Krishnamurti & the Art of Awakening

Krishnamurti Quote of the Day

Commentaries on Living Series I | 'Authority'

Exclusive, private knowledge offers deeply satisfying pleasure. To know something that others do not know is a constant source of satisfaction; it gives one the feeling of being in touch with deeper things which afford prestige and authority. You are directly in contact, you have something which others have not, and so you are important, not only to yourself, but to others. The others look up to you, a little apprehensively, because they want to share what you have; but you give, always knowing more. You are the leader, the authority; and this position comes easily, for people want to be told, to be led. The more we are aware that we are lost and confused, the more eager we are to be guided and told; so authority is built up in the name of the State, in the name of religion, in the name of a Master or a party leader.

The worship of authority, whether in big or little things, is evil, the more so in religious matters. There is no intermediary between you and reality; and if there is one, he is a perverter, a mischief maker, it does not matter who he is, whether the highest saviour or your latest guru or teacher.

Tags: authority, religion

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your own experience, which has become your authority
Instead of addressing heterogeneous crowds in many places and dazzling and confounding them with your brilliance and subtlety, why do you not start a community or colony and create a reference for your way of thinking?
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What happens to a mind that lives on books - which we are all doing, not only in the schools, colleges and universities, but also religiously?
The negation of all values, of all morality, of all beliefs, having no frontiers, cannot be in opposition to anything.
The poison and corruption begin when you look to one person as your authority, your guide, your saviour.
Sir, don't follow any authority. Authority is evil. Authority destroys, authority perverts, authority corrupts;
You cannot perceive if you do not ask the right question - and a right question has no answer, because it needs no answer.
You cannot find out what is true by assertion. You must sweep the slate completely clean of the known before you can find out.
It is one fact in life, we are all going to die. That is an absolute, irrevocable fact.
Life is a battle of ideas, a battle of influences, and your mind is the field of the battle.
The man who is bound either by an external or an inner law is confined in a prison; he is held by an illusion.
You have rejected only the outward picture, and have created in its place an inner picture to which you are a slave.
I feel that what I have to say is inherently right in itself. It does not depend on titles or degrees, revelation or authority.
We accept thoughtlessly or unconsciously so many conditions imposed by society or by religion, accept them as being true.
Belief is merely an escape from the present conflict.
An authority seasoned through the mists of time becomes invulnerable, and then man accepts that authority as being final.
Religion as it exists is not religion at all.
Religion, surely, is the uncovering of reality. Religion is not belief.
Religion, surely, is the uncovering of reality. Religion is not belief. Religion is not the search for truth.
Religion as it exists is not religion at all.
Breaking through is not a matter of time.
You see man imprisoned by innumerable walls, walls of religion, of social, political and national limitations, walls created by his own ambitions, aspirations, fears, hopes, security, prejudices, hate and love.
From my point of view, religions with all their intermediaries, their ceremonies, their priests, destroy creative understanding and pervert judgment.
Self-knowledge is not a conclusion, an end; it has no beginning and no end.
Truth is truth, one, alone; it has no sides, no paths; all paths do not lead to truth.
Mere reformation of the pattern of society only alters the surface, it brings about a more respectable form of ambition.
For me, revolution is synonymous with religion. I do not mean by the word 'revolution' immediate economic or social change; I mean a revolution in consciousness itself.
The religious mind is really a scientific mind - scientific in the sense that it is able to observe facts without distortion, to see itself as it is.
Man has always sought something beyond the physical existence. He has always searched, asked, suffered, tortured himself, to find out if there is something which is not of time, which is not of thought, which is not belief or faith.
The whole idea of following a discipline makes the mind and heart rigid and consistent.
The so-called religions give the pattern of conformity to the mind that is seeking security born of fear, in search of comfort;
Our religions throughout the world keep people apart.
The people who believe so much in God are really not in love with life.
To me religion is the false result of a false cause, the cause being conflict, and religion merely a means of escape from that conflict.
As in a circus the animals are trained to function for the amusement of spectators, so the individual through fear seeks out these spiritual trainers whom he calls priests and swamis, who are the defenders of spurious spirituality and the inanities of religion.
An authority seasoned through the mists of time becomes invulnerable, and then man accepts that authority as being final.
Curiously, if you consider it, religion which should denounce war, helps its furtherance.
The system which you call religion and which has been created through your own demand for security has become so powerful, so realistic, that very few free themselves from its weight of crushing tradition and authority.
If wisdom could be acquired through a religious society or sect, we should all be wise, for we have had religions with us for thousands of years.