Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

by J. Krishnamurti

Tentative or permanent, a conclusion is already a bondage, is it not? Do, please, think with me a little. If one wants to find out whether there is such a thing as God, what generally happens? By reading certain books or listening to the arguments of some learned person, one is persuaded that there is God, or one becomes a communist and is persuaded that there isn’t. But if one wants to find out the truth of the matter, can one belong to either side? Must not one’s mind be free from all speculation, from all knowledge, all belief? Now, how is the mind to be free? Will the mind ever be free if it follows a method to be free? Can any method, any practice, any system, however noble, however new or tried out for centuries, make the mind free? Or does the method merely condition the mind in a particular way, which we then call freedom? The method will produce its own results, will it not? And when the mind seeks a result through a method, the result being freedom, will such a mind be free? Look, suppose one has a particular belief, a belief in God, or what you will. Must one not find out how that belief has come into being? This does not mean that you must not believe, but why do you believe? Why does the mind say, “This is so”? And can the mind discover how beliefs came into being? You see insecurity in everything about you, and you believe in a Master, in reincarnation, because that belief gives you hope, a sense of security, does it not? And can a mind that is seeking securi...