Krishnamurti & the Art of Awakening

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Krishnamurti Quote of the Day

Ojai, California | 1st Public Talk 16th June, 1934

Each one has to find out for what he is searching; if he is not searching, then there is satisfaction and decay. If there is conflict, there is the desire to overcome that conflict, to escape from that conflict, to dominate it. And as I have said, conflict can exist only between two false things, between that supposed reality which you call the "I", which to me is nothing else but the result of environment, and the environment itself. And hence if your mind is merely concerned with the overcoming of that struggle, then you are perpetuating falseness, and hence there is more conflict, more sorrow. But if you understand the significance of environment, that is, wealth, poverty, exploitation, oppression, nationalities, religions, and all the inanities of social life in modern existence, not trying to overcome them but seeing their significance, then there must be individual action, and complete revolution of ideas and thought. Then there is no longer a struggle, but rather light dispelling darkness. There is no conflict between light and darkness. There is no conflict between truth and that which is false. There is only conflict where there are opposites.

Tags: conflict, opposites

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Heaven knows, we have conflicts all day long, but we have trained our mind to be cunning, and so pass over these conflicts lightly, escape from them.
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If you look into your lives, you will see that conflict is continually twisting, perverting, shaping your lives;
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Some people believe that the "I" has had a birth in the distant past and will continue in the future. It is irrelevant to me, it has no significance at all.
You know we have lost all sense of living normally, simply, directly.
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In times of peace and quietness, there takes place a gradual change of values, mostly unconscious, and this change, this gradual change, we term the struggle between the old and the young.
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The turmoil, the end, and the "you" are the same; there is no division.
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Conflict strengthens self-protective capacities, conflict is the substance on which the self thrives.
Is not liberation from the cause of conflict and sorrow the primary issue?
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There is no end to conflict and sorrow in becoming.
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Questioner: Are we worms which must turn into butterflies?
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Our whole existence is this, fighting evil by evil means, but saying, 'Well, I am not evil,' as though we are extraordinarily righteous.
You are moving from 'what you are' to 'what you want to be' as the opposite of 'what you are', with a motive for profit.
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If good is the opposite of bad, goodness contains the bad because goodness is the result of its opposite, the bad.
Humility is an idea, not an actuality. The actual is the arrogance, the other is not, but I would like to become that other.
If I want to understand what is, I must give my whole attention, my whole being to it and not be distracted by the opposites.
The 'I' is the result of this pursuing and denying, and it is therefore a contradiction.
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In 'becoming' there is always the dual; in 'being' there is no duality.
Righteousness is a process of self-enclosure.
After all, war is a projection of our daily life - only more spectacular and more destructive.
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What is the inner cause of the internal authority that you create for yourself?
Your action is always finite, always in terms of achievement, and hence that emptiness which you feel will always exist.
Why do you cling to the ideal of freedom when you are in a prison?
You look at the problem from the point of view of getting rid of something, of acquiring non-acquisition, which is essentially the same thing as desiring to acquire something, since all opposites are the same.
Want creates duality in thought, and when one want creates suffering the mind seeks the opposite of that want.
You are this and you want to be that; you are ignorant and you want to be enlightened; you are arrogant and you want to be humble.
Should you not question it to find out the reason for this conflict, this ceaseless battle till you die and to be still wanting to continue after death?
Our whole existence is this, fighting evil by evil means, but saying, 'Well, I am not evil,' as though we are extraordinarily righteous.
You are moving from 'what you are' to 'what you want to be' as the opposite of 'what you are', with a motive for profit.
Is life meant to be a series of conflicts in the corridor of opposites or is our approach to the problem of the opposites wrong?
If good is the opposite of bad, goodness contains the bad because goodness is the result of its opposite, the bad.
Humility is an idea, not an actuality. The actual is the arrogance, the other is not, but I would like to become that other.
The problem of duality, which your sacred books have said you must transcend, which all your life you have struggled to transcend but in which you are still caught, seems to me, fallacious.