Vinstant

Seeking implies duality

In seeking there are several things involved: there is the seeker and the thing that he seeks after. When the seeker finds what he thinks is truth, is God, is enlightenment, he must be able to recognize it. He must recognize it, right? Recognition implies previous knowledge, otherwise you cannot recognize. I cannot recognize you if I had not met you yesterday. Therefore when I say this is truth, I have already known it and therefore it is not truth. So a man who is seeking truth lives a life of hypocrisy, because his truth is the projection of his memory, of his desire, of his intentions to find something other than “what is”, a formula. So seeking implies duality—the one who seeks and the thing sought after—and where there is duality there is conflict. There is wastage of energy. So you can never find it, you can never invite it.

J. Krishnamurti/Krishnamurti in India 1970-71, pp 157-158

There is really no such thing as what we call karma

Cause and effect are not two different things. The effect of today will be the cause of tomorrow. There is no cause, isolated, which produces an effect; they are interrelated. There is no such thing as a law of cause and effect, which means that there is really no such thing as what we call karma. To us, karma means a result with a previous cause, but in the interval between the effect and the cause there has been time. In that time there has been a tremendous lot of change and therefore the effect is never the same. And the effect is going to produce another cause which will never be merely the result of the effect. Do not say, -I do not believe in karma- that is not the point at all. Karma means, very simply, action and the result, with its further cause. Sow a mango seed and it is bound to produce a mango tree; but the human mind is not like that. The human mind is capable of transformation within itself, immediate comprehension, which is a breaking away from the cause, always.

J Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol XI, p 90

Only when one is as nothing

Question: You often speak of living, experiencing, and yet being as nothing. What is this state of consciously being as nothing? Has this anything to do with humility, being open to the grace of God?

Krishnamurti: To be consciously anything is not to be free. If I am conscious that I am non-greedy, beyond anger, surely I am not free from greed, anger. Humility is something of which you cannot be conscious. To cultivate humility is to cultivate self-expansion negatively. Therefore any virtue that is deliberately cultivated, practised, lived, is obviously not virtue. It is a form of resistance; it is a form of self-expansion, which has its own gratification. But it is no longer virtue. Virtue is merely a freedom in which you discover the real. Without virtue, there can be no freedom. Virtue is not an end in itself. Now, it is not possible by deliberate, conscious effort to be as nothing, because then it is another achievement. Innocence is not the result of careful cultivation. To be as nothing is essential. As a cup is useful only when it is empty, so only when one is as nothing is it possible to receive the grace of God, or Truth, or what you will.

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol V, p 301

Establish right relationship with man first

You will never find it if you seek it. You will never find it if you run after it. You will never find it if your intention is in seeing the beauty of the earth, in seeing the light on the water, in seeing the perfect line of a mountain, and you hope through seeing, to find that. You will never find it because you cannot find that through anything, through your sacrifice, through your worship, through your meditation, through your virtue. You will never come upon it because your motive is all wrong, because you want to find that, not in living, but somewhere else.

  You must establish right relationship with man first, which means you must know what it means to love, what it means to be compassionate, what it means to be generous when you have a great deal, what it means to share with another the little that you have, to establish this marvellous order in living, daily living.

J. Krishnamurti/Krishnamurti in India 1970-71, p157

Man exists for only one purpose

Students as well as teachers must work together to bring about the release of this tremendous energy to find reality, God or truth. Your parents and teachers, like the rest of society, have not perceived that man exists for only one purpose, which is to find reality or God. If even a small group of educators were to understand and give their whole attention to that search, they would create a new kind of education and a different society altogether.

J. Krishnamurti/This Matter of Culture, p.188

That is true spirituality

The search for God, for truth, the feeling of being completely good—not the cultivation of goodness, of humility, but the seeking out of something beyond the inventions and tricks of the mind, which means having a feeling for that something, living in it, being it- is true spirituality. But you can do that only when you leave the pool you have dug for yourself and go out into the river of life. Then life has an astonishing way of taking care of you, because there is no taking care on your part. Life carries you where it will because you are part of itself.

J. Krishnamurti/This Matter of Culture, p.128

The urge to find out what God is

The urge to find out what truth is, what God is, is the only real urge, and all other urges are subsidiary. When you throw a stone into still water, it makes expanding circles. The expanding circles are the subsidiary movements, the social reactions, but the real movement is at the centre, which is the movement to find happiness, God, truth.

J. Krishnamurti/This Matter of Culture, p 84

Self-knowledge and God

Through self-knowledge you begin to find out what is God, what is truth, what is that state which is timeless.

J. Krishnamurti/This Matter of Culture, p 112

Is there any other kind of prayer?

Why do you pray? And what is prayer? Most prayer is merely a petitioning, an asking. You indulge in this kind of prayer when you suffer. When you feel all alone, when you are depressed and in sorrow, you ask God for help; so what you call prayer is a petition. The form of prayer may vary, but the intent behind it is generally the same. Prayer, with most people, is a  petition, a begging, an asking. Are you doing that? Why do you pray? I am not saying that you should or should not pray. But why do you pray? Is it for more knowledge, for more peace? Do you pray that the world may be free from sorrow? Is there any other kind of prayer? There is prayer which is really not a prayer, but the sending out of goodwill, the sending out of love, the sending out of ideas. What is it you are doing?

When you pray, generally you are asking God, or some saint, to fill your empty bowl, are you not? You are not satisfied with what happens, with what is given, but you want your bowl filled according to your wishes. So your prayer is merely a petition, it is a demand that you should be satisfied, therefore it is not prayer at all. You say to God, “I am suffering, please gratify me; please give me back my brother, my son. please make me rich.” You are perpetuating your own demands, and that is obviously not prayer.

J. Krishnamurti/Life Ahead, p 89

We create that which we call God

At the present time, when there is greater and greater insecurity outwardly, there is obviously a yearning for inward security. Since we cannot find security outside, we seek it in an idea, in thought, and so we create that which we call God, and that concept becomes our security. Now, a mind that seeks security surely cannot find the real, the true. To understand that which is beyond time, the fabrications of thought must come to an end. Thought cannot exist without words, symbols, images, and only when the mind is quiet, free of its own creations, is there a possibility of finding out what is real. So merely to ask if there is or is not God is an immature response to the problem, is it not? And to formulate opinions about God is really childish.

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol, VI, p 20