Total Freedom: The Essential Krishnamurti

by J. Krishnamurti

One realizes in observing that fear is not different from the observer. When the observer is the observed there is fundamental change in that which is observed. When there is division between the observer and the observed, in that division there is conflict. I say I must get rid of it, I must control it, or ask why should I not have fear, why should I not have neurotic actions out of those fears. There is always contradiction, division, and, therefore, conflict—which is a wastage of energy. It is a wastage of energy when there is conflict, trying to control, running away, going to somebody to tell me how to get rid of fear. All those are factors of wasting energy. If you don’t waste energy—and that only takes place when the observer is the observed—then you have that immense energy to transform what is. The very observation is the energy which transforms “that which is.” Get this, and then you will see that you are completely free from psychological fears. If you have listened with all your heart and your mind, then when you get up you are free of fear. That means you have listened. That means it is your problem and it is absolutely necessary to solve it, not tomorrow, but instantly. That is, when you perceive something, then you act instantly, and that perception is only possible when the perceiver is the perceived, because there you have total energy. Total observation is only possible when there is no observer—the observer being the past. When there is that total attent...