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Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes

Jiddu Krishnamurti (11 May 1895 - 17 February 1986) was a philosopher, speaker and writer. This is a collection of Jiddu Krishnamurti quotes on various topics …

Every day we see or read of appalling things happenings in the world as the result of violence in man. You may say, “I can’t do anything about it,” or “How can I influence the world?” I think you can tremendously influence the world if in yourself you are not violent, if you lead actually every day a peaceful life – a life which is not competitive, ambitious, envious – a life which does not create enmity.


Small fires can become a blaze. We have reduced the world to its present state of chaos by our self centered activity, by our prejudices, our hatreds, our nationalism, and when we say we cannot do anything about it, we are accepting disorder in ourselves as inevitable.

Any action which has any deep significance must begin with each one of us. I must change first; I must see what is the nature and structure of my relationship with the world – and in the very seeing is the doing; therefore I, as a human being living in the world, bring about a different quality, and that quality, it seems to me, is the quality of the religious mind.

Jiddu Krishnamurti
(Source: Freedom from the Unknown)

If one is dead earnest this very seriousness becomes the Guru. As long as you see the Guru as a person, there is attachment. Detach and rely on the inner Guru.

All life is Sadhana. You merely exist on the surface. You merely know about physical, emotional and mental which are the fragments of the whole. One should awake to deeper levels.

There cannot be both the world and God. On the way there seems to be both, but when you reach God, there is no world left.

Gold doesn't lose its nature, however many names and forms it may assume as jewelry. When the truth behind the diverse is identified one is aware of Brahman as the prime cause.

Only in relationship can you know yourself, not in abstraction and certainly not in isolation.

The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.

My fear is not of death but of losing my association with things belonging to me. My fear is always in relation to the known, not to the unknown.

When thought is completely silent, there is a state of experiencing.

It is essential to understand the seeker, before you try to find out what it is he is seeking.

In order to change, one must be aware now, not deciding later or to think about it.

Silence is something extraordinary. It comes naturally when you are watching, when you are watching without motive, without any kind of demand, just to watch. Then in that watching in that alertness, there is something that is beyond words, beyond all measure.

Freedom is to be a light to oneself; then it is not an abstraction, a thing conjured up by thought. Actual freedom is freedom from dependency, attachment, from the craving for experience. Freedom from the very structure of thought is to be a light to oneself. In this light all action takes place and thus it is never contradictory.

What is needed rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We need to learn about fear, not how to escape it.

A cup is useful only when it is empty, and a mind that is filled with beliefs, with dogmas, with assertions, with quotation is really an uncreative mind.

If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.

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Freedom is to be a light to oneself; then it is not an abstraction, a thing conjured up by thought. Actual freedom is freedom from dependency, attachment, from the craving for experience. Freedom from the very structure of thought is to be a light to oneself. In this light all action takes place and thus it is never contradictory. Contradiction exists only when that light is separate from action, when the actor is separate from action.

A mind must be capable of standing alone, of being a light to itself. Following another, belonging to a group, following methods of meditation laid down by an authority, by tradition, is totally irrelevant to one who investigates into the question of whether there is something eternal, timeless, something that is not measurable by thought, that operates in our daily life.

There is a difference between isolation and aloneness, between loneliness and being able to stand by yourself clearly, unconfused, uncontaminated.

Source - This light in oneself: true meditation By Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes on Violence and How to Get Rid of It

Fear, pleasure, sorrow, thought and violence are all interrelated. Most of us take pleasure in violence, in disliking somebody, hating a particular race or group of people, having antagonistic feelings towards others. But in a state of mind in which all violence has come to an end there is a joy which is very different from the pleasure of violence with its conflicts, hatreds and fears.

If we know how to look at violence, not only outwardly in society but also in ourselves then perhaps we shall be able to go beyond it.

To investigate the fact of your own anger you must pass no judgment on it, for the moment you conceive of its opposite you condemn it and therefore you cannot see it as it is. When you say you dislike or hate someone that is a fact, although it sounds terrible. If you look at it, go into it completely, it ceases, but if you say, ‘I must not hate; I must have love in my heart,’ then you are living in a hypocritical world with double standards. To live completely, fully in the moment is to live with what is, the actual, without any sense of condemnation or justification – then you understand it so totally that you are finished with it. When you see clearly to the problem is solved.

Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes on Position in Society

Most of us crave the satisfaction of having a position in society because we are afraid of being nobody. Society is so constructed that a citizen who has a position of respect is treated with great courtesy, whereas a man who has no position is kicked around.

Everyone in the world wants a position, whether in society, in the family or to sit on the right hand of God, and this position must be recognized by others, otherwise it is no position at all. We must always sit on the platform.

Inwardly we are whirlpools of misery and mischief and therefore to be regarded outwardly as a great figure is very gratifying.

This craving for position, for prestige, for power, to be recognized by society as being outstanding in some way, is a wish to dominate others, and this wish to dominate is a form of aggression.

The saint who seeks a position in regard to his saintliness is as aggressive as the chicken pecking in the farmyard. And what is the cause of this aggressiveness? It is fear, isn’t it?