Facing a World in Crisis. Part 4

~Jiddu Krishnamurti 

We have said how important it is that, seeing how inevitably corrupt the various types of religious, secular, and social organizations are, to belong to any of them not only prevents the unburdening of one’s conditioning but also prevents one from seeing things clearly. We have said that is important to be able to stand completely alone, not adhering any group or sect, following any teacher or guru, so that we can bring about quite a different kind of society. I do not know if you see the importance of or have an insight into this question, because most of us are very confused. There are so many demands and pressures that most of us lean on somebody—we want to be guided and told what to do. In ourselves we have no clarity, and of course there are those who say that they are very clear, in a state of enlightenment, or of freedom, and so on. And being uncertain ourselves, we more or less yield to their persuasion and so not only become more conditioned but accept a new form of conditioning. And if we are conditioned in this way, our mind inevitably becomes almost mechanical.

Please, as we have also said, we are sharing this thing together, thinking over these problems together and therefore understanding them together. It is not that I am telling you what to think or how to think, but rather that we together investigate, understand, have an insight into all these problems, so that you are very clear at the end of it. So that in that clarity you stand alone. Because one must bring about a totally different kind of society, a totally different kind of human being, and the more one sees what is happening in the world, the greater the demand for such a human being.

It is only the mind that is capable of standing alone—in the sense of not belonging to any group, any party, any community, any set of dogmas, beliefs, conclusions—that can be creative. So I think we have to go into the question of what it is to be creative, because if that is not clear we are apt to follow those things that make the mind more and more mechanical, dependent, and attached. So what is it to be creative? Because if you are not creative, you will inevitably be fragmented, accept authority, succumb to all the absurdities of escapes. I do not know what the word creative means to you. It is not, surely, creating some new kind of physical thing—a new invention, a new mode of speech, of painting, or of music. We are talking of a mind that is standing alone and therefore capable of being creative.

Facing a World in Crisis. Part 3

~Jiddu Krishnamurti

To stand alone in the world is one of the most difficult things: not to belong to any nation, except perhaps having a passport; not to belong to any ideology, any particular kind of activity of the left or right; not to repeat a single word that you yourself have not known, so that there is integrity. Because if you belong to any organization, any group, or follow any guru, anyone, you are not being honest. So, in a world that is so disorderly, divided, full of antagonism, bitterness, and falsehood, can you stand completely alone? Sorry, either you do this or you don’t. You can’t say, “Well, I do belong to a particular little group, but I am really free from all that.” You know, when there is no integrity, when there is no honesty and virtue, systems and organizations become tremendously important. Haven’t you noticed this? Then the organizations, systems, control the mind. But if the mind is really honest, straight, clear, then no system is required because it is totally virtuous. I wonder if you follow all this?

So we are faced with this problem: How is a mind that is so controlled, shaped by environment, conditioned by various influences, by the education that one has, by competition, aggression, violence, all that—how is such a mind to free itself, so that it is totally free and sane? Now, how would you, who are also very intellectual, who have read so much, solve this problem? Would you rely on someone else to solve it? That means on authority, right? Whether the authority of the analyst, the psychologist, the priest, or the authority of a savior, you know the whole business—would you put your faith, belief, in somebody else to solve this problem for you?

Facing a World in Crisis. Part 2

~Jiddu Krishnamurti

So there is this question: What is one to do, how is one to act? By a collective response, or by a response that comes from the freedom of a human being, and then in that freedom to act collectively? We must act collectively because great changes are demanded, but it is deep psychological revolution that is necessary, not mere physical revolution, not throwing bombs and killing thousands of people in the name of order, of a new society, in the name of peace. That there must be such a deep psychological revolution is not a dogmatic statement on the speaker’s part; it is what is demanded, it is what one observes to be necessary. Is that revolution to be brought about by collective action? That is, through different types of education, forcing the individual, the human being, through conditioning to behave properly? This is what is being done, and therefore denying total freedom to the human being, though it may bring about a collective action. Or is the revolution to free the mind from conditioning, and in that freedom to bring about a cooperative action? Am I making myself clear?

Facing a World in Crisis. Part 1

~Jiddu Krishnamurti

I wonder why you have come. Is it curiosity, or do you have problems you want someone else to solve, or are you seriously concerned about what is happening in the world and, being serious, desire earnestly to solve the appalling, frightening problems that surround us? So is it curiosity, or wanting your personal problems solved, or because you see the extraordinary events in the world—the sorrow, the violence, the division of nationalities, the political and religious divisions, and all the separative issues? One must, it seems to me, be very clear about this.

For my part, I want to say something very clearly and definitely. I have spoken for fifty years, all over the world, except in Russia and China, and in observing all these years the state of the world, the state of human beings and their relationships with each other, one sees very clearly that the problem is not only external but much more deeply inward. And without solving the complex, inward issues, merely to be concerned with the outward phenomena has very little significance. I feel, observing all this, that one must take a totally different action, enter into a totally different dimension, not belong to any organized religion, or any country, any political movement, be totally uncommitted so that one can look clearly, objectively, sanely at all the phenomena that are going on around us and within us.
If you are serious, and I hope you are, then we have a relationship with each other, otherwise we have none whatsoever. That is clear, isn’t it? If you and I are both serious about understanding this whole phenomenon of existence, not only outwardly but also much more deeply inwardly, and are totally concerned with the resolution of this problem, then you and I have a relationship; then we can move together, think together, share together. And sharing, thinking, investigating together, and therefore creating together, is communication.