Krishnamurti: The emerging quality of the new brain

The brain is active from the moment you wake up until you go to sleep; and even then the activity of the brain is still going on. That activity in the form of dreams is the same movement of the day carried on during sleep. The brain has never a moment’s rest, never does it say, “I have finished.” It has carried over the problems which it accumulated during the day into sleep; when you wake up those problems still go on – it is a vicious circle. A brain that is to be quiet must have no dreams at all; when the brain is quiet during sleep there is a totally different quality entering into the mind. How does it happen that the brain which is so tremendously, enthusiastically active, can naturally, easily, be quiet without any effort or suppression? I will show it to you.

As we said, during the day it is endlessly active. You wake up, you look out of the window and say to yourself, “Oh, awful rain,” or “It is a marvellous day, but too hot” – you have started! So at that moment, when you look out of the window, don’t say a word; not suppressing words but simply realising that by saying, “What a lovely morning,” or “A horrible day,” the brain has started. But if you watch, looking out of the window and not saying a word to yourself – which does not mean you suppress the word – just observing without the activity of the brain rushing in, there you have the clue, there you have the key. When the old brain does not respond, there is a quality of the new brain coming into being. You can observe the mountains, the river, the valleys, the shadows, the lovely trees and the marvellous clouds full of light beyond the mountains – you can look without a word, without comparing.