escape, not to try to go off into some fantastic mystical experiences, but actually
to find out in daily life a way of living in which the mind has never been touched
by conflict. And that can only be when you understand, actually see—with your
heart, with your mind, with your reason, with everything that you have—the
division inwardly, in the psyche. As long as there is the division, which exists,
which must exist when you are trying to become something—when you are
trying to become noble, when you are trying to become better—there must be
conflict, which prevents you from looking at what is. You know, goodness can
never become something else. You can’t become “better” in goodness. Goodness
is now; it flowers now, not in the future.
So it is possible for the mind, which is so conditioned by the past, by the
culture and so on, to radically change when the mind completely sees the
falseness of ideologies, when it sees the falseness of following, of obeying? You
obey in order to achieve. So you completely put away all authority. You know, to
understand this matter of authority deeply, you have to understand not only the
authority of law but the authority which comes inwardly through obedience. The
word obedience comes from Latin and means “to hear.” When you hear over and
over again that you must have a guru—otherwise you can’t possibly understand
life or achieve enlightenment—that you must follow somebody, you inevitably
obey, don’t you? So obedience implies following, which means having an
authority, and a mind that is ridden with authority as yours is can never live in
freedom and therefore can never live without any effort.
Perhaps you would like to ask some questions? To whom are you going to
ask the question? Please understand that this is not to prevent you from asking
questions, but to whom are you asking the question? To the speaker? Or, are you
asking the question to share the question together? To share the answer together?
Therefore you are putting the question not to the speaker; the question is
important to you, so you are willing to share it with the speaker. Whereas if you
put the question to the speaker and then wait for an answer from the speaker, you
are back in your old game, which is to be led by the nose, told what to do. But if
you put the question—and you must put the question—and put it in order to
share it, your problem is the problem of everybody. Your agony is the agony of
the human mind; your sorrow is the sorrow of your neighbor. If you merely put
the question for somebody else to answer it, then you will continue in your
misery. So please ask the question, but ask it in order to share it, in order to
understand it together.
QUESTIONER: You are using the words you and your mind; are they
synonymous?
KRISHNAMURTI: Now, is that a question? Aren’t you and your mind one? Are
you separate from your mind? Are you the super-soul that is using the mind? Are
you the Atman using the mind? Now, if you think you are the Atman, that is one
of your conditionings, because in the communist world they don’t believe in any
of that nonsense. They have been brought up not to believe in all that, and you
have been brought up to believe in it. That’s all. You have been brought up to