U. G. Krishnamurti

“ We are made to believe that there is a purpose, and that belief is what is responsible for the tragedy of mankind today. We have also been made to believe that we are created for a grander purpose, for a nobler purpose, than all the species on this planet. ”

“ Because man imagines that there is something more interesting, more meaningful, more purposeful to do than what he is actually doing. Anything you want above the basic needs creates this boredom for the human being. But you get the feeling, "Is that all?"
Nature is interested in only two things — to survive and to reproduce one like itself. Anything you superimpose on that, all the cultural input, is responsible for the boredom of man. ”

“ Lately I have been using this word, `ventriloquist'. You know, you ask the question in one voice and answer the same question with another voice. All the questions we ask are born out of the answers we already have. ”

“ The physical eye does not say anything. There is no way you can separate yourself from what you are looking at. We have only the sensory perceptions. They do not tell anything about that thing — for example, that it is a camera. The moment you recognize that it is a camera, and a Sony camera at that, you have separated yourself from it. So what you are actually doing is translating the sensory perceptions within the framework of the knowledge you have of it.
We never look at anything. It is too dangerous to look because that `looking' destroys the continuity of thinking. ”

“ These are the basic questions we need to ask to function sanely and intelligently in this world. We do have to accept the reality of the world as it is imposed on us. Otherwise we will go crazy. If you question the reality of anything that is imposed on you, you are in trouble, because there is no such thing as reality, let alone the ultimate reality. You have no way of experiencing the reality of anything. ”

“ What there is is only about thought but not thought. You cannot separate yourself from a thought and look at it. What you have there is only a thought about that thought, but you do not see the thought itself. You are using those thoughts to achieve certain results, to attain certain things, to become something, to be somebody other than what you actually are. ”

“ No talent is required to reproduce. Nature has done a tremendous job in creating this extraordinary piece — the body. The body does not want to learn anything from culture. It doesn't want to know anything from us. ”

“ When once the `I' is gone, there is no way of experiencing your own body anymore. You have no way of knowing whether you are alive or dead. You will never be able to tell yourself, "This is my body." If you ask me, "Is that your body or my body?" ”

“ You do not want the fear to come to an end. All that you are doing — all the therapies and techniques that you are using to free yourself from fear, for whatever reason you want to be free from fear — is the thing that is maintaining the fear and giving continuity to it. So you do not want the fear to come to an end. If the fear comes to an end, the fear of what you know comes to an end. You will physically drop dead. ”

“ We project the knowledge we have of whatever we are looking at. Even if you say that it is an object without giving a name, like, for example, camera, knowledge has already come in. It is good for a philosophy student to talk about this everlastingly, separating the object from the word, or separating the word from the thing. ”

“ It is a living thing. By calling something `beautiful', you have already destroyed it. You have put the whole thing in a frame by calling it beautiful. If you don't say it is beautiful, it is having an effect on this body. ”

“ Your doing something to go back to your original state is what is taking you away from it. The original state is already there and is expressing itself in an extraordinarily intelligent way. The acquired intellect is no match to the intelligence that is there. ”

“ Enjoy your brown rice.
Q: May I ask you another question? Don't you think that we must think positively?
UG: Thinking is either positive or negative. As long as you think, it is either positive thinking or negative thinking. When once the positive approach fails, you have invented what is called negative thinking; but the goal is exactly the same.
Q: But you said that although we experience the world as an illusion, it is not an illusion.
UG: No. I am not saying that you experience the world as an illusion. ”

“ If I am that hungry now, I will probably kill you and eat you, like a cannibal! [Laughter] You have been feeding this body with macrobiotic diet. It will do more harm than good. The body knows what is good for it. If it doesn't like some food, it rejects it. ”

“ You replace one belief with another. You can't be without a belief. What you call `you' is only a belief. If the belief goes, you go with it. That is the reason why if you are not satisfied with the belief-structure you are brought up in, you replace it with something else. ”

“ Even the scientists — they can say what they like. How does it interest us? It does not really matter as to how this whole universe was created — whether God created it, or the whole thing came out of some dust and pebbles, or hydrogen atoms somewhere. It is for the scientists to talk about all this, and every now and then come up with new theories. ”

“ The cells are wearing out. That's why I say that the tragedy that is facing mankind is not AIDS or cancer, but Alzheimer's disease. We are using the neurons, our memory, constantly to maintain our identity. ”

“ There is a belief that certain types of food are good for human beings and certain other types for animals.
UG: You can believe whatever you want to believe. Someone else believes something else. It is the belief that matters to people. You replace one belief with another. ”

“ We are always interested in telling this body how to function. All our experiences, spiritual or otherwise, are the basic cause of our suffering. The body is not interested in your bliss or your ecstasies. ”

“ If you want to go back to eating meat, then it is a different story. If there is a craving, it creates a problem. If there is no craving, what's the difference whether you eat meat or vegetables? One form of life lives on another form of life. ”

“ They are not self-generated. They always come from outside. Another important thing for us to realize and understand is that the brain is not a creator.
It is singularly incapable of creating anything. We have taken for granted that there it is something extraordinary, creating all kinds of things that we are so proud of. It is just a reactor and a container.
It plays a very minor role in this living organism.
Q: We are not creating things....
UG: You are not creating. The brain is only a computer. Through trial and error you create something. ”

“ There is no point in blaming our mothers and fathers. Actually, it is not a one-way street. Even children want to be accepted by us. We force them to fit into this framework, and they want to be accepted by us. ”

“ You want to eat macrobiotic food, and someone else wants to eat something else. What's the difference? The body can live on sawdust and glue. You should shoot all these nutritionists on sight and at sight! ”

“ It depends upon what you are interested in. In a computer, for example, a scientist puts in scientific data, a business man puts in business data, and an artist puts in something else. But the functioning of the computer is the same. ”

“ You have an image of yourself and in relationship to that image you create the images of others around you. That is the relationship that you have with the other people. But the people are constantly changing — you are changing and so is the other person. ”

“ We are also told that the whole creation was created for the benefit of man: that's why we have created all these problems — ecological problems and problems of pollution. Now, we are almost at a point where we are going to blow ourselves up. ”

“ That is exactly the way you are thinking. You ask questions and if there are any answers there, they come out. If the answers are not there, the brain says "Sorry." It is no different from a computer. ”

“ You are not satisfied with your own religious teachings or games; so you bring in others from India, Asia or China. They become interesting because they are something new. You pick up a new language and try to speak it and use it to feel more important. ”

“ That is the cultural input.
Q: We have lost touch with the original state somewhere.
UG: ....because culture or society has placed before us the model of a perfect being. Nature does not imitate anything. It does not use anything as a model.
Q: So you can say that all the approaches that mankind has developed to reach the original state is leading man away from it. ”