Bookmark to Stumbleupon. Give it a thumb StumbleUpon   subscribe    Tell a friend 

Jiddhu Krishnamurti (1895 - 1986)

Life in Freedom

BE IN LOVE WITH LIFE

During the time of winter, every tree looks forward to the warm airs of the spring, but when that spring comes, if there is no life in the tree it will not put forth green foliage, flowers and fruit. I am telling you of that life which is in all things, and in keeping that life pure, strong and vital, you will find happiness -not in limiting that life and placing it in bondage. Everyone in the world is more concerned with the branches and leaves of the tree than with the sap which gives vitality to the whole tree. I am concerned with the life of the tree, and not with the branch, the leaf, the flower and the fruit; because I hold that as long as the life in the tree is healthy, its expression is bound to be beautiful. In the same way if the life in you is strong, vital and pure, you will attain to that Truth which is unlimited and cannot be conditioned. If you seek to condition it, it is betrayed.

You are all concerned with the appearance of the tree, with the pruning of its branches, with the examination of its leaves, you are intoxicated with its perfume and you are not pleased when you are called back to the consideration of that which produces your tree, with its perfume, its leaves and its branches. As there is no life in a dead branch, it is broken by the winter winds and drops away. Such will be the man who does not put life before all lesser things, who does not release life from its bondage, from the trivialities that have been imposed upon it. In order to free life you must be in love with life. You would much rather adore an image than worship life itself.

Do not put aside what I am saying with a shrug of your shoulders, but listen diligently, and you will understand greatly. If you are prejudiced, if you are determined to twist life to suit your particular beliefs, your particular branch of the expression of life, then you will not find the Truth.

In order to release that spring which will develop into a torrent and hence carry you to the attainment of liberation which is Truth, which is the fulfilment of life, you must discover what is essential for your understanding, and set aside all those things which are of secondary importance.

You will be unhappy; you will struggle; you will have to go through disappointments, anxieties, great agonies, if you place the unessential before the essential. That is what you are all doing, because to you life and the freedom of life is not important. When you are in love with life you will invite sorrow, doubt, every experience, in order that you may conquer every experience, that you may break the bandages which you have placed on life.

To find the Truth, you must give up the worship of the image and fall in love with life. Then you will become immortal. The fear of death disappears in him who is in love with life and who sees that life in the eyes of his neighbor. Be in love with life, and loyal to life and not to persons, because the worship of personalities does not lead you to Truth. Truth does not belong to any individual, Truth does not belong to any religion, Truth cannot be found in the dark sanctuary of temples, nor in the well-lit halls of organized societies, neither can it be found in books, nor in ceremonies. I would bring you to the understanding of Truth, but you would much rather have me repeat what you have heard a hundred times. You would much rather that I put you to sleep, lull you in comfort, than awaken in you the desire to shatter all things, to discover life.

If you would discover the cause for all the beauty of the world, for all the dancing shadows, do not be caught up in the illusion of the expressions of life, but rather seek for that Truth which is life itself by being in love with life.