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Word Gems 

exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

 

Jiddu Krishnamurti
1895 - 1986

If we become aware of every thought as it arises, not judging, not condemning, not accepting - but just being attentive - then we will see that the mind becomes extraordinarily quiet; It is not forcing the mind with will power. In this heightened attention, the mind enters its own unsolicited, non-repressive discipline.

 
 

 

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Editor’s prefatory comments:

Jiddu Krishnamurti has been an important teacher in my life. I began learning about the “true” and “false” selves about 15 years ago, and his insights served to inaugurate this vital area of enquiry.

He was the one to make clear that “guru” signifies merely “one who points,” not “infallible sage.” Pointing the way is what even the best teachers provide, but no more. One must walk the path of enlightenment alone, no one can do this for us.

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Public Talk 6, New Delhi - 08 Nov 1964

excerpt

Most minds are noisy. They are everlastingly chattering. They are everlastingly soliloquizing, or repeating, what it will do, what it has done, what it must do, and so on. It is never quiet. And you think that, to produce this quietness in the mind, you must practise some method which again becomes mechanical.

But if you are aware of every thought as it arises, not judging, not condemning, not accepting - but just being attentive - then you will see that the mind becomes extraordinarily quiet; you have not disciplined it to be quiet - which is a deadly thing. Because if you discipline the mind, the mind becomes shallow, empty, dead. The mind must be free, alive, full, vital.

If you are attentive, out of that attention there comes its own unsolicited, non-repressive discipline. It is only the mind that is so disciplined through attention, not through compulsion and conformity - it is only such a mind that is clear.

 

Editor's last word:

If we say to ourselves, “I will wait to see what the next thought is that comes into my mind,” then we discover, in this waiting, that it may be many seconds until that next thought finally comes.

During this waiting - which is an attentiveness of mind, directed toward one’s own state of mind - we find that the mind naturally falls into a quietude, with no effort or will power to still the mind – but simply that of heightened attention and noticing the content of one’s own mind.