when there is that conditioning of the mind? Can such a mind function through a
person who is conditioned according to his background? Obviously not.
Therefore, if you see the truth of this, you will not be a Hindu, a Muslim, a Sikh,
a Christian; you will be something entirely different. Do you see the truth of this,
and do you cease to be that? Not over time, but actually at this moment, are you
completely emptied of all the nonsense that goes into that? Otherwise you will
never see what truth is. You may talk endlessly about it, read all the books in the
world, but you will never come upon the beauty and the vitality and the passion
of it.
To change the whole structure of society fundamentally, radically, the
structure of the psyche must be changed inwardly. Otherwise what you produce
outwardly will be only modified, but continue in the same pattern. So you have
to ask fundamental questions, and there is nobody to answer except yourself.
You cannot possibly rely on anyone. Therefore you have to observe, learn to
watch. That means, Can the mind be completely awake, observant, to see the
actual truth of anything? Because when you see the truth you will act. It’s like
seeing danger. When you see danger, you act instantly. So, in the same way,
when you see the truth of something completely, there is complete action.
Now, sirs, shall we talk this over together by asking questions?
QUESTIONER: Does the mind go beyond?
KRISHNAMURTI: Does the mind go beyond what?
Q: Disintegration of this body, the body being disintegrated.
K: Oh, la-la! [Laughter] What happens to the mind after the body disintegrates?
Is that it?
Q: That’s right.
K: Why do you dissociate the body from the mind? Is there something separate
as the mind apart from the body? Logically—don’t invent. Psychosomatically, is
there a division? Look, sir, you have been brought up in this country, in this
culture, as a Hindu or a Muslim or a Sikh. Your conditioning is the result of the
society in which you live, which you have created. The society is not different
from you; you have created it, because your parents, your grandparents, all the
rest of the past have created the culture in which you live and that has
conditioned you, and you are part of that. Now, can you divide yourself from that
culture? You can only divide yourself, break away from that culture when you
are not of that culture. Right? Isn’t that simple? In the same way, why do you
divide?
I am going to answer this question, but we will go into it. Why do you divide
the body and the mind? Because you have been told about the Atman, the higher-
self, the soul? Do you know anything about it, or do you repeat what other people