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BR81T1 - Thought and the problems of our world
Brockwood Park, UK - 29 August 1981
Public Talk 1



1:05 K: I hope that you will not treat this as a weekend affair.
1:26 The politicians are thinking in terms of tribalism, they haven’t the global outlook, or the concern for the whole of humanity. They are concerned about their own insular party, their own ideologies and theories. They’re not concerned with humanity. Nor are the scientists. They are helping to create the bomb, or have helped to create it, and it appears, they’re not deeply concerned with the future of man. Nor, obviously, are religious people – the established, orthodox, traditional religion. They are not thinking in terms of the whole religious mind of all humanity. Nor are the gurus – you have seen the latest television and all that nonsense that goes on in the world. And they have their own particular form of discipline, ashrams which are really concentration camps and so on.
3:20 So, when you look around all over the world, there is no one concerned, deeply, sincerely, with the future of man. So, it behoves us not to depend on anybody, including the speaker. It behoves us to be utterly responsible for our own conduct, our own attitudes, prejudices and so on. If one is concerned at all about mankind, about man, about the human being caught in this modern society, which is already disintegrating, where there is so much violence, despair, anxiety, uncertainty, it seems that we have to be responsible for all our actions. We are humanity. What we suffer, what we go through in daily life, our quarrels, our disenchantment, all our troubles, religious, psychological, political, is the concern of all human beings.
5:29 Wherever you go, all over the world every human being faces this problem, not only us here in this tent, on this island but all over Europe, America, India and Asia, they are all uncertain. There is no security. There is terrorism. To escape from all this they are trying to form some kind of community, a commune where they can be safe. But one cannot be safe in this world, as it is. So, what we are, our consciousness, our attitudes, our miseries, are like the rest of the world. This is a fact. Our consciousness is the rest of mankind. Please, as we have said, during all these talks, during past and present talks, please, let us think together, not you think one way, I think another way, but let us think together and observe what is happening round us. Not as British, as French, as Irish, or American, or Hindus, but as human beings living on this earth, which is our earth, not British, not French, not American, nor Russian. It’s our earth, on which we are supposed to live happily, securely, which is being utterly denied to all of us. After 20, 30 centuries, we are what we were at the very beginning of time, slightly modified, perhaps we’ve better bathrooms, better communication, better hygiene, but there are wars threatening, not only far away but this may happen any time very close to us, because it is in the hands of these extraordinary politicians and we have trusted our lives to them and they are not giving us security.
8:35 Seeing all that, what is one to do? As a human being, living in this dreadful world, which is becoming more and more dangerous, more and more insecure, both theologically, as well as physically, what is one to do? What action, what kind of attitudes, what kind of beliefs and so on, is one to have? Or, we have tried all those. We have had ideals, various forms of faiths and dogmas, political theories, dialecticism, opinion against opinion, trying to find out truth through opinion We’ve had all these and many more varieties of political, religious thinking. Apparently, those activities haven’t deeply, profoundly affected man. Observing what is taking place in the world objectively, we have not progressed very much psychologically, inwardly. We are still burdened with sorrow, with fear, with the urge to find something that is beyond all time, beyond all belief. After all these millions of years, we are still where we were, fighting each other, killing each other, more efficiently and on a vast, wide scale.
11:19 Seeing all that, one asks oneself, if one is at all serious, what is our action as a human being, living in this world, what is it to be? Or is the question limited? Not what I should do or you should do, which becomes rather limited, but rather, as a human being representing the rest of mankind, because we are the rest of mankind, because all men wherever they live go through all kinds of disasters, despairs, anxieties, fears, we are like the rest of mankind. I think the right question would be, what, as a human being who is the whole of mankind, if you realise that, that you are not a separate individual fighting your own little battle in your own backyard, as it were, between two human beings, but rather that each one of us is the rest of mankind. One may intellectually observe it, logically see that wherever one lives under whatever form of government, tyrannical or so-called democratic, Left or Right, and whatever one’s religious beliefs may be, man, throughout the world, is in a state of confusion, a state of despair, there is very little future for him. If one realises that we are the rest of mankind, then as a human being who is the whole of mankind, what is one to do?
14:24 Then the question becomes extraordinarily wide and important. I don’t know if we agree to this, if we see this thing together. That is, if we both of us observe the same thing – not according to one’s own particular conditioning, as a Christian, Hindu or whatever it is, but seeing the actual, that we are not separate individuals living on this planet, struggling, struggling, struggling but we are the rest of mankind, actually, psychologically. Physically, you may be different, you may be tall, brown, white, pink, black, or whatever colour, but inwardly, psychologically, deeply there is a great similarity, a common ground upon which we all stand. This is logical, this is real, not a theory invented by the speaker, an ideal to be pursued, some Utopia to be worked for, but it’s an actuality, that each one of us is not a separate individual on this earth but we are the rest of mankind. One may intellectually, that is, verbally, theoretically accept such a proposition, but the intellectual comprehension is rather superficial. If one actually felt this in one’s heart, in the very depth of one’s being, that we are not individuals as we have been educated, and conditioned. All religions have maintained that we are separate individuals, our separate souls – to use certain Indian Sanskrit words, which we won’t – that we are all separate individuals, each one seeking his own salvation, each one seeking his own fulfilment, fulfilling his own particular demands, which is what every human being in the world is doing. This is the common ground on which we stand. If one – or when one actually realises this, that our consciousness is the consciousness of the rest of mankind, it is a tremendous revolution. Not only the verbal, logical understanding of it but the feeling, the beauty, the passion behind it, the vitality behind such comprehension of truth. One then has a great deal of energy. The battle then is with the world not with your little self.
18:41 Our consciousness is made up of all our thoughts, is made up of all the contents of our civilisation, traditional religions with their dogmas, beliefs, all that, and also, specialisation, being educated in a certain direction is part of our consciousness. Part of our consciousness is our belief, our experience, our grief, sorrows, pains, accidents, experiences, all that and more is our consciousness. Right? Can we go on? Are we thinking together? I’m not telling you for you to accept or to reject but we are thinking together by observing what’s going on in the world and what is going on inwardly, in ourselves. Seeing what other human beings are going through, you must invariably come to this reality, to this truth that we are all whole, not separate. Our consciousness is put together by thought. Right? Are we together in all this? Thought predominates all our activities. Thought has constructed the atom bomb, the marvellous cathedrals and the things in the cathedrals. Thought has created all the travail, all the problems that we have. If we did not think at all, if there was not a single movement of thought, there would be no problem. Probably, we’d be like vegetables but we would have no problems.
21:38 So, thought is responsible for fear, for anxiety, for sorrow, for the pursuit of happiness and the pursuit of what is called God, enlightenment, it is all the movement of thought. Again, it is not a particular theory of the speaker, it is an actuality. Thought has invented all the religions, all the content of the religions, the rituals, the dogmas, the beliefs, the hierarchical outlook of a religious mind – these are all the product of thought. There is no denying that. Thought may say what is being said in all the scriptures is above thought, but it represents and is put down by thought. Obviously. All the literature, religious and otherwise, is the result of thought. Right?
23:16 Our brains are trained to solve the problems which thought has created. Again, that is fairly clear. I hope you’re all following all this. Are we following each other? Right? Our brains are trained to solve problems. Whether the problems are scientific, engineering, social or religious and so on, through all these centuries the brain has been trained to solve those problems. The brain is the movement of thought. We are only using a small part of the brain. The specialist will tell you this, too. We are not employing the whole of the brain, only a very small part. That part is conditioned by time, which is evolution, by experience, by knowledge, that part has been trained to solve problems which thought has created. See what the brain is doing. First it has been educated to act partially, and that partiality is the result of partial thinking. Thinking is limited because it’s based on knowledge, on experience and so on memory, so knowledge can never be complete about anything. Right? Our thinking is limited. That thinking creates the problems and our brains are trained to solve the problems which thought has created and so it’s caught in this cycle. I wonder if we see this together. Right?
26:10 Please, let’s think together. Don’t make an effort to think. Probably, you’re not used to this kind of thinking, but just observe. Let’s observe together what thought is, how thought has created this tent, the electric light, the roads and motor cars, the gods, all the things that thought has done is incredible. Not only has it created wars but also all the instruments of war. It has created nationalities, divisions, the separate religious divisions, like the Hindus and Buddhists. Thought has been responsible for this, because thought says, ‘I must be secure’. To be secure I must have a relationship with others, with those others who live in a community, the community being isolated, separate nationalities in which there is security, then, partly, that seeking security through nationalism is creating wars. So, the problem is there again. You follow all this? Thought creates the problem and then tries to solve the problem. In trying to solve the problem, it becomes more and more complicated, which is happening in the world. The politicians are trying to solve problems, but they are not, they’re increasing them. Like the gurus, they want to solve problems, but they are multiplying them. This is happening.
28:33 If we begin to understand the nature of thought, that thought is limited and knowledge is also always limited, one must find a different action, not an action of thought but there must be a different avenue, a different approach to the whole problem of existence. Is this somewhat...? Are we meeting together? We have approached the problem of existence with all the travail, with all the complexities of it by the employment of thought, by the intellect, or romantically, emotionally, sentimentally. Neither of these two have worked. This is obvious. So, there must be a different approach to the whole problem of existence. The existence which is common to all mankind, not my existence or your existence, but the existence of mankind, living on this earth. Mankind that has suffered so enormously, through innumerable wars and we’re still perpetuating the same thing. I wonder if you have noticed that no-one talks about peace anymore. Even the priests have given that up, except the gurus who talk about peace somewhere else. There are no pacifists anymore, there are no really deep conscientious objectors, nobody says, ‘Let’s all be against war, the whole world’. Nobody talks about it. They demonstrate against this or that, or have peculiar isolated demands but nobody, as far as one has observed and one may be mistaken, there is not a group of people, as there was in the ancient days, who says, ‘We are against war. We will not kill under any circumstances’. The usual question is, ‘What would you do if your sister was attacked?’ That’s just an evasion of the real issue. I wonder if you have noticed this. It is an obvious deterioration of the world. Nobody says, ‘I am entirely against war’. Which means against nationalism, against separate gods, religion – everything that is divisive – only then can you have peace. But if each one of us is trying to find peace through our own little meditation, this or that, it is utterly meaningless.
32:43 So, we have come back to the question, if thought is not capable of solving all these problems, human problems, problems of relationship with each other, the problem of thought creating images, problems of fear, sorrow, meditation, all that, if thought cannot resolve all these problems, which apparently it cannot, after all these millennia, we must look in other directions – right? Not pursue the same old traditional path. Are we prepared for that? Are we prepared, or do we see that there must be a totally different approach to the whole problem of existence? Whether it is sexual, religious, sensory, political, all the rest. How will you find out a totally different approach, which is not contaminated by thought? Because one realises thought is utterly limited. The problems which thought has created are much too great and thought cannot solve them anymore. If one actually, not intellectually or emotionally but actually realises it, as you realise pain, if one is passionately aware of it, then what is the other direction? Right?
35:20 How does one respond to a challenge of that kind? How do you respond to that question? Seeing that thought cannot solve these problems, technologically it can, a better means of killing, laser ray – you know all that. What is your answer? We are supposed to be educated people. Some of us have been to college or universities, highly sophisticated. As one cannot escape from all this, even if you went off to some isolated monastery, or became a hermit, you would still have these problems. You may not want to look at them, you may turn your back on them, but there they are. So, what is your response?
36:58 Another question arises from this, which is computers are taking over all our thinking. They are going to outstrip man, or already have done. They think much faster, they can learn and unlearn, and so keep on learning and discover that their learning is not complete and learn further. Which means they are being programmed by experts, and the machines, these computers, can learn not only from professors, from the programmers, but from themselves. Probably, some of you know about this, you have read about it. We have talked to some computer experts, who say that within ten years, they will completely outstrip man. They’ll think faster, learn faster, correct themselves, perhaps invent something new, new theories, which man has not thought of. So, this is a very important problem for man. Of course, computers cannot look at the stars and enjoy the stars. They can compose, but perhaps not like Beethoven. Perhaps, they do not know what love is. But neither do we. So, there is this machine which is an ultra-intellectual machine – ultra-intellectual machine, it’s called. They are inventing this. It’s so rapid. So, what becomes of man? Do you understand? Look at the problem, please face the problem! What happens to us who have lived by exercising our brain, whatever little part of that brain is, and that little part is being taken over by a machine which is super-brain then what happens to each one of us? What happens to our brain which is no longer being employed as a thinking machine? I wonder if you follow all this! I’m afraid you don’t.
40:39 They are very concerned. Some of us, who have gone into this a little bit, are very concerned about what is going to be the future of man. When the machine can take over all the activities of the brain, then what happens to the brain? There are only two possibilities – either the brain pursues entertainment – you understand? – football, which is already happening, sports, religious entertainments. That’s one direction, to be amused, entertained. Or a totally different thing, which is to pursue the inward process of man – the inward, psychological discovery, deeper and deeper. Those are the only two possibilities left to man. But the entertainment industry is already gaining. Televisions – you know all this, I don’t have to tell you. There are very few who are concerned with the psychological understanding of man, completely, not the psychologists, not the professionals, not the psychiatrists, but you and I, who are the rest of mankind, we have to discover whether our brains are being trained by the entertainment industry to pursue that line – please, this is awfully serious. Do please pay attention to all this. Either we pursue that, or turn inward, not selfishly, not an egocentric movement, or ego trip, but to understand the whole psychological movement, the self, the me, the ego, and see if it is possible to go beyond all that. Those are the only two paths left for us, when the computer takes over completely. The computer with the robot is already building cars. When the robot doesn’t do it properly, the computer tells it and it acts properly – you follow? All that is being taken over, gradually.
44:28 So, what is a man to do? You understand my question? Do we think or observe individually, personally, from a particular condition, from a particular form of belief, prejudice? Or do we free ourselves from all that and turn inwardly, not selfishly, please bear in mind, not selfishly, not saying, ‘I must save my soul’. That’s all too silly. But to enter into a world which will eventually dominate the outer, which it is doing now – the ambitious politician may use party politics but the personal ambition overrides everything else. This is all so obvious.
45:41 Psychologically one has to understand the whole structure of a human being. Is that possible? Have we time? Have we enough energy? Or is it all too vague? You follow my question? It’s like looking at a map. If you have a particular direction from here to there, then you only observe the road, how many miles, what towns you pass through and so on, so as long as you have a direction, you never look at the whole map. So to understand the psychological structure of man, there needs be no direction. I wonder if you see this. Direction is a motive. As long as I have a motive to understand the psychological depth of humanity, which is as long as I want to be free from something or other, then I have a direction, I have a motive, therefore I do not comprehend the whole psychological structure of man. You understand this? Are we thinking together? Or am I just talking to myself? So, is that possible, first? Mankind has developed a machine that is going to take over our thinking, it will learn faster, it will correct itself, build new machines from the old, constantly improving, much more rapidly than man can, till it reaches the ultra-intelligent machine. And realising all that, what is a human being to do? Please put that question to yourself and answer it, not turn to a guru, to another priest, psychologist and all the rest of it. Let’s find out together what we can do, because they have all failed us. Right?
49:22 Do we want to solve our problems – the problems of relationship, problems of society, problems of war, the problem of whether there is God or not, whether there is something beyond all time – are all these problems? You understand my question? Do we make of them problems? Or they exist, we have to find the truth of them. Either they are false or true. Right? To find out the truth of relationship, not the solution, or the issue which arises in relationship which must be solved. You understand the difference? I wonder if you do. That is, to find what is the truth of relationship. Not how to solve my problem with my wife, but to discover for oneself the truth of relationship. Right? You understand? What is the truth relationship? Not what I would like it to be. What is the truth of it? Whether that relationship is intimate or not, what is the actual fact of it? Because if I know the actuality, the truth of it, then I can work at it, it can be dissolved. But if I am merely concerned with solving problems, which my brain is trained to solve, then I’m back in the old rut. I wonder if you understand this. Are we together in this? So I have to find out the truth of relationship. Or what is false in relationship. Both the positive and the negative, not in-between. The fact in relationship is division – me and you. That is a fact. Why does this division exist? What is the truth or the falseness of this division between man and woman and so on? Why is there this division between people? Not the problems it creates and the pursuit of solving those problems, but rather why the division exists at all. I wonder if you follow this. Is this getting too much? What time is it?
53:29 Questioner: Twenty five past twelve.
53:33 K: Goodness, how time flies!
53:43 Why is there division between me and another who happens to be my wife, or my husband – why? What creates this division? This is a problem for all of us. You follow? – not only the division between nations, the division between religions, the divisions between various gurus. You follow, the absurdity of it all? All of them saying, ‘We are seeking truth’. Why is there this division? What has created this division? Is it one’s particular demands – sexual, ambition, desire, each one of us seeking fulfilment in his own way, each one of us pursuing a different path from another? I am married – I’m not but suppose I’m married. I’m ambitious to climb the ladder, the ladder of a certain career, my wife is also concerned to succeed in some other direction. So, is ambition the factor of this division? Please, go into all this. I believe in God and she doesn’t. I never enquire why I believe, I just believe. She doesn’t, and she hasn’t enquired why she doesn’t, either. We are both prejudiced and we hold on to our prejudices. Is that the cause of division? Or is the cause of division much deeper than that? These are all superficial reasons. Is there a deeper cause which brings about this terrible division between human beings? Who are willing, because of that division, to kill each other. Is there a deeper cause? Think it out, sir. Go into it. Is it our training, our education, religious and otherwise, that we are separate individuals? Only sexually we meet, otherwise, we are totally separate. I pursue my path, worldly or otherwise, and she does the same. Is the division caused by this idea – idea, that we are separate? Psychologically, inwardly, she suffers, I suffer. She’s unhappy, depressed, moody and I’m also on my own, occasionally, and so on. So, is the root of all this division the concept of an individual? I know it goes against all tradition – you follow? – against all social, moral, religious structure. We have to tear down all that because we have to understand that as we are living now, we’re going to destroy ourselves. It’s happening. It is happening in Beirut. It may not be happening in England but it is happening, in Far Asia.
59:28 So, we have to understand very deeply and so eradicate that which is false, not the problems the falseness creates. Right? So, is this the root of it, that each one of us has been brought up to be a separate individual with his own soul – the whole of it. Is that a fact? Or merely a concept? What is the difference between a fact and a concept? You understand? Concept being that which has been put together by thought, by experience, by knowledge. That is a concept, something conceived, something that we have accepted through a million years of tradition. That tradition may be utterly false. The fact is something, and the concept is another. Right? The fact is I am separate from my wife. That’s a fact. And my concept says, ‘We are separate’. You understand? Is my concept stronger than the realisation that I’m separate from her – the realisation? You understand what I’m talking about? The fact and idea are two different things. Right? The idea is that I’m separate, that’s the idea. I want to find out if the idea is different from actuality. Am I actually an individual? Right? Am I? I suffer like you suffer, I’m anxious like you, I am frightened, as you are. I am lost, I am confused, as you are. So, psychologically, inwardly, we are the same, with variations but we stand on the same ground. The ground may be unequal but it’s the ground on which we all stand.
1:02:49 So, the concept must be wrong. Can I be free from the concept, not from the problems, and face the actuality of what is? The actually of ‘what is’ is that I am like you, that I go through hell as you do, tortured, disturbed. So, the realisation that I am like you altogether removes the image of you – you understand? No. Are you following? I have created an image of you, as I have created an image of the kings, and ministers and all that business, I have created an image about you, about my wife, or husband, you. That image has been put together through many years, or many days. Creating the image is to be secure. Right? I have an image of my guru – thank God I haven’t got any, but suppose I have – I have an image of my guru, which I have built up through reputation, not knowing what all the implications are of it, because I’m too gullible, I’ll accept anything anybody says about that, which I want to achieve also, so I accept, I build an image. The image is not the actual. I have an image about my wife. My wife is not the image. I wonder if you…? And that is one of the factors that divides. Right? The image-making ends when I realise we two are standing on the same ground. I stop building images because we’re all… You understand all this?
1:05:44 Neither of us is concerned with the resolution of problems. If I am merely concerned with the resolution of problems then I’m operating with a brain that is trained to solve problems. I wonder if you see this. Therefore, I’m beginning, caught in it and solving problems can never end because in solving one I create another, which is happening politically. We are a crazy crowd, all right.
1:06:30 So, one has realised that it is not important to solve problems but to face actually what is going on. What is happening is I have separated myself from you. That separation is the creation of image about you, and that separation is the education in which I have been brought up, the culture, the tradition that I am totally separate from you, which is so idiotic – you follow? It has no basis, and yet I accept such a concept.
1:07:28 Now I have moved altogether into a different dimension – you follow? Which is we are all standing on the same ground, man, woman, whether he’s black, white, purple, whatever colour he is. Inwardly, we are tortured, all that. That is important to understand, not the problems that it creates. Right? That’s enough for this morning.