Jiddhu Krishnamurti (1895 - 1986)

UNCONDITIONING AND SIMPLICITY, MARCH, 1966

We all know this, and apparently the government, the people are incapable of stopping all this. They are caught in utter inefficiency, deep distrust, wide discontent, unable to respond totally, deeply to the whole issue. And you will see in Europe, and in America, as well as in Russia and China, there is tremendous discontent. And again that discontent is being answered very narrowly. There is a war, and people treat wars as a favourite war and not a favourite war, a war that is righteous, a war that is not politically right. You take sides when you have preached for forty years and more, non-violence, you are ready to battle, to kill, to become violent at the throw of a hat. You see all this.

And when you consider all this, not only what is taking place in the west and in India, the problem is so great and I do not think any of the politicians, any of the religious leaders throughout the world, see the problem as a whole, they see it according to their limited political, religious point of view; or according to their particular economic demand, or social demand. No one apparently states the whole problem, entirely as a whole, and deals with it as a total thing, not fragmentarily, not as a Sikh, not as a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, Catholic, Communist, Socialist. And because we are not dealing with the problem as a whole people are trying to escape in different ways: they are taking LSD, the drug that gives them tremendous experience. They are going off at tangents, responding to minor, infantile, immature challenges, and responding equally immaturely.

So we, if you are at all concerned with the problem, and everyone of us must be: there is starvation, there is war, religion has totally failed, it has no more meaning, any more, except some old ladies, and slightly demented people. Organized belief is losing its power, though propaganda in the name of religion, in the name of god, in the name of peace is everlastingly being trumpeted in newspapers and everywhere. So education, religion, politics, have completely failed to answer the problem, and science hasn't answered it either. And it's no good looking to those things any more, nor to any leader, or to any teacher, because man has lost faith in all this, and because he has lost faith he is afraid and therefore he is violent, not only in this country, all the world over people are violent - the riots that are going on in America between the white and the black, the appalling things that are taking place in this country. Essentially man has lost faith, not only in those beliefs, in those ideals, in the values which have been set up for him, but also in himself he has completely lost faith, he doesn't know where to turn, in what direction to look for any light. And because he has lost faith he is afraid. And because he is afraid the only answer to fear is violence. This is what is taking place.

So we have, if we are at all serious, and for god's sake we have to be serious, dreadfully earnest, not according to some belief, according to some pattern, but serious to find out so that we can begin again to discover the source which has dried up. I do not know if you have observed that in yourself, as a human being, not as a fragmentary being in a world of fragments, as a human being whether an Indian, a Hindu, a Muslim, a Sikh, a Christian, a communist, a socialist, and so on, as a human being, and therefore no nationality, and therefore doesn't belong to any religion, nor to any political party or ideology, just as a human being, if you have observed yourself as a human being you will see in yourself, and therefore you will see in others, that the source of our being, of our existence, the meaning of our life, the struggle that we are making all day long, has no meaning any more. And therefore we have to find for ourselves that source which has dried up, and if it is possible to find the waters of that immense reality again. And from that reality act. And that's what we are going to discover for ourselves during all these talks here.

You understand the problem, sirs? Religions, leaders, whether political or religious, the books, the propaganda, the beliefs, the doctrines, the saviours, all have lost their meaning to any really serious intellectual man totally aware of all these problems. All those upon which we have relied have lost totally their meaning. You are no longer religious people, that you pretend to be. You are no longer a human being because we have lost the purpose, the meaning, the significance of our existence. You can go to the office for the next forty years, as a routine, earn a livelihood, but that is no answer either. So to discover this whole thing, to understand this whole immense problem, we have to look at it anew, not with eyes of a Christian, a Hindu, a Muslim, or a communist, we have to look at it totally anew. Which means first we mustn't be driven by circumstances, not respond to the immediate problems. We have to act on the immediate problems, but not act as though that was the only thing in life.

So we must be aware of the circumstances, and not be compelled by them to act. Do you understand the issue? Because in this country you are quarrelling over little pieces of land, and ready to burn and kill each other, because you happen to be a Sikh, a Muslim, or a Hindu, god knows what else. And compulsion of the environment, circumstance is so strong that you react. Therefore one has to be aware of the circumstances, what is implied in those circumstances, act as little as possible depending on those circumstances. Then one has to be aware of one's temperament, and not be guided by one's temperament, or act according to one's inclination. These three things are essentially important when you are facing an immense problem: not be guided by our inclination, however pleasurable, however demanding, not to act according to your personal inclination. That's the first thing to realize.

Then, not your activity, your life shaped by your temperament, whether you are intellectual, emotional, or various form of idiosyncrasies, not to be shaped by them, nor compelled by circumstances. If we can understand these things fully, these three things then we shall be able to meet this immense challenge, these immense problems. Which is the human being is at stake. You understand? It's so infantile to consider whether some land, governor - all that's too immature, too childish, too appalling.

So what we have to do if you are at all serious, and it is absolutely necessary to be serious, because the house is burning, not only the house that's called India, but the world is burning, and you must be able to respond to it totally, not bring a little bucket of sand, hope to put the fire out. So you have to be so enormously serious. And I am afraid we have not been serious. We have dissipated our energies because we have responded to circumstances which are so trivial and wasted our energies in all these directions: you became followers of Gandhiji, you became followers of something else and on and on and on. So having dissipated your energy when the immense problem is put before you, you are incapable of responding to it totally. Therefore one has to begin, if one would understand this immense problem of man, and man is at stake, human being is at stake, not any particular individual, the whole human being is at a stake, and to understand that immense problem you have first not to be guided by your inclination, not according to your pleasure or dislike. You have to look at the problem, and you cannot look at the problem if you are depending on your personal inclination, or be guided by your temperament. You know most of us are very clever people, because we have read a great deal, we have passed many exams, our mind, our intellect is very cunning, deceptive, hypocritical. And our temperament is this capacity to deceive itself, to assert itself, to function along a particular demands. And of course when you are driven by circumstances, compelled to act according to circumstances you cannot possibly be concerned with the total human being.

So those are the first things one has to be aware of: inclination, temperament, and circumstances. When you have understood those then you can face the immense problem of man. Your personal inclination is whether you believe in a god, or don't believe in a god. Those are all personal prejudices that have no value at all. When you approach a problem intellectually, or emotionally, or sentimentally, that's your particular temperament. One can go much more deeply into this question of your temperament, but that is not important now.

So any particular approach to this immense problem indicates either you are being guided by your inclinations, or compelled by circumstances, or you are acting according to your narrow little temperament.

So if that is very clear, that we cannot possibly act according to these, therefore we will then be able to look at the problem entirely differently. And there is an immense problem because man, that's a human being, has lost, if he ever had, has lost the source, the fountain, the depth, the vitality of living anew; he has become a lonely human being, frightened, anxious, caught in despair, discontent, unhappy, tremendous sorrow. You may not be aware of all this because nobody wants to look at oneself very clearly. To look at oneself clearly is very difficult because we want to escape from ourselves, and when we do look at ourselves we don't know what to do with ourselves. And so our problem is, as the source of our human being, as the source of our existence is drying up, has lost its meaning, we have now to find out for ourselves what it all means. In the west they have passed brilliant examinations, young men, they see war, they see great business corporations, executives and so on, and they say, what is the point of it all - what is the point of war, what is the point of becoming very clever, having a lot of money, when life itself has no more any meaning. So they take various forms of drugs - that gives them a tremendous sense of new experience, and they are satisfied with that. These are not the stupid people who take these things, they are very intelligent, very sensitive, highly trained people, because life has no longer any meaning. You can invent a meaning, you can invent a purpose, you can invent a significance, but these inventions are purely the acts of an intellectual mind, and therefore have no validity. Nor has faith any validity any more. Whether you believe, or don't believe, has no meaning at all, because you will believe according to your circumstances; if you are born in this country you will be a Hindu, or a Sikh, or a Muslim, or god knows what, according to circumstances you are forced to believe, or as a communist, and so on and on and on. So belief, an invented purpose of life, a significance carefully put together by the intellect have no meaning any more. I don't think you see the seriousness of this: man has come to the end of his inventions, his beliefs, his dogmas, his gods, his hopes, his fears, he has come to an absolute precipice, to the end. You may not be aware of this, you may still be hiding behind the walls of your beliefs, or your hopes, but they are illusions, they have no validity at all when you are faced with this crisis.

So having realized this, if you are at all capable of realizing it, then one must proceed to begin to find out how to renew the mind, to renew the total being. You understand? I hope I am making my question clear. Look sirs: human beings for over five thousand years and more have struggled, has had to face his own immense sorrow, has to face death, wars, disillusionment, the utter hopelessness of life without any meaning. And always inventing his gods, always inventing a heaven and a hell to keep himself righteous, always surrounding himself with ideas, ideals, hopes, but all that has gone. Your Ramas and Sitas, your Upanishads, your great gods, everything has gone in smoke, and you are faced with yourself as a human being, and you have to answer. Therefore your responsibility as a human being becomes extraordinarily great.

So our question then is: how is a mind that has been so heavily conditioned for so many centuries, through so many agonies, how is such a mind to be made new so that it can function totally differently, think entirely differently? You understand the question? So the communists and the totalitarians say, we will shape the mind. You understand? We will break the mind and recondition it. You are following all this? The Catholics, the Protestants, the Hindus have done this, the Muslims, all the people all over the world have done this, over and over again, and so each human being is so heavily conditioned, conditioned in one way and reconditioned in another, by the politicians, by propaganda, by the priests, by commissars, by socialists, you know, endlessly reshaped, and again reshaped. And when you realize that, that absolute fact, this absolute truth, not according to me or according to you, but that is the fact, when you realize that then you ask yourself whether it is at all possible to break this conditioning and not enter into another conditioning, but be free so that the mind can be a new thing, sensitive, alive, aware, intense, capable.

So that is our problem. There is no other problem. Because when the mind is made new then it can tackle any problem, whether it is a scientific problem, or the problem of starvation, corruption. Then it is capable of dealing with it in any circumstances.

So that is our main issue: a mind that has been so heavily conditioned for so many centuries, whether it is possible to uncondition itself and not fall into another conditioning; and therefore be free, capable, intensely alive, anew, fresh so that it can meet any problem. As I said, that's the only question we have to face, and as human beings we have to find the answer. And you cannot depend on anybody to tell you what to do. You understand? You cannot depend on anybody to tell you how to uncondition yourself; and if you do depend on that person you are conditioning yourself according to his ideas, therefore you are back again, caught.

So see the immense problem that is in front of you. There is no leader, no saviour, no guru, no authority any more. Because all they have done is to condition you as a Hindu, Muslim, Christian, whatever you like, as a communist and all that. And they have not answered the problem. They have found no solution to human misery, to human anxiety, to human despair. They have given you escapes, and escapes are not the answer. When you have got cancer you can't run away from it, you have to face it. So that is the first thing to realize, that you cannot possibly rely on anybody to uncondition you. You know when you realize that either you get frightened, because you can't rely on anybody you are left to yourself and that is a very frightening thing; or you are no longer frightened and you see that you have to work, and nobody can help you, therefore you have vitality, you have energy, you have the drive then. And you can only have the drive, the energy, the vitality when you are no longer depending on anybody and no longer afraid. Then you are no longer following anybody. Then you are your own master, your own pupil, you are learning, you are discovering.

So our question being very clear, how do we proceed? You understand the question? You understand the problem? If the problem is very clear, and it must be clear, otherwise you can't answer it - the question can be put in different ways, but the essence of the problem is always the same: that human minds are shaped by circumstances, by environmental influences, by one's own temperament and inclination, which shape the mind, which condition the mind, and a mind that is conditioned, a mind that is moulded by a particular belief, by a particular dogma, by a particular experience or tendency, such a mind cannot possibly answer this question. The question being, is it possible for the mind which has been made so dull, heavy, stupid by circumstances, by environment, and so on, so heavily conditioned, can that mind free itself and therefore meet every problem of life anew? I say that it can. And I am going to go into it, show you whether it is possible or not. But I am not your teacher, nor are you my followers - god forbid! Because the moment you follow something you have destroyed the truth. If you have a leader you are destroying the truth. So all that we can do is to consider together, take the journey together, not I lead you along a path, or show you, but together partake, share together this question, and discover together the issues and the way out.

So to share demands not merely stretching your hand out and receiving something, to share means that you must be capable of sharing, which means you must be extraordinarily alive, keen to find out, otherwise you can't share. Somebody can give you the most beautiful jewel, but if you don't know that is the most precious thing you will throw it away and you cannot share it. And to journey together, you must be capable of walking together. And the capacity to walk, to share, to observe, depends on your earnestness, and that earnestness, that seriousness comes into being when you see the immensity of the problem. It is the problem that makes you serious, not that you become serious. You understand the difference? We say we are serious and tackle the problem. That's not it at all. The problem itself is so great, and that very greatness makes you serious, then that seriousness has vitality, that seriousness has pliability, and enormous strength and vitality to go to the very end of it.

So we are taking the journey together, therefore we are sharing the thing together, therefore you are no longer a listener, you no longer just hear a few words, a few ideas, which you either accept or reject - say, I like this, I don't like that. Because we have gone beyond all that, which is mere inclination.

So our first question is: is it possible for a human mind that has been so heavily conditioned to break through it? You cannot possibly break through it if you are not aware of your conditioning. That's an obvious fact, isn't it. You can't say, 'Well, I am conditioned, and I must break through it', that has no meaning. But if you are aware how you are conditioned, what are the factors of your conditioning, what are the circumstances, then being aware of these conditionings then you can do something. But if you are not aware of it then you can't do a thing. So first is to be aware of your conditioning - conditioning, how you think, how you feel, what are the motives behind that thinking, feeling. You may say, 'Well, this is all too complicated, I want a simple pill which I can take very quickly, and the whole problem solved' - there is no such pill. Life is a very complex process, and you cannot solve it by some kind of trick. You have to see the complexity of it, and you can only see the complexity of it if you are completely simple. You understand, sirs? If you are really simple, then you can see how extraordinarily complex you are, and all your conditioning. But to be simple is one of the most difficult things.

Simplicity is not a loin cloth, or having one meal a day, or walking round the earth preaching some idiotic nonsense. Simplicity is not obedience. Please do listen to all this. Simplicity is not following an ideal. Simplicity is not imitation. Just to be simple so that you can look. You know you can only look at a tree, or a flower, or the beauty of an evening when your eyes are not clouded, when your mind is not somewhere else, when you are not tortured by your own particular little problem, then you can look at the tree, then the evening has beauty, then out of that simplicity you can observe. And as I said, to be simple is one of the most difficult and arduous things, simple. But you see that word has been loaded by all the saints, with all their pretensions, with their dogmas, therefore they are not simple people at all. A simple mind means a mind that can see very clearly, and the moment you see with clarity, anything, the problem is over. That's why to look at our conditioning needs clarity. And you can only have clarity when you don't say, 'I like', or 'I don't like'. You understand sir? I want to see myself as a human being, actually 'what is', not what I pretend and all that rubbish, but actually what is. To see very clearly there must be light, and there is no light if what I see I translate in terms of like or dislike. You understand? It is simple, sir, when you go into it, very, very simple.

That is, to see anything there must be light. And to have light there must be care. And with clarity and care you can observe. But that clarity and care is denied when you condemn what you see, or justify what you see. Therefore when you want to see very clearly, like and dislike, judgement, condemnation, disappears. Am I making myself clear, because this is a very serious thing? Then you will find that you are your own guide, then you are your own light, which nobody can put out. And that way one begins to discover for oneself the source of all life. That source which has dried up, which man has been seeking everlastingly. You may have great prosperity, as they do in the west and in America, you may be hungry, miserable, but mere solutions of these is not the answer, because the human being is at stake. His house, which is himself, is burning, and to find the answer you must be able to look clearly, and therefore when you look clearly you can reason clearly. And reason becomes insanity when there is obscurity. You understand sir? The politicians, because they are obscure, therefore they are breeding inefficiency, hatred, division among man. And also the priests, whether in the west or in the east, are contributing to this darkness. Religion after all is not a matter of belief, not what you belief or what you don't belief. Religion is the way of life, it doesn't depend on any belief, or any dogma, on any rituals. Only the religious mind which lives peacefully can find that ultimate reality.