Krishnamurti The Dignity of Living

The Collected Works of J Krishnamurti 1964 - 1965
1. Auflage 2022
ISBN: 978-1-912875-10-8
Verlag: Krishnamurti Foundation America
Format: EPUB
Kopierschutz: 0 - No protection

E-Book, Englisch, 145 Seiten

Is it possible to live without conflict? Perhaps this is a theoretical question, but it challenges the mind that is trained to accept conflict as a natural part of living. Ultimately, as Krishnamurti explains, the critical importance of that challenge is not to answer yes or no to the possibility of a life without conflict:  When you approach a problem, you start with the fact that there is conflict, and you begin to inquire whether it is possible to end it, neither accepting that it can be ended nor asserting that it cannot be ended. Your mind is then in a position to look at the fact; and that is what we must establish between us. An extensive compendium of Krishnamurti's talks and discussions in the USA, Europe, India, New Zealand, and South Africa from 1933 to 1967-the Collected Works have been carefully authenticated against existing transcripts and tapes. Each volume includes a frontispiece photograph of Krishnamurti , with question and subject indexes at the end. The content of each volume is not limited to the subject of the title, but rather offers a unique view of Krishnamurti's extraordinary teachings in selected years. The Collected Works offers the reader the opportunity to explore the early writings and dialogues in their most complete and authentic form.

JIDDU KRISHNAMURTI (18951986) is regarded internationally as one of the great educators and philosophers of our time. Born in South India, he was educated in England, and traveled the world, giving public talks, holding dia logues, writing, and founding schools until the end of his life at the age of ninety. He claimed allegiance to no caste, nationality, or religion and was bound by no tradition. Time magazine named Krishnamurti, along with Mother Teresa, 'one of the five saints of the 20th century,' and the Dalai Lama calls Krishnamurti 'one of the greatest thinkers of the age.' His teachings are published in 75 books, 700 audiocas settes, and 1200 videocassettes. Thus far, over 4,000,000 copies of his books have been sold in over thirty languages. The rejection of all spiritual and psychological authority, including his own, is a fundamental theme. He said human beings have to free themselves of fear, conditioning, authority, and dogma through selfknowledge. He suggested that this will bring about order and real psychological change. Our violent, conflictridden world cannot be transformed into a life of goodness, love, and compassion by any political, social, or economic strategies. It can be transformed only through mutation in individuals brought about through their own observation without any guru or organized religion. Krishnamurti's stature as an original philosopher attracted traditional and also creative people from all walks of life. Heads of state, eminent scientists, prominent leaders of the United Nations and various religious organizations, psychiatrists and psychologists, and university professors all engaged in dialogue with Krishnamurti. Students, teachers, and millions of people from all walks of life read his books and came to hear him speak. He bridged science and reli gion without the use of jargon, so scientists and lay people alike could understand his discussions of time, thought, insight, and death. During his lifetime, Krishnamurti established foundations in the United States, India, England, Canada, and Spain. Their defined role is the preservation and dissemination of the teachings, but without any authority to interpret or deify the teachings or the person. Krishnamurti also founded schools in India, England, and the United States. He envisioned that education should emphasize the understanding of the whole human being, mind and heart, not the mere acquisition of academic and intellectual skills. Education must be for learning skills in the art of living, not only the technology to make a living. Krishnamurti said, 'Surely a school is a place where one learns about the totality, the wholeness of life. Academic excellence is absolutely necessary, but a school includes much more than that. It is a place where both the teacher and the taught explore, not only the outer world, the world of knowledge, but also their own thinking, their behavior.' He said of his work, 'There is no belief demanded or asked, there are no followers, there are no cults, there is no persuasion of any kind, in any direction, and therefore only then we can meet on the same platform, on the same ground, at the same level. Then we can together observe the extraor dinary phenomena of human existence.'

Autoren/Hrsg.

Krishnamurti, J.

Leseproben

Bombay, India, 1965

First Talk in Bombay

I think most of us seek some kind of mystery beyond life; we want something mysterious, occult, hidden, beyond existence; and it seems to me that there is a great mystery and an extraordinary beauty in the way of life, in the way that we live that life. For most of us, living—that is, everyday living: going to the office, the dreary house, the petty quarrels, and the innumerable ambitions and trials of life—is a degradation; it is boring and tiresome. And so we try, I think, rather vainly to go beyond the very nature of existence, and to find something that will give us complete satisfaction, gratification. And so we never know how to live, we never seem to understand the whole depth, the beauty, and the dignity of living.

And during these talks it is the intention of the speaker not only to explore, if we can, verbally, rationally, and sanely, but also to penetrate, through the word, something that lies beyond the word.

To find the full significance of living, we must understand the daily tortures of our complex life; we cannot escape from them. The society in which we live has to be understood by each one of us—not by some philosopher, not by some teacher, not by a guru—and our way of living has to be transformed, completely changed. I think that is the most important thing we have to do, and nothing else. In the process of transformation, in the process of bringing about, without bargaining, a change in our life, there is beauty; and in that change we shall find for ourselves the great mystery that each mind is seeking. Therefore, we must concern ourselves not with what is beyond life, or what is life, or what is the purpose of life, but rather with the understanding of this complex existence of everyday life, because that is the foundation upon which we must build. And without understanding that, without bringing about a radical change in that, our society will always be in a state of corruption, and, therefore, we shall always be in a state of deterioration.

We are society; we are not independent of society. We are the result of the environment—of our religion, of our education, of the climate, of the food we eat, the reactions, the innumerable repetitive activities that we indulge in every day. That is our life. And the society in which we live is part of that life. Society is relationship between man and man. Society is cooperation. Society, as it is, is the result of man’s greed, hatred, ambition, competition, brutality, cruelty, ruthlessness—and we live in that pattern. And to understand it—not intellectually, not merely theoretically, but actually—we have to come into contact directly with that fact, which is, a human being—that is you—is the result of this social environment, its economic pressure, religious upbringing, and so on. To come into contact with anything directly is not to verbalize it but to look at it.

And, apparently, it is one of the most difficult things to do, to come directly into contact with the fact. There is the fact of that tree—the fact, but not what you think about the tree. What you think about the tree is not the fact, which is the tree. Please follow this. For most of us, fact is nonexistent. We live with ideas; we live with our memories, with our experiences; and in the shadow of those experiences and memories we approach the fact, and thereby transform the fact, or rather hope to transform, hope to change the fact. Whereas to look at the fact, in itself, brings about the energy that is necessary to transform that fact. We are going into this a little bit.

You know, we never look at things. We never look at the sky. We never look at the shape of a building or at our neighbor—what he looks like, what he thinks, what he feels—we never observe. We are too occupied with our own miseries, with our own worries; and we are so self-centered, so enclosed in our own problems that we never see anything. But to observe means to learn. It is only through learning that you can bring about a radical change. The very act of learning is the act of change. So to look, to observe, is the primary necessity of a religious man, not what he thinks, not what he feels, not what his reactions are. We will come later to those reactions, to those beliefs, to those environmental influences which condition the mind and distort what he observes.

I do not know whether you have looked at a sunset, or the quiet dignity of a tree, or the line of a bird on the wing. To look demands quiet; it demands a quality of the mind that is quiet, that is not incessantly chattering with itself. There must be a certain silence to observe. And you cannot have silence if your mind, when it is observing, is projecting its own ideas, its own demands, its hopes, its fears. So, to observe the social structure in which we live, and to bring about a radical change in that society, we must first observe what is, not what we want that society to be.

Because this society in which we live, we have created, we are responsible for it—each one of us. It has not come into being because of some fictitious, spiritual forces. It has come about through our greed, through our ambition, through our personal likes and dislikes and enmities, through our frustrations, through our search for pleasure and satisfaction. We have created the religions, the beliefs, the dogmas, out of fear. It is in that society that you live. Either you run away from that society because you cannot understand it, or cannot bring about a change in that society of which you are a part; or you become so completely engrossed in your own particular travail that you lose complete interest in the radical demand of a human mind that says that it must change.

So, existence is relationship, existence is a movement in relationship, and that existence is society. And we cannot possibly go beyond the limits of our mind, of our heart, unless we understand the structure of our own being, which is society. The society is not different from you-—you are society. The very structure of society is the structure of yourself. So when you begin to understand yourself, you are then beginning to understand the society in which you live. It is not opposed to society. So a religious man is concerned with the discovery of a new way of life, of living in this world, and bringing about a transformation in the society in which he lives, because by transforming himself, he transforms society. I think this is very important to understand.

Most of us are concerned with finding a way of living harmoniously, without too many conflicts, without the barrenness of modern existence. But without understanding existence, our life, there is no way out of our confusion, out of our misery, out of all the travail of man. I think that is the first thing to face. That is the fact. You have to face that fact objectively as you would face the fact of that palm tree; you have to look at it. Now, to look at a tree—you can easily do it because the tree does not interfere with your life. You can look at the lovely clouds full of life and gaiety and extraordinary vitality because it has no significance in your daily life. You can see the light on the water and enjoy the beauty, the quickness, the dance; and again that has no significance in your daily life. You can read all the sacred books in your country, quote them everlastingly; and again, that has no significance in your life.

And to understand the tree, the cloud, the light on the water, you must look. And when you do look, your mind must be empty to look. I do not know if you have ever looked at a flower—not casually, not in passing by—ever observed it. To observe a flower is as important as to observe yourself. Because in observing a flower, you begin to learn how to observe. While observing a flower, most people bring forth into that observation the naming. They say it is a rose, a violet, or a primrose; and thereby they have stopped looking. The verbalization of the fact is a distraction away from that fact.

But to observe demands a quiet, nonverbalizing mind, a mind that looks without opinion, without judgment. And that is one of the most difficult things to do—to look at an objective thing, nonverbally. You try, as you are sitting there, to look at that palm tree or to listen to the speaker objectively, putting aside your opinions, your ideas, the reputation of the speaker, and so on—to nonverbalize. Then you will find, if you do look, that your mind must be somewhat quiet; otherwise, you cannot see. If I look at that palm tree thinking of other things, I cannot possibly see the beauty, the stillness, the depth, the quality, the nature, the totality of the tree.

And to observe something totally, your mind must be completely empty to observe. And it is very difficult to observe things outwardly, if one has ever tried it. It is much more difficult to observe the social structure, the environmental influences, the state of your mind as part of your society. To observe—that requires enormous attention; and that is what we are going to learn during these talks—to learn, not to acquire knowledge.

There is a vast difference between learning and acquiring knowledge. Acquiring knowledge is mechanical. The computers, the electronic brains, are full of knowledge. Knowledge has been fed into these machines, as you have been fed from childhood to acquire knowledge. Knowledge is not merely book learning, but knowledge is experience, knowledge is memory. That is one thing—acquiring knowledge. Such knowledge in certain circumstances is necessary. But learning is something entirely different because the...