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Author A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Keyword A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z Proverbs A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W X Y Z |
Jiddu Krishnamurti 1895-1986, Indian mystic Happiness is a state of which you are unconscious, of which you are not aware. The moment you are aware that you are happy, you cease to be happy . . . You want to be consciously happy; the moment you are consciously happy, happiness is gone. Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion and hate, wars and class antagonisms. I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society. Meditation is not the means to an end. It is both the means and the end. Religion is the frozen thought of men out of which they build temples. 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. The function of education is to help you from childhood not to imitate anybody, but be yourself all the time. 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. There is an art of listening. To be able to really listen, one should abandon or put aside all prejudices, preformulations and daily activities... But unfortunately most of us listen through a screen of resistance. We are screened with prejudices, whether religious or spiritual, psychological or scientific; or with our daily worries, desires, and fears. And with these for a screen, we listen. Therefore, we listen really to our own noise, to our own sound, not to what is being said. It is extremely difficult to put aside our training, our prejudices, our inclination, our resistance, and reaching beyond the verbal expression, to listen so that we understand instantaneously. Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. We are, each one of us, responsible for every war because of the aggressiveness of our own lives, because of our nationalism, our selfishness, our gods, our prejudices, our ideals, all of which divide us. And only when we realize, not intellectually, but actually, as actually as we would recognize that we are hungry or in pain, that you and I are responsible for all this existing chaos, for all the misery throughout the entire world, because we have contributed to it in our daily lives, and as a part of this monstrous society with its wars, divisions, its ugliness, brutality and greed—only then will we act. 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. 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. Without freedom from the past, there is no freedom at all, because the mind is never new, fresh, innocent. |