Krishnamurti: The Talks on Freedom - A State of Mind | Questioning, Curiosity, Intensity

                      Questioning, Curiosity, Intensity





                                                                                        “To find out for oneself, one must put fundamental questions”
                                                              (The Collected Works of J. Krishnamurti: (1962-1963) 'A Psychological Revolution' - page 10)
                                         ~~~~~~~~~~~~~

There are very few interested in self-understanding in its totality, are there not? Most of us are asleep, content with things as they are. We idly speculate and theorize about some aspects of it, some particular catchphrase or idea that has caught our immediate attention.

We don’t ask ourselves deep questions, it is not in our nature. Like curiosity, the natural questioning of the child is cleverly suppressed by our parents and teachers, as it may uncover things in life best left alone. One is never certain what an open question will uncover; it is safer to only ask questions where the answer is already known:

                            "You cannot perceive if you do not ask the right question - and a right question has no answer, because it needs no answer.
                                                         It is wrong questions that invariably have answers. The urgency behind the right question,
                                                                                          the very instance of it, brings about perception. ..."
                                                                        (The Collected Works: Vol. XI, 1st Public Talk, 23rd December, 1959)
                                                                                                               (See below for the full quote)

This is clearly stating there are right questions and wrong questions. What is a right question? (see below for some examples of questions posed in the talks). Why does this question need no answer? Is it that the question itself is enough, that the very asking of the question puts the mind in a new state of enquiry, where perception comes about? Is the core issue the state or quality of mind that is questioning?

There is also no sense of urgency in us. In questioning as well as in our daily life. It is all very well to say the house is burning, but unless we see the urgency of this directly we will continue along our indolent way. Of course we hold the view that we are not responsible; we have politicians and the whole authoritarian structure of democracy to blame for the burning social order. The self is a blame game - behind this blame of others is self-pity. The self has created the house which is burning and then blames others for this situation.
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If you closely observe the Bohm dialogues, you will see that they are driven by a series of questions. These are questions where a conclusive answer is not sought; rather the intent with the question is to explore/investigate the subject at hand, ranging through all its nuances and implications. In fact, the search for an answer is an impediment to actual enquiry. Answers that arise are born out of the known, the past. There is a clear statement in the talks that solutions to problems only lie in the silent mind.

The problem is that we want a quick answer, a quick solution, so that we can go on our way. We don’t want to persist with this on an ongoing basis. The inquiry demands patience and persistence; the quality of questioning must have passion, or intensity. Without it - as well as complete attention - all enquiry has no meaning.

We also have no curiosity, which again has been carefully weeded out of us by our parents and teachers. Authority figures do not like unbridled curiosity, it is threatening to their power and psychological paradigms. If you recall your schooling you will see that it never encouraged open questioning, all curiosity was confined and shaped by the teachers' conditioning and by 'accepted wisdom'. To encourage an open mind is to invite discomfort and threats to the conformism of groupthink. Asking open questions can be dangerous; it also highlights one's supposed lack of knowledge, naivety and stupidity in conducting oneself in social groups and situations.

The drive to say we don’t know but want to find out is narrowly confined to a particular academic subject or trade/profession. Holistic curiosity is discouraged from the very beginning. Hence we grow up without the capacity to ask any questions, to challenge what we are told while we are being told it. This is considered impolite and socially awkward. Conformism and docility reigns supreme, the whole of democracy rests upon it. There is the old saying - the nail that stands up gets hammered down.

What is the real nature of this thing called "intention"?

“To transform the world, we must begin with ourselves; and what is important in beginning with ourselves is the intention. The intention must be to understand ourselves and not to leave it to others to transform themselves or to bring about a modified change through revolution, either of the left or of the right. It is important to understand that this is our responsibility, yours and mine; because, however small may be the world we live in, if we can transform ourselves, bring about a radically different point of view in our daily existence, then perhaps we shall affect the world at large, the extended relationship with others.” (Book of Life Daily Meditations: 'Our responsibility' - October 22, 2007)

What is the nature of this intention? It is clear there is no motive, for motive implies the self. Intention has no result or end in view, something which we find almost incomprehensible. Is this intention related to natural curiosity and questioning and so a part of what is the 'natural intelligence' of the human organism? That is, a natural state that comes into being when the self ends, when the mind is quiet?
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We live with images. You can see how we protect our cherished self-image from the insults and slights of others. It is a mask that we put on each day. The self is a master at game-playing. The mask we wear conceals our real urges, our desires, our ceaseless craving to become somebody. We all want self-fulfilment. Behind the mask of the self lurks fear, that one day our self-image will crumble and we will see ouselves for what we actually are - confused, fearful, violent, alone and empty.

So, clinging to our images is more important than anything else. We don't have the intention of self-knowledge, for this means the end of all self-protection, all images. Consequently, we only selectively read the talks for that in them which we can:


   “You can only listen when the mind is quiet, when the mind doesn't react immediately, when there is an interval between your reaction and what is being said. Then in that interval there is a quietness, there is a silence in which alone there is a comprehension which is not intellectual understanding. If there is a gap between what is said and your own reaction to what is said, in that interval, whether you prolong it indefinitely, for a long period or for a few seconds - in that interval, if you observe, there comes clarity. It is the interval that is the new brain.”
                                                                                  (Book of Life Daily Meditations: 'There is a quietness' - October 21, 2007)
                                                                              (Eight Questions) ; (Insight) ; (Intelligence)

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More Significant Quotations:

“Being the result of time, the mind is always thinking in terms of growth, of achievement; and can the mind free itself from the ‘more’, which is really to dissociate itself completely from society?   Society insists on the ‘more’. After all, our culture is based on envy and acquisitiveness, is it not? Our acquisitiveness is not only in material things but also in the realm of so-called spirituality, where we want to have more virtue, to be nearer the Master, the guru.

So the whole structure of our thinking is based on the ‘more’, and when one completely understands the demand for the ‘more’, with all its results, there is surely a complete dissociation from society; and only the individual who is completely dissociated from society can act upon society. …

I think this is the real issue, and not how to produce more things and distribute what is produced. The basic problem is that man is not creative; he has not discovered for himself this extraordinary source of creativity which is not an invention of the mind.”
(JKTI: Collected Works: Vol. IX, 'Can the mind free itself from the 'more’?' - page 195)

* Full quote that is excerpted above:

“We are not concerned with what you should or should not do; that is not the problem. We are concerned with understanding the mind; and in understanding there is no condemnation, no demand for a pattern of action. You are merely observing; and observation is denied when you concern yourself with a pattern of action, or merely explain the inevitability of a slavish life.

What matters is to observe your own mind without judgment - just to look at it, to watch it, to be conscious of the fact that your mind is a slave, and no more; because that very perception releases energy, and it is this energy that is going to destroy the slavishness of the mind. But if you merely ask, "How am I to be free from my slavery to routine, from my fear and boredom in everyday existence?", you will never release this energy. We are concerned only with perceiving what is; and it is the perception of what is that releases the creative fire.

You cannot perceive if you do not ask the right question - and a right question has no answer, because it needs no answer. It is wrong questions that invariably have answers. The urgency behind the right question, the very instance of it, brings about perception. The perceiving mind is living, moving, full of energy, and only such a mind can understand what truth is.

But most of us, when we are face to face with a problem of this kind, invariably seek an answer, a solution, the `what to do', and the solution, the `what to do' is so easy, leading to further misfortune, further misery. That is the way of politicians. That is the way of the organized religions, which offer an answer, an explanation; and having found it, the so-called religious mind is thereby satisfied.

But we are not politicians, nor are we slavish to organized religions. We are now examining the ways of our own minds, and for that there must be no fear. To find out about oneself, what one thinks, what one is, the extraordinary depths and movements of the mind - just to be aware of all that requires a certain freedom.

And to inquire into oneself also requires an astonishing energy, because one has to travel a distance which is immeasurable. Most of us are fascinated by the idea of going to the moon, or to Venus; but those distances are much shorter than the distance within ourselves.”
(The Collected Works: Vol XI, 1st Public Talk, December 23, 1959)
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“One of the principal questions which one has to put to oneself is this: how far or to what depth can the mind penetrate into itself? That is the quality of seriousness because it implies awareness of the whole structure of one's own psychological being, with its urges, its compulsions, its desire to fulfil and its frustrations, its miseries, strains and anxieties, its struggles, sorrows, and the innumerable problems that it has. …”
(Book of Life Daily Meditations: 'A mind with problems is not a serious mind' - September 29, 2007)

“For the total development of the human being, solitude as a means of cultivating sensitivity becomes a necessity. One has to know what it is to be alone, what it is to meditate, what it is to die; and the implications of solitude, of meditation, of death, can be known only by seeking them out. These implications cannot be taught, they must be learnt. One can indicate, but learning by what is indicated is not the experiencing of solitude or meditation. To experience what is solitude and what is meditation, one must be in a state of inquiry; only a mind that is in a state of inquiry is capable of learning. But when inquiry is suppressed by previous knowledge, or by the authority and experience of another, then learning is mere imitation, and imitation causes a human being to repeat what is learnt without experiencing it.”
(Life Ahead: Page 14)

“The problem is, surely, to free the mind totally so that it is in a state of awareness which has no border, no frontier. And how is the mind to discover that state? How is it to come to that freedom? I hope you are seriously putting this question to yourselves because I am not putting it to you. I am not trying to influence you; I am merely pointing out the importance of asking oneself this question. The verbal asking of the question by another has no meaning if you don't put it to yourself with instance, with urgency.

… The politicians, the leaders, the priests, the newspapers and books you read, the knowledge you acquire, the beliefs you cling to - all this is making the margin of freedom more and more narrow. If you are aware of this process going on, if you actually perceive the narrowness of the spirit, the increasing slavery of the mind, then you will find that out of perception comes energy; and it is this energy born of perception that is going to shatter the petty mind, the respectable mind, the mind that goes to the temple, the mind that is afraid.   So perception is the way of truth.”
(Book of Life Daily Meditations: 'Out of perception comes energy' - October 12, 2007)
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Major Questions Posed in the Talks:

The primary question: "Our only concern is with the question, "Can the mind free itself from its self-created bondage?" All other questions are irrelevant and prevent the mind from attending to that one question. There is no attention when there's a motive, the pressure to achieve, to realize; that is, when the mind is seeking a result, an end. The mind will discover the solution of this problem, not through arguments, opinions, convictions or beliefs, but through the very intensity of the question itself."
                                                               (From: Kinfonet Announcement - 2008 Memorial Day Dialogues email, March 3, 2008 - unsourced}


          “Is it possible to bring about a fundamental transformation without conflict, without one part of the mind trying to dominate another part?”
                                                                                      (Athens, Greece, 3rd Public Talk, September 30, 1956)

                               "One asks: Can the mind ever be free of this social and cultural conditioning, of the mind measuring and comparing,
                                                                         the conditioning of fear and pleasure. Of reward and punishment?”
                                                                                                       (The Impossible Question: page 64)

                                “The impossible question is this: can the mind empty itself of the known? - itself, not you empty the mind. That is an impossible
                                                     question. If you put it with tremendous earnestness, with seriousness, with passion, you’ll find out.”
                                                                              (The Impossible Question: page 157; single word emphasis in the original)

                                                                                                     “Can the mind look without the ‘me’?”
                                                                       (The Impossible Question: Chapter 4, 'Fragmentation' - July 23, 1970, page 46)
                                                                                                   (Krishnamurti, Eckhart Tolle and the Koan)

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