Questioner: When one encounters those who are caught up in the collective thought and mass psychology which are responsible for much of the chaos and strife around us, how can one extricate them from their mass mentality and show them the necessity of individual thought?
KRISHNAMURTI: First extricate yourself from mass psychology, from collective thoughtlessness. This extrication of thought from the stupidities of ages is a very difficult task. Thoughtlessness and stupidity of the mass exist in us. We are the mass, conscious of some of its stupidities and cruelties but mostly unconscious of its overpowering prejudices, false values, and ideals. Before you can extricate another, you must free yourself from the great power of those wants and fears. That is, you must know for yourself what are the stupidities, what are those values which condition life and action. Some of you are conscious of the obviously false values of hatred, national divisions, and exploitation, but you have not discerned the process of these limitations and freed yourselves from them. When you begin to perceive the false values that hold you and discern their significance, then you will know what a tremendous change takes place in you. Then only can you truly help another. Though you may not become a leader of great multitudes, though you may not accomplish spectacular reforms, if you really grasp the significance of what I am saying, you will become as an oasis in a burning desert, as a flame in darkness.
The ending of the &'8216;I&'8217; process is the beginning of wisdom which alone can bring intelligent order and happiness to this chaotic world.
Questioner: As a living example of one who has attained liberation, you are a tremendous source of encouragement to us who are still involved in suffering. Is there not a danger that in spite of ourselves this very encouragement might become a hindrance to us?
KRISHNAMURTI: I hope I am not becoming an example for you to follow because I speak of the process of suffering and ignorance, the illusion of the mind, the false values created by fear, the freedom of truth. An example is a hindrance, it is born of fear which leads to compulsion and imitation. Imitation of another is not the comprehension of oneself.
To know oneself there can be no following of another; there cannot be compulsive memories which prevent the &'8216;I&'8217; process from revealing itself. When the mind has ceased to escape from suffering into illusions and false values, then that very suffering brings understanding, without the false motives of reward and punishment. The center of action is ignorance and its result is suffering. The following of another or the disciplining of the mind according to the authority of an ideal will not bring about plenitude of life nor the bliss of reality.
HHDL: Sleep is the best meditation.
Questioner: Is there any way in the world by which we can end the stupid horror which again we see perpetrated in Spain?
KRISHNAMURTI: War is the problem of humanity. How are we going to end mass and individual barbarities? To arouse mass action against the horrors, cruelties, and absurdities of the present civilization, there must be individual comprehension.
Begin with yourself. Root out the appallingly cruel prejudices and wants, and you will know a happy world. Root out your personal ambitions and subtle exploitations, acquisitiveness and the craving for power. Then you will have an intelligent and orderly world. As long as there is cruelty and violence in the individual, collective hatred, patriotism, and strife must continue.
When you realize your individual responsibility in action, then there will be the possibility of peace and love and harmonious relationship with your neighbor. Then there will be the possibility of ending the horror of strife, the horror of man killing man.
HHDL: There is no need for temples, no need for complicated philosophies. My brain and my heart are my temples; my philosophy is kindness.
Questioner: If I am in conflict with family, friends, employers, and state laws, in fact, with the various forms of exploitation, will not seeking liberation from all bondage make life practically impossible?
We are well acquainted with the obvious forms of exploitation, but there are the many subtle forms of which we are unconscious. If you would really comprehend exploitation in its obvious and subtle forms, you must discern the &'8216;I&'8217; process-that process which is born of ignorance, want, fear. All action born of this process must entail exploitation. Many people withdraw from the world to contemplate reality, and hope to bring the &'8216;I&'8217; process to an end. You should not withdraw from life to consider life. This escape does not bring the &'8216;I&'8217; process of ignorance, want, and fear to an end. To live is to be in relationship, and when that relationship begins to be irksome, limited, it creates conflict, suffering. Then there is the desire for the opposite, an escape from relationship. One does very often escape, but only into a shallow, and life of fear and illusion, which intensifies conflict and brings about slow decay. It is this escape which is impractical and confusing. If you would strip life of all its ugliness and cruelty you must, through right effort, bring the self&'64979;sustaining process of ignorance to an end.
Questioner: How can we solve the problems of sex?
KRISHNAMURTI: Where there is love the problem of sex does not exist. It becomes a problem only when love has been displaced by sensation. So the question really is how to control sensation. If there were the vital flame of love, the problem of sex would cease. Now sex has become a problem through sensation, habit, and stimulation, through the many absurdities of modern civilization. Literature, cinemas, advertisements, talk, dress-all these stimulate sensation and intensify the conflict. The problem of sex cannot be solved separately, by itself. It is futile to try to understand it through behavioristic or scientific morality. Artificial restrictions may be necessary, but they can only produce an arid and shallow life.
We all have the capacity for deep and inclusive love, but through conflict and false relationship, sensation and habit, we destroy its beauty. Through possessiveness with its many cruelties, through all the ugliness of reciprocal exploitation, we slowly extinguish the flame of love. We cannot artificially keep the flame alive, but we can awaken intelligence, love, through constant discernment of the many illusions and limitations which now dominate our mind&'64979;heart, our whole being. So, what we have to understand is not what kind of restrictions, scientific or religious, should be placed on wants and sensations, but how to bring about deep and enduring fulfillment. We are frustrated on every side; fear dominates our spiritual and moral life, forcing us to imitate, conform to false values and illusions. There is no creative expression of our whole being, either in work or in thought, so sensation becomes monstrously important and its problems overwhelming. Sensation is artificial, superficial, and if we do not penetrate deeply into want and comprehend its process, our life will be shallow and utterly vain and miserable. The mere satisfaction of want or the continual change in want destroys intelligence, love. Love alone can free you from the problems of sex.
Me: Yeah, that's it.
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