The Book of Life: Daily Meditations with Krishnamurti

by J. Krishnamurti

Having already done everything possible to find the answer, the mind becomes spontaneously quiet.

There is an awareness without choice, without any demand, an awareness in which there is no anxiety; and in that state of mind there is perception. It is this perception alone that will resolve all our problems.

In the beginning is the seed of the ending of that which we call sorrow. The ending of sorrow is realized in sorrow itself, not away from sorrow.

To move away from sorrow is merely to find an answer, a conclusion, an escape; but sorrow continues.

The mind can only be silent when it has understood the process of time and that requires watchfulness,

A mind that is free from something is not a free mind; such freedom, the freedom from something, is only a reaction, and it is not freedom.

the mind is free when it understands the fact, as it is, without translating, without condemning, without judging; and being free, such a mind is an innocent mind, though it lived 100 days, 100 years, having all the experiences.

If you are aware of this process going on, if you actually perceive the narrowness of the spirit, the increasing slavery of the mind, then you will find that out of perception comes energy; and it is this energy born of perception that is going to shatter the petty mind, the respectable mind, the mind that goes to the temple, the mind that is afraid. So perception is the way of truth.

If the mind is crooked you will never see straight; if the mind is very limited you cannot perceive the illimitable.

The mind is so burdened with innumerable experiences and memories, so marred and scarred with sorrow that it cannot see anything freshly, but is always translating what it sees in terms of its own memories, conclusions, formulas, always quoting;

So, what is happening is that through pressure, through stress, through strain, our minds are being crowded, drowned by influence, by sorrow, consciously or unconsciously…. We are wearing down the mind, not using it.

It is only when the old brain, which is our conditioned brain, our animalistic brain, the brain that has been cultivated through centuries of time, which is everlastingly seeking its own security, its own comfort—it is only when that old brain is quiet that you will see that there is a different kind of movement altogether, and it is this movement that is going to bring clarity.

It is this movement that is clarity itself.

To understand, you must understand the old brain, be aware of it, know all its movements, its activities, its demands, its pursuits, and th...

By meditation I mean to understand the operations of the old brain, to watch it, to know how it reacts, what its responses are, its tendencies, its demands, its aggressive pursuits—to know the whole of that, the unconscious as well as the conscious part of it.

I think constant endeavor to be something, to become something, is the real cause of the destructiveness and the aging of the mind.

the old mind is so full of the scars of memories that it cannot live, it cannot be earnest; it is a dead mind, a decided mind.

a young mind is always deciding anew, and a fresh mind does not burden itself with innumerable memories.

A mind that carries no shadow of suffering, though it may pass through the valley of sor...

You need a new mind, a mind that is free of time, a mind that no longer thinks in terms of distance or space, a mind that has no horizon, a mind that has no anchorage or haven.

those values, those concepts, those beliefs are the result of what you have been told, or are the result of your reactions to what you have been told; so, unconsciously, you say, This is my experience!

Don't gaslight yourself; notice

So long as there is a struggle, conflict, the change is merely enforced, and there is no understanding; and therefore it is no longer a change at all.

You must come to something new with a fresh mind, and a mind is not fresh when it is occupied, consciously or unconsciously.

the mind that wishes to be fundamentally, deeply, in a state of change, in a state of revolution, must be free from the known.

There is only renunciation when you drop something not knowing what is going to happen. That state of negation is completely necessary.

if you have gone so far you will see that in that state of negation you discover what is true; because negation is the emptying of consciousness of the known.

to fathom the actual nature of change without a motive is quite extraordinary.

A radical change can take place only outside the field of thought, not within it, and the mind can leave the field only when it sees the confines, the boundaries of the field, and realizes that any change within the field is no change at all. This is real meditation.

A change is possible only from the known to the unknown, not from the known to the known.

Change, revolution, is something from the known to the unknown, in which there is no authority, in which there may be total failure.

Live out the question

can there be change at all? We go back to a period when we were young, and that comes back to us again. Is there change at all in human beings? Have you changed at all?

Perhaps there has been a modification on the periphery, but deeply, radically, have you changed?

So one then asks oneself if there is change at all. Can a human being change?

can I look without any motive? Can my mind exist without any incentive, without any motive to change or not to change?

Motives arise by themselves when I look: reactions of intolerance, pain, past injustices; and reactions to those same reactions follow, too. The last are the most painful. Perhaps i have a reason to be intolerant. Yet it's what keeps me stuck. I have the answer, but it's no answer at all.

This constant battle within, which is so destructive, so deteriorating—it is your problem, is it not?

Yes, it is.

You are not trying to understand me or the way I look at life. You are trying to understand yourself, and these are your problems which you have to face; and by considering them together, which is what we are doing in these talks, we can perhaps help each other to look at them more clearly, see them more distinctly.

to see clearly merely at the verbal level is not enough. That does not bring about a creative psychological change. We must go beyond the words, beyond all symbols and their sensations

The mind can understand the present only if it does not compare, judge; the desire to alter or condemn the present without understanding it gives continuance to the past.

As each experience arises, live it out as fully and deeply as possible; think it out, feel it out extensively and profoundly; be aware of its pain and pleasure, of your judgments and identifications.

You know, it is good to hide your brilliance under a bushel, to be anonymous, to love what you are doing and not to show off. It is good to be kind without a name.

<3

You are just a creative human being living anonymously, and in that there is richness and great beauty.

<3

We are first class machines; we know how to operate most beautifully, but we do not love a living thing.

:(

I say the song is essential, the joy of singing is essential. When the joy is there, the technique can be built up from nothing; you will invent your own technique, you won’t have to study elocution or style. When you have, you see, and the very seeing of beauty is an art.

if we can know what it is to have the spirit of cooperation that comes into being with the understanding of the total process of the mind and in which there is freedom from the self, then there is a possibility of creating a new civilization, a totally different world in which there is no acquisitiveness, no envy, no comparison.

This is not a theoretical utopia but the actual state of the mind that is constantly inquiring and pursuing that which is true and blessed.

if you can clarify the confusion within yourself, then you will find what the purpose of life is; you will not have to ask, you will not have to look for it; all that you have to do is to be free from those causes that bring about confusion.

If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.

It is tradition, the accumulation of experience, the ashes of memory, that make the mind old. The mind that dies every day to the memories of yesterday, to all the joys and sorrows of the past—such a mind is fresh, innocent, it has no age;

psychological pain arises when I hold on to things that give me satisfaction, for then I am afraid of anyone or anything that may take them away from me.

beliefs help to prevent psychological pain, and that is why I am afraid of losing my beliefs,