Freedom from the Known

by J. Krishnamurti

It rests basically on the fact that we live in a time of growing human interdependence, whether it be the economy, financial markets, politics, pandemics, or climate change. Any major event in one of these areas has repercussions in all of them and has an impact worldwide.

Tragically, we seem not to feel deeply the significance of all of us sharing the same consciousness, the same basic challenges, travails and joys. And our failure to be alive to that shared consciousness is what brings

He invites us to challenge, question, test what he says and to judge for ourselves

MAN HAS THROUGHOUT the ages been seeking something beyond himself, beyond material welfare – something we call truth or God or reality, a timeless state – something that cannot be disturbed by circumstances, by thought or by human corruption.

we try to set a code of conduct according to the society in which we are brought up,

We look to someone to tell us what is right or wrong behaviour, what is right or wrong thought, and in following this pattern our conduct and our thinking become mechanical, our responses automatic. We can observe this very easily in ourselves.

We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment.

and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves; nothing original, pristine, clear.

Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living.

There is no guide, no teacher, no authority. There is only you – your relationship with others and with the world – there is nothing else.