Krishnamurti: Why don't We Change?

Krishnamurti:The difficulty in this problem is that we want a result to convince ourselves that we have progressed, that we have been transformed. We want to know that we have arrived. And a man who has arrived, a man who has listened and got a result, has obviously not listened at all. This is not a clever answer. The questioner says he has listened for many years. Now, has he listened with complete attention, or has he listened in order to arrive somewhere and be conscious of his arrival? It is like the man who practices humility. Can humility be practiced? Surely, to be conscious that you are humble is not to be humble. You want to know that you have arrived. This indicates – does it not? – that you are listening in order to achieve a particular state, a place where you will never be disturbed, where you will find everlasting happiness, permanent bliss.

But as I have said before, there is no arriving, there is only the movement of learning – and that is the beauty of life. If you have arrived, there is nothing more. And all of you have arrived, or you want to arrive, not only in your business, but also in everything you do; so you are dissatisfied, frustrated, and miserable. There is no place at which to arrive: there is just this movement of learning which becomes painful only when there is accumulation. A mind that listens with complete attention, will never look for a result, because it is constantly unfolding; like a river, it is always in movement. Such a mind is totally unconscious of its own activity, in the sense that there is no perpetuation of a self, of a ‘me’ that is seeking to achieve an end.