Golden quote from J.Krsihnamurthi

Did you ever sit quietly with your back straight,
not moving,
just only cherishing the beauty of silence?

Jiddu Krishnamurti

A small thing which is directly useful in the Master's work is far better worth doing than a large thing which the world would call good. - Alcyone

Try to see what is worth doing: and remember that you must not judge by the size of the thing.

A small thing which is directly useful in the Master's work is far better worth doing than a large thing which the world would call good.

You must distinguish not only the useful from the useless, but the more useful from the less useful.

To feed the poor is a good and noble and useful work; yet to feed their souls is nobler and more useful than to feed their bodies.

Any rich man can feed the body, but only those who know can feed the soul. If you know, it is your duty to help others to know.

The more you are attached to the pain, the more intense it is. - J.Krishnamurthi

Questioner: I am thinking of people who are suffering physical illness. Can meditation bring about a process of healing?

Krishnamurti: Most of us have had pain of some kind - intense, superficial, or pain that cannot be cured. What effect has pain on the psyche, the brain or the mind? Can the mind meditate, disassociating itself from pain? Can the mind look at the physical pain and observe it without identifying itself with that pain? If it can observe without identifying itself then there is quite a different quality to that pain. I do not know if you have observed that if one has a toothache or stomach ache, one can somewhat disassociate oneself. One does not have to rush to the doctor or take some pill; one observes it with detachment, with a feeling of looking at it as though one was outside it. Surely that helps the pain, doesn't it? The more you are attached to the pain, the more intense it is. So that may help to bring about this healing, which is an important question and which can only take place when there is no `me', no ego or self-centred activity. Some people have a gift for it. Others come upon it because there is no ego functioning.

Love to Gossip. - We will listen to what J.Krishnamurthi has to say.

See what gossip does. It begins with evil thought, and that in itself is a crime. For in everyone and in everything there is good; in everyone and in everything there is evil. Either of these we can strengthen by thinking of it, and in this way we can help or hinder evolution; we can do the will of the Logos or we can resist Him.

If you think of the evil in another, you are doing at the same time three wicked things:

(1)  You are filling your neighbourhood with evil thought instead of with good thought, and so you are adding to the sorrow of the world.

(2)  If there is in that man the evil which you think, you are strengthening it and feeding it; and so you are making your brother worse instead of better. But generally the evil is not there, and you have only fancied it; and then your wicked thought tempts your brother to do wrong, for if he is not yet perfect you may make him that which you have thought him.

(3)  You fill your own mind with evil thoughts instead of good; and so you hinder your own growth, and make yourself, for those who can see, an ugly and painful object instead of a beautiful and lovable one.

Not content with having done all this harm to himself and to his victim, the gossip tries with all his might to make other men partners in his crime. Eagerly he tells his wicked tale to them, hoping that they will believe it; and then they join with him in pouring evil thought upon the poor sufferer. And this goes on day after day, and is done not by one man but by thousands. Do you begin to see how base, how terrible a sin this is? You must avoid it altogether. Never speak ill of any one; refuse to listen when any one else speaks ill of another, but gently say: "Perhaps this is not true, and even if it is, it is kinder not to speak of it”.

QUESTION: Emotions are strong. Our attachments are strong. How does looking and seeing reduce the strength and power of these emotions? J.Krishnamurti answers

Right? Can we go on with that question? Trying to control, suppress, sublimate emotions and attachments in no way reduces the conflict, does it? Clear? Are we generally aware of our emotions? Are we aware of our attachments, which say emotions are very strong, attachments are very strong, are we aware of that? Do you know that you are attached? Go on sirs, find out. Are you attached strongly? And are your emotions so extraordinarily strong that they act? So first one has to be conscious, aware, know, recognise, see that your emotions are strong. And know also, be aware, recognise that you are attached. If that is so, when you are so conscious, what takes place? Do you understand my question?

I am conscious of my attachment, or my strong emotions of hate, jealousy, antagonism, like and dislike, I am conscious of that - right? Are you? Please we are sharing this together. Now, do they, being so strong, overshadow, control my action? You understand? I am examining, looking, observing, the emotions and attachments which are apparently very strong, and they act as barriers to clear thinking, to clear action, to unconfused thinking. So am I aware of them? Or we take it for granted? You follow my question? Say, 'Yes, I have very strong emotions, I'm terribly attached, but it doesn't matter. That's part of life. I don't mind struggling. I don't mind having quarrels with everybody'. There is a lovely joke, but I won't go into it! (Laughter)

So are we aware of them? Now if you are aware, what takes place? Please examine yourself. You are attached. Are you aware that you are attached? Just aware. You know that you are attached to that person, or to that piece of furniture, or to a belief, to a dogma, you know all the rest of it, attached to something. Now when you say you are aware, what do you mean by that? Know, recognise. Is thought recognising the attachment? You follow? You say, 'Yes, I'm attached' - is it the activity of thought that says, 'I am attached'? - you follow? Go into this please with me. Take a few minutes. Pay attention. Please, sir, quiet.

When you say, 'I'm attached', is it an idea? Or is it a fact? The fact is not the idea. This microphone, I can create an idea of it, but that is a fact. I can touch, see - right? So is my attachment a concept? A conclusion? Or is it a fact that I am attached? You see the difference? Do you? Please. So, when you are observing the fact, not the idea, not the conclusion about the fact, but the fact and you are aware of it, is the fact different from you who are observing the fact? You are following all this? I hope your minds are all active. It is clear, isn't it? Am I observing the fact through an idea, or through a conclusion? Or I have heard somebody say that - you follow? - and therefore I look, which means I am looking through a screen of ideas. So I am not looking at the fact.

So I am looking now at the fact. I'm not verbalising the fact, I'm looking at it. How do I look at it? As something separate from me - you understand? Attachment, something different from me? Or that is part of me? Do you understand? Don't go to sleep, please. If you want to sleep, sleep, but if you are serious for a few minutes, see this fact. That is, am I looking as though it was something apart from me? The microphone is apart from me, but attachment, emotions are part of me. Attachment is the 'me'. If I have no attachment there is no 'me'. So awareness of your emotions and attachments are part of your nature, part of your structure. So you are looking at yourself, so there is no division, there is no duality, me and attachment. There is only attachment, not the word, but the fact, the feeling, the emotions, the possessions, the possessiveness in attachment. That's a fact. So that is me.

So what am I to do with the 'me'? You understand? Now please follow this step by step. If you get tired, or if you are distracted, be distracted, but come back. So when there was division between me and attachment I could do something about it - right? Do you follow this? I could control it, I could say, 'No, I mustn't be', or suppress it, or do something about it all the time - right? Which we do. But if it is me, what can I do? Wait, wait. Follow it closely. If it is me, what can I do? I can't do anything, can I? I can only observe. Do you see the difference? Before I acted upon it. Now I can't act upon it, because it is me, it is my arm, it is part of me. So all that I can do is to observe - right? So observation becomes all important, not what you do about it. You see the difference?

So there is observation, not I am observing. There is only observation. In that observation, if I begin to choose and say 'I mustn't be attached' - I've already moved away in saying that's not me. You understand all this? So in observation there is no choice, there is no direction, just pure absolute clear observation. Then the thing that is being observed dissolves. Before you resisted it, you controlled it, you suppressed it, you acted upon it. Now in that observation all energy is centred. It is only when there is the lack of energy there is attachment. I wonder if you see this? Do you see this?

That is, when there is complete observation without any interference of thought, because you are observing. Why should thought come in? You understand the point? You are just observing the fly - the thing that you call the fly - just observe. In the same way to observe so completely your emotions, attachments, then there is a gathering of all energy in that observation. Therefore there is no attachment. I explained very carefully, it's only the unintelligent that are attached. It's only the people who do not see the full implications of attachment that are attached. And they pervade the world, they are the stronger element in the world and we are caught in that. But when you begin to examine this closely, look at it, then you're no longer caught in that, so you are no longer dissipating energy in something which has no meaning, naturally. So your energy is now centred completely in observation, therefore there is total dissipation of attachment. Test it, do it and you will find out. But you have to go step by step, don't jump into something or other, you have to examine the thing very, very closely, so that your mind is absolutely clear in the observation - right? It is only the unaware that jump over the cliff. The moment you are aware of danger, move. Attachment is a danger because it breeds fear, anxiety, hate, jealousy, being possessed and being not possessed - the whole of that, that is a tremendous danger. And when you see danger you act - not you act - there is action.

J.Krishnamurti on the art of witnessing

It is extremely difficult to talk about this, to convey in words the thing that actually happens when you do not desire any particular change. After all, that is what we mean by integration, is it not? When you see the whole process of the mind, when you are aware of the various struggles, divisions, cleavages, and in the centre there is no movement to transform or to bring these cleavages together then the observer is essentially quiet. He does not wish to trans form anything, he is merely aware that these things are happening - which requires enormous patience, does it not? But most of us are so eager to change, to do something about ourselves; we are impatient for an end, for a result. When the mind is aware of its own activities, not only the conscious, but also the unconscious, then you do not have to examine the unconscious to bring the hidden things to the surface - they are there. But we do not know how to observe. And don't ask, "How am I to observe, what is the technique? "The moment you have a technique it is finished, you do not observe. The quietness of the centre comes only when you are aware of all this, and you see that you cannot do anything about it: it is so. As
long as the mind is active in its desire to transform itself, it can only be a model of its own projection; therefore there is no transformation. If you really see the truth of this, then there comes a state of mind which is not concerned with change at all - and therefore a change does take place.

As I said, this is a very difficult subject to talk about. It is more a question, not of verbal or so-called intellectual comprehension, but of feeling out for oneself how the activities of the mind do impede the radical change.K

The Masters work and our body - J.Krishnamurthi

Between the right and wrong it should not be difficult to choose, for those who wish to follow the Master
have already decided to take the right at all costs. But the body and the man are two, and the man's will is not always what the body wishes. When your body wishes something, stop and think whether you
really wish it. For you are God, and you will only what God wills; but you must dig deep down into
yourself to find the God within you, and listen to His voice, which is your voice. Do not mistake your
bodies for yourself-neither the physical body, nor the astral, nor the mental. Each one of them will
pretend to be the Self, in order to gain what it wants. But you must know them all, and know yourself as
their master.

When there is work that must be done, the physical body wants to rest, to go out walking, to eat and
drink; and the man who does not know says to himself: " I want to do these things, and I must do them."
But the man who knows says: "This that wants is not I, and it must wait awhile." Often when there is an
opportunity to help some one, the body feels: "How much trouble it will be for me; let some one else do
it." But the man replies to his body: "You shall not hinder me in doing good work."

The body is your animal- the horse upon which you ride. Therefore you must treat it well, and take good
care of it; you must not overwork it, you must feed it properly on pure food and drink only, and keep it
strictly clean always, even from the minutest speck of dirt. For without a perfectly clean and healthy body
you cannot do the arduous work of preparation, you cannot bear its ceaseless strain. But it must always
be you who controls that body, not it that controls you.

The astral body has its desires- dozens of them; it wants you to be angry, to say sharp words, to feel
jealous, to be greedy for money, to envy other people their possessions, to yield yourself to depression.
All these things it wants, and many more, not because it wishes to harm you, but because it likes violent
vibrations, and likes to change them constantly. But you want none of these things, and therefore you
must discriminate between your wants and your body's.

Your mental body wishes to think itself proudly separate, to think much of itself and little of others. Even
when you have turned it away from worldly things, it still tries to calculate for self, to make you think of
your own progress, instead of thinking of the Master's work and of helping others. When you meditate, it
will try to make you think of the many different things which it wants instead of the one thing which you
want. You are not this mind, but it is yours to use; so here again discrimination is necessary. You must
watch unceasingly, or you will fail.

Between right and wrong, Occultism knows no compromise. At whatever apparent cost, that which is
right you must do, that which is wrong you must not do, no matter what the ignorant may think or say.
You must study deeply the hidden laws of Nature, and when you know them arrange your life according
to them, using always reason and common sense.

You must discriminate between the important and the unimportant. Firm as a rock where right and wrong
are concerned, yield always to others in things which do not matter. For you must be always gentle and
kindly, reasonable and accommodating, leaving to others the same full liberty which you need for
yourself.

Try to see what is worth doing: and remember that you must not judge by the size of the thing. A small thing which is directly useful in the Master's work is far better worth doing than a large thing which the
world would call good. You must distinguish not only the useful from the useless, but the more useful
from the less useful. To feed the poor is a good and noble and useful work; yet to feed their souls is
nobler and more useful than to feed their bodies. Any rich man can feed the body, but only those who
know can feed the soul. If you know, it is your duty to help others to know.

Jiddu Krishnamurti - Supreme Intelligence - A talk with students - Part 1