The Talks on Freedom

“One has to be a light to oneself; this light is the law. There is no other law.”
{This Light in Oneself}

                      “When you give complete attention there is no recording. It is only when there is inattention that you record.”
            {Page 54, Questions and Answers, Krishnamurti Foundation Trust}

      "Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem."
       {Commentaries on Living: First Series, Awareness, page 99}

THOUGHT

“Thought is the root of pleasure.”
     {The Transformation of Man: The Wholeness of Life, page 169}

“All our values are based on pleasure.”
{Choiceless Awareness, KFI, © KFA, 1992, page 72}

          "There is no such thing as freedom of thought. It is sheer nonsense."
{Freedom from the Known, page 36}

“Thought is sensation, and sensation is not happiness. Sensations are ever seeking gratifications.”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 85, 'Sensation and Happiness'}

“Now to me there is no such thing as distraction because there is no central position
which the mind takes and then says: I will pursue this and not that.
…You spend your life battling between the chosen thought and the distractions,
and when you can get an hour when you are completely held by an idea you feel you have achieved something.”
(Collected Works, Poona 4th Public Talk 17th September 1958)

“Desire makes for the separation of the thinker from his thought; the desire to become, to experience, to be more or to be less,
makes for division between the experiencer and the experience. Awareness of the ways of desire is self-knowledge.”
         {Book of Life Daily Meditations, What is accumulated is not truth, August 20, 2007}

“To listen completely you must be silent, and that silence is not something in thought, created by thought.”
        {JKTI, August 10 2007, If you listen completely, there is no listener, The Collected Works, Vol. XVI, page 58)

           “Thought cannot be spontaneous, it can never be free. Thought is the continuation of the past,
and that which continues cannot be free. There is freedom only in ending."
{Commentaries on Living: Series I}

“… thought creates the thinker; and because thoughts are transient, the thinker becomes the permanent entity. There is first the process of thought, and then thought creates the thinker, obviously. The thinker then establishes himself as a permanent entity, apart from thoughts.”
{Collected Works, Volume 8, Bombay, 10th Public Talk, 14th March, 1948}

“Thought-feeling which is intensely aware is in the process of constant self-discovery -
which discovery, being true, is liberating and creative.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, All thought is distraction, September 2 2007}

“Thinking is an impediment to experiencing; and there is no wisdom without experiencing.
Knowledge, idea, belief, stand in the way of wisdom.”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I}

THE SELF/SELF-KNOWLEDGE

         “Without problems, without achievements and failures, the self is not.”
             {Book of Life Daily Meditations, Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 49, 'Problems and Escapes'}

"Conflict is the very structure of the self."
        {Commentaries on Living: First Series, Problems and Escapes, page 124)

“The psyche is memory.”
{Krishnamurti to Himself , Ojai, California}

“When the me is absent, totally, there is beauty.”
{The Transformation of Man, page 197}

“… meditation is the emptying of the mind of the activity of the self.”
{Collected Works, Saanen, 7th Public Talk, 29th July 1973}

“Problems will always exist where the activities of the self are dominant.”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 41, 'Awareness'}

“The self is a problem that thought cannot resolve.”
{The First and Last Freedom, The self is a problem that thought cannot resolve, page 113}

“We have separated the `me', who is the observer, from that which he is observing.”
{Talks in Bombay, 3rd Public Talk, 29th January 1983}

“Self-knowledge is not the product of will; self-knowledge comes into being through awareness
of the moment by moment responses to the movement of life.”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I}

“Most of us are so weighed down by the known, by the yesterday, by the memories, by the `me',
the `self', which is but a bundle of memories accumulated yesterday, having no actual existence in itself.”
{Talks in Europe, 1967}

“It is only when "the me" in all subtle forms comes to an end that there is a state of bliss which cannot be sought after,
an ecstasy, a real joy without pain, without corruption.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, Happiness that is not of the mind, July 6 2007}

“However deep, wide, and extensive it may become, the self is always limited, and until it is abandoned, the mind can never be free.”
{ JKTI : Until the self is abandoned, the mind can never be free, The Collected Works: Vol. VIII , page 312, August 5 2007}

“The self, in its very structure, is contradictory; it is made up of many entities with different masks, each in opposition to the other.”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 43, 'Consistency'}

"Normally we thrive on blaming others, which is a form of self-pity."
{JKTI: There is only you, Freedom from the Known, page 15)

TIME

“We are questioning whether there is such a thing as psychological time at all.”
{The Transformation of Man, page 178}

“The mind can only be silent when it has understood the process of time and that requires watchfulness, does it not?”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, The active still mind, October 11 2007}

“Time is sorrow.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, The duality of thinker and thought, August 15 2007}

                             “Truth is not something to be experienced. Truth is not something you can seek out and find. It is beyond time.
                                And thought, which is of time, cannot possibly search it out and grasp it.”
            {The Impossible Question, page 75}

“We are always in conflict between what is and "what should be."
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, The disorder that time creates, October 4 2007}

“Without love, you cannot wipe out the past; with love, there is no past.”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I, 'Self-Esteem'}

“It is the past, with its tradition and its authority, that has to be negated.”
{Freedom, Love and Action, Eight Conversations, Second conversation}

“Time, which is continuity, can never find that which is eternal; eternity is not continuity.… Eternity is in the now.”
                        {On Self-Knowledge, Varanasi [Banaras], 1949, pp. 116-18}

“As we were saying, there is no psychological evolution.   The psyche can never become or grow into something which it is not.”
{Krishnamurti to Himself, Ojai, California, 17th March 1983}

“Patience is not time. Impatience is time. Patience has no time.”
{The Way of Intelligence, Chapter 2}

FEAR

"Fear is one of the greatest problems in life."
{JKTI: Until we are free from fear… Freedom from the Known, page 40}

“Fear exists only in relationship to an idea, and idea is the response of memory as thought."
{Commentaries on Living: First Series, Loneliness, page 105}

“The mind is the instrument of perception and, to perceive truly, the mind must be made straight,
it must be cleansed of all conditioning, of all fear.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, Knowledge diverts the mind, October 14 2007}

“We have not solved the problem of fear. What we do is to escape from it through various forms.”
{Collected Works: Volume 6, The Origin of Conflict, Madras, 4^th Public Talk, 13^thJanuary 1952}

"... fear breeds sorrow, and sorrow is time as thought."
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, To die without argument, November 15 2007}

"The relationship between what one is and what one desires to be causes fear."
{Commentaries on Living: First Series, Fear, page 148}

“Belief is the outcome of fear.”
{Inward Revolution, Madras, 13 January 1971}

     “Fearlessness is not courage but freedom from accumulation.”
   {Commentaries On Living: Series II, Chapter 9, 'Effort'}

“As long as the image exists from which springs thought, thought must always create fear.”
“We have separated living from dying, and the interval between the living and the dying is fear.”
        {Freedom from the Known, 1969, pp. 75-77}

SEEING/ATTENTION/AWARENESS

"Perhaps it is because we are so concerned with ourselves, with our own petty little problems, our own ideas,
our own pleasures, pursuits and ambitions that we are not objectively aware."
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, December 1 2007}

"A mind that is indifferent, is aware of the shoddiness of our civilization, the shoddiness of our thought, the ugly relationships; it is aware of the street, of the beauty of a tree, or of a lovely face, a smile; and it neither denies it nor accepts it, but merely observes - not intellectually, not coldly, but with that warm affectionate indifference."
{Bombay, 6th Public Talk, 7th March 1962}

“… please listen carefully; and you will see that when there is a fact, a truth, there is understanding of it only when I can experience the whole thing without division - and not when there is the separation of the "me" observing suffering. That is the truth.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, Integrated Understanding, July 11 2007 }

“Consciously or unconsciously we refuse to see the essentiality of being passively aware
because we do not really want to let go of our problems; for what would we be without them?”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 49 'Problems and Escapes'}

“Observe, and in that observation there is neither the `observer' nor the `observed' - there is only observation taking place.”
The `observer' exists only when you accumulate in the observation…”
{The Impossible Question, Part I, Chapter 5, 'Fear and Pleasure', 5th Public Talk, Saanen 26th July 1970 }

“We want to find a solution, a means, a method by which to resolve this burden of life, and so we never actually look at sorrow.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, The End of Sorrow, July 24, 2007}

“It is attention that allows silence to come upon the mind, which is the opening of the door to creation.
That is why attention is of the highest importance.… The elimination of fear is the beginning of attention. Fear must exist as long as there is an urge to be or to become, which is the pursuit of success, with all its frustrations and tortuous contradictions.
{Life Ahead}

“There is understanding only when there is no choice, no judgment, but merely observation.
To die each day means not to carry over from yesterday all your ambitions, grievances,
your memories of fulfilment, your grudges, your hatred.”
{Collected Works: Vol. XII : Paris, 7th Public Talk, 19th September 1961}

“If you and I could see the fact without offering an opinion, interpreting, giving a significance, then the fact becomes much more alive.
… the fact is there alone, nothing else matters; then the fact has its own energy which drives you in the right direction.”
{Book of Life, Translation of the facts prevents seeing, August 9 2007)

“When you see something very clearly, then you do not choose.”
{JKTI: We are not basically free at all, Collected Works: Vol. XVII, page 270}

“A mind that is attached is not objective, not clear, cannot think sanely and observe directly.”
{The Impossible Question, Part II, Chapter 3}

“When you give complete attention there is no recording. It is only when there is inattention that you record.
That is: you flatter me; I like it; the liking at that moment is inattention therefore recording takes place.
But if when you flatter me I listen to it completely without any reaction, then there is no center which records."
{Questions and Answers, Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, page 54}

“Awareness … is not self-induced, nor is it the outcome of practice;
it is understanding the whole content of the problem, the hidden as well as the superficial.”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 41, 'Awareness'}

“You can know yourself only when you are unaware, when you are not calculating, not protecting,
not constantly watching to guide, to transform, to subdue, to control; when you see yourself unexpectedly, that is,
when the mind has no preconceptions with regard to itself, when the mind is open, unprepared to meet the unknown.”
{Book of Life, The unguarded intellect, September 7, 2007}

DEATH

“You cannot live if you do not die psychologically every minute. This is not an intellectual paradox.”
{Freedom from the Known, 1969, page 77}

"So one has to live every day dying - dying because you are then in contact with life."
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, To die without argument, November 15 2007}

       “We do not want to know what death is; we do not want to know the extraordinary miracle, the beauty, the depth, the vastness of death.”
{Collected Works: Volume 8, Saanen, 7th Public Talk, 21st July 1963}

“It is one fact in life, we are all going to die.
That is an absolute, irrevocable fact. And the future is now, death is now.”
{Questions & Answers 2, England, 1984, “Why do we pray?”}

“But do you know death? That is, can you while living put an end to this everlasting struggle
to find in the impermanent something that will continue?”
{Collected Works, Ojai, 6th Public Talk , 21st July 1955}

THE INDIVIDUAL

“There is hope in the individual, in you, not in a system, not in the blueprint of a planned society,
not in any religious organization, but in you, the individual.”
{JKTI: Not in the blueprint of a planned society, The Collected Works, Vol. IV, page 92}

“It is always the individual, never the group or the collective,
that brings about a radical change in the world, and this again is historically so.”
{JKTI: Transformation of the individual - Collected Works, Vol. IX, page 226}

“The fullest development of every individual creates a society of equals.”
{Life Ahead, Introduction}

“Anything really true must be totally individual
- not in the sense of self- centeredness, which is very limiting and which in itself is evil,
but individual in the sense that each one of us must experience for himself, uninfluenced,
something which is not the outcome of any self-centred interest or drive.”
{JKTI: Anything really true must be totally individual, The Collected Works, Vol. X, page 79}

“What the individual is, the society is.
What you are matters infinitely.
That is not a mere slogan but, if you go into it really deeply, you will discover how significant your actions are,
how what you are affects the world in which you live-which is the world of your relationships, however small, however limited.
And, if we can fundamentally alter, bring about a radical revolution in ourselves, inwardly,
then there is a possibility of creating a different world, a different set of values.”
{JKTI : What you are matters infinitely, The Collected Works, Vol. VI, page 362}

"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."
(JKTI: The whole history of man is written in ourselves - Freedom from the Known, page 13}

“The mass is only an invention of the capitalists and others; it does not exist.”
{Collected Works, Volume 4: Madras, 2nd Group Discussion, 13th April 1948}

THE MIND

“If we apply our mind we can solve anything…”
{Brockwood Park, 4th Public Talk, 7th September 1980)

"To be occupied with something is the nature of the mind, and its activity springs from this."
{Commentaries on Living: First Series, page 168}

    “The mind would be lost without the worry of problems; it feeds on problems, whether they are world or kitchen problems,
political or personal, religious or ideological; so our problems make us petty and narrow.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 49, 'Problems and Escapes'}

“Consciously or unconsciously we refuse to see the essentiality of being passively aware
because we do not really want to let go of our problems; for what would we be without them?”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 49, 'Problems and Escapes'}

“Can the mind, which has created the problems, resolve those things that it has itself brought forth?”
                { The First and Last Freedom, Can thought ever dissolve our problems?, page 111}

“You perceive something only when your mind is silent, when there is no chattering of any kind.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, The chattering mind, October 13 2007}

GENERAL

“I am my brothers’ keeper”
{With David Bohm, Future of Humanity (Video) - 1H)

"We are not alone, and therefore we are secondhand human beings. When one is alone, totally alone, neither belonging to any family though one may have a family, nor belonging to any nation, to any culture, to any particular commitment, there is the sense of being an outsider -outsider to every form of thought, action, family, nation."
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, December 5 2007}

“Can we judge others, if we do not know the way of our own thinking, the way we act, the way we behave?”
{Krishnamurti to Himself, Ojai California, Tuesday 10th March, 1983}

“To seek truth is to deny it.”
{Book of Life, There is no guide to truth, August 4 2007)

“Sensitivity in its highest form is intelligence.”
{The Collected Works, Volume XV}

     "Leaders destroy the followers and followers destroy the leaders."
{JKTI: You have to question everything, Freedom from the Known, page 21}

“It is curious how strong is the desire to be recognized, to be applauded.”
         {Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 22, 'The Self'}

"Real learning comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased."
{Krishnamurti On Education, Talk to Teachers, Chapter 5, On Competition}

“Knowledge, the burden of the past, is corruption.”
{Commentaries On Living: Series II, Chapter 9, 'Effort'}

“It is essential to realize that one must not be caught in explanations,
   it does not matter who gives them.”
(The Impossible Question, page 16)

"We are saying causation has in it inherently effect. It is not two separate things."
{Brockwood Park 4th Public Talk 2nd September 1984}

“Action born of hatred can only create further hatred.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, Cessation of Anger, July 19 2007}

“Simple anger, a sudden flare-up which is quickly forgotten, is one thing; but the anger that is deliberately built up, that has been brewed and that seeks to hurt and destroy, is quite another matter.”
{Commentaries on Living: Series I, Chapter 30, 'Anger'}

“Freedom is to stand alone, unattached and unafraid, free in the understanding of desire which breeds illusion.”
{Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, Bulletin 57, 1989}

“To be open is to listen, not only to yourself, but to every influence, to every movement about you.
It may or may not be possible to do something tangibly about what you hear,
but the very fact of being open brings about its own action.”
{Commentaries on Living, Series I, Chapter 56, 'Possessiveness'}

“The major cause of violence, I think, is that each one of us is inwardly, psychologically, seeking security.”
{Book of Life - The major cause of violence, June 27 2007}

“The religious man is not concerned with society at all, because society is based on acquisitiveness, envy, greed, ambition, fear.”
{Collected Works, Volume 9 : Madras 2nd Public Talk 15th January 1956}

“If you love, really love someone, there is no possibility of giving him pain when you do something that you think is right.”
{Book of Life, Where there is the possibility of pain there is no love, July 21 2007}

“Truth does not belong to you or to me, it is totally impersonal and anonymous; if you say you have got truth,
then you are not anonymous, you are far more important than truth.”
{Collected Works, Volume 8, Banaras, India, 20th January 1954, 13th Talk to Students at Rajghat School}

“It is only when I am in communion with sorrow that I understand it.”
{Book of Life, Being in communion with sorrow, July 31 2007}

“We have never said that to kill another human being is the greatest sin on earth."”
{Rajghat, 14th Talk to Boys and Girls, December 1952}

“If we could understand one problem, go into it very deeply however small or big it is, then we would uncover all problems.”
{Book of Life Daily Meditations, Self-image leads to pain, July 16 2007 }
         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~~
(Note: JKTI is the abbreviation for the Jiddu Krishnamurti Teachings International website,
affiliated with the worldwide Krishnamurti Foundations, which has daily quotations.)