| "Why is there this division between you and me and we and they, the Englishman, the Frenchman, the Indian, the Muslim, you know, all the rest of it - why? Do you blame it on the culture you live in? Do you blame it on the society, on the newspapers with their vested interests? Or the mind is always dividing, fragmented. Is not the very... the nature of thought brings about fragmentation. Do go into it, please. You will see it, find out. The 'me' and the 'you'. What is the 'me' who is so sacred, unique, so important in this world, who is this 'me' and the 'you'? Who is this 'me'? My country, my ideas, my opinions, my judgements, my family, my job, you know, me, me - why? Why this 'me' and the separateness which brings about - the moment there is the 'me', there must be separation, psychologically. Of course physically and otherwise they are separate but I am talking about psychologically. Who is this me? Is it a bundle of memories? And if it is a bundle of memories - and memories are dead things, past gone, finished - and if it is a bundle of memories, the 'me' is a dead thing to which we cling to. Can I live in this world without the 'me'?
These are not absurd questions because one has to put these questions and find the truth of the matter. And nobody is going to answer the questions radically, truthfully except yourself. The self-centred activity which is part of the observer, and therefore he divides - me and my family, me the observer and the thing observed is over there. There is not only the linguistic difference, the semantic difference but also the differences of temperament, the depths of various forms of experiences, memories, knowledge - you are very clever, I am very stupid. I am always comparing myself against the hero, against the saint. So can all that end so that there is no division at all? And if there is division is there love? When I say, 'I love my wife,' is it love? And when I say, 'I love my children,' is it love? If it is love would you send them to be killed in a war? You may have no war in this country but a war is going on in the Middle East and Vietnam and so on. They are part of your children, the world, the human being.
So this is not an emotional lecture, talk, so please don't get emotional about it. But we are facing, we are asking ourselves why this division exists at all. And to find out, one has to see. Seeing is really an act of meditation and it is the most extraordinary beautiful thing if you see it on the instant, the truth of it, therefore free from this division altogether. It doesn't mean your bank account is my bank account (laughs). Probably I am glad you hope it's not - anyhow there it is - it's not. But to find out for oneself very, very seriously, and to live without division, which is to live with peace, completely at peace. Then only will you know what love is."
– J. Krishnamurti
Public Talk 1 London, England - 12 March 1969
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