Whether in this world of politicians, power, position and authority, or in the so-called spiritual world where you aspire to be virtuous, noble, saintly, the moment you want to be somebody you are no longer free. – Jiddu Krishnamurti
Don't most of us want to be safe? Don't we want to be told
what marvelous people we are, how lovely we look, or what extraordinary
intelligence we have? Otherwise we would not put letters of degrees after our
names. All that kind of thing gives us self-assurance, a sense of importance.
We all want to be famous people - and the moment we want to be something, we
are no longer free.
Please see this, for it is the real clue to the understanding of the problem of
freedom. Whether in this world of politicians, power, position and authority,
or in the so-called spiritual world where you aspire to be virtuous, noble,
saintly, the moment you want to be somebody you are no longer free. But the man
or the woman who sees the absurdity of all these things and whose heart is
therefore innocent, and therefore not moved by the desire to be somebody - such
a person is free. If you understand the simplicity of it you will also see its
extraordinary beauty and depth.
After all, examinations are for that purpose: to give you a position, to make
you somebody. Titles, position and knowledge encourage you to be something.
Have you not noticed that your parents and teachers tell you that you must
amount to something in life, that you must be successful like your uncle or
your grandfather? Or you try to imitate the example of some hero, to be like
the Masters, the saints; so you are never free. Whether you follow the example
of a Master, a saint, a teacher, a relative, or stick to a particular
tradition, it all implies a demand on your part to be something; and it is only
when you really understand this fact that there is freedom.
The function of education, then, is to help you from childhood not to imitate anybody, but to be yourself all the time. And this is a most difficult thing to do: whether you are ugly or beautiful, whether you are envious or jealous, always to be what you are, but understand it. To be yourself is very difficult, because you think that what you are is ignoble, and that if you could only change what you are into something noble it would be marvellous; but that never happens. Whereas, if you look at what you actually are and understand it, then in that very understanding there is a transformation. So freedom lies, not in trying to become something different, nor in doing whatever you happen to feel like doing, nor in following the authority of tradition, of your parents, of your guru, but in understanding what you are from moment to moment.