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OJ49T4 - Simplicity cannot be found unless one is free inwardly
Ojai, California - 24 July 1949
Public Talk 4



0:00 This is J Krishnamurti’s fourth public talk in Ojai, California, 1949.
0:08 Krishnamurti: I would like this morning to discuss what is simplicity and perhaps from that, arrive at the discovery of sensitivity.
0:28 We seem to think that simplicity is merely an outward expression, a withdrawal, having few possessions, loincloth, having no home, put on a few clothes, have a little bank account.
0:52 Surely that is not simplicity; that’s merely an outward show.
0:59 And it seems to me simplicity is essential.
1:07 And simplicity can only come into being when we begin to understand the significance of self-knowledge, which we’ll be discussing, as we have discussed previously, for the next… till the end of August.
1:35 The question of simplicity is not mere adjustment to a pattern.
1:48 It requires a great deal of intelligence to be simple. Not merely conforming to a particular pattern, however worthy outwardly, but it requires a great deal of intelligence to find out what it is… how it is to be simple. Unfortunately, most of us begin by being simple externally, in outward things.
2:16 It’s comparatively easy to have few things and to be satisfied with a few things, to be content with little and perhaps to share that little with others.
2:36 But mere outward expression of a simplicity in things, in possessions, surely does not imply the simplicity of inward being.
2:53 Because as the world is at present, life is becoming more and more complex, more and more things are being urged upon us, outwardly, externally.
3:09 And life is becoming more and more complex.
3:16 And in order to escape from that, we try to renounce or to be detached from these things, from cars, from houses, from organisations, from cinemas, and innumerable outward thrusts upon us.
3:39 And we think we shall be simple by withdrawing.
3:48 A great many saints, a great many teachers have renounced the world, and it seems to me that such renunciation on the part of any of us does not solve the problem.
4:13 Simplicity can only come into being inwardly and then from that, an outward expression of that inward simplicity, which is much more fundamental, much more real.
4:33 How to be simple, then, is the problem; because from that simplicity one arrives at being more and more sensitive.
4:47 A sensitive mind and a sensitive heart is essential but then it’s capable of quick perception, quick reception.
5:02 So one can be simple only, surely, inwardly, by understanding the very innumerable impediments, attachments, fears that one... in which one is held.
5:30 But most of us like to be held, by the people or by possessions or by ideas.
5:39 We like to be prisoners. Inwardly we are prisoners, though outwardly we seem very simple. Inwardly we are prisoners to our desires, to our wants, to our ideals, to the innumerable motivations.
6:07 And simplicity cannot be found unless one is free inwardly, therefore it must begin inwardly first, not outwardly.
6:24 As we were discussing yesterday afternoon, the freedom from belief.
6:33 Surely there is an extraordinary simplicity, extraordinary freedom when one understands the whole process of belief, why the mind is attached to a belief.
6:48 And when there is a freedom from belief, there is surely a simplicity.
6:57 But that simplicity requires intelligence and to be intelligent, one must be aware of one’s own impediments.
7:12 And to be aware, one must be constantly on the watch, not be established in any particular groove, in any particular pattern of thought or action.
7:30 Because, after all, what one is inwardly does affect the outer.
7:37 The modern society or any form of action is the projection of ourselves, and without transforming inwardly, mere legislation outwardly has very little significance.
7:54 It may bring about certain reformation, certain adjustment outwardly, but what one is inwardly is always overcoming the outer.
8:10 If one is greedy inwardly, ambitious, pursuing certain ideals with all its complexity, that eventually does upset, overthrow, however carefully planned the outward society may be.
8:33 So surely one must begin within, not exclusively, not rejecting the outer, because you come to the inner, surely, by understanding the outer, by finding out how the conflict, the struggle, the pain exists outwardly, and as one investigates more and more into it, naturally one comes into the psychological states which produce the outward conflicts and miseries.
9:11 The outward expression is only an indication of our inward state but to understand the inward state, one must approach through the outer. Most of us do that.
9:27 And in understanding the inner – not exclusively, not rejecting the outer, but understanding the outer coming upon the inner, then we will find that as one proceeds to investigate the inward complexities of our being, one becomes more and more simple, free.
10:00 It is this inward simplicity that is so essential, because that simplicity creates sensitivity; because a mind that is not sensitive, not alert, not aware, is incapable of any receptivity, any creative action.
10:30 That’s why I said conformity as a means of making ourselves simple is really making the mind and heart dull, insensitive.
10:52 Any form of authoritarian compulsion, imposed externally, by the government or by oneself or by the ideal of achievement, and so on, any form of conformity must make for insensitivity, for not being simple inwardly. Outwardly you may conform and give the appearance of simplicity, as so many religious people do.
11:27 They practice various disciplines, join various organisations, meditate in a particular fashion, and so on, all giving an appearance of simplicity.
11:47 But that conformity does not go for simplicity, does not make for simplicity.
11:56 Any kind of compulsion can never be simple. On the contrary, the more you suppress, the more you substitute, the more you sublimate, the less simplicity.
12:15 But the more you understand the process of sublimation, suppression and substitution, the greater the possibility of becoming... of being simple.
12:32 Because our problems are so complex – social, environmental, political, religious are so complex, that we can only solve it by being simple, not by becoming extraordinarily erudite and clever.
12:55 Because a simple person sees much more directly, has an experience more direct than the complex person.
13:05 And as our minds are so crowded with infinite knowledge of facts, of what others have said, that we are becoming capable of being simple and having direct experience ourselves.
13:37 And as these problems demand a new approach, and it can be approached only when we are simple, real inwardly simple, and that simplicity comes only through self-knowledge: understanding ourselves, the ways of our thinking and feeling, the movements of our thoughts, our responses, how we conform to fear, to public opinion, what others say, what the Buddha, Christ, great saints have said.
14:25 Which all indicate our nature to conform, to be safe, to be secure.
14:32 And when one is seeking security, one is obviously in a state of fear, and therefore there is no simplicity.
14:45 And without being simple, one cannot be sensitive – to the trees, to the birds, to the mountains, to the wind, outwardly to all the things that are going on about us in the world.
15:02 And one cannot be sensitive if one is not simple to the inward intimation of things.
15:14 Because most of us live so superficially, on the upper level of our consciousness.
15:24 There we... if we at all are religious, we try to make it... or thoughtful or intelligent, which is synonymous with being religious, there we make our minds simple, through compulsion, through discipline, but that’s not simplicity. Therefore, when we force the upper mind to be simple, mere compulsion only hardens the mind; does not make the mind supple, clear, quick.
16:11 But to be simple in the whole, total process of our consciousness is extremely arduous, because there must be no inward reserve.
16:38 There must be an eagerness to find out, to inquire into the process of our being; which means be aware to every intimation, to every hint; to be aware of our fears, of our hopes and to investigate and to be free of it more and more and more and more.
17:11 Because then only, when the mind and the heart are really simple, not encrusted, then one is able to solve the many problems that confront us.
17:31 Knowledge is not going to solve our problems. You may know, for example, factually that there is reincarnation, that there is a continuity after death.
17:44 You may; I don’t say you will. … but that doesn’t solve the problem.
17:55 Death is not merely shelved by your theory or by information.
18:04 It’s much more mysterious, much more deep, much more creative than that.
18:16 So one must have the capacity to investigate all these things anew because it is only through direct experience that our problems are solved. And to have direct experience there must be simplicity, which means there must be sensitivity. A mind is made dull by the weight of knowledge.
18:50 A mind is made dull by the past, by the future.
19:02 And it’s only a mind that is capable of adjusting itself to the presently continually, constantly from moment to moment, is such a mind is capable of meeting the extraordinary influences, extraordinary pressures – political, religious, family, that are constantly being hurled at us.
19:29 So a religious man is not really a man who puts on a robe or a loincloth or lives on one meal a day or taken innumerable vows to be this or to be not to be that, but it is he who is inwardly simple, which means he’s not becoming anything.
20:03 Then he is capable of extraordinary reception, because there is no barrier, then there is no fear, then there is no going towards something.
20:23 Then such a mind is capable of receiving it – call it what you will, grace or God or truth or what you like.
20:35 But a mind that is pursuing reality is not a simple mind.
20:44 The mind that is seeking out, searching, groping, agitated, is not a simple mind.
20:55 A mind that conforms to any pattern of authority, inward or outward, cannot be sensitive. And it’s only when a mind is really sensitive, alert, aware to all its own happenings, responses, thoughts, then it is sensitive enough, which means it’s no longer becoming, it’s no longer shaping itself to be something. Only then it’s capable of receiving that which is truth.
21:38 It’s only then that there can be happiness, for happiness is not an end, it is a result of reality.
22:03 And when the mind and the heart have become simple and therefore sensitive, not through any form of compulsion, direction or imposition, then we will see our problems can be tackled very simply.
22:29 However complex our problems are, then we should be able to approach them anew and see them differently.
22:39 Because that’s what’s wanted, is it not, the present time: people who are capable of meeting this outward confusion, turmoil and antagonism, anew, creatively, simply; not with theories, not with formulas, whether of the left or of the right, but who are capable of meeting it anew and you cannot meet it anew if you’re not simple.
23:21 You know, a problem can be solved only when we can approach it anew, but we cannot approach it anew if we are thinking in terms of certain patterns of thought, religious or political or otherwise. So one must be free of all these things…
23:56 that’s why it’s so important to be aware, to have the capacity to understand the process of our own thinking.
24:07 That’s why it is important to be cognizant of oneself, to be aware of one’s own process of thinking totally, and from that there comes a simplicity, there comes a humility which is not a virtue to be practiced.
24:38 Humility that is gained, it ceases to be humility.
24:47 A mind that makes itself humble is no longer a humble mind.
25:01 And it is only when one is real, when one has humility, not a cultivated humility, then one is able to meet the things of life that are so pressing, because then one is not important, one doesn’t look through one’s own pressures and importance; one looks at the problem for itself, then one is able to solve it.
25:44 1ST QUESTIO

N: I have been a member of various religious organisations, but you have destroyed them all. I am utterly bored and work because hunger forces me to it.
25:57 It is difficult to get up in the morning and I have no interest in life. I realise I am merely existing from day to day without any human sense of value, but I can feel no spark of enthusiasm for anything.
26:12 I’m afraid to commit suicide. What on earth am I to do?
26:51 Though you laugh, are not most of us in that position?
27:05 Though you may still belong to many organisations, religious and political and otherwise, or you may have given them up, is there not the same inward despair?
27:20 You may go to analysts or to confession and so pacify for the time being, but isn’t there the same ache of loneliness, of a sense of loss, a despair without an end?
27:53 Joining organisations, going to various forms of amusements or being addicted to knowledge, performing daily rituals, and all the rest of it, does give, offer an escape from ourselves, but when those have stopped, when those have been pushed away intelligently, not being substituted by other forms of escape, one comes to this, doesn’t one?
28:35 You may have read a lot of books; you might be surrounded by your family, children, wealth, the change of new cars every year, the latest books, latest phonograph, and all the rest of it, but when you intelligently discard distraction, you are inevitably faced with this, aren’t you: the sense of inward frustration, the sense of hopeless despair without an end.
29:23 Perhaps most of you are not aware of it, or if you are, you run away from it.
29:30 But it is there. So what is one to do?
29:47 First of all, it seems to me, it’s very difficult to come to that position, to be so aware that you are directly confronted with that thing.
30:05 Very few of us are capable of facing that thing directly as it is, because it’s extremely painful; and when you do face it, because you are so anxious to leave it, run away from it, you might do any act, including committing suicide, or run away so far in any illusion, in any distraction.
30:35 So the first difficulty is to be so aware that you are confronted with it. Surely one must be in despair to find something.
30:48 When you have tried everything all about you, every door through which you can possibly escape and none of them offer an escape, you are bound to come to this point.
31:04 Now, if you are at that point, really, actually – not fancifully, not wishing to be there, in order to do something else when you’re actually faced with it, then we can proceed and discuss what to do.
31:22 Then it is worthwhile to proceed. But merely to find substitute for one escape... for another, join this organisation and leave it and join something else, go after one thing after another.
31:37 When all those have stopped, which every intelligent man must, eventually, some time or other, then what is... then what?
32:04 Now, if you are in that position, what is the next response? When you are no longer escaping, when you are no longer seeking an outlet, a way to avoid it, then what happens?
32:30 If you observe, what we do is we respond to it, we have either a sense of fear with regard to it or the desire to understand it.
32:56 Which is, we give it a name, don’t we?
33:04 We say, ‘I am lonely; I am in despair; I am this; I want to understand it’.
33:19 That is, the thing which we call lonely, empty, that we establish a relationship between ourselves and that by giving it a name.
33:33 I hope you understand what I’m talking.
33:42 That is, by verbalizing our relationship to it we bring to it a neurological as well as psychological significance.
33:59 And if we do not name it but merely regard it, look at it, then we shall have a different relationship to it. Then it is not away from us; it is us. Right?
34:22 We say, for example, when we come to that point, I say, ‘I am afraid of it’.
34:32 The fear... fear exists only in relationship to something.
34:39 That something comes into being when we term it, when we give it a name as being lonely.
34:47 Therefore there is the feeling that you and that loneliness are two separate things.
34:55 But is that so? You, the observer, are observing the fact that...
35:05 which you term as being lonely. Is the observer different from the thing which he observes?
35:14 It is different only as long as he gives it a name.
35:22 But if you do not give it a name, the observer is the observed.
35:34 The name acts, the term acts only to divide and then you have to battle with that thing. But if there is no division, if there is an integration between the observer and the observed, which exists only when there is no naming – you can try this out and you will see it – then the sense of fear is entirely gone.
36:03 It is fear that is preventing you from looking at that, which you call, ‘I’m empty; I am this, I am that; I’m in despair’.
36:15 And fear exists only as memory which comes when you term, but when you’re capable of looking at it without terming, surely that thing is yourself.
36:45 So when you come to that point when you’re no longer naming the thing of which you are afraid, then you are that thing.
36:59 When you are that thing, there is no problem, is there?
37:09 It is only when you do not want to be that thing, or to make that thing different from what you are, then the problem arises. But if you are that thing, that the observer is the observed, that they are both joint phenomenon, not a separate phenomenon, then there is no problem, is there?
37:44 Please, you experiment with this and you will see it, how quickly the thing is resolved and transcended and something else takes place.
38:03 It’s only... our difficulty is to come to that point when we can look at it without fear.
38:14 And fear arises only when we begin to recognise it, when we begin to give it a name, when we want to do something about it.
38:33 And when the observer sees that he’s not different from the thing which he calls empty, despair, then the word has no longer a meaning.
38:51 The word has ceased to be; it’s no longer despair.
39:00 Then what happens, if you proceed further, is that the thing of which one has been afraid to look, and when the word is removed with all its implications, then there is no sense of fear or despair.
39:22 Then there is no fear, no despair, then the word is no longer important.
39:37 Surely, then, if you proceed further, there is a tremendous release, a freedom and in that freedom there is that creative being, which gives a newness to life.
40:27 That is, to put it differently, we approach this problem of despair through habitual channels.
40:48 That is, we bring our past memories to translate that problem.
41:00 And thought, which is the result of memory of the past, thought which is founded upon the past can never solve that problem, because that problem is a new problem.
41:13 Every problem is a new problem, and when you approach with the old, it cannot be solved; and you approach it only through the screen of words which is the thinking process.
41:32 And when the verbalization stops, because you understand the whole process of it, which is not easy, then you are able to meet the problem anew.
41:44 Then the problem is not what you think it is.
42:12 So you might say at the end of this question, ‘What am I to do?
42:21 Here I am in despair, in confusion, in pain. You haven’t given me a method to operate, to proceed, to be free’.
42:34 But surely, if you have followed what I have said, the key is there, a key which opens much more than you will ever realise, if you are capable of opening.
42:55 Because you can see then, that how words play an extraordinarily important part in our life, like God, like nation, like the political leader, like communism, like Catholicism... words, words, words.
43:18 What extraordinary significance it has in our life.
43:29 And it is these words that are preventing the understanding of a problem anew, which is really simplicity. Not to be crowded by all these impressions and words and their significance, and to approach it anew.
43:55 And I assure you, you can do it; it’s quite an amusement if you can do it, for it reveals so much and I feel that’s the only way to tackle a fundamental problem of this kind.
44:14 You must go... you must tackle a problem which is very deep, profoundly, not at a superficial level.
44:29 And this problem of loneliness, despair, with which most of us are somewhat or rare moments acquainted, is not thing to be dissolved by merely running off into some kind of amusement or worship.
44:52 It is always there until you are capable of dealing with it directly and experiencing it directly without any verbalisation, without any screen between yourself and it.
45:12 2ND QUESTIO

N: What have you to say to a person who in quiet moment sees the truth of what you say, who has a longing to keep awake, but who finds himself repeatedly lost in a sea of impulse and small desires?
45:50 This is what happens to most of us, doesn’t it?
45:57 We’re awake at moments, at other moments we are asleep. Moments we see clearly everything with significance, and other moments confused, dark, misty.
46:10 Sometimes there are extraordinary heights of joy, unrelated to any kind of action, at other moments we struggle for that.
46:28 Now, what is one to do? Should one memorise, keep awake to that...
46:37 to those things that we have caught a glimpse of and hang on to them grimly, or should we deal with the little desires, impulses, the dark things of our life as they arise from moment to moment?
47:10 make effort, discipline ourselves to resist, to overcome the petty little things and hold on, keep our eyes fixed on the horizon.
47:25 That’s what most of us want, isn’t it, because that’s so much easier. At least we think so.
47:37 To look to an experience that is over, that has given us a great delight, a joy, and hold to it, like some old people who do, look to their youth.
47:50 Or like some other people who look to the future, to the next life, to some greatness which they are going to achieve next time, tomorrow or hundred years hence.
48:06 That is, there are those who sacrifice the present by the... through the past, enriching the past, and those who enrich the future.
48:26 They are both the same, only different sets of words are employed, but the same phenomenon is there. Now, what is one to do?
48:39 First, we must find out why we want to cling to an experience, pleasurable, or avoid something which is not pleasurable.
48:51 Why do we go through this process of holding on, clinging to something which we think has given us a great joy, physically or inwardly, psychologically? Why do we do this?
49:09 Why has an experience that is over is more important? Because don’t we feel that without that extraordinary experience, what is there in the present? The present is an awful bore, trial, therefore let me think of the past.
49:33 The present is irksome, nagging, bothersome, therefore let me be something, at least a Buddha, or Christ, or God knows what in the future.
49:51 So the past and the future become only useful or pleasurable when we do not understand the present; and against the present we discipline, against the present we resist.
50:21 Because take away the past and what are you? All your experiences, your knowledge, your accumulations, your enrichments, and with that past you meet the present.
50:39 Therefore you are really never meeting the present; you’re merely overshadowing the present by the past or the future.
50:55 And we discipline ourselves to understand the present.
51:03 You say, ‘I mustn’t think of the past, I mustn’t think of the future; I am going to be concentrated in the present’.
51:14 You see the fallacy, the absurdity, the infantility of thinking yourself some marvellous entity tomorrow or in the past, and you see the absurdity of that and you say, ‘Now, I must understand’. Can you understand anything through discipline, through compulsion?
51:38 You may force a boy to be quiet outwardly disciplining him, but inwardly he is seething, isn’t he? Likewise, when we force ourselves to understand, is there any understanding? But if we can see the futility, the real futility, see the significance of our movements, of attachment to the past or to the becoming of something in the future, really understand it, then that gives sensitivity to the mind to meet the present.
52:32 So our difficulty is not the understanding of the present; our difficulty is the attachment to the past or to the future.
52:50 So we have to investigate why it is that we are attached; why has the past, as with some old people and with other people, so important as the future? Why are we so attached to it?
53:08 Because we think, is it not, the experiences have enriched us; the past has significance. When one is young… a light on the sea, that glimmer, there’s a new fresh, which has faded now.
53:30 So at least I can remember that glimmer, that extraordinary sense of élan, that feeling of otherness of youth, so I go back and live there.
53:43 That is, I live in a dead experience. It’s over and it is dead and has gone, but yet I give it light by thinking about it, living in it, but it’s a dead thing.
53:55 When I do that, I’m also dead in the present, like so many people are, or in the future.
54:09 Because, in other words, I am afraid to be nothing in the present, to be simple in the present, and to be sensitive to the present, because I’m enriched by my experiences of yesterday. And is that enrichment?
54:33 Are the experiences of yesterday enrichment?
54:40 Surely you have the memory of them. Is memory riches, or merely words with very little content?
55:07 Surely you can see that for yourself if you experiment. When we look to enrichment of the past, we are living on words; we give to the past, life.
55:26 The past has no life in itself; it has only life in relationship to the present.
55:35 And when the present is disagreeable, we give it life.
55:46 And that surely is not enrichment.
55:53 When you are aware that you are rich, you are surely poor.
56:04 To be aware of yourself as being something, obviously denies that which you are.
56:13 If you are aware that you are virtuous, you’re no longer virtuous, surely. If you are aware that you are happy, where is happiness?
56:24 Happiness comes only when there is self-forgetfulness, when there is not the sense of the me as important.
56:39 But the me becomes important, the self becomes important when the past or the future become all-significant.
56:50 So mere disciplining of oneself to be something can never bring about that state of being in which there is not self-consciousness as the me.