Foundation Focus Winter/Spring 2025

"Now, when you listen with complete attention to what is being said, you will immediately see the truth of it or the falseness of it. There is nothing false about it, because it is factual—we are dealing with facts, not with ideas which we can discuss or about which you have your opinion or somebody’s opinion. These are facts, however ugly or however beautiful. And that is the way we have functioned for centuries upon centuries: we have said to ourselves, 'Thought can alter everything.' Thought is based on pleasure, and will is the result of pleasure; and we say, 'From that we will alter everything.' And when you examine, you will find that you cannot alter a thing, unless you understand this pleasure principle.
So, when you understand all this, conflict ceases. You don’t end conflict deliberately; conflict ceases—which does not mean you become a vegetable! But you have to understand desire, to observe it functioning daily and to watch the interference of thought, which gives desire a time element. In the examination and the understanding of these there is inherent discipline. To listen to what is being said needs discipline—to listen not only verbally but inwardly, deeply, not according to some pattern. The very act of listening is discipline, surely.
So, when the mind understands the nature of pleasure, thought, desire, that very examination brings with it discipline. Therefore there is no question of indulging, not indulging, should, should not, all that goes away. It is like some food you eat, which gives you a tummy ache! If the pleasure of the tongue is greater than the tummyache, then you go on eating, and you constantly say, 'I must not eat;' you play a trick on yourself, but you go on eating. But when the pain becomes greater, then you pay attention to what you eat. But if you were attentive at the first moment when you had pain; then there would be no need to have the conflict between pleasure and pain.
So all this brings us to a certain point, which is that one must be a complete light to oneself. We are not; we rely on others. As you are listening, you are relying on the speaker to tell you what to do. But if you listen very carefully, the speaker is not telling you what to do; he is asking you to examine, he is telling you how to examine and what is implied in the examination. By examining very carefully, you are free of all dependence and you are a light to yourself. That means you are completely alone.
We are not alone. We are lonely. You are the result of so many centuries of culture, propaganda, influence, climate, food, dress, what people have said and have not said, and so on; therefore, you are not alone. You are a result. And to be a light to yourself, you have to be alone. When you have discarded the whole psychological structure of society, of pleasure, of conflict, you are alone. And this aloneness is not something to be dreaded, something which is painful. It is only when there is isolation, when there is loneliness, that there is pain; then there is anxiety, then there is fear. Aloneness is something entirely different, because it is only the mind which is alone which is not influenceable. This means the mind has understood the principle of pleasure and therefore nothing can touch it— nothing; no flattery, no fame, no capacity, no gift can touch it. And that aloneness is essential. When you see the sunset attentively, you are alone—are you not? Beauty is always alone—not in the stupid, isolating sense. It is the quality of a mind that has gone beyond propaganda, beyond personal like and dislike, and that is not functioning on pleasure. A mind can perceive beauty only in aloneness. The mind has to come to that extraordinary state when it is not influenceable and therefore has freed itself from the environmental conditioning and the conditioning of tradition and so on. It is only such a mind that can proceed in its aloneness to examine or to observe what is silence. Because it is only in silence you can hear those screeching owls. If you are chattering with your problems and so on, you will never hear those owls. Because of silence, you hear. Because of silence, you act. And action is life.
When you understand desire, pleasure, thought, you have discarded all authority, because authority of every kind— inward, outward has led you nowhere. You have lost total faith in all authority, inwardly; therefore, you don’t rely on anybody. Therefore, through your examination of thought and of pleasure, you are alone. And being alone implies silence; you cannot be alone if you are not silent. And out of that silence is action. This needs further examination. To us, action is based on an idea, a principle, a belief, a dogma. And according to that idea I act. If I can approximate that action according to my idea, I think I am a very sincere person, a very noble person! And there is always a difference between idea and action, and hence there is conflict. When there is conflict of any kind, there is no clarity. You may be outwardly very saintly, lead a so-called very simple life—which means a loincloth and one meal. That is not a simple life. A simple life is much more demanding and far deeper than that. A simple life is a life in which there is no conflict."
J. Krishnamurti
Excerpt from 6th Public Talk in Chennai, India, 1966

Jaap Sluijter
Executive Director