quotes by j krishnamurti on education

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Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes About Education

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There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

The function of education is to help you from childhood not to imitate anybody, but be yourself all the time.

Merely to stuff the child with a lot of information, making him pass examinations, is the most unintelligent form of education.

Right education should help the student, not only to develop his capacities, but to understand his own highest interest.

When inquiry is suppressed by previous knowledge, or by the authority and experience of another, then learning becomes mere imitation, and imitation causes a human being to repeat what is learned without experiencing it.

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Jiddu Krishnamurti

• Born: May 12, 1895
• Died: February 17, 1986
• Occupation: Writer
• Cite this Page: Citation

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55 of the Best Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes on Education, Love, and Society

Last Updated on March 1, 2024

Table of Contents

Perhaps if there’s a philosopher who encourages inner debate, that would be none other than Jiddu Krishnamurti . Many modern thinkers find most of his teachings difficult to grasp. Maybe because he contradicts common beliefs , especially that from major religions as well as in new age disciplines.

You may not understand his wisdom at first: but that’s why one of his most popular teachings is that a person should ‘not seek’.

Who was Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti was born in a small town of Madanapalle, of what is known today as Chittoor District in Andhra Pradesh. His father was Jiddu Narayaniah and his mother, Sanjeevamma. To this day, his exact date of birth is debatable. Most say it’s May 11, 1895; but others will argue that it’s between May 4 and May 25, 1896. His mother died when he was 10. As a young child, he was sickly and sensitive. So much so that others would call him ‘dim-witted, vague’ or ‘dreamy’.

Krishnamurti would be acquainted with Charles Webster Leadbeater and Theosophy when his father retired in 1909. Theosophy was popular in the U.S. in the 19th century. Founded by Helena Blavatsky, experts would refer to it as both somewhat occultist and a new religious movement. He was groomed to be a World Teacher, or medium of Lord Maitreya.

But Krishnamurti would reject Theosophy, as well as other religions of the world, in favour of his own beliefs.

What is the Jiddu Krishnamurti Philosophy

Jiddu Krishnamurti would go on to become a famous philosopher, speaker, and writer. He would author books such as: Freedom from the Known, The First and Last Freedom, Think on These Things, The Book of Life, The Awakening of Intelligence, and The Ending of Time .

Two of his well-known teachings include: ‘not to pre-judge, but merely observe’, and ‘freedom is the beginning, not the end’. Krishnamurti followed in the footsteps of Gotama , in that he discarded the teachings of the world’s religions and let experience guide him towards wisdom.

During his lifetime, he openly discussed all kinds of topics with other philosophers, teachers, mystics, psychotherapists, and even physicists. These have been made into books and other media, which you can find (and purchase) online. He spent his last days in Ojai, California before his death in February 17, 1986. He was 90 years old.

They may not be easy to comprehend at first. But with the right mindset and an openness to discover new things, you may find yourself agreeing with some of his ideas. Widen your horizons and challenge your current ways of thinking through these amazing Jiddu Krishnamurti quotes.

Amazing Jiddu Krishnamurti Quotes

• “It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The ability to observe without evaluating is the highest form of intelligence.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing, and dance, and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “It is truth that liberates, not your effort to be free.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Freedom and love go together. Love is not a reaction. If I love you because you love me, that is mere trade, a thing to be bought in the market; it is not love. To love is not to ask anything in return, not even to feel that you are giving something- and it is only such love that can know freedom.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Real learning comes about when the competitive spirit has ceased.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Tell your friend that in his death, a part of you dies and goes with him. Wherever he goes, you also go. He will not be alone.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Governments want efficient technicians, not human beings, because human beings become dangerous to governments – and to organized religions as well. That is why governments and religious organizations seek to control education.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The more you know yourself, the more clarity there is. Self-knowledge has no end – you don’t come to an achievement, you don’t come to a conclusion. It is an endless river.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “To understand the immeasurable, the mind must be extraordinarily quiet, still.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “You can only be afraid of what you think you know.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “If you begin to understand what you are without trying to change it, then what you are undergoes a transformation.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Do not repeat after me words that you do not understand. Do not merely put on a mask of my ideas, for it will be an illusion and you will thereby deceive yourself.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Happiness is strange; it comes when you are not seeking it. When you are not making an effort to be happy, then unexpectedly, mysteriously, happiness is there, born of purity, of a loveliness of being.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “It is only when the mind is free from the old that it meets everything anew, and in that there is joy.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Follow the wandering, the distraction, find out why the mind has wandered; pursue it, go into it fully. When the distraction is completely understood, then that particular distraction is gone. When another comes, pursue it also.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Thought is so cunning, so clever, that it distorts everything for its own convenience.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The ending of sorrow is the beginning of wisdom. Knowledge is always within the shadow of ignorance. Meditation is freedom from thought and a movement in the ecstasy of truth. Meditation is explosion of intelligence.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect…The moment you follow someone you cease to follow Truth.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “When you once see something as false which you have accepted as true, as natural, as human, then you can never go back to it.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Find out for yourself what are the possessions and ideals that you do not desire. By knowing what you do not want, by elimination, you will unburden the mind, and only then will it understand the essential which is ever there.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “It is love alone that leads to right action. What brings order in the world is to love and let love do what it will.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Acquiring knowledge is a form of imitation.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The following of authority is the denial of intelligence. [It] may help us temporarily to cover up our difficulties and problems; but to avoid a problem is only to intensify it, and in the process, self-knowledge and freedom are abandoned.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Passion is a rather frightening thing because if you have passion you don’t know where it will take you.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “To ask the ‘right’ question is far more important than to receive the answer. The solution of a problem lies in the understanding of the problem; the answer is not outside the problem, it is in the problem.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “We are very defensive, and therefore aggressive, when we hold on to a particular belief, a dogmas, or when we worship our particular nationality, with the rag that is called the flag.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “When one loses the deep intimate relationship with nature, then temples, mosques and churches become important.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Analysis does not transform consciousness.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “You cannot reconcile creativeness with technical achievement. You may be perfect in playing the piano, and not be creative. You may be able to handle color, to put paint on canvas most cleverly, and not be a creative painter…having lost the song, we pursue the singer. We learn from the singer the technique of song, but there is no song; and I say the song is essential, the joy of singing is essential. When the joy is there, the technique can be built up from nothing; you will invent your own technique, you won’t have to study elocution or style. When you have, you see, and the very seeing of beauty is an art.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Identification with the rag called the national flag is an emotional and sentimental factor and for that factor you are willing to kill another – and that is called, the love of your country, love of the neighbor? One can see that where sentiment and emotion come in, love is not.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The significance of life is living.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The very desire to be certain, to be secure, is the beginning of bondage. It’s only when the mind is not caught in the net of certainty, and is not seeking certainty, that it is in a state of discovery.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “And the idea of ourselves is our escape from the fact of what we really are.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Intelligence is the capacity to perceive the essential, the what is; and to awaken this capacity, in oneself and in others, is education.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “But if one observes, one will see that the body has its own intelligence; it requires a great deal of intelligence to observe the intelligence of the body.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “From innumerable complexities we must grow to simplicity; we must become simple in our inward life and in our outward needs.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “The word ‘innocence’ means a mind that is incapable of being hurt.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Surely education has no meaning unless it helps you understand the vast experience of life with all its subtleties, with its extraordinary beauty, its sorrows and joys. You may earn degrees, you may have a series of letters after your name and land a good job, but then what? What is the point of it all if in the process your mind becomes dull, weary, stupid?” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Happy is the man who is nothing.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Action has meaning only in relationship, and without understanding relationship, action on any level will only breed conflict. The understanding of relationship is infinitely more important than the search for any plan of action.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “What you are the world is. And without your transformation, there can be no transformation of the world.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “There is no ideal in observation. When you have an ideal, you cease to observe, you are then merely approximating the present to the idea, and therefore there is duality, conflict, and all the rest of it. The mind has to be in the state when it can see, observe. The experience of the observation is really an astonishing state. In that there is no duality. The mind is simply – aware.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “Order cannot possibly be brought about through conformity to a pattern, under any circumstances.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “You are this, which does not satisfy, so you want to be that. If there were an understanding of this, would that come into being? Because you do not understand this, you create that, hoping through that to understand or to escape from this.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “You must look most intimately and discover for yourself; then it is your own, not somebody else’s, not something that you have been told, because there is no teacher and no follower.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti
• “While one is young is the time to investigate, to experiment with everything. The school should help its young people to discover their vocations and responsibilities, and not merely cram their minds with facts and technical knowledge; it should be the soil in which they can grow without fear, happily and integrally.” – Jiddu Krishnamurti

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education, community-building and change

Jiddu Krishnamurti and his insights into education

The Valley School’s birthday celebration. Established in 1978, itis one of the five schools of the Krishnamurti Foundation India

Jiddu Krishnamurti and his insights into education. Scott H. Forbes explores Jiddu Krishnamurti’s (1895-1986) emphasis on education as a religious activity. (From a presentation at the first Holistic Education Conference, Toronto, Canada, 1997)

contents : human nature ·  religion and religiosity ·  the nature of education ·  the intentions of education ·  participants in education ·  the physical nature of places of education ·  consequences for education ·  references ·  links ·  brief biography

For most of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s life what he said and wrote sparked both interest and controversy. His observations on religion, nationalism, tradition, organizations, and relationships often ran counter to the convention of the day. If they are less startling today, it is either due to the effect his insights have had on common consciousness or an indication of the extent to which he was ahead of his time. But Krishnamurti’s insights on education are still radical and frequently misunderstood or dismissed as impractical. This is probably due largely to the fact that Krishnamurti presents education as a religious activity in an age when most people still see it as preparation for succeeding in a secular world.

Throughout the ages sages have warned us that we can’t see what is true even when it is presented to us because that which is true isn’t what we expect or want to hear. The traditional western symbol for this is choosing Barabbas; choosing what is familiar or most like us over what is true or sacred. This is as true in educational matters as it is in religious ones. Modern education is so obviously failing to solve the world’s problems, is so rightly criticised for not meeting societies’ aspirations, and is so clearly unable to prepare people for the fundamental challenges of living. To solve these problems, we seem to need educational insights that marry the most profound learning possible with the everyday; the subtle with the mundane; or to put it another way, the sacred with the secular. I feel Jiddu Krishnamurti’s insights into education are such a marriage. I feel they are radical, that they meet the challenges of living at a profound level, and they do so at a time when such insights are desperately needed. Of all the many subjects that Krishnamurti addressed in his more than seventy years of writing books and speaking in public, I believe it is Krishnamurti’s insights into education that most people will eventually feel has had the greatest effect on the world.

Jiddu Krishnamurti’s interest in education was long standing and always passionate. In what is perhaps his first book, “Education As Service” (1912), we see his concern for education and the introduction of a few themes that remain in his work. We hear the voice of the seventeen year old Krishnamurti writing from his heartfelt experiences when he says in the foreword,

Many of the suggestions made in this little book come from my own memories of early school life;…. I have myself experienced both the right way of teaching and the wrong way, and therefore I want to help others towards the right way. (Krishnamurti 1912)

And for the rest of his life he did try to help others towards a better form of education.

Krishnamurti’s work is large, subtle, and complex; Krishnamurti did not explicitly define positions; instead, his understanding is interwoven through out his work. This is further complicated by the evolution in his manner of expression that occurred over his lifetime, so that two comments taken out of context and separated by decades seem to contradict each other (though, taken in context, they are not contradictory); and He did not present his insights in traditional intellectual forms, which would have made summarisation easier. Consequently, we are left with a kind of translation – translating Krishnamurti’s work, which is partly apophatic, into an expository presentation. And, as with all processes of translation, something is lost, and those who know the original see the loss, and rightly complain.

The topics which I feel I can not avoid are: 1.) Jiddu Krishnamurti’s approach to what is religious or religiousness or religiosity, 2.) his approach to the nature of human beings, and 3.) his approach to the nature of education. Unfortunately, it would not be possible to address the topic of this paper, without making at least some attempt at explicating these aspects of Krishnamurti’s work, so I’m afraid this is very much a case of ‘a fool rushing in where wise men fear to tread’.

Krishnamurti’s approach to the nature of the religious, religiosity, religiousness

It would be far easier to say what, for Jiddu Krishnamurti, the religious or religiousness or religiosity isn’t than to say what it is. One very specific thing that is isn’t is any part of any religion. Krishnamurti felt that what is sacred or truly religious could not be conditional, culture-bound or time-bound. Consequently, he felt that what is religious could not be contained by or subject to any dogma, belief, or authority. Krishnamurti’s approach to a religiousness that is free of religion would be an interesting subject for those concerned with the challenges of values, morals, or religious education in today’s pluralist world, but it is not a subject I can address here.

If that which is sacred cannot be related to dogma, ritual, buildings, authorities, or symbols, then what does man have that can make contact with the sacred? Krishnamurti felt that the bridge from the secular to the sacred is a particular consciousness. It is a consciousness that sees things as they are; one that is free of the distortions of conditioning and free of the limitations of thought (while still employing thought). It is a consciousness that has transcended the imperatives of the self or ego and so knows compassion or selfless love. It is a consciousness that knows silence and sees beauty and lives joy.

Jiddu Krishnamurti felt that the sacred is the foundation of all things, lies at the origin of all things, and so is that which is irreducible or can’t be broken into more fundamental elements. He felt that all things are part of a unity or integrated whole, and that that integrated whole is sacred. The word ‘integrated’ is used here as an adjective not a verb – it is not that things can be integrated or brought together, but rather that all things always are constituent or component parts that make up the whole in such a way that it is the whole is the sine quo non of the parts. The closest material analogy is perhaps a hologram – if a hologram is smashed, each fragment contains the whole hologram. Consequently, there can be no development of a part which does not affect the whole, and there can be benefit to a part this is detrimental to the whole.

As the integrated whole (or that which is religious or sacred) is always involved, it makes no sense to think of sequentially developing particulars first and the whole later (i.e. intellectual development first and a sense of the sacred later, etc.). The particulars are constituents of the whole and they must be dealt with together.

Krishnamurti’s approach to the nature of human beings

Krishnamurti’s work on the nature of human beings is vast since he arguably spent more than seventy years writing and speaking about the human condition. I must again contain my comments to just those few which seem necessary for the theme of this paper.

Jiddu Krishnamurti saw human beings as having different facets (like intellects, emotions, appetites, bodies, etc.) but the whole of which the facets are aspects is more important. Humans have minds as well as brains (more will be said on this later), and it is the consciousness that minds are capable of that can perceive what is religious – the integrated whole (though this should not be confused with some notion of omniscience or seeing everything), and it is to the full flowering of the mind that Krishnamurti felt education should direct itself. The human brain, for reasons too complex to go into here, normally works by fragmenting the whole, and one very important task that the brain needs to learn is to stop this fragmenting process when it is not necessary. Consequently, as possessors of both brains and minds, humans have the capacity of participating in the universe at many different levels, from the particular to the general. Like a Buddhist, one might consider the most real to be that which is most general or generative. Or, like a hard scientist, one might consider most real that which is most particular. For Krishnamurti, human beings have the capacity to venture to both limits and to unite them.

Krishnamurti’s approach to the nature of education

As much will be said throughout this paper on Krishnamurti’s perspective on education, I can confine my summary comments here to saying simply that education was seen as towards the fullest development of the full human being. From the full body of his work, we can conclude that, for Krishnamurti, education is 1.) educating the whole person (all parts of the person), 2.) educating the person as a whole (not as an assemblage of parts), and 3.) educating the person within a whole (as part of society, humanity, nature, etc.) from which it is not meaningful to extract that person. From the above it probably goes without saying, though it can not be said often enough, education is not about preparation for only a part of life (like work) but is about preparation for the whole of life and the deepest aspects of living.

Now that some attempt has been made at summarising Jiddu Krishnamurti’s approach to the nature of religiousness/religiosity, the nature of human beings, and the nature of education, I will try to support the main theme of this paper by presenting what Krishnamurti said about 1.) the intentions of education, 2.) the physical nature of the places in which education occurs, and 3.) the participants in education – the students and staff. I use the expression ‘educational centres’ instead of ‘schools’ as this is often the expression that Krishnamurti used, and because the educational centres that he founded were also meant to be places for adults to learn. In English, or rather in the English of England, schools are specifically places for younger students. To support my theme I will show how Krishnamurti described the three elements mentioned above (the intentions, the places, and the participants) in religious terms, which has the added benefit of seeing the relationship they have with one another. I believe these three elements are the focus of much, if not most, of Krishnamurti’s work on education.

1. The intentions of education

Krishnamurti repeatedly stated the intentions of the education centres he founded in very unequivocal terms, and in very religious ones.

… children… must be educated rightly… educated so that they become religious human beings. (Krishnamurti 1979) Surely they must be centres of learning a way of life which is not based on pleasure, on self-centered activities, but on the understanding of correct action, the depth and beauty of relationship, and the sacredness of a religious life. (Krishnamurti 1981b) (Letter dated 15th October 1980) These places exist for the enlightenment of man (Krishnamurti 1981b) (letter of 15th October 1979)

Part of what is religious (as stated previously) is having a consciousness that sees reality, that sees ‘what is’. The difference between understanding what one is and striving to become something that one isn’t is mirrored in the difference between wanting to discover ‘what is’ and striving to change ‘what is’. Jiddu Krishnamurti didn’t deny growth or change, in fact he applauded it. But meaningful growth and real material change without the all too frequent unfortunate side effects cannot be produced by just ensuring young people acquire knowledge and skills, and teaching them to conform to the strictures and demands of society in order to get on in life. In emphasising the latter, parents may comfort themselves that they are helping their children have material security, and schools may congratulate themselves on their examination results, but in Krishnamurti’s view they are only adding to the sorrows and violence of the world. He decries the fact that most education is to…

…acquire a job or use that knowledge for self-satisfaction, for self-aggrandisement, to get on in the world. Merely to cultivate technical capacity without understanding what is true freedom leads to destruction, to greater wars; and that is actually what is happening in the world. (Krishnamurti 1953a)

Merely to stuff the child with a lot of information, making him pass examinations, is the most unintelligent form of education. (Krishnamurti 1948)

Krishnamurti often stated that the purpose of education is to bring about freedom, love, “the flowering of goodness” and the complete transformation of society. He specifically contrasts this to what he feels are the intentions of most schools which emphasise preparing young people to succeed materially in the society that exists (or a slightly altered one). Even though it is fashionable for schools to declare loftier goals, it is instructive to examine how much undivided attention is dedicated during the day to such lofty goals and how much time is given to preparation for earning a living. It is also instructive to examine what are felt to be the imperatives that shape the educational experience – things like the use of space, who and what determines pedagogic activities, the use of time, and what is assessed, by whom and for what.

As previously mentioned, a constant theme in Jiddu Krishnamurti’s declarations of the intentions of education is freedom, but freedom for Krishnamurti is more inner in character than political. Of course, there is a connection between psychological freedom and outward compulsion – it is difficult to help a student find the former in a climate dominated by the latter – but it is not political freedom that interests Krishnamurti. Rather he is interested in the deeper freedom of the psyche and the spirit, the inner liberation that he felt was both the means and the ends of education.

Freedom is at the beginning, it is not something to be gained at the end. (Krishnamurti 1953c) (Chapter 6) There is no freedom at the end of compulsion; the outcome of compulsion is compulsion. (Krishnamurti 1953b) If you dominate a child, compel him to fit into a pattern, however idealistic, will he be free at the end of it? If we want to bring about a true revolution in education, there must obviously be freedom at the very beginning, which means that both the parent and the teacher must be concerned with freedom and not with how to help the child to become this or that. (Krishnamurti 1953b)

For Jiddu Krishnamurti, the intentions of education must be the inner transformation and liberation of the human being and, from that, society would be transformed. Education is intended to assist people to become truly religious. These intentions must not be just pleasant sounding ideals to which one pays lip service, and they are not to be arrived at by their opposites. And the religious intentions are not for some eventual goal, but for life in educational centres from moment to moment.

2. The physical nature of the places of education

Krishnamurti felt that the physical nature of educational centres was very important. He maintained that we are affected or informed by and therefore educated by far more than we suspect, and this is especially true of young impressionable minds. I will focus on what I believe to be the three elements that Krishnamurti spoke of most concerning the physicality of educational centres – 1.) the aesthetics, which includes order, 2.) special areas that Jiddu Krishnamurti felt should exist in the centres he founded, and by extension we can assume he would feel should exist in all schools, and 3.) the atmosphere he felt should prevail and which he usually spoke of as part of the physical nature of the centres, though one can argue that they are material only in a very special sense. Again, in keeping with the theme of my paper, I will show that Krishnamurti spoke of these four elements in religious terms.

a) Aesthetics. The schools Krishnamurti founded are very beautiful places, and this is not by accident. Beauty is important, not just because it is pleasing, but because sensitivity to beauty is related to being religious and indispensable to the healthy growth of a child.

To be religious is to be sensitive to reality. Your total being – body, mind, and heart – is sensitive to beauty and ugliness, to the donkey tied to a post, to the poverty and filth in this town, to laughter and tears, to everything about you. From this sensitivity for the whole of existence springs goodness, love; …(Krishnamurti 1964) (chapter 23)

He himself was extremely attentive to details and critical of things that were badly done. He was very understanding if things could not be better because of real constraints, and he never pushed the administrators of his schools to produce anything that was beyond their means. However, if things were not good through slipshod handling, neglect or lack of sensitivity, then he felt it ran counter to an essential element in education as it ran counter to the religious life that the staff are meant to be living. To expect sensitivity to develop in a child when the staff are insensitive, is to teach a very strong lesson in hypocrisy. Like several holistic educators before him (i.e. Rousseau, Pestalozzi, and Fröbel) Jiddu Krishnamurti felt that some very important things could not be taught by proscription, these things need to be lived in the presence of the learner for them to be learned. And, like Keats, whose poetry he greatly admired, Krishnamurti felt that beauty was related to truth.

Perhaps we should include in this discussion on aesthetics what Krishnamurti felt about nature and education. This makes sense in that for Krishnamurti, nature was both beautiful and a demonstration of order. The educational centres Krishnamurti founded are invariably in parks or countryside. This was not just because he felt that nature was pleasing, but because he felt that a relationship with nature had important implications for living sanely and to a relationship with the sacred. He would not, however, condemn as hopeless, inner-city schools that don’t have such luxuries, because nature was wholly available in the smallest part; a blade of grass, a house plant, or a gold fish.

That healing [of the mind] gradually takes place if you are with nature, with that orange on the tree, and the blade of grass that pushes through the cement, and the hills covered, hidden, by the clouds. This is not sentiment or romantic imagination but a reality of a relationship with everything that lives and moves on the earth. (Krishnamurti 1987) (entry dated 25th February 1983)

If you establish a relationship with it [nature] then you have relationship with mankind… But if you have no relationship with the living things on this earth you may lose whatever relationship you have with humanity, with human beings. (Krishnamurti 1987)

b) Special areas that should exist in educational centres. Another physical aspect of the educational centres Jiddu Krishnamurti created, and another indication of the religiousness of education, was his insistence that the schools have special places for silence. He often spoke to the students of the importance of a quiet mind or silence so that they could observe their thoughts.

You see meditation means to have a very quiet, still mind, not a chattering mind; to have a really quiet body, quiet mind so that your mind becomes religious. (Krishnamurti 1981a) The mind of a religious man is very quiet, sane, rational, logical – and one needs such a mind… (Krishnamurti 1962)

Jiddu Krishnamurti usually asked that these special places not be on the periphery of the schools, but in the centre of the them. Like a sanctum sanctorum, they were to be the heart, the space that generated the rest of the school. Contrary to most conceptions of schools, Krishnamurti felt that action was to be on the periphery and the insight born of silence was to be at the centre.

c) Atmospheres. While atmospheres are generated by aesthetics, the setting, and the effect of special areas in educational centres, there are also atmospheres that are generated by the participants. At least part of the atmospheres generated by people can be deliberately generated. This atmosphere is another link in understanding the religiousness of education. At Brockwood (the school that Krishnamurti founded in England) Krishnamurti frequently talked about the importance of generating an atmosphere that would itself have an effect on students the moment they arrived. Long discussions were held with the staff at Brockwood about the nature of such an atmosphere and how it might come about. Jiddu Krishnamurti had no doubt that it was possible and necessary. It had more the ring of something religious than anything commonly associated with a school. It was something sacred that worked its own magic on people in a profound and transforming way. Without that real religious atmosphere, he felt that a school was empty, or worse, it was a parody of itself, a kind of Disneyesque impression of something real but with no real substance.

Such an atmosphere, though distinct from the people in the schools, could not be separated from the people. A place may carry an atmosphere, but it is the people who create it or destroy it. To illustrate this he would cite places that at one time were known to have had very special and powerful atmospheres but which were destroyed through neglect, incompetence or corrupt behaviour. Examples of this are some of the great cathedrals or temples that have become tourist industries or money making enterprises, and so have lost any sense of religiousness. They became lifeless and without meaning even though they maintained all the physical appearance of their former selves.

There was a very memorable discussion with Jiddu Krishnamurti at the end of his life when several representatives of different schools he founded in India, America, and England went for a walk with him. He asked us all what would be left in his schools to indicate that they were Krishnamurti schools if the name Krishnamurti was removed and if all his books, audio tapes and video tapes were gone; and if something was still there, what would sustain it. It was a question about the all important ineffable qualities, the atmospheres of the educational centres, and it was a question about what we were generating; and it was a question answered by a very uncomfortable and telling silence.

3. The participants in education

There are, generally speaking, two kinds of participants in educational centres: staff and students. Jiddu Krishnamurti felt that any adult that was regularly in one of the centres was a staff member (regardless of function) and because of their regular contact with at least the educational environment if not the students, then they were in the position of educators. Everyone, staff and students, had something religious about their natures just by virtue of being human, but they had something more than that by virtue of their being in education. Krishnamurti didn’t speak of them as religious figures (such as priests or accolades) but one thing that distinguishes participants in education from participants in some other social organizations (i.e. police officers, nurses, bankers, etc.) is that people in education must have religiousness central to their overall intention and central to the nature of the life they lived on a daily basis. As this is equally necessary to both staff and students, there can be no real hierarchy between them. There are, of course, differences between staff and students in their responsibilities and experience; but in all that is most important in education the staff and students are really in the same boat. Staff members may know more about academic subjects, or gardening, or administration and therefore have a certain authority in those areas, but these are not the central concerns of education. In the central concerns of education, which is to do with inner liberation, both the students and the teachers are learners and therefore equal, and this is untouched by functional authority.

Therefore I say, authority has its place as knowledge, but there is no spiritual authority under any circumstances… That is, authority destroys freedom, but the authority of a doctor, mathematics teacher and how he teaches, that doesn’t destroy freedom. (Krishnamurti 1975) In thus helping the student towards freedom, the educator is changing his own values also; he too is beginning to be rid of the “me” and the “mine”, he too is flowering in love and goodness. This process of mutual education creates an altogether different relationship between the teacher and the student. (Krishnamurti 1953c) (Chapter 6)

Jiddu Krishnamurti felt that the over-riding quality of an educator should be religiosity.

Because he is devoted solely to the freedom and integration of the individual, the right kind of educator is deeply and truly religious. He does not belong to any sect, to any organised religion; is free of beliefs and rituals… (Krishnamurti 1953c) (Chapter 6)

Because the educator is religious; he is concerned first with ‘being’, and then right ‘doing’ will follow from it. Krishnamurti describes this relationship between ‘being’ and ‘doing’ frequently, but perhaps nowhere more succinctly than in one of his talks in Bombay,

… it is not ‘doing is being’ but ‘being is doing’ (Krishnamurti 1956).

For Jiddu Krishnamurti, ‘doing’ derived from ‘being’ rather than ‘being’ deriving from ‘doing’ – the reverse of convention. Much more needs to be said than this paper permits about the consequences of reversing the roles of ‘being’ and ‘doing’, or even worse, of confusing them. Note the modern convention of a question like, “Who are you?” (a question about being) which is answered by, “I’m a lawyer, engineer, etc.” (a statement about doing). Suffice it to say that this reversal or confusion usually leads to a highly developed ‘doing’ (which is easier to accomplish) with impoverished ‘being,’ and Krishnamurti felt that dysfunction was the usual consequence of such imbalance.

When discussing the selection process for students and staff at his English educational centre, Krishnamurti always stressed the importance of the candidate’s ‘being’ – their deepest sensitivities, their goodness and intelligence (in his definitions of those words which had nothing to do with conventional morality or IQ), the depth of their questions about themselves and the world. Although he wanted both staff and students to be intellectually sound, he never stressed academic prowess, cultural abilities, or capacities as being more important than the willingness and ability to lead what he called a religious life’. In one memorable discussion, Jiddu Krishnamurti questioned the staff about all the qualities they looked for in prospective students (as it was all the staff together who chose new students and staff members). Krishnamurti then described himself as a boy. He said he had been vague, shy, dreamy and bad at all academics, but sensitive, full of wonder, trusting, and affectionate; and Krishnamurti asked if, according to the criteria the staff had just enunciated, they would have accepted him as a child. Again, a painful silence.

Our description of the students we were seeking for a Krishnamurti school seemed not to include the young Krishnamurti. How was this possible? It was because we as staff members were thinking too conventionally and traditionally, we were more interested in ‘doing’ than ‘being’, more interested in the measurable than the immeasurable; we were choosing what was most like us, we were again choosing Barabbas.

The consequences of Krishnamurti’s view of humanity for education

Earlier on in this paper, I tried to give a summary of Jiddu Krishnamurti’s view of the nature of a human being. It now remains to say just a few things about the relation of this view to what he felt were the consequences for education. I will concentrate on only two elements as they most directly support my contention that for Krishnamurti education was a religious activity. These two elements are: 1.) the distinction between mind and brain, and 2.) people need to be revealed to themselves not shaped by others.

Krishnamurti’s view that a human has both a brain and a mind puts him at odds with most modern perspectives and most learning theory. Although this article is too short to do justice to this topic, we can simplify the difference as follows: the brain is the material centre of the nervous system and the organ of cognition. It is therefore responsible for co-ordination of the senses, memory, rationality, intellectual knowledge, etc. The mind, which is not material, is related to insight (non-visual perception), compassion, and the profound intelligence that Jiddu Krishnamurti held as the real goal of life and therefore of education. Obviously one needs a brain that functions well (like one needs a heart or a liver that functions well) but the real source of acting rightly, of goodness, and of a religious life is the mind. In this unequal relationship between the two, a good brain can not ameliorate a mind, but a good mind does ameliorate the brain. The brain has an important role to play with the mind, and that role is freeing itself from its conditioning and from activities that inhibit the mind’s healthy functioning (i.e. hate, fear, pride, etc.); and helping the brain do this is one of the main functions of education (not accumulating knowledge).

The real issue is the quality of our mind: not its knowledge but the depth of the mind that meets knowledge. Mind is infinite, is the nature of the universe which has its own order, has its own immense energy. It is everlastingly free. The brain, as it is now, is the slave of knowledge and so is limited, finite, fragmentary. When the brain frees itself from its conditioning, then the brain is infinite, then only there is no division between the mind and the brain. Education then is freedom from conditioning, from its vast accumulated knowledge as tradition. This does not deny the academic disciplines which have their own proper place in life. (Krishnamurti 1985) (Letter dated 1st October 1982)

Contrary to the perspective that has shaped much in conventional education, Jiddu Krishnamurti felt that each person needs to explore themselves and reveal themselves to themselves rather than be shaped into something by others. This is not a new perspective, and again has links to the educational theories of Rousseau, Pestalozzi, Fröbel, and Montessori.

The function of education, then, is to help you from childhood not to imitate anybody, but to be yourself all the time. So freedom lies…in understanding what you are from moment to moment. You see, you are not [normally] educated for this; your education encourages you to become something or other… (Krishnamurti 1964) (Chapter 3) To understand life is to understand ourselves, and that is both the beginning and the end of education. (Krishnamurti 1953c) (Chapter 1)

Krishnamurti felt that not only was a person’s nature and deepest aspects to be uncovered, but each person also has a unique vocation that needs to be discovered; what he/she really loves to do has to be found and pursued, and to do anything else is a deprivation of the worst kind, especially if such deprivation is in order to pursue success or other such cultural aspirations. The discovery of the natural vocation for an individual student and the student’s understanding what he really loves to do may not fit into the plans of the parents or society, but it is an important part of understanding oneself and, consequently, of education.

Modern education is making us into thoughtless entities; it does very little towards helping us to find our individual vocation. (Krishnamurti 1964) (Chapter 3) To find out what you really love to do is one of the most difficult things. That is part of education. (Krishnamurti 1974) (Part 1, Chapter 8) Right education is to help you to find out for yourself what you really, with all your heart, love to do. It does not matter what it is, whether it is to cook, or to be a gardener, but is something in which you have put your mind, your heart. (Krishnamurti 1974) (Part 1, Chapter 8)

I realize I have not said anything about how Jiddu Krishnamurti felt that any of the above could be put into practice. The theme of this paper is too small to attempt that, and yet still I feel I have bitten off more than I can chew – or perhaps it is just more than I could present in a digestible form. I have wanted to show that for Krishnamurti education was first and foremost a religious activity. In 1929 he stated what he felt was the central intention in his life,

I want to do a certain thing in the world and I am going to do it with unwavering concentration. I am concerning myself with only one essential thing; to set man free. (Krishnamurti 1929)

For this Krishnamurti started schools, and for this reason only. We read the words of the young seventeen year old Krishnamurti who wrote,

If the unity of life and the oneness of its purpose could be clearly taught to the young in schools, how much brighter would be our hopes for the future! (Krishnamurti 1912) (Foreword)

Forty one years later he wrote,

If one becomes aware that there can be peace and harmony for man only through right education, then one will naturally give one’s whole life and interest to it. (Krishnamurti 1953c) (Chapter 6)

And that is exactly what he did.

Emerson, Ralph Waldo. (1965). Education 1864. In Selected Works of Ralph Waldo Emerson . New York: New American Library.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1912) Education As Service . Adyar, Madras: Theosophical Publishing Society.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1929) The Dissolution of the Order of the Star , 3rd August, at Ommen, Holland.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1948) 5th Public Talk , 26th September, at Poona.

Krishnamurti,, Jiddu (1953a) 3rd Public Talk , 31st January, at Poona.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1953b) 6th Public Talk , 5th July, at Ojai, CA.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1953c) Education And The Significance Of Life, London: Victor Gollancz Ltd.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1956) 5th Public Talk , 18th March, at Bombay.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1962) 2nd Public Talk , 7th June, at London.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1964) This Matter of Culture, London: Victor Gollancz.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1974) On Education , Pondicherry, India: All India Press.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1975) Dialogue on Education , at Ojai.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1979) 2nd Public Talk , 26 August, at Brockwood Park.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1981a) 2nd talk to students , 19th November, at Rajghat.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1981b) Letters To The Schools: Volume One . Den Haag, Holland: Mirananda.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1985) Letters To The Schools: Volume Two . Den Haag, Holland: Mirananda.

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1987) Krishnamurti To Himself, London: Victor Gollancz.

Montessori, M. (1973) The Absorbant Mind, Madras: Kalakshetra Publications.

Sells, M. A. (1994) Mystical Languages of Unsaying, Chicago: University of Chicago Press.

For an introduction to his work:

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1970) The Krishnamurti Reader (edited by M. Lutyens), London: Penguin/Arkana. Incorporates two of Krishnamurti’s books: The Urgency of Change and The Only Revolution .

Krishnamurti, Jiddu (1978) Beginnings of Learning , London: Penguin/Arkana.

Links to other resources on Krishnamurti and education

Visit the Krishnamurti Foundation’s J.Krishnamurti Online site. It has large collection of material about him and his approach and teachings: http://www.jkrishnamurti.org/index.php

Brief details of life

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895 – 1986): born on 11 May, 1895, at Madanapalle, a small village in south India, Jiddu Krishnamurti was brought to England by Annie Besant (President of the Theosophist Society) and educated by her. She proclaimed him the Messiah and set up an organization (The Order of the Star in the East) to promote his teaching. In 1929, after experiencing considerable doubts about the role allotted to him, Jiddu Krishnamurti disbanded the organisation saying:

Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organisation be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. (from The Krishnamurti Foundation Trust)

From then until his death in February 1986, he travelled round the world speaking as a private person, teaching – giving talks and having discussions.

About the Author : Dr. Scott H. Forbes is the executive director of Holistic Education, Inc. , a non-profit organization based in Portland, Oregon. He guides the development of the Holistic Education Elementary School, directs the Teacher Development Program and heads the Holistic Education Research Unit. Scott’s intellectual work is being published under the title “Holistic Education: An Analysis of Its Ideas and Nature” (July 2003, Foundation for Educational Renewal).Previous to his doctoral work at The University of Oxford, Scott taught for 20 years (10 as Principal) at the Brockwood Park Krishnamurti Educational Centre in England.

Additional writings by Scott concerning Krishnamurti and education can be found in articles on freedom and values at: http://www.Holistic-Education.net/articles/articles.htm

the main article © Scott Forbes 1997

Acknowledgments : The picture of Jiddu Krishnamurti (believed to have been taken during the 1920s) is reproduced here in the belief that it is in the public domain. Sourced from Wikipedia Commons, it is a press photograph from the George Grantham Bain collection, which was purchased by the Library of Congress in 1948. According to the library, there are no known restrictions on the use of these photos.

The picture of the Valley Schools 33rd birthday celebrations is by Nagarjun Kansukuru and is reproduced here under a Creative Commons Attribution 2.0 Generic licence. It was sourced from Flickr. The Valley School, established in 1978, is one of the five schools of the Krishnamurti Foundation India.

First published in this form May 30, 2000.

Last Updated on October 19, 2019 by infed.org

Krishnamurti Quotes

Here you will find a wide selection of Krishnamurti quotes, carefully chosen by the staff at Krishnamurti Foundation Trust.

Understand the whole of life

You must understand the whole of life, not just one part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, why you must sing, dance and write poems, and suffer, and understand, for all that is life.

Krishnamurti, Think on These Things

You are the world

You are the world and the world is you.

Krishnamurti in Saanen 1975, Talk 4

Society is an abstraction

Society is an abstraction. Abstraction is not a reality. What is reality is relationship. The relationship between human beings has created what we call society.

Krishnamurti in Bombay 1981, Talk 1

Understanding ourselves

I have to study myself in actuality – as I am, not as I wish to be.

Krishnamurti, Freedom From the Known

Start as if you know nothing

Forget all you know about yourself; forget all you have ever thought about yourself; start as if you know nothing.

A mind free of ambition flowers in goodness

A mind that is not concerned with itself, that is free of ambition, a mind that not caught up in its own desires or driven by its own pursuit of success – such a mind is not shallow and it flowers in goodness.

It is good to be anonymous

It is good to hide your brilliance under a bushel, to be anonymous, to love what you are doing and not to show off.

You cannot depend upon anybody

You cannot depend upon anybody. There is no guide, no teacher, no authority. There is only you – your relationship with others and with the world.

To be aware

To be aware means to be sensitive, alive to the things about one, to nature, to people, to colour, to trees, to the environment, to the social structure, the whole thing; to be aware outwardly of all that’s happening and to be aware of what is happening inside.

Krishnamurti at Brockwood Park 1977, Discussion 2

Seeing the beauty of a tree

Have you ever looked at a tree without a single word of like or dislike, without a single image? What then takes place? For the first time, you see the tree as it is and you see the beauty of it, the colour, depth and vitality of it.

We are second-hand human beings

It begins at school and you go through life repeating what others have said. You are therefore second-hand human beings.

Krishnamurti, Flight of the Eagle

The emptying of consciousness

The emptying of consciousness of all its content is to have total movement in perception and action.

We want someone to get us out of confusion

Being in a state of confusion, we want someone to get us out of that confusion. So we become concerned with how to escape or avoid the state in which we are.

Krishnamurti in London 1955, Talk 5

There must be a different kind of education

If there is to be any kind of social change, there must be a different kind of education so that children are not brought up to conform.

Emotions are natural

Emotions or sensations are natural, healthy, normal. But when thought takes over, all the mischief begins.

Krishnamurti, Truth and Actuality

We fear the known coming to an end

One is never afraid of the unknown; one is afraid of the known coming to an end.

Choice is the denial of freedom

We think having capacity to choose gives us freedom. Choice is the very denial of freedom.

Only when there is no fear you can ask if there is a God

When there is no fear, the mind is in quite a different dimension. Only then can you ask whether there is a God or not.

Fighting habit becomes a habit

When you fight a habit you give life to that habit; and the fighting becomes another habit.

Happiness comes when you are not seeking it

Happiness is strange; it comes when you are not seeking it. When you are not making an effort to be happy, then unexpectedly, mysteriously, happiness is there, born of purity, of a loveliness of being.

Intellect vs intelligence

Training the intellect does not result in intelligence. Intelligence comes into being when one acts in perfect harmony, intellectually and emotionally.

What a strange thing is loneliness

What a strange thing is loneliness, and how frightening it is! We never allow ourselves to get too close to it; and if by chance we do, we quickly run away from it.

Love can do nothing

Love can do nothing, but without it nothing can be done.

The explosion of meditation

Thought shattering itself against its own nothingness is the explosion of meditation.

Out of sorrow comes passion

Remain with sorrow completely, without any movement of thought, and you will find out of that sorrow comes passion.

Krishnamurti, The Awakening of Intelligence

I don’t know you actually now

When one says ‘I know you,’ one means, ‘I know you as you were yesterday; I don’t know you actually now.’

Krishnamurti in Saanen 1967, Talk 6

Tradition becomes our security

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

The Second Krishnamurti Reader

Thought is never free

Thought is never free because it is based on knowledge, and knowledge is always limited.

Truth is a pathless land

I maintain that truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.

Krishnamurti’s Dissolution Speech

When you separate yourself, it breeds violence

When you separate yourself by belief, nationality or tradition, it breeds violence. So one who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, religion or political party, but is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.

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23 Jiddu Krishnamurti

Dr. Manjunatha S.

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895 – 1986) was an educational philosopher who believed that one of main objectives of education is to empower children with technological proficiency and inculcate those values which help them to function with clarity and efficiency in this modern era. More importantly he had thought that education must create an atmosphere in which children could develop as complete human beings. He has written extensively on issues of education, in general and the overall personality development of children in particular. According to him education is not just about preparing a child for some part of life, but it is a process in which a child is prepared for an entire life time of learning.

J. Krishnamurti is an educational philosopher whose thoughts are focused on understanding its basics as well as praxis of education. His views on education are integrated with the ideas on life, humanity and world. He had a holistic understanding of education and that is the reason why his concerns for education have great contemporary relevance. In his view the right kind of education is concerned with individual freedom, which alone can bring true cooperation with the whole, with the many; but this freedom is not achieved through the pursuit of one’s own aggrandizement and success. Freedom comes with self- knowledge, when the mind goes above and beyond the hindrances it has created for itself through craving its own security. It is the function of education to help each individual to discover all these psychological hindrances, and not merely impose upon him new patterns of conduct, new modes of thought. Such impositions will never awaken intelligence, creative understanding, but will only further condition the individual. Surely, this is what is happening throughout the world, and that is why our problems continue and multiply (http://jiddu-krishnamurti.tumblr.com).

J. Krishnamurti’s educational ideas cannot be separated from his overall thoughts. He attended to all the day-to -day educational problems with deep understating and insight. His philosophical understanding of education includes ideas such as ‘intentions of education’, ‘physical nature of the places of education’, ‘participants in education’ and the ‘process of learning and teaching’ which are explained in detail in this module. It is very essential to understand Krishnamurti’s ideas of education since they are largely based on deep concern for humanity. The purpose of education, according to him is to cultivate the right relationships, not only between individuals, but also between the individual and society. Education must help an individual to understand his/her own psychological process. To be intelligent means ‘going beyond oneself and also conquer fear’

Life Sketch

Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was born on 12th May, 1895 in the small town of Madanapalli in Madras Presidency. His father Jiddu Narayaniah had worked as an official in the British administration. His mother Sanjeevamma was very religious wand this had a profound impact on Krishnamurthi during the later years of his life. The childhood of Jiddu Krishnamurti was not an easy one. He was a sensitive and sick child who had suffered from malaria during most part of his childhood. He lost his mother at the age of ten and her death had a deep psychological impact throughout his life.

After retirement, Krishnamurti’s father having very limited means of earning found a clerk’s job in the Theosophical Society at Adyar in Madras. Later, Krishnamurthi and his brother were adopted by the Theosophical Society. Krishnamurti ’s experiences with the Theosophical Society had a deep impact on his thinking. He did not belong to any religious organisation or sect, nor did he adhere to any political ideology. Throughout his life Krishnamurthi travelled extensively talking about the need for bringing about a radical change in human beings.

(Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895 – 1986)

The following four aspects provide the basis for understanding the educational philosophy of Jiddu Krishnamurti. They are analysed under separate headings in the section that follows.

The Intentions of Education

Krishnamurti frequently stated the intentions of educational centres he founded in very unequivocal terms and religious terms. He was of the view that ‘children must be rightly educated so that they become religious human beings’ (Krishnamurti, 1974).

According to Krishnamurti these centres of education indicate a way of life which is not based on the goal of achieving pleasure. The emphasis must be on the understanding of right action, building meaningful relationships and the sacredness of religious life. These centres of learning exist as Krishnamurthi says for the enlightenment of human beings. In his own words “Surely they must be centres of learning a way of life which is not based on pleasure, on self-centered activities, but on the understanding of correct action, the depth and beauty of relationship, and the sacredness of a religious life” (Krishnamurti, 1981).

Krishnamurti always criticised the kind of education which merely fulfils the objective of obtaining a degree or a job using knowledge only for self-satisfaction. He never felt that education is to be seen as a mechanism for thrusting a lot of information on the child. Education is usually taken to be an organised, purposive activity, with pre-established goals. Krishnamurti’s view that “truth is a pathless land…it cannot be organized…” provides a base for rethinking the very goal of education. He located education in the active, existential, living present and considered it as a cooperative exploration by the teacher and student (Krishnamurti, 1912).

The real intention of education is to achieve freedom and the overall transformation of society. Here, Krishnamurti uses freedom as more of an inner aspect of human beings rather than being political in nature. Both parents and teachers need to give students the freedom to choose their future options. Education is not meant to cultivate technical competencies, but its primary focus must be on making people realise the true value of freedom. In the modern world, most often educational institutions concentrate on technical realms in which pupils mechanically learn without thinking of consequences. This, in turn leads to destruction and does not do good to humanity.

Krishnamurti sees education not with the eyes of a reformer or as a means to serve this or that end, but as an intrinsic, self-fulfilling experience requiring no further justification. The function of  education, he said, is “to bring about a mind that will not only act in the immediate but go beyond…a mind that is extraordinarily alive, not with knowledge, not with experience, but alive”. “More important than making the child technologically proficient is the creation of the right climate in the school for the child to develop fully as a complete human being”. This means giving him “the opportunity to flower in goodness, so that he is rightly related to people, things and ideas, to the whole of life” (Krishnamurti, 1974).

The Physical Nature of the Places of Education

Jiddu Krishnamurti has also laid emphasis on the physical nature of educational centres. In his philosophical understanding of education, Krishnamurthi focused his attention on the following three aspects of physical nature of educational centres:

Aesthetics: All the schools started by J. Krishnamurthi are known for their pleasing physical ambience, which is serene and aesthetically appealing. A pleasing school environment is not just about beauty, but aesthetically appealing surroundings are necessary for proper development of a child’s personality. J .Krishnamurti connected aesthetics to religion. He expected his staff to develop an appreciation for beauty and always ensured that they adhered to this rule. In the designing of educational centres Krishnamurthi gave a pivotal place to nature. He felt that relationship with nature had a significant impact on the development of a child’s personality. His schools are mostly located in the countryside and places close to nature.

Special Areas in Centres of Education: J. Krishnamurti insisted that each educational centre must have special areas to maintain silence and religiosity. He often spoke to the students of the importance of a quiet mind or silence so that they could concentrate on their thoughts. He used to tell his students “…you see meditation means to have a very quiet, still mind, not a chattering mind; to have a really quiet body, quiet mind so that your mind becomes religious” (Krishnamurti, 1981). He was of the opinion that the “mind of a religious man is very quiet, sane, rational, logical – and one needs such a mind… (Krishnamurti, 1963). He emphasised that such special places must be in the centre of educational institutions rather than in the periphery.

Atmosphere: Apart from the atmosphere created by aesthetics and special areas in educational institutions Krishnamurti says that at least a part of the atmosphere must be created by the participants themselves. This atmosphere is another link in understanding the religiousness of education. A place may carry an atmosphere, but it is the people who create it or destroy it. To illustrate this he would cite places that at one time were known to have had very special and powerful atmospheres but which were destroyed through neglect, incompetence or corrupt behaviour.

The Participants in Education

Krishnamurti noted that there are two categories of participants in education- staff and students. He perceived staff as those who are in regular contact with educational environment, if not directly with students. He used to say that every function of the staff, however small it may be was very significant for the growth of a child.

He distinguished the participants of education from the participants of any other organisation such as hospitals, police etc. The single reason he gives for such uniqueness being seen in the participants of education is their religious fervour, attitude and behaviour which stand distinct in an educational setting. In the J. Krishnamurti model of model of education there was no hierarchical order in which staff and students were placed. However, there were some differences among them with regard to their experience and responsibilities. Though he laid emphasis on the need for an educational fervour in education, he maintained that the participants in this system do not belong to any clan, sect or to any organised religion.

It is evidently pertinent that staff had some authority over certain parts of educational activities such as for example, administration or gardening. However the major goal of education is to achieve inner liberation and freedom. Krishnamurti repeatedly pointed out that both staff and students are learners and therefore both are equal. He noted that “…authority has its place as knowledge, but there is no spiritual authority under any circumstances… That is, authority destroys freedom, but the  authority of a doctor, mathematics teacher and how he teaches, that doesn’t destroy freedom” (Krishnamurti, 1975).

When discussing the selection process for students and staff at his English Educational Centre, Krishnamurti always stressed the importance of the candidates’ ‘being’, their ‘deepest sensitivities’, ‘goodness and intelligence’ and the ‘depth of their questions about themselves and the world’(his definitions of these words had nothing to do with conventional morality or IQ). Although he wanted both staff and students to be intellectually sound, he never stressed academic prowess, cultural abilities, or capacities as being more important than the willingness and ability to lead what he called a religious life’. In one memorable discussion Jiddu Krishnamurti questioned the staff about all the qualities they looked for in prospective students (this group comprised of the staff who were involved in the selection of new students and staff). Krishnamurthi then described himself as a boy. He said he had been vague, shy, dreamy and bad in academics, but sensitive, full of wonder, trusting, and affectionate. He would want to know from his teachers if, according to the criteria they had just enunciated, they would have accepted him as a child.

The Process of Learning and Teaching

J. Krishnamurti’s point of view was that education is fundamentally the art of learning, not only from books, but from the whole cycle of life. A student has to learn about the nature of the intellect, its dominance, its activities, its vast capacities and its destructive power. Learning is not from a book but from the observation of the world about you…without theories, prejudices and values ((Krishnamurti, 1981).

Krishnamurti writes about the method of education in the following passage. “If one really has something to say, the very saying of it creates its own style; but learning a style without inward experiencing can only lead to superficiality…Likewise, people who are experiencing, and therefore teaching, are the only real teachers, and they too will create their own technique” ((Krishnamurti, 2000).

To J. Krishnamurti schooling was without competition and comparison: When A is compared to B, who is clever, bright, assertive, that very comparison destroys A. This ‘destruction takes the form of competition, of imitation and conformity to the patterns set by B. This breeds antagonism, jealousy, anxiety and even fear; and this becomes the condition in which A lives for the rest of his life, always measuring, always comparing psychologically and physically… Goodness cannot flower where there is any kind of competitiveness’ (Krishnamurti, 1981). To him learning is pure observation, which is not continuous and which then becomes memory, but observation that must happen every moment, not only of the things outside us but also of what is happening inwardly. One must not look with one’s mind but with one’s eyes. It is only than that you find out that the outside is the inside…that the observer is the observed (Krishnamurti, 1974).

Krishnamurti’s views on education clearly indicate that he gave a prime place to freedom and order in the teaching-learning process. He laid great stress on values such as punctuality, kindness, generosity and fearlessness. One has to discover discipline through the practice of these values. By avoiding constraint one does not become free, there is need to develop clarity of perception, which is in essence freedom from self. Only respect for freedom could lead to development of healthy relationships (Krishnamurti, 1974).

Krishnamurti is essentially a philosopher of education. His teachings had a core concern for education. He also finds a place as an important educational thinker in courses on educational theory and philosophy.

The educational issues raised by Krishnamurti—place of knowledge in education, freedom and discipline, learning from nature, role of sensory experience and observation, comparison and competition are of such abiding concern that they have been discussed by several educational thinkers in the past and continue to hold contemporary relevance. He dealt with issues pertaining to education not just as being part of a mechanical teaching-learning process, but as concerns that had to be  addressed if a meaningful system of education had to be evolved. His educational thoughts provide a framework for revisiting the methodologies and outcomes of the present system of education. J Krishnamurthi’s writings, talks and reflections on education have also generated a lot of thinking on various aspects of schooling, teaching and learning.

The passage below gives an idea of what J. Krishnamurti envisaged as education, and gives the reader enough thoughts to ponder over, especially in the context of changes happening both in society-at-large and the field of education: “Education is not only learning from books, memorizing some facts, but also learning how to look, how to listen to what the books are saying, whether they are saying something true or false. All that is part of education. Education is not just to pass examinations, take a degree and a job, get married and settle down, but also to be able to listen to the birds, to see the sky, to see the extraordinary beauty of a tree, and the shape of the hills, and to feel with them, to be really, directly in touch with them. As you grow older, that sense of listening, seeing, unfortunately disappears because you have worries, you want more money, a better car, more children or less children. You become jealous, ambitious, greedy, envious; so you lose the sense of the beauty of the earth. You know what is happening in the world. You must be studying current events. There are wars, revolts, nation divided against nation. In this country too there is division, separation, more and more people being born, poverty, squalor and complete callousness. Man does not care what happens to another so long as he is perfectly safe. And you are being educated to fit into all this. Do you know the world is mad, that all this is madness – this fighting, quarrelling, bullying, tearing at each other? And you will grow up to fit into this. Is this right, is this what education is meant for, that you should willingly or unwillingly fit into this mad structure called society? And do you know what is happening to religions throughout the world? Here also man is disintegrating, nobody believes in anything anymore. Man has no faith and religions are merely the result of a vast propaganda. (J Krishnamurti ONLINE The Official repository of the authentic teachings of J. Krishnamurti www.jkrishnamurti.org).

The essence of J. Krishnamurti’s thoughts on education could be gauged in the following quote- “The purpose, the aim and drive of these schools is to equip the child with the most excellent technological proficiency so that he may function with clarity and efficiency in the modern world, and, far more important, to create the right climate so that the child may develop fully as a complete human being. This means giving him the opportunity to flower in goodness so that he is rightly related to people, things and ideas, to the whole of life. To live is to be related. There is no right relationship to anything if there is not the right feeling for beauty, a response to nature, to music and art, a highly developed aesthetic sense. I think it is fairly clear that competitive education and the development of the student in that process —the pattern which we now cultivate and call education— is very, very destructive. You teach him to read and write within the present system of frustration then the flowering of the mind is impeded. The question then is: if one drops this competitive education, can the mind be educated at all in the accepted sense of the word? Or, does education consist really in taking ourselves and the student away from the social structure of frustration and desire and, at the same time, giving him information about mathematics, physics, and so on? We must be very clear in ourselves what we want, clear what a human being must be — the total human being not just the technological human being. If we concentrate very much on examinations, on technological information, on making the child clever, proficient in acquiring knowledge while we neglect the other side, then the child will grow up into a one-sided human being. So we must find a way, we must bring about a movement which will cover both. So far we have separated the two and, having separated them, we have emphasized the one and neglected the other. What we are now trying to do is to join both of them together. If there is proper education, the student will not treat them as two separate fields. He will be able to move in both as one movement; in making himself technologically perfect, he will also make himself a worthwhile human being”(http://www.j-krishnamurti.org/EducPhil.html).

• v Krishnamurti Jiddu. (1912) Education as Service . Theosophical Publishing Society. Adyar, Madras.
• v ________________ (1953) Education and the Significance of Life. Victor Gollancz Ltd. London.
• v ________________ (1963). Life Ahead . Victor Golancz. London.
• v ________________ (1974). On Education. Orient Longman. New Delhi.
• v ________________ (1975). Beginnings of Learning. Victor Golancz. London.
• v ________________ (1981). Letters to School . Krishnamurthi Foundation India. Chennai.
• v ________________ (2000). Education and the Significance of Life. Krishnamurthi Foundation India. Chennai.
• v ________________ (2000). The Awakening of Intelligence . Penguin Books India. New Delhi.
• v ________________ (2002). The Revolution from within . Krishnamurthi Foundation India. Chennai.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti ( 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986 ) was a spiritual teacher , public speaker , and writer , on psychological , sociological , and spiritual subjects.

• 1.2 At the Feet of the Master (1911)
• 1.3.1 Truth is a Pathless Land (1929)
• 1.5.1 Education and the Significance of Life (1953)
• 1.5.2 The First and Last Freedom (1954)
• 1.5.3 Freedom From the Self (1955)
• 1.6.1 Freedom from the Known (1969)
• 1.7.1 A Wholly Different Way of Living (1970)
• 1.7.2 The Urgency of Change (1970)
• 1.7.3 Krishnamurti in India, 1970-71 (1971)
• 1.7.4 You are the World (1972)
• 1.7.5 The Awakening of Intelligence (1973)
• 1.7.6 Second Penguin Krishnamurti Reader (1973)
• 1.7.7 Krishnamurti's Notebook (1976)
• 1.7.8 Meditations (1979)
• 1.8.1 Letters to the Schools (1981, 1985)
• 1.8.2 Mind Without Measure (1984)
• 1.8.3 That Benediction is Where You Are (1985)
• 1.9.1 The Collected Works
• 2 Quotes about Krishnamurti
• 4 External links

Quotes [ edit ]

1910s [ edit ], at the feet of the master (1911) [ edit ].

(written under the pseudonym "Alcyone")

(Full text multiple formats)

• These are not my words ; they are the words of the Master who taught me. Without Him I could have done nothing , but through His help I have set my feet upon the Path. You also desire to enter the same Path, so the words which He spoke to me will help you also, if you will obey them. It is not enough to say that they are true and beautiful ; a man who wishes to succeed must do exactly what is said. To look at food and say that it is good will not satisfy a starving man; he must put forth his hand and eat . So to hear the Master's words is not enough, you must do what He says, attending to every word, taking every hint. If a hint is not taken, if a word is missed, it is lost forever ; for He does not speak twice. Four qualifications there are for this pathway:

Waiting the word of the Master, Watching the Hidden Light; Listening to his orders In the very midst of the fight;

Seeing His slightest signal Across the heads of the throng; Hearing His faintest whisper Above earth's loudest song.

• Closing poem

1920s [ edit ]

Truth is a pathless land (1929) [ edit ].

• I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion , by any sect . That is my point of view, and I adhere to that absolutely and unconditionally. Truth, being limitless, unconditioned, unapproachable by any path whatsoever, cannot be organized; nor should any organization be formed to lead or to coerce people along any particular path. If you first understand that, then you will see how impossible it is to organize a belief . A belief is purely an individual matter, and you cannot and must not organize it. If you do, it becomes dead, crystallized; it becomes a creed , a sect, a religion, to be imposed on others. This is what everyone throughout the world is attempting to do. Truth is narrowed down and made a plaything for those who are weak , for those who are only momentarily discontented. Truth cannot be brought down, rather the individual must make the effort to ascend to it. You cannot bring the mountain-top to the valley. If you would attain to the mountain-top you must pass through the valley, climb the steeps, unafraid of the dangerous precipices.
• I do not want to belong to any organization of a spiritual kind, please understand this. I would make use of an organization which would take me to London, for example; this is quite a different kind of organization, merely mechanical, like the post or the telegraph. I would use a motor car or a steamship to travel, these are only physical mechanisms which have nothing whatever to do with spirituality. Again, I maintain that no organization can lead man to spirituality.
• Your prejudices , your fears , your authorities , your churches new and old – all these, I maintain, are a barrier to understanding . I cannot make myself clearer than this. I do not want you to agree with me, I do not want you to follow me, I want you to understand what I am saying. “This understanding is necessary because your belief has not transformed you but only complicated you, and because you are not willing to face things as they are. You want to have your own gods – new gods instead of the old, new religions instead of the old, new forms instead of the old – all equally valueless, all barriers, all limitations, all crutches. Instead of old spiritual distinctions you have new spiritual distinctions, instead of old worships you have new worships. You are all depending for your spirituality on someone else, for your happiness on someone else, for your enlightenment on someone else; and although you have been preparing for me for eighteen years, when I say all these things are unnecessary, when I say that you must put them all away and look within yourselves for the enlightenment, for the glory , for the purification , and for the incorruptibility of the self , not one of you is willing to do it. There may be a few, but very, very few. So why have an organization?
• You are accustomed to being told how far you have advanced, what is your spiritual status. How childish! Who but yourself can tell you if you are beautiful or ugly within? Who but yourself can tell you if you are incorruptible? You are not serious in these things. But those who really desire to understand, who are looking to find that which is eternal, without beginning and without an end, will walk together with a greater intensity, will be a danger to everything that is unessential, to unrealities, to shadows. And they will concentrate, they will become the flame, because they understand. Such a body we must create, and that is my purpose . Because of that real understanding there will be true friendship . Because of that true friendship – which you do not seem to know – there will be real cooperation on the part of each one. And this not because of authority , not because of salvation, not because of immolation for a cause, but because you really understand, and hence are capable of living in the eternal. This is a greater thing than all pleasure, than all sacrifice. So these are some of the reasons why, after careful consideration for two years, I have made this decision. It is not from a momentary impulse. I have not been persuaded to it by anyone. I am not persuaded in such things. For two years I have been thinking about this, slowly, carefully, patiently, and I have now decided to disband the Order, as I happen to be its Head. You can form other organizations and expect someone else. With that I am not concerned, nor with creating new cages, new decorations for those cages. My only concern is to set men absolutely, unconditionally free.

1940s [ edit ]

• "Second Public Talk at Ojai (21 May 1944) J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 440521, published in Authentic Report of Ten Talks, Ojai, 1944 (1945), p. 7, OCLC 67727800
• "Ninth Talk in Bombay, (14 March 1948) , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. BO48Q1, published in The Collected Works , Vol. IV, p. 200
• New Delhi India 1st Public Talk (14 November 1948)

1950s [ edit ]

• Sixth Talk in New Delhi (31 October 1956) , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 561031, Vol. X, p. 155

Education and the Significance of Life (1953) [ edit ]

• Without love the acquisition of knowledge only increases confusion and leads to self-destruction.

The First and Last Freedom (1954) [ edit ]

• The transformation of the world is brought about by the transformation of oneself.
• The problem that confronts most of us is whether the individual is merely the instrument of society or the end of society. Are you and I as individuals to be used, directed, educated, controlled, shaped to a certain pattern by society and government; or does society, the State, exist for the individual? Is the individual the end of society; or is he merely a puppet to be taught, exploited, butchered as an instrument of war? That is the problem that is confronting most of us. That is the problem of the world; whether the individual is a mere instrument of society, a plaything of influences to be moulded; or whether society exists for the individual.

Freedom From the Self (1955) [ edit ]

• Response to the question: "I have listened to you for many years and I have become quite good at watching my thoughts and being aware of every thing I do, but I have never touched the deep waters or experienced the transformation of which you speak. Why?"
• Further response to the above question

1960s [ edit ]

• 11th Public Talk, London, UK (25 May 1961)
• 12th Public Talk, London, UK (28 May 1961)
• Bombay, Second Public Talk (25 February 1962)
• Sixth talk in London (17 June 1962), published in The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti : Vol. XIII, 1962-1963: A Psychological Revolution (1992)
• "Life Ahead: On Learning and the Search for Meaning" (1963), Introduction , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 261, p. 13, 2005 edition ISBN 978-1577315179
• Varanasi 2nd Public Talk (22 November 1964)
• Varanasi 5th Public Talk (28 November 1964), The Collected Works , Vol. XV
• 3rd Public Talk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (24 May 1967)
• 4th Public Talk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (28 May 1967)
• 5th Public Talk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (30 May 1967)
• Talks & Dialogues , Saanen (9 July1967) , p. 86
• 2nd Public Talk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (12 May 1968)
• 1st Discussion with Young People, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (14 May 1968)
• 4th Public Talk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (19 May 1968)
• Talks in Europe 1968 , 5th Public Talk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (22 May 1968) Collected Works, Vol. XV
• 4th Discussion with Young People, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (23 May 1968)
• Talks and Dialogues Saanen 1968  : 1st Public Talk (7 July 1968)
• Speech at the University of California, Berkley, as broadcast by Pacifica Radio (4 January 1969)
• 1st Public Talk, Berkeley, California (3 February 1969)
• 2nd Public Talk, Berkeley, California (4 February 1969)
• 3rd Public Talk, Berkeley, California (5 February 1969)
• 'Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Bulletin 3 (1969), and Krishnamurti Foundation Trust Bulletin 4, (1969)

Freedom from the Known (1969) [ edit ]

• Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life — perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody, that is the beauty of it . It has no technique and therefore no authority. When you learn about yourself, watch yourself, watch the way you walk, how you eat, what you say, the gossip, the hate, the jealousy — if you are aware of all that in yourself, without any choice, that is part of meditation.
• Thought is matter as much as the floor, the wall, the telephone, are matter. Energy functioning in a pattern becomes matter. That is all life is … Matter and energy are interrelated. The one cannot exist without the other, and the more harmony there is between the two, the more balance, the more active the brain cells are. Thought has set up this pattern of pleasure, pain, fear, and has been functioning inside it for thousands of years and cannot break the pattern because it has created it.
• Man has throughout the ages been seeking something beyond himself, beyond material welfare — something we call truth or God or reality, a timeless state — something that cannot be disturbed by circumstances, by thought or by human corruption. Man has always asked the question: what is it all about? Has life any meaning at all? He sees the enormous confusion of life, the brutalities, the revolt, the wars, the endless divisions of religion, ideology and nationality, and with a sense of deep abiding frustration he asks, what is one to do, what is this thing we call living, is there anything beyond it?
• In this constant battle which we call living, we try to set a code of conduct according to the society in which we are brought up, whether it be a Communist society or a so-called free society ; we accept a standard of behaviour as part of our tradition as Hindus or Muslims or Christians or whatever we happen to be. We look to someone to tell us what is right or wrong behaviour, what is right or wrong thought, and in following this pattern our conduct and our thinking become mechanical, our responses automatic. We can observe this very easily in ourselves.
• For centuries we have been spoon-fed by our teachers, by our authorities, by our books, our saints. We say, "Tell me all about it — what lies beyond the hills and the mountains and the earth?" and we are satisfied with their descriptions, which means that we live on words and our life is shallow and empty. We are secondhand people. We have lived on what we have been told, either guided by our inclinations, our tendencies, or compelled to accept by circumstances and environment. We are the result of all kinds of influences and there is nothing new in us, nothing that we have discovered for ourselves; nothing original, pristine, clear.
• Throughout theological history we have been assured by religious leaders that if we perform certain rituals, repeat certain prayers or mantras, conform to certain patterns, suppress our desires, control our thoughts, sublimate our passions, limit our appetites and refrain from sexual indulgence, we shall, after sufficient torture of the mind and body, find something beyond this little life. And that is what millions of so-called religious people have done through the ages, either in isolation, going off into the desert or into the mountains or a cave or wandering from village to village with a begging bowl, or, in a group, joining a monastery, forcing their minds to conform to an established pattern. But a tortured mind, a broken mind, a mind which wants to escape from all turmoil, which has denied the outer world and been made dull through discipline and conformity — such a mind, however long it seeks, will find only according to its own distortion.
• The traditional approach is from the periphery inwards, and through time, practice and renunciation, gradually to come upon that inner flower, that inner beauty and love — in fact to do everything to make oneself narrow, petty and shoddy; peel off little by little; take time; tomorrow will do, next life will do — and when at last one comes to the centre one finds there is nothing there, because one's mind has been made incapable, dull and insensitive. Having observed this process, one asks oneself, is there not a different approach altogether — that is, is it not possible to explode from the centre?
• The world accepts and follows the traditional approach. The primary cause of disorder in ourselves is the seeking of reality promised by another; we mechanically follow somebody who will assure us a comfortable spiritual life. It is a most extraordinary thing that although most of us are opposed to political tyranny and dictatorship, we inwardly accept the authority, the tyranny, of another to twist our minds and our way of life. So if we completely reject, not intellectually but actually, all so-called spiritual authority, all ceremonies, rituals and dogmas, it means that we stand alone and are already in conflict with society; we cease to be respectable human beings. A respectable human being cannot possibly come near to that infinite, immeasurable, reality.
• That is the first thing to learn — not to seek. When you seek you are really only window-shopping. The question of whether or not there is a God or truth or reality, or whatever you like to call it, can never be answered by books, by priests, philosophers or saviours. Nobody and nothing can answer the question but you yourself and that is why you must know yourself. Immaturity lies only in total ignorance of self. To understand yourself is the beginning of wisdom.
• I think there is a difference between the human being and the individual. The individual is a local entity, living in a particular country, belonging to a particular culture, particular society, particular religion. The human being is not a local entity. He is everywhere. If the individual merely acts in a particular corner of the vast field of life, then his action is totally unrelated to the whole. So one has to bear in mind that we are talking of the whole not the part, because in the greater the lesser is, but in the lesser the greater is not. The individual is the little conditioned, miserable, frustrated entity, satisfied with his little gods and his little traditions, whereas a human being is concerned with the total welfare, the total misery and total confusion of the world.
• We human beings are what we have been for millions of years — colossally greedy, envious, aggressive, jealous, anxious and despairing, with occasional flashes of joy and affection. We are a strange mixture of hate, fear and gentleness; we are both violence and peace. There has been outward progress from the bullock cart to the jet plane but psychologically the individual has not changed at all, and the structure of society throughout the world has been created by individuals. The outward social structure is the result of the inward psychological structure of our human relationships, for the individual is the result of the total experience, knowledge and conduct of man. Each one of us is the storehouse of all the past. The individual is the human who is all mankind.
• We are afraid of the known and afraid of the unknown. That is our daily life and in that there is no hope, and therefore every form of philosophy, every form of theological concept, is merely an escape from the actual reality of what is . All outward forms of change brought about by wars, revolutions, reformations, laws and ideologies have failed completely to change the basic nature of man and therefore of society.
• As human beings living in this monstrously ugly world, let us ask ourselves, can this society, based on competition, brutality and fear, come to an end? Not as an intellectual conception, not as a hope, but as an actual fact, so that the mind is made fresh, new and innocent and can bring about a different world altogether? It can only happen, I think, if each one of us recognises the central fact that we, as individuals, as human beings, in whatever part of the world we happen to live or whatever culture we happen to belong to, are totally responsible for the whole state of the world. We are each one of us responsible for every war because of the aggressiveness of our own lives, because of our nationalism, our selfishness, our gods, our prejudices, our ideals, all of which divide us.
• What can a human being do — what can you and I do — to create a completely different society? We are asking ourselves a very serious question. Is there anything to be done at all? What can we do? Will somebody tell us? People have told us. The so-called spiritual leaders, who are supposed to understand these things better than we do, have told us by trying to twist and mould us into a new pattern, and that hasn't led us very far; sophisticated and learned men have told us and that has led us no further. We have been told that all paths lead to truth — you have your path as a Hindu and someone else has his path as a Christian and another as a Muslim, and they all meet at the same door — which is, when you look at it, so obviously absurd. Truth has no path, and that is the beauty of truth, it is living. A dead thing has a path to it because it is static, but when you see that truth is something living, moving, which has no resting place, which is in no temple, mosque or church, which no religion, no teacher, no philosopher, nobody can lead you to — then you will also see that this living thing is what you actually are — your anger, your brutality, your violence, your despair, the agony and sorrow you live in. In the understanding of all this is the truth, and you can understand it only if you know how to look at those things in your life. And you cannot look through an ideology, through a screen of words, through hopes and fears.
• You cannot depend upon anybody. There is no guide, no teacher, no authority. There is only you — your relationship with others and with the world — there is nothing else. When you realize this, it either brings great despair, from which comes cynicism and bitterness, or, in facing the fact that you and nobody else is responsible for the world and for yourself, for what you think, what you feel, how you act, all self-pity goes. Normally we thrive on blaming others, which is a form of self-pity.
• It is important to understand from the very beginning that I am not formulating any philosophy or any theological structure of ideas or theological concepts. It seems to me that all ideologies are utterly idiotic. What is important is not a philosophy of life but to observe what is actually taking place in our daily life, inwardly and outwardly. If you observe very closely what is taking place and examine it, you will see that it is based on an intellectual conception, and the intellect is not the whole field of existence; it is a fragment, and a fragment, however cleverly put together, however ancient and traditional, is still a small part of existence whereas we have to deal with the totality of life.
• When we look at what is taking place in the world we begin to understand that there is no outer and inner process; there is only one unitary process, it is a whole, total movement, the inner movement expressing itself as the outer and the outer reacting again on the inner. To be able to look at this seems to me all that is needed, because if we know how to look, then the whole thing becomes very clear, and to look needs no philosophy, no teacher. Nobody need tell you how to look. You just look. Can you then, seeing this whole picture, seeing it not verbally but actually, can you easily, spontaneously, transform yourself? That is the real issue. Is it possible to bring about a complete revolution in the psyche?
• Violence is not merely killing another. It is violence when we use a sharp word, when we make a gesture to brush away a person, when we obey because there is fear. So violence isn't merely organized butchery in the name of God, in the name of society or country. Violence is much more subtle, much deeper, and we are inquiring into the very depths of violence. When you call yourself an Indian or a Muslim or a Christian or a European, or anything else, you are being violent. Do you see why it is violent? Because you are separating yourself from the rest of mankind. When you separate yourself by belief, by nationality, by tradition, it breeds violence. So a man who is seeking to understand violence does not belong to any country, to any religion, to any political party or partial system; he is concerned with the total understanding of mankind.

1970s [ edit ]

• As quoted in The Eden Express (1975) by Mark Vonnegut, p. 208
• 6th Public Talk, Saanen (28 July 1970) 'The Mechanical Activity of Thought" in The Impossible Question (1972) , Part I, Ch. 6], p. 63 ISBN 0-0606-4838-X   Invalid ISBN J.Krishnamurti Online, Serial No. 330
• 6th Public Talk, Saanen (28 July 1970) 'The Mechanical Activity of Thought" in The Impossible Question (1972) Part I, Ch. 6
• 5th Public Talk Saanen (26th July 1970); also in "Fear and Pleasure", The Collected Works , Vol. X
• 1st Public Talk, Bangalore, India (30 January 1971)
• 1st Public Talk, Bombay (Mumbai), India (7 February 1971)
• 3rd Public Talk, Bombay (Mumbai), India (14 February 1971)
• 4th Public Talk, Bombay (Mumbai), India (17 February 1971)
• 3rd Public Talk, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (24 May 1971)
• 1st Discussion with Young People, Amsterdam, The Netherlands (26 May 1971)
• 2nd Public Talk, Saanen, Switzerland (20 July 1971)
• 4th Public Talk, Saanen, Switzerland (25 July 1971)
• 6th Public Talk, Saanen, Switzerland (29 July 1971)
• 5th Public Discussion, Saanen, Switzerland (8 August 1971)
• 7th Public Discussion, Saanen, Switzerland (10 August 1971)
• 1st Question & Answer Meeting, Brockwood Park, UK (7 September 1971)
• 2nd Question & Answer Meeting, Brockwood Park, UK (11 September 1971)
• 3rd Public Talk, Bangalore, India (13 January 1973)
• Beyond Violence (1973), p. 66, ISBN 0-06-064839-2
• Saanen, Switzerland (5 August 1973)
• Talks in Saanen (1974), p. 71
• 10th Conversation with D. Bohm, Brockwood Park, UK and Gstaad, Switzerland (27 September 1975)
• 2nd Public Talk, Brockwood Park, UK (26th August 1979)
• 2nd Seminar Meeting, Brockwood Park, UK (14 September 1979)
• First Public Talk at Ojai (7 April 1979) published in This Light in Oneself : True Meditation (1999), edited by Ray McCoy, p. 12 ISBN 978-1570624421
• Variant rendition : The essence of goodness is a mind that is not in conflict. Examine it, look at it. Goodness cannot flower through another, through a religious figure, through dogma, through belief, it can only flower in the soil of total attention in which there is no authority. You are following all this? Is this all too complex? And goodness implies great responsibility. You cannot be good and allow wars to take place. So a man that is really good is totally responsible for all his life.

A Wholly Different Way of Living (1970) [ edit ]

• "Second Discussion in San Diego (18 February 1974) , p. 27; J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. SD74CA2

The Urgency of Change (1970) [ edit ]

• Conversation 5
• ' Conversation 5

Krishnamurti in India, 1970-71 (1971) [ edit ]

• The First Step is the Last Step (2004), p. 281

You are the World (1972) [ edit ]

• Now, can one die every day to everything that one knows — except, of course, the technological knowledge, the direction where your home is, and so on; that is, to end, psychologically, every day, so that the mind remains fresh, young and innocent? That is death. And to come upon that there must be no shadow of fear. To give up without argument, without any resistance. That is dying. Have you ever tried it? To give up without a murmur, without restraint, without resistance, the thing that gives you most pleasure (the things that are painful, of course, one wants to give up in any case). Actually to let go. Try it. Then, if you do it, you will see that the mind becomes extraordinarily alert, alive and sensitive, free and unburdened. Old age then takes on quite a different meaning, not something to be dreaded.
• Thought itself must deny itself. Thought itself sees what it is doing and therefore thought itself realizes that it has to come of itself to an end. There is no other factor than itself. Therefore when thought realizes that whatever it does, any movement that it makes, is disorder (we are taking that as an example) then there is silence.

The Awakening of Intelligence (1973) [ edit ]

• Part V, Ch. 3 : 3rd Public Talk Madras 14th January 1968 "The Sacred"

Second Penguin Krishnamurti Reader (1973) [ edit ]

• Talks in Europe 1968

Krishnamurti's Notebook (1976) [ edit ]

• Thought shattering itself against its own nothingness is the explosion of meditation.

Meditations (1979) [ edit ]

1980s [ edit ]

• 1st Public Talk, Ojai, California (1 April 1980)
• 4th Public Talk, Ojai, California (10 April 1980)
• The individuality is the name, the form and superficial culture he acquires from tradition and environment. The uniqueness of man does not lie in the superficial but in complete freedom from the content of his consciousness, which is common to all humanity.
• It is man’s pretence that because he has choice he is free. Freedom is pure observation without direction, without fear of punishment and reward. Freedom is without motive; freedom is not at the end of the evolution of man but lies in the first step of his existence.
• "The core of the teachings (1980)
• 2nd Question and Answer Session, Saanen (24 July 1980) , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. SA80Q2
• 3rd Public Talk, Brockwood Park, UK (5 September 1981)
• The Network of Thought (1982) J.Krishnamurti Online. Serial No. 332. ISBN 9780060648138 , p. 96
• If you are not at all concerned with the world but only with your personal salvation, following certain beliefs and superstitions, following gurus, then I am afraid it will be impossible for you and the speaker to communicate with each other. … We are not concerned at all with private personal salvation but we are concerned, earnestly, seriously, with what the human mind has become, what humanity is facing. We are concerned as human beings, human beings who are not labelled with any nationality. We are concerned at looking at this world and what a human being living in this world has to do, what is his role?
• The Flame of Attention (1984) , p. 10 ISBN 0-06-064814-7 . J.Krishnamurti Online, Serial No. 320
• Last Talks at Saanen, 1985 (1987), p. 158 ISBN 0-06-064798-1
• Krishnamurti to Himself (1987) - ISBN 0-06-250649-8 1993 edition; J.Krishnamurti Online. Serial No. 60039
• Last public talk (4 January 1986) , The Future is Now : Last Talks in India (1988) , p. 100

Letters to the Schools (1981, 1985) [ edit ]

• Vol. I, p. 12
• Vol. I, p. 113
• Vol. II, p. 30
• Vol. II, p. 31

Mind Without Measure (1984) [ edit ]

That Benediction is Where You Are (1985) [ edit ]

Posthumous publications [ edit ].

• On Mind and Thought (1993), p. 34 ISBN 9780062510150
• Questioning Krishnamurti : J. Krishnamurti in dialogue (1996), p. 165 ISBN 9780722532843
• As quoted in Perfecting Ourselves : Coordinating Body, Mind, and Spirit (2002) by Aaron Hoopes, p. 64

The Collected Works [ edit ]

• "Fifth Talk in The Oak Grove, 11 June 1944" , J. Krishnamurti Online, JKO Serial No. 440611, Vol. III, p. 219
• Vol. IV, p. 172
• "Seventh Talk in Poona, 10 October 1948" , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 481010; Vol. V, p. 128
• "Eighth Talk in The Oak Grove, 7 August 1949" , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 490807, Vol. V, p. 283
• Vol. VI, p 5, "First Talk in Rajahmundry (20 November 1949) , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 491120
• "Fifth Talk in Bombay 1950 (12 March 1950) , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 500312, ' The Collected Works , Vol. VI, p. 134
• "Third Talk at Rajghat" (25 December 1955) , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 551225, Vol. IX, p. 192
• Second Talk in Poona (10 September 1958) , J.Krishnamurti Online , JKO Serial No. 580910, Vol. XI, p. 20
• Vol. XI, p. 62
• Vol. XI, p. 242
• Vol. XI, p. 288
• Vol. XIII, p. 251
• Vol. XIV, p. 301
• Vol. XV, p. 244
• Vol. XV, p. 321

Quotes about Krishnamurti [ edit ]

• Tenzin Gyatso, 14th Dalai Lama , as quoted on jacket of Inward Revolution: Bringing About Radical Change in the World (2006) by Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Dr. E. Stanley Jones , The Christ of the Indian Road (1925)
• Charles W. Leadbeater , The Masters and the Path (1925) p. 63
• Henry Miller , in My Bike & Other Friends (1977), p. 12
• Publishers Weekly , as quoted on the jacket of To Be Human (2000) by Jiddu Krishnamurti
• Roland Vernon , on Krishnamurti's early education, in Star in the East: Krishnamurti, The Invention of a Messiah (2001)
• Roland Vernon , in Star in the East: Krishnamurti, The Invention of a Messiah (2001)

See also [ edit ]

• Ageless Wisdom teachings
• Age of Aquarius
• Alice A. Bailey
• Annie Besant
• H.P. Blavatsky
• The Masters of Wisdom
• Helena Roerich

External links [ edit ]

• Jiddu Krishnamurti Online - Official J. Krishnamurti inter-organizational website whose mission is " to make the teachings of J. Krishnamurti available and freely downloadable and to guarantee authenticity "
• Krishnamurti Foundation Trust (UK)
• Krishnamurti Foundation of America
• A Krishnamurti Directory
• The Krishnamurti Information Network
• Krishnamurti World
• The jiddu-krihnamurti.net website - Full text of talks and books, also forum

• Philosophers from India
• Hindus from India
• 1895 births
• 1986 deaths
• Vegetarians
• Non-fiction authors from India
• Spiritual teachers
• Pages with ISBN errors

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Krishnamurti on education

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Krishnamurti on Education

Education that would bring about a human being with a radically new consciousness was close to Krishnamurti’s heart. He set up schools in India, UK and USA. Today, the Krishnamurti Foundation India manages six schools – Rishi Valley School (Madanapalle), Rajghat Besant School (Varanasi), The Valley School (Bengaluru), The School-KFI (Chennai), Sahyadri School (Pune) and Pathashaala (near Chennai). He visited these schools regularly and gave talks, held dialogues with teachers, parents and students besides writing letters to the schools. These talks, dialogues, conversations and writings have been reproduced as books which any one who is interested in bringing about a new society through education would find valuable.

BOOKS FOR PARENTS & EDUCATORS

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