The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti

by J. Krishnamurti

Find out what is true and false in your environment with all its oppressions and its cruelties, and then you will find out what is true.”

“The story of mankind is in you, the vast experience, the deep-rooted fears, anxieties, sorrow, pleasure and all the beliefs that man has accumulated throughout the millennia. You are that book.”

Truth can be discovered by anyone, without the help of any authority and, as life is ever-present, in an instant.

Observing the depth and scope of our behavior, as it occurs in the moment, becomes the necessary action in transforming ourselves and our society.

“There is only the problem; there is no answer; for in the understanding of the problem lies its dissolution.”

The really important thing is for the mind to be so effortlessly aware that it is in a state of understanding all the time. If we don’t understand and merely listen to words, we invariably go away with a series of concepts or ideas, thereby establishing a pattern to which we then try to adjust ourselves in our daily or so-called spiritual lives.”

If you can listen in this way, listen with ease, without strain, you will find an extraordinary change taking place within you, a change that comes without your volition, without your asking; and in that change there is great beauty and depth of insight.

Listening has importance only when one is not projecting one’s own desires through which one listens. Can one put aside all these screens through which we listen, and really listen?

We listen with the various depths of our being, but our listening is always with a preconception or from a particular point of view. We do not listen simply; there is always the intervening screen of our own thoughts, conclusions, and prejudices…. To listen there must be an inward quietness, a freedom from the strain of acquiring, a relaxed attention.

only when you listen without the idea, without thought, that you are directly in contact; and being in contact, you will understand whether what he is saying is true or false; you do not have to discuss.

Listening itself is a complete act; the very act of listening brings its own freedom. But are you really concerned with listening, or with altering the turmoil within? If you would listen … in the sense of being aware of your conflicts and contradictions without forcing them into any particular pattern of thought, perhaps they might altogether cease.

It is only when you are resisting something, when you are putting up a barrier between yourself and that to which you do not want to listen—it is only then that there is a struggle.

if you say, “I see myself as I am, and there must be a change,” then you begin to work out of your own understanding—which is entirely different from applying what the speaker is saying….

if one can listen to something with all of one’s being, with vigor, with vitality, then the very act of listening is a liberative factor,

you only learn when you give your whole being to something.

For the discovery of truth there is no path….

Learning implies the love of understanding and the love of doing a thing for itself. Learning is possible only when there is no coercion of any kind. And coercion takes many forms, does it not?

Learning is never accumulative; it is a constant movement.

Wisdom is something that has to be discovered by each one, and it is not the result of knowledge.

learning about oneself, and accumulating knowledge about oneself, are two different things….

Learning is always in the active present; it has no past.

Authority prevents learning—learning that is not the accumulation of knowledge as memory.

A man who is burdened with knowledge, with instructions, who is weighted down by the things he has learned, is never free.

when there is the understanding of the whole process of conflict, there is the ending of conflict, there is abundance of energy. Then you can proceed, tearing down the house that you have built throughout the centuries and that has no meaning at all.

The "house", in this context, meaning the illusory edifice of authority.

you must be defenseless to love and have affection.

To understand all authority—of the gurus, of the Masters, and others—requires a very sharp mind, a clear brain, not a muddy brain, not a dull brain.

Can the mind be free from authority, which means free from fear, so that it is no longer capable of following?

virtue, ethics, is not a repetition of what is good. The moment it becomes mechanical, it ceases to be virtue. Virtue is something that must be from moment to moment, like humility.

The old mind is essentially the mind that is bound by authority.

the mind is always seeking—a place where it can be secure, undisturbed. Such authority may be the self-imposed authority of an idea

to find God you must completely destroy the fiction, because the old mind is the mind that is frightened, is ambitious, is fearful of death, of living, and of relationship; and it is always, consciously or unconsciously, seeking a permanency, security.

we must have extensive awareness and insight, we must be free, not at the end, but at the beginning.

What is important is not how to recognize one who is liberated but how to understand yourself. No authority here or hereafter can give you knowledge of yourself; without self-knowledge there is no liberation from ignorance, from sorrow.

this search for authority and its sequel, disillusionment, is a painful process for most of us.

We blame or criticize the once accepted authority, the leader, the teacher, but we do not examine our own craving for an authority who can direct our conduct. Once we understand this craving we shall comprehend the significance of doubt.

It is your own life, this seemingly endless conflict, that is significant, and not the pattern or the leader.

Be aware of conflict as it arises, abides, and fades away if there is a problem to be solved, solve it.

Is it possible for me not to rely on the authority of my own experience? Even when I have rejected all the outward expressions of authority—books, teachers, priests, churches, beliefs—I still have the feeling that at least I can rely on my own judgment, on my own experiences, on my own analysis. But can I rely on my experience, on my judgment, on my analysis?

I see reluctance to answer. a stuckness in reflection of a question. Feeling: warm glow in my chest Trust your experience. Remain aware of the source.

Can I rely for guidance, for hope, for the vision which will give me faith in my own judgment, which again is the result of accumulated memories, experiences, the conditioning of the past meeting the present? … Now, when I have put all these questions to myself and I am aware of this problem, I see there can only be one state in which reality, newness, can come into being, which brings about a revolution. That state is when the mind is completely empty of the past, when there is no analyzer, no experience, no judgment, no authority of any kind.

it would be a mistake, surely, to think that one can know oneself significantly, completely, fully, through isolation, through exclusion, or by going to some psychologist, or to some priest; or that one can learn self-knowledge through a book.

Part of me wishes meditation, journaling, and awareness were sufficient alone;-- it may be the part that was hurt in relationships. yes. Yes, it is. 23/01/24 that part also says: there is a way to learn anything, anywhere, any time, through any activity or idleness: and that is meditation

You discover yourself, not in isolation, not in withdrawal, but in relationship

to discover how you react, what your responses are, requires an extraordinary alertness of mind, a keenness of perception.

ego enticement: "extraordinary" awareness, potential for ego-driven-awareness; in other words: false awareness people who are aware of their ego don't talk about it what do they do? act, be

without knowing what you are, there is no basis for right thought, and without knowing yourself there cannot be transformation.

To know oneself as one is requires an extraordinary alertness of mind, because what is is constantly undergoing transformation, change; and to follow it swiftly the mind must not be tethered to any particular dogma or belief, to any particular pattern of action.

beliefs and ideals only give you a color, perverting true perception.

the understanding of what you are, without distortion, is the beginning of virtue. Virtue is essential, for it gives freedom.

Self-knowledge is the discovery from moment to moment of the ways of the self, its intentions and pursuit, its thoughts and appetites.

we would rather pursue a system that assures us of a result. But the pursuit of a system is invariably the outcome of our desire for security, for certainty, and the result is obviously not the understanding of oneself.

There is no way

Under the shelter of an authority, a guide, you may have temporarily a sense of security, a sense of well-being, but that is not the understanding of the total process of oneself.

It is only the simple mind that can understand the real, not the mind that is full of words, knowledge, information.

I mean by “self-knowing,” knowing every thought, every mood, every word, every feeling; knowing the activity of your mind