The transformation of the world is brought about by the transformation of oneself, because the self is the product and a part of the total process of human existence. To transform oneself, self-knowledge is essential; without knowing what you are, there is no basis for right thought, and without knowing yourself there cannot be transformation. One must know oneself as on is, not as on wishes to be, which is merely an ideal and there for fictitious, unreal; it is only that which is that can be transformed, not that which you wish to be. To know oneself as one is requires and extraordinary alertness of mind, because what is, is constantly undergoing transformation, change; and to follow it swiftly the mind must not be tethered to any particular dogma or belief, to any particular pattern of action. If you would follow anything, it is no good being tethered. To know yourself, there must be the awareness, the alertness of mind in which there is freedom from all beliefs, from all idealization, because beliefs and ideals only give you a color, perverting true perception. If you want to know what you are, you cannot imagine or have belief in something which you are not. If I am greedy, envious, violent, merely having an ideal of non-violence, of non-greed, is of little value. The understanding of what you are, whatever it be — ugly or beautiful, wicked or mischievous — the understanding of what you are, without distortion, is the beginning of virtue. Virtue is essential, for it gives freedom. . Jiddu Krishnamurti
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More Quotes By Jiddu Krishnamurti
  1. It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.
  2. You can only be afraid of what you think you know.
  3. We carry about us the burden of what thousands of people have said and the memories of all our misfortunes. To abandon all that is to be alone, and the mind that is alone is not only innocent but young -- not in time or...
  4. Thought is so cunning, so clever, that it distorts everything for its own convenience.
  5. Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone.
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