Only the compassionate mind can meditate
Jiddu Krishnamurti on the right response to the world crisis
Words by J. Krishnamurti that are most relevant to the times we are in.
— — — — —
We are standing on the edge of a precipice and wrangling over petty affairs. Few seem to realize the extraordinary character of this world crisis, how profound and vastly disturbing. Some, realizing the confusion, are active in rearranging the pattern of life on the edge of the precipice and, being themselves confused, are only bringing more confusion. Because we are thoughtless, unaware, wrapped up in ambitions, sensations and their pursuits, wrapped up in those values that are immediately gratifying, we have created this immense, engulfing disaster.
When we look around, not so much in the human world as in nature, we see an extraordinary sense of order, balance, and harmony. Every tree and flower has its own order, its own beauty; every hilltop and every valley has a sense of its own rhythm and stability. But in the human world, there is technical advancement without an equally vital psychological advancement, and so there is a state of unbalance; there are extraordinary scientific achievements, and at the same time human misery, empty hearts, and empty minds. So, that is the modern world — a world of the cultivated intellect and the empty heart. The crisis is in our consciousness, the crisis is what we are, what we have become.
When pleasure, personal or collective, becomes the dominant interest in life — the pleasure of sex, the pleasure of asserting one’s own will, the pleasure of excitement, the pleasure of self-interest, the pleasure of power and status, the insistent demand to have one’s own pleasure fulfilled, there is degeneration. The greater the pleasure, the greater is the strengthening of the me. When there is pursuit of pleasure, human beings are exploiting each other. When pleasure becomes dominant in our lives, every relationship is exploited for this purpose, and so there is no actual relationship with another.
When we close the doors and windows of the house and live inside, we feel safe, secure, unmolested. But life is not like that. Life is constantly knocking on the door, trying to push the windows open all the time so that one may see more, but if there is fear and we close all the windows, the knocking grows louder. So the more outward securities we cling to, the more life comes and pushes. And we are caught in accumulation of more riches, consumption of sensate pleasures fed by the entertainment industry or cultivation of some talent or a specialization which is a fragmentary process.
Great luxuries exist side by side with extreme poverty, disease and starvation. All this is the work of man, and when you see it, don’t you ask yourself, is that all? Is there not something else which is the true work of man? Without finding out what is the true work of man, merely to indulge in reforms, in reshaping what man has already done, will lead nowhere.
So, what is the true work of man? Surely the true work of man is to discover truth; it is to love and not to be caught in his own self-enclosing activities. In the very discovery of what is true, there is love, and that love in man’s relationship with man will create a different civilization, a new world. The men who seek out what is truth, only such men can create a new civilization, a new culture. That is why education must be principally concerned with helping the student to seek out truth and not merely preparing him to fit into the pattern of a given society.
Without understanding oneself, there cannot be order in the world; without exploring the whole process of thought, feeling, and action in oneself, there cannot possibly be world peace, order, and security. Therefore the study of oneself is of primary importance, and it is not a process of escape. This study of oneself is not mere inaction. On the contrary, it requires an extraordinary awareness in everything that one does, an awareness in which there is no judgement, no condemnation or blame. This awareness of the total process of oneself as one lives in daily life is not narrowing, but ever-expanding, ever-clarifying; and out of this awareness comes order, first in oneself and then externally in one’s relationships.
In seeking the Real, bread will be supplied; but if we seek only bread, then even that will be destroyed. Bread is not the ultimate value; when we make of it into the ultimate, there is disaster, there is murder, there is starvation. One has to find that which is eternally, incorruptibly sacred. And that can come only when there is compassion; which means when you have understood the whole significance of suffering — not only of yourself, but of the world. It is only the compassionate mind that can meditate and find that which is eternally sacred. So the truly religious person is not concerned with reform, he is not concerned with merely producing a change in the social order; on the contrary, he is seeking what is true, and that very search has a transforming effect on society. A group of such people who are free from ambition and authority, from the bondage of greed and ill will, can only help to guide society away from degradation. The larger the group, the greater the security of the society.