Freedom from the Known - Jiddu Krishnamurti
Freedom from the Known
Krishnamurti shows how people can free themselves radically and immediately from the tyranny of the expected, no matter what their age--opening the door to transforming society and their relationships.
Chapter 1
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.
Man has always asked the question: what is it all about? Has life any meaning
at all? He sees the enormous confusion of life, the brutalities, the revolt, the wars,
the endless divisions of religion, ideology and nationality, and with a sense of
deep abiding frustration he asks, what is one to do, what is this thing we call
living, is there anything beyond it?
And not finding this nameless thing of a thousand names which he has always
sought, he has cultivated faith - faith in a saviour or an ideal - and faith invariably
breeds violence.
In this constant battle which we call living, we try to set a code of conduct
according to the society in which we are brought up, whether it be a Communist
society or a so-called free society; we accept a standard of behaviour as part of
our tradition as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or whatever we happen to be.
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.
For centuries we have been spoon-fed by our teachers, by our authorities, by
our books, our saints. We say, 'Tell me all about it - what lies beyond the hills and
the mountains and the earth?' and we are satisfied with their descriptions, which
means that we live on words and our life is shallow and empty. We are
secondhand people.
We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by
our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment. We are the result of all kinds of influences and there is nothing new
in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves; nothing original, pristine,
clear.
Throughout theological history we have been assured by religious leaders that
if we perform certain rituals, repeat certain prayers or mantras, conform to certain
patterns, suppress our desires, control our thoughts, sublimate our passions, limit
our appetites and refrain from sexual indulgence, we shall, after sufficient torture
of the mind and body, find something beyond this little life. And that is what
millions of so-called religious people have done through the ages, either in
isolation, going off into the desert or into the mountains or a cave or wandering
from village to village with a begging bowl, or, in a group, joining a monastery,
forcing their minds to conform to an established pattern. But a tortured mind, a
broken mind, a mind which wants to escape from all turmoil, which has denied
the outer world and been made dull through discipline and conformity - such a
mind, however long it seeks, will find only according to its own distortion.
So to discover whether there actually is or is not something beyond this
anxious, guilty, fearful, competitive existence, it seems to me that one must have
a completely different approach altogether.
The traditional approach is from the
periphery inwards, and through time, practice and renunciation, gradually to come
upon that inner flower, that inner beauty and love - in fact to do everything to
make oneself narrow, petty and shoddy; peel off little by little; take time; tomorrow
will do, next life will do - and when at last one comes to the centre one finds there
is nothing there, because one's mind has been made incapable, dull and
insensitive.
Having observed this process, one asks oneself, is there not a different
approach altogether - that is, is it not possible to explode from the centre?
The world accepts and follows the traditional approach. The primary cause of
disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another; we mechanically follow somebody who will assure us a comfortable spiritual life. It is
a most extraordinary thing that although most of us are opposed to political
tyranny and dictatorship, we inwardly accept the authority, the tyranny, of another
to twist our minds and our way of life. So if we completely reject, not intellectually
but actually, all so-called spiritual authority, all ceremonies, rituals and dogmas, it
means that we stand alone and are already in conflict with society; we cease to
be respectable human beings. A respectable human being cannot possibly come
near to that infinite, immeasurable, reality.
You have now started by denying something absolutely false - the traditional
approach - but if you deny it as a reaction you will have created another pattern in
which you will be trapped; if you tell yourself intellectually that this denial is a very
good idea but do nothing about it, you cannot go any further. If you deny it
however, because you understand the stupidity and immaturity of it, if you reject it
with tremendous intelligence, because you are free and not frightened, you will
create a great disturbance in yourself and around you but you will step out of the
trap of respectability. Then you will find that you are no longer seeking. That is
the first thing to learn - not to seek. When you seek you are really only window shopping.
The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality, or whatever
you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosophers or
saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself and that
is why you must know yourself. Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self. To
understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.
And what is yourself, the individual you? I think there is a difference between
the human being and the individual. The individual is a local entity, living in a
particular country, belonging to a particular culture, particular society, particular
religion. The human being is not a local entity. He is everywhere. If the individual
merely acts in a particular corner of the vast field of life, then his action is totally unrelated to the whole. So one has to bear in mind that we are talking of the
whole not the part, because in the greater the lesser is, but in the lesser the
greater is not. The individual is the little conditioned, miserable, frustrated entity,
satisfied with his little gods and his little traditions, whereas a human being is
concerned with the total welfare, the total misery and total confusion of the world.
We human beings are what we have been for millions of years - -colossally
greedy, envious, aggressive, jealous, anxious and despairing, with occasional
flashes of joy and affection. We are a strange mixture of hate, fear and
gentleness; we are both violence and peace. There has been outward progress
from the bullock cart to the jet plane but psychologically the individual has not
changed at all, and the structure of society throughout the world has been
created by individuals. The outward social structure is the result of the inward
psychological structure of our human relationships, for the individual is the result
of the total experience, knowledge and conduct of man. Each one of us is the
storehouse of all the past. The individual is the human who is all mankind. The
whole history of man is written in ourselves.
Do observe what is actually taking place within yourself and outside yourself in
the competitive culture in which you live with its desire for power, position,
prestige, name, success and all the rest of it - observe the achievements of which
you are so proud, this whole field you call living in which there is conflict in every
form of relationship, breeding hatred, antagonism, brutality and endless wars.
This field, this life, is all we know, and being unable to understand the enormous
battle of existence we are naturally afraid of it and find escape from it in all sorts
of subtle ways.
And we are frightened also of the unknown - frightened of death,
frightened of what lies beyond tomorrow. So we are afraid of the known and
afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and
therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theo- logical concept, is merely
an escape from the actual reality of what is. All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations,
laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man
and therefore of society. As human beings living in this monstrously ugly world,
let us ask ourselves, can this society, based on competition, brutality and fear,
come to an end? Not as an intellectual conception, not as a hope, but as an
actual fact, so that the mind is made fresh, new and innocent and can bring about
a different world altogether? It can only happen, I think, if each one of us
recognises the central fact that we, as individuals, as human beings, in whatever
part of the world we happen to live or whatever culture we happen to belong to,
are totally responsible for the whole state of the world.
We are each one of us responsible for every war because of the
aggressiveness of our own lives, because of our nationalism, our selfishness, our
gods, our prejudices, our ideals, all of which divide us. And only when we realize,
not intellectually but actually, as actually as we would recognise that we are
hungry or in pain, that you and I are responsible for all this existing chaos, for all
the misery throughout the entire world because we have contributed to it in our
daily lives and are part of this monstrous society with its wars, divisions, its
ugliness, brutality and greed - only then will we act.
But what can a human being do - what can you and I do - to create a
completely different society? We are asking ourselves a very serious question. Is
there anything to be done at all? What can we do? Will somebody tell us? People
have told us. The so-called spiritual leaders, who are supposed to understand
these things better than we do, have told us by trying to twist and mould us into a
new pattern, and that hasn't led us very far; sophisticated and learned men have
told us and that has led us no further. We have been told that all paths lead to
truth - you have your path as a Hindu and someone else has his path as a
Christian and another as a Muslim, and they all meet at the same door - which is,
when you look at it, so obviously absurd. Truth has no path, and that is the
beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static, but when you see that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place,
which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no
philosopher, nobody can lead you to - then you will also see that this living thing
is what you actually are - your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair,
the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and
you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life.
And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through
hopes and fears.
So you see that you cannot depend upon anybody. There is no guide, no
teacher, no authority. There is only you - your relationship with others and with
the world - there is nothing else. When you realize this, it either brings great
despair, from which comes cynicism and bitterness, or, in facing the fact that you
and nobody else is responsible for the world and for yourself, for what you think,
what you feel, how you act, all self-pity goes. Normally we thrive on blaming
others, which is a form of self-pity.
Can you and I, then, bring about in ourselves without any outside influence,
without any persuasion, without any fear of punishment - can we bring about in
the very essence of our being a total revolution, a psychological mutation, so that
we are no longer brutal, violent, competitive, anxious, fearful, greedy, envious
and all the rest of the manifestations of our nature which have built up the rotten
society in which we live our daily lives?
It is important to understand from the very beginning that I am not formulating
any philosophy or any theological structure of ideas or theological concepts. It
seems to me that all ideologies are utterly idiotic. What is important is not a
philosophy of life but to observe what is actually taking place in our daily life,
inwardly and outwardly. If you observe very closely what is taking place and
examine it, you will see that it is based on an intellectual conception, and the
intellect is not the whole field of existence; it is a fragment, and a fragment,
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however cleverly put together, however ancient and traditional, is still a small part
of existence whereas we have to deal with the totality of life.
And when we look at
what is taking place in the world we begin to understand that there is no outer
and inner process; there is only one unitary process, it is a whole, total
movement, the inner movement expressing itself as the outer and the outer
reacting again on the inner. To be able to look at this seems to me all that is
needed, because if we know how to look, then the whole thing becomes very
clear, and to look needs no philosophy, no teacher. Nobody need tell you how to
look. You just look.
Can you then, seeing this whole picture, seeing it not verbally but actually, can
you easily, spontaneously, transform yourself?
That is the real issue. Is it possible
to bring about a complete revolution in the psyche?
I wonder what your reaction is to such a question? You may say, 'I don't want
to change', and most people don't, especially those who are fairly secure socially
and economically or who hold dogmatic beliefs and are content to accept
themselves and things as they are or in a slightly modified form. With those
people we are not concerned. Or you may say more subtly, 'Well, it's too difficult,
it's not for me', in which case you will have already blocked yourself, you will have
ceased to enquire and it will be no use going any further. Or else you may say, 'I
see the necessity for a fundamental inward change in myself but how am I to
bring it about? Please show me the way, help me towards it.' If you say that, then
what you are concerned with is not change itself; you are not really interested in a
fundamental revolution: you are merely searching for a method, a system, to
bring about change.
If I were foolish enough to give you a system and if you were foolish enough to
follow it, you would merely be copying, imitating, conforming, accepting, and
when you do that you have set up in yourself the authority of another and hence
there is conflict between you and that authority. You feel you must do such and such a thing because you have been told to do it and yet you are incapable of
doing it. You have your own particular inclinations, tendencies and pressures
which conflict with the system you think you ought to follow and therefore there is
a contradiction. So you will lead a double life between the ideology of the system
and the actuality of your daily existence. In trying to conform to the ideology, you
suppress yourself - whereas what is actually true is not the ideology but what you
are. If you try to study yourself according to another you will always remain a
secondhand human being.
External Authority (Krishnamurti) = Philosophical Suicide (Camus)
A man who says, 'I want to change, tell me how to', seems very earnest, very
serious, but he is not. He wants an authority whom he hopes will bring about
order in himself. But can authority ever bring about inward order? Order imposed
from without must always breed disorder. You may see the truth of this
intellectually but can you actually apply it so that your mind no longer projects any
authority, the authority of a book, a teacher, a wife or husband, a parent, a friend
or of society? Because we have always functioned within the pattern of a formula,
the formula becomes the ideology and the authority; but the moment you really
see that the question, 'How can I change?' sets up a new authority, you have
finished with authority for ever.
Let us state it again clearly: I see that I must change completely from the roots
of my being; I can no longer depend on any tradition because tradition has
brought about this colossal laziness, acceptance and obedience; I cannot
possibly look to another to help me to change, not to any teacher, any God, any
belief, any system, any outside pressure or influence. What then takes place?
First of all, can you reject all authority? If you can it means that you are no
longer afraid. Then what happens? When you reject something false which you
have been carrying about with you for generations, when you throw off a burden
of any kind, what takes place? You have more energy, haven't you? You have
more capacity, more drive, greater intensity and vitality. If you do not feel this,
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then you have not thrown off the burden, you have not discarded the dead weight
of authority.
But when you have thrown it off and have this energy in which there is no fear
at all - no fear of making a mistake, no fear of doing right or wrong - then is not
that energy itself the mutation? We need a tremendous amount of energy and we
dissipate it through fear but when there is this energy which comes from throwing
off every form of fear, that energy itself produces the radical inward revolution.
You do not have to do a thing about it.
So you are left with yourself, and that is the actual state for a man to be who is
very serious about all this; and as you are no longer looking to anybody or
anything for help, you are already free to discover. And when there is freedom,
there is energy; and when there is freedom it can never do anything wrong.
Freedom is entirely different from revolt. There is no such thing as doing right or
wrong when there is freedom. You are free and from that centre you act. And
hence there is no fear, and a mind that has no fear is capable of great love. And
when there is love it can do what it will.
What we are now going to do, therefore, is to learn about ourselves, not
according to me or to some analyst or philosopher - because if we learn about
ourselves according to someone else, we learn about them, not ourselves - we
are going to learn what we actually are.
Having realized that we can depend on no outside authority in bringing about
a total revolution within the structure of our own psyche, there is the immensely
greater difficulty of rejecting our own inward authority, the authority of our own
particular little experiences and accumulated opinions, knowledge, ideas and
ideals. You had an experience yesterday which taught you something and what it
taught you becomes a new authority - and that authority of yesterday is as
destructive as the authority of a thousand years. To understand ourselves needs
no authority either of yesterday or of a thousand years because we are living
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things, always moving, flowing, never resting. When we look at ourselves with the
dead authority of yesterday, we will fail to understand the living movement and
the beauty and quality of that movement.
To be free of all authority, of your own and that of another, is to die to
everything of yesterday, so that your mind is always fresh, always young,
innocent, full of vigour and passion.
It is only in that state that one learns and
observes. And for this a great deal of awareness is required, actual awareness of
what is going on inside yourself, without correcting it or telling it what it should or
should not be, because the moment you correct it you have established another
authority, a censor.
So now we are going to investigate ourselves together - not one person
explaining while you read, agreeing or disagreeing with him as you follow the
words on the page, but taking a journey together, a journey of discovery into the
most secret corners of our minds. And to take such a journey we must travel light;
we cannot be burdened with opinions, prejudices and conclusions - all that old
furniture we have collected for the last two thousand years and more. Forget all
you know about yourself; forget all you have ever thought about yourself; we are
going to start as if we knew nothing.
It rained last night heavily, and now the skies are beginning to clear; it is a new
fresh day. Let us meet that fresh day as if it were the only day. Let us start on our
journey together with all the remembrance of yesterday left behind - and begin to
understand ourselves for the first time.
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