Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

by J. Krishnamurti

The good is not the opposite of the evil. It has never been touched by that which is evil, though it is surrounded by it. Evil cannot hurt the good but the good may appear to do harm and so evil gets more cunning, more mischievous. It can be cultivated, sharpened, expansively violent; it is born within the movement of time, nurtured and skillfully used. But goodness is not of time; it can in no way be cultivated or nurtured by thought; its action is not visible; it has no cause and so no effect. Evil cannot become good, for that which is good is not the product of thought; it lies beyond thought, like beauty. The thing that thought produces thought can undo, but it is not the good; as it is not of time, the good has no abiding place. Where the good is, there is order, not the order of authority, punishment, and reward; this order is essential, for otherwise society destroys itself and man becomes evil, murderous, corrupt, and degenerate. For man is society; they are inseparable. The law of the good is everlasting, unchanging and timeless. Stability is its nature and so it is utterly secure. There is no other security.