9 Quotes & Sayings By Krishnamurti

Born in India in 1895, Jiddu Krishnamurti was the youngest child of a wealthy family. At the age of fourteen he became disillusioned with orthodox, religious thought and began questioning his own life and the world around him. He went on to study philosophy at Cambridge University, and at twenty-seven became a schoolteacher in England. In 1930 he began delivering a series of "discourses" which were broadcast worldwide; these discourses, in which he questioned many of the most fundamental assumptions of modern civilization and challenged people to think for themselves in an attempt to awaken them from their sleepwalking in the face of life's challenges, set him on the road to what has been called "the greatest revolution in mental health" since psychoanalysis.

1
The right kind of education consists in understanding the child as he is without imposing upon him an ideal of what we think he should be. To enclose him in the framework of an ideal is to encourage him to conform, which breeds fear and produces in him a constant conflict between what he is and what he should be; and all inward conflicts have their outward manifestations in society. Krishnamurti
Systems, whether educational or political, are not changed mysteriously; they...
2
Systems, whether educational or political, are not changed mysteriously; they are transformed when there is a fundamental change in ourselves. Krishnamurti
3
... it must be a complete harmonious whole that is attentive. That is attention. Does the mind attend with such complete attention to the activity of the monkey? - not condemning it, not saying 'This is right or wrong', just watching the tricks of the monkey. In this watching there is no analysis... The moment it analyses one of the fragments, the monkey is in operation. Krishnamurti
4
Meditation is to find out whether the brain, with all its activities, all its experiences, can be absolutely quiet. Not forced, because the moment you force, there again is duality, the entity that says, 'I would like to have marvellous experiences, therefore I must force my brain to be quiet' - you will never do it. But if you begin to inquire, watch, observe, listen to all the movements of thought, its conditioning, its pursuits, its fears, its pleasures, watch how the brain operates, then you will see that the brain becomes extraordinarily quiet; that quietness is not sleep but is tremendously active and therefore quiet. Krishnamurti
5
If you see that you are a bundle of memories and words, the restless monkey comes to an end. Krishnamurti
6
... it is because we have acquired technical knowledge without understanding the total process of life that technology has become a means of destroying ourselves Krishnamurti
7
The young... are full of hope and discontent... And the old are those who were once discontented, but who have successfully smothered that flame and have found security and comfort in various ways. Krishnamurti
8
So what is it that you are doing - seeking security in your restlessness? The desire to be secure is one of the most curious things. And that security must be recognized by the world; I don't know whether you see this. I write a book and in the book I find my security. But that book must be recognized by the world, otherwise there is no security. So look what I've done - my security lies in the opinion of the world!. . So it means I am deceiving myself constantly. Krishnamurti