes very simple, direct and clear.
Young or old, most of us are discontented merely because we want
something - more knowledge, a better job, a finer car, a bigger salary.
Our discontent is based upon our desire for 'the more'. It is only
because we want something more that most of us are discontented. But I
am not talking about that kind of discontent. It is the desire for 'the
more' that prevents clear thinking. Whereas if we are discontented, not
because we want something, but without knowing what we want; if we are
dissatisfied with our jobs, with making money, with seeking position and
power, with tradition, with what we have and with what we might have;
if we are dissatisfied, not with anything in particular but with
everything, then I think we shall find that our discontent brings
clarity. When we don't accept or follow, but question, investigate,
penetrate, there is an insight out of which comes creativity, joy.
Questioner: What is self-knowledge, and how can we get it?
Krishnamurti: Do you see the mentality behind this question? I am not
speaking out of disrespect for the questioner, but let us look at the
mentality that asks, "How can I get it, for how much can I buy it? What
must I do, what sacrifice must I make, what discipline or meditation
must I practise in order to have it?" It is a machine-like, mediocre
mind which says, "I shall do this in order to get that". The so-called
religious people think in these terms; but self-knowledge is not come by
in this way. You cannot buy it through some effort or practice.
Self-knowledge comes when you observe yourself in your relationship with
your fellow students and your teachers, with all the people around you;
it comes when you observe the manner of another, his gestures, the way
he wears his clothes, the way he talks, his contempt or flattery and
your response; it comes when you watch everything in you and about you
and see yourself as you see your face in a mirror. When you look into
the mirror you see yourself as you are, don't you? You may wish your
head were a different shape, with a little more hair, and your face a
little less ugly; but the fact is there, clearly reflected in the
mirror, and you can't push it aside and say, "How beautiful I am!"
Now, if you can look into the mirror of relationship exactly as you
look into the ordinary mirror, then there is no end to self-knowledge.
it is like entering a fathomless ocean which has no shore. Most of us
want to reach an end, we want to be able to say, "I have arrived at
self-knowledge and I am happy; but it is not like that at all. If you
can look at yourself without condemning what you see, without comparing
yourself with somebody else, without wishing to be more beautiful or
more virtuous; if you can just observe what you are and move with it,
then you will find that it is possible to go infinitely far. Then there
is no end to the journey, and that is the mystery, the beauty of it.
Questioner: What is the soul? Krishnamurti: Our culture, our
civilization has invented the word 'soul' - civilization being the
collective desire and will of many people. Look at the Indian
civilization. Is it not the result of many people with their desires,
their wills? Any civilization is the outcome of what may be called the
collective will; and the collective will in this case has said that
there must be something more than the physical body which dies, decays,
something much greater, vaster, something indestructible immortal;
therefore it has established this idea of the soul. Now and then there
may have been one or two people who have discovered for themselves
something about this extraordinary thing called immortality, a state in
which there is no death, and then all the mediocre minds have said,
"Yes, that must be true, he must be right; and because they want
immortality they cling to the word 'soul'.
You also want to know if there is something more than mere physical
existence, do you not? This ceaseless round of going to an office,
working at something in which you have no vital interest, quarrelling,
being envious, bearing children, gossiping with your neighbour, uttering
useless words - you want to know if there is something more than all
this. The very word 'soul' embodies the idea of a state which is
indestructible, timeless, does it not? But, you see, you never find out
for yourself whether or not there is such a state. You don't say, "I am
not concerned with what Christ, Shankara, or anybody else has said, nor
with the dictates of tradition of so-called civilization; I am going to
find out for myself whether or not there is a state beyond the framework
of time". You don't revolt against what civilization or the collective
will has formulated; on the contrary, you accept it and say, "Yes, there
is a soul". You call that formulation one thing, another calls it
something else, and then you divide yourselves and become enemies over
your conflicting beliefs.
The man who really wants to find out whether or not there is a state
beyond the framework of time, must be free of civilization; that is, he
must be free of the collective will and stand alone. And this is an
essential part of education: to learn to stand alone so that you are not
caught either in the will of the many or in the will of one, and are
therefore capable of discovering for yourself what is true.
Don't depend on anybody. I or another may tell you there is a
timeless state, but what value has that for you? If you are hungry you
want to eat, and you don't want to be fed on mere words. What is
important is for you to find out for yourself. You can see that
everything about you is decaying, being destroyed. This so-called
civilization is no longer being held together by the collective will; it
is going to pieces. Life is challenging you from moment to moment, and
if you merely respond to the challenge from the groove of habit, which
is to respond in terms of acceptance, then your response has no
validity. You can find out whether or not there is a timeless state, a
state in which there is no movement of 'the more' or of 'the less', only
when you say, "I am not going to accept, I am going to investigate,
explore" - which means that you are not afraid to stand alone.
