Most of us crave experience, whether going to the moon or the experience of a
little mind that seeks through drugs the state of a consciousness in which there
are visions, heightened sensitivity and so on and so on; the mystical
experience, the religious experience, the sexual experience, the experience of
having a great deal of money, power, position, domination - you know - we all
crave experience. And this because our own life is so shallow, so empty, so
insufficient, and we think that without experiences the mind becomes dull,
stupid, heavy. That's why we read book after book, we go to the museums,
concerts, rituals, churches, football - every form of experience. But we never
ask what is involved in this experiencing, or ask if there is anything new in
experiencing. Every experience demands recognition, other wise it is not an
experience. If I don't recognize it as an experience involving something, it is
not an experience. It is only when I recognize it that I call it an experience,
but to recognize I must have already known.
Through experience there can be no new thing at all. So one has discovered a
fundamental truth, that a mind that is seeking, craving, searching for wider,
deeper experience, such a mind is shallow because it lives always with its
memories, with its recognitions, and what is remembered, recognized, is not the
new. But there is no experiencing in silence and one asks, how is it possible to
act in this world if the mind is really quiet, silent? You understand? Is it
possible to function, in this world, with this enormous sense of silence? One
has a certain function, one has to do a certain thing, as a librarian, as a
cook, as a technician, sit in an office and so on, which all demands accumulated
information as knowledge, experience; and one asks, can my mind which has
understood and is living in that state of silence function in these
circumstances? When one puts that question, one separates silence from the
action; it is therefore the wrong question. But when there is the silence one
will function in the office. You know, it is like a drum that is highly tuned
and you strike on it and it gives you the right note, but it is always empty,
silent. It doesn't say - 'I am silent' - 'How am I to function in the office?'
Talk and Dialogues Saanen
1967, 9th Public Talk, 27th July 1967
© Krishnamurti Foundation of America
The
Still Mind
Surely, that is the only issue: a still mind. "How
can I have a still mind?" See what you are saying. You want to
possess a still mind, as you would possess a dress or a house. Having a
new objective, the stillness of the mind, you begin to inquire into the
ways and means of getting it, so you have another problem on your hands.
Just be aware of the utter necessity and importance of a still mind. Don't
struggle after stillness, don't torture yourself with discipline in order
to acquire it, don't cultivate or practise it. All these efforts produce a
result, and that which is a result is not stillness. What is put together
can be undone. Do not seek continuity of stillness. Stillness is to be
experienced from moment to moment; it cannot be gathered.
Commentaries on Living,
Volume 2, "Convictions-Dreams"
© Krishnamurti Foundation of
America
