U. G. Krishnamurti

“ Throwing up of the uniqueness provided by nature is the blooming of individual uniqueness. It happens once in a way that a person frees himself from the burden of his entire past. One has to be in a primordial and primeval state without primitiveness. If we drop the fictitious model of a saint, we are left with natural biological arrangements. Each cell in the body knows itself. Cells cooperate with each other, not out of love and compassion, but from the terror of self-annihilation. ”

“ The feeling of separateness from nature has brought the idea that everything has been created for us; and that is responsible for our destruction. Thought is destructive; it is a self- protecting mechanism. That is to say, all that is born out of thought is destructive, irrespective of its nature, whether it be religious, scientific or political. Thinking cannot help us solve human problems. We create problems since we cannot live without them. But we are not ready to accept that thought is our enemy, we do not know how to survive and function without thoughts. ”

“ You have a desire to change yourself and society. But you cannot change them. You want to change the world, so that you can live happily, full of compassion for mankind. So long as you desire a change in society, you remain discontent and want the world to be different. When the inner demand to be different comes to an end, you are in harmony with the society, including tolerating its brutalities, starvation, and poverty. ”

“ The body has to become like a corpse before that knowledge, locked up in every cell, ceases. The stopping of doing is courage, when authority and fear are thrown out of the system.
There is nothing to incarnate after death. What is there even when you are alive? Is there anything beyond the totality of knowledge which exists inside of you now? So, is there death? Can you experience death? No. The body recycles itself into organic and inorganic systems. ”

“ Thus primitive organisms arose from which, by a process of natural selection and mutation, complex organisms arose. Our superiority gave us power to exterminate all of them; and this justification resulted in the ecological crisis. The superiority is now due to the technology and economic system we have, and it is the structure of belief and values which drive the technology and economic system. Hence the problem is not that the planet is endangered but that it is we who are endangered. It is absurd to think of saving the earth or the planet. We have to save ourselves. ”

“ Communism at least succeeded in providing for the basic necessities of life like food, clothing, and shelter, but as a political ideology it failed, because there cannot exist a classless society in nature. Any society tolerates dissent only up to a certain point. No society will tolerate a threat and will tend to maintain its status quo. Any attempt to change this status quo will end up in violence. The reality of the capitalist society today, despite its inhumanness, has to be tolerated for survival reasons. ”

“ There is no such thing as reality at all. Reality is imposed on us by culture, education, and society. Man's search for truth is born out of the same search for peace. It only causes further disturbance in the already present peace. It is mortality that creates immortality, known the unknown, time the timeless. It is thought that creates the thoughtless. It is perception in terms of dualism that drains you.
Human beings are essentially helpful to each other. The institutionalization of charity, on the other hand, dulls your natural sensitivity. ”

“ The body or organism is not interested in spiritual matters. It only aims at survival and reproduction. You are born and you die with every breath. That is what is meant by birth and death. Yet thought denies the reality of death. Nowadays you can substitute drugs for yoga. The problem with man is not memory, but your tendency to further your spiritual thought. Freedom from memory is death. Enlightenment does not exist in finding answers. The real individual is one who is free from the accumulated tradition and knowledge of mankind, and he is a threat to society. ”

“ Nature attempts to create unique entities. Nature does not use models. A unique individual like Leonardo da Vinci was of no use to nature and was thrown off the evolutionary process, and this specimen is unable to reproduce itself. By using the models of Jesus, Buddha, Rama or Krishna we have destroyed the possibility of nature throwing out unique individuals. Those that recommend these people forget nature's uniqueness and put everyone on the wrong track. It's like the blind leading the blind. Society is interested in maintaining the status quo and has provided models for us to follow. ”

“ Our tradition tells us that life is transient. Tradition means no change. Thus our life is a denial of the reality of change. We only speculate about death. Living people do not bother about death. The memory in you wants to know whether it will continue even after what it imagines as death occurs. Death is the finality. There is no solution without death. The death of the individual is necessary for the survival of the species, since without death there is no turnover of genotypes to create variability on which natural selection acts for purposes of evolution. ”

“ Can we teach each individual a unique life path? The uniqueness of each individual cannot be expressed due to the stranglehold of the experience of others, as others' experiences have an effect on the person. There is no way to experience a feeling without knowledge. Happiness, for instance, can only be experienced, but not expressed. When you say you are happy you capture the sensation within the framework of knowledge.
Awareness is an integral part of the activities of all life systems. But you cannot use it as an instrument to bring about change. ”

“ It is not possible for the mind to relate to anything other than ideas. Therefore, it is not correct to think that the mind can actually ponder reality. All that the mind can ponder are its own ideas about reality. Therefore, whether or not an idea is true is not a matter of how closely it corresponds to the absolute reality, but how consistent it is with our experience. Even the Copenhagen interpreters of quantum mechanics were forced by their own findings to acknowledge that a complete understanding of reality lies beyond the capabilities of rational thought. Einstein did not accept this. ”

“ Death is the end of illusion, end of fear, and end of knowledge. The intelligence that is necessary for survival is already there. But we have acquired what is called the intellect through the constant use and reshaping of thought. The intellect helped us build the modern civilization. The demand to bring about a change in us is due to the cultural input.
The heart does not know it is purifying blood; the kidneys do not know their own function. The body just functions. ”

“ The body does not know what pleasure is. Happiness is a cultural input. It is the common desire of everyone in every part of the world. It is like any other sensation. Any sensation, even an extraordinary one, is rejected by the body. Keeping the sensation going on for a long period of time destroys the sensory perception and sensitivity of the living organism. If we do not know what happiness is, we will never be unhappy.
We are like any other animal. No one created us nor is there any purpose behind creation. We differ from animals with respect to thought. It is thought that separates us. ”

“ There is nothing to a loving relationship which springs from a sense of isolation created by thought. One wants to fill this void with someone. Thus love is self-fulfillment or self-gratification. Unfortunately we do not acknowledge this sordid truth. That is why we have invented fictions like `loving care' to deceive ourselves.
We have to find answers to our problems by ourselves and for ourselves. No one can help us. Because of society we have no way of asserting our individuality. ”

“ Cause-effect relationship does not exist even in nature. Hence there is no cause for the `big bang' or for the creation of the universe or of life. There is no beginning or end. It is in a perpetual state of flux.
Maintaining what is called our identity through the constant use of memory creates tremendous problems because such use involves enormous expenditure of energy and leaves us with no residual energy to deal with the problems of everyday living. Is there a way out to free ourselves from our identity? No, that very thought of freeing ourselves creates problems. ”

“ Thought is not an instrument that can be used to help us live a harmonious life. That is why all the ecological or pollution problems have arisen, destroying us with the destructive weapons we have unleashed.
The body has an enormous intelligence to function in an integrated manner, but we want to teach the body things for which it has no interest. But the body is not interested in things like enlightenment or permanent pleasure. The basic objectives of life are to survive and to reproduce. But when we try to superimpose other goals on the body we create problems. ”

“ All ideologies -- legal ideologies, and the institution of marriage -- are the warty outgrowth of religion, all having their common origin in religion. There is a tendency to replace one belief by another, one value system by another, and one illusion by another. Millions of people starve today in the world. Millions died in wars. Violence has become part of man because thought is violent. That is how man functions. Thought is interested in its survival. Take even the elementary unit of life -- the cell. Millions of cells form the body. ”

“ The longing to be a part of the totality of life around him created the tremendous demand in man for the ultimate. Then he thought that the spiritual goals of God, Truth, or Reality will help him become a part of the whole again. This very attempt to become one with or become integrated with the totality of life has only kept him separate. Isolated functioning is not part of nature.
When a void is created, when all systems failed, religious concerns creep in. But our experience is that religion has created schemes causing tremendous destruction of life and property. ”

“ THE INNATE INTELLIGENCE OF THE BODY
The problem with man is that he has been subjugated by the thought culture which has an immense hold on him and which has created the notion of the self in him. This precludes the living organism's interacting with nature. That is to say that the self has separated man from nature. Thus man with his self-centeredness leads a duplicate life as a hypocrite, leading himself eventually to destruction. ”

“ There is only knowledge in the brain. That is what you are. You cannot directly experience the world without the help of knowledge. There is no world beyond space and time. It is the invention of the unholy minds of holy men. -- U.G. You cannot listen and think simultaneously. Only one action is possible at a time. The birth of thought itself is action. You cannot look at thought. Thought creates a space between the thinker and the thought and then tells itself, "I am looking at my thoughts." Is that possible? Thought brings in another thought. ”

“ The problem is not having memory but our tendency to use it to further our spiritual interests or as means to find happiness. The attempt to be free from memory is withdrawing, and withdrawing is death.
Not knowing is a myth to us. What there is is not knowing, but knowing prevents a state of freeing yourself from the known. The demand to be freed from the known creates a problem. Idealization of a non-existent ideal person or state is that doom. The greatest ideal that man has invented is the most imposing, perfect, and powerful God -- an invention of a frightened mind. ”

“ Space and time are dynamic quantities. When a body moves or a force acts on it, it affects the curvature of space-time. In turn, the structure of space-time affects the ways in which bodies move and forces act. Normally we think of events which are measured in terms of the coordinates of space-time. But with Einstein's general theory of relativity space- time is not just a frame of reference but is itself being affected by everything that happens in the universe. Experience in everyday life indicates that time flows in one direction, i.e., from past to future. ”

“ The great misery of humans is brought about by the search for enlightenment or moksha -- a goal imposed by culture over millennia. The physical, physiological, and mental tortures which people undergo to attain this state are perverse. The torture of the body by withholding food causes such metabolic changes that it may cause hallucinations which are mistaken as spiritual experience. Desire stems from thought. There is nothing like absence of desire for the living being. ”

“ All attempts to change the brutal society will only add to its momentum. Unless you are at peace with yourself, there cannot be any peace in the world.
As long as your interests do not clash with others' interests your relationship with them is perfect. We all demand happiness to be a permanent feature of our lives, which is impossible. In nature there is nothing like permanence at all. Everything is in a flux. Because we cannot face impermanence in our relationships, sentiment, romance, and other dramatic emotions are created to give the relationship a continuity. ”

“ The end result of survival is reproduction. There is nothing like mind or consciousness. Thought builds up an experience and creates a desire for ultimate happiness devoid of pain. Thus thought- derived self-centeredness maintains and perpetuates itself even at the cost of the destruction of the world. This can also lead to self-destruction for the sake of even a silly idea, as witnessed in wars. ”