Krishnamurti - Talks and Dialogues Sydney 1970

Talks and Dialogues Sydney 1970

Copyright 1971 Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Ltd.

J. KRISHNAMURTI

TALKS AND DIALOGUES

SYDNEY

1970

CONTENTS

FIVE TALKS IN SYDNEY

I think it quite important that we understand each other, because we are not concerned with any Oriental philosophy or with any theory; we are not indulging in speculation, any form of theoretical assumptions. We will be concerned only with things as they are and to see if the human mind can radically bring about a change in things as they are. Therefore it is necessary to observe very clearly without any prejudice, without any conclusion what actually is going on in the world; not according to the Asiatic outlook or the Western or the communist or the capitalist but observe the various happenings that are taking place in the world.

First of all, one sees right through the world a great deal of violence, incredible brutality, destruction, a meaningless kind of violence and revolt, revolt against the established order, revolt against war, revolt against all the social moralities. Obviously social morality is immorality. One observes the division, the fragmentation thats going on, not only at the physical level but also at the religious level, physically, geographically, there is division between nationalities, sovereign governments with their armies, defence, and so on; there is the economic division, the division between black and white and among the coloured people. There is also division among the religious people, so-called religious people. There is the Catholic against the Protestant, the Hindu against the Muslim and so on. Right through the world there is fragmentation, the businessman and the artist, the scientist and the layman, the technician and the ordinary person. This is a fact and one sees what incredible conflict exists between human beings.

Religions, that is organized beliefs based on propaganda, have not solved this problem at all. Politicians havent solved it. On the contrary, religions have separated man against man; politicians keep the country, the people apart and you can see both outwardly and inwardly there is fragmentation, division. The very nature of division is to bring about conflict and man has tried many, many ways to bridge this conflict, through ideals, through revolt, through revolutionphysical revolutionthrough every form of assertion, aggression, violence to see if man can live at peace, not only within himself but also outwardly. And this has been going on for millions of yearsman fighting man, outwardly and inwardly.

When we are confronted with such a problem, what is the response?knowing that man has tried so many ways to get rid of this problem, through physical revolution which ends in tyranny, bureaucracy, dictatorship and he has tried religiously in beliefworshipping one God or one idea, one set of symbols, and again all that has failed, completely failed because man is still at war. Within the last 5,000 years I believe there have been 15,000 wars and we have never been able to solve any of our human problems. We know how to escape from them, through amusement, through every form of deception, hypocrisy, negligence, indifference, callousness.

It is only the very serious people that live, not the people who want to be entertained, want to be amused; and I hope during these five talks, that those who are here are really serious people. This is not an entertainment, either philosophical or intellectual. We are concerned, in observing all this, how to bring about a radical change in man, how to bring about a total revolution, not the revolution of bloodshed, physical revolution; that doesnt lead anywhere, as one has observed in the various kinds of revolution that have existed before. Physical revolution has no meaning; there is only one revolution, psychological, inward revolution, because the human beingyouis the society. You have built this society and in that society, in that culture youre caught; therefore, you are the world and the world is you, not verbally, theoretically or intellectually, but actually. You are the world and the world is you and if you are confused, if you are disturbed, if you are neurotic, unbalanced, whatever structure you create as social morality, as law, as ethics or as religion must equally be confused. So, do please understand this very clearly from the very beginning of these talks.

We are concerned in bringing about a radical revolution in the human mind because the human mind creates the social, economic, religious structure out of its despair, out of its fear, out of its loneliness, misery, sorrow. Unless the human being, you, radically, fundamentally change, there is no possibility of having a different kind of world. When we say you, you are not opposed to the community, you are the community, you are the collective. When we are concerned with a change of the human being, we are concerned with the radical revolution of the mind, not opposed to the collective mind. The collective mind is your mind, you are part of the culture in which you have been brought up, in which you have been educated, youre not separate from the society, from the world, so, unless you as a human being radically change there is very little hope for a peaceful, religious society.

To bring about this change, man has tried everything. He has taken drugs, has joined innumerable cults, organized beliefs, worshipped this god and that god, joined various schools of meditation, read infinitely, but he remains exactly as he was before, slightly modified but essentially self-centred, aggressive, violent, concerned about himself. These are facts, not assumptions, not theories. This you can observe if you are at all aware not only of yourself but also about what is happening in the world.

So, seeing this, what is one to do? There are the activists who say you must act, do something, commit yourself, get involved. But getting involved, identifying yourself in a particular group or a particular structure of thought, philosophy, doesnt solve the problem. Seeing all this both outwardly and inwardly, what shall we do? We must act, we must bring about a revolution in ourselves. How can this revolution take place? We cannot possibly go on as we are going, because our life is very superficial.

The life that one leads has no meaning, spending years in the office, living a shallow, empty life, living a second-hand existence and everlastingly fighting, both inwardly and outwardly. What can one do? Action implies, not in the future, or in the past; action is the creative moment in the present. So, what shall I as a human being, living in this world, do? First of all, I must negate everything that man has psychologically built in himself. That is, through negation I shall find out what is the positive; you understand?

You know one of the most difficult things in life is to communicate. The word communicating means to think together, to feel together, to create together, share together. Thats what we are going to do, share together. Youre not just going to listen to the speaker, but share what the speaker has to say. You can only share if you neither disagree nor agree, but actually listen to find out. Listening is one of the most difficult things to do. Listening implies attention, and you cannot attend if your mind is chattering, if what is being said you compare with what you already know. The art of listening is very important and the art of listening is to communicate.

First of all, attempting to see things as they are, both outwardly and inwardly, man has tried several things. He thinks through analysis he can bring about change, analysis of what actually is going on, and through analysis to find the cause and bring about change in the cause. But analysis prevents action, that is, analysis implies time. Please, do listen to this, dont accept it or reject it, but listen to it, find out if the speaker is saying something false or true; find out, investigate, dont oppose it, or accept it, because we have to learn. We have accepted analysis as a way of resolution of our problems and the speaker says that way youll never solve anything, and hes going to explain the reason why analysis is futile.