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krishnamurti_discussions

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Which are you reacting against the short hair? I will tell you why I have short hair. I have had hair down to my waist, much longer than any of you here.
And when I first came to England and went to school they used to say, "Get your hair cut!" Give your minds to find out why you wear long hair. Are you doing it because others are doing it, or do you like it?
I like it. What does that mean? You like to wear it because you are going to save money at the barber's?
(Laughter.) You have to keep it clean, well brushed, otherwise it looks ugly. Do you do it because you like it?
That is a good reason, isn't it? That means you are not conforming, because tomorrow the fashion will be short hair - will you all wear short hair then? So are you doing it because you want to do it, irrespective of what others do?
Isn't it the same with clothes? Do you put on these strange clothes because others do? Every boy is concerned about his appearance to a greater or lesser extent.
Right. You think this makes a good appearance, it's nice looking when you wear sloppy clothes? You might feel that yourself.
Do you do it because you like it, or because you want to conform? Not necessarily because you want to conform. Find out!
Don't say, "Not necessarily." I think it is all a matter of like and dislike. I am asking.
The pop singers wear purple trousers and yellow shirts - you have seen that. They say, "I like these clothes, they flatter me" - is that why you are doing it? So hair, clothes, the way you think, the way you feel - is it because the rest are feeling that way?
The rest are Frenchmen, Germans, Jews, Hindus, Buddhists, Catholics - and you become one or the other because that is the easiest. Is that why you follow? Or do you say, "No, that is all wrong, I won't be like that."
So first find out why you have long hair and clothes like this, whether you are American, French or German, so that you begin to exercise your own mind. You see, while you are young, if you are not revolutionary then - I don't mean throwing bombs, which is not revolution at all - if you are not enquiring, questioning, doubting, looking at yourself, finding out what you think, investigating the whole field of yourself, later on it will be much more difficult. I think the main point in all this is fear.
For example, say I have long hair; if I cut my hair it's because I know that everything will go smoothly and there will be no problems at all. I feel I do most things for security, for ease. I understand.
So you are frightened - why? Frightened that I don't fit in with the pattern that is going on. Then what will you do?
Live with that fear? Why should you fit into the pattern? If you want to stay here it is better to do so.
You are saying, if you want to keep alive, you must fit into the pattern. And do you want to live that way - fighting, quarrelling, hating, envy, struggle, wars? No.
As we said the other day, to be really educated means not to conform, not to imitate, not to do what millions and millions are doing. If you feel like doing that, do it. But be awake to what you are doing - quarrels, hatred, antagonism, division between people where there is really no relationship at all, wars - if you really like living that way.
Then you will invite all the mess round you, you are part of that, then there is no problem. But if you say, "I don't want to live that way", then you have to find out how to live differently. And that demands intelligence.
Conformity doesn't demand intelligence, it demands cunningness. The world is this and you are here to be educated in every department of life, both inwardly and outwardly. Which inwardly don't have fears.
Not to have fears means you must find out how to live without fear, therefore you have to investigate what fear is. Enquiring into what fear is, your mind becomes intelligent; that intelligence will then show you how to live in this world sanely. Fear is one of the greatest problems in the world, probably the greatest problem.
So you have to face this thing, you have to completely understand it and be out of it. You said, "I am afraid of the unknown, the tomorrow, the future". Why do you think of tomorrow at all?
Is that a healthy sign? You are young, full of the strange beauty of this countryside, curious about birds, about living - why are you concerned about tomorrow? Because your mother, your father, the neighbours are already asking what will happen to you tomorrow?
They are frightened people - why do you fall into their trap? The world is becoming more and more populated - do you know what that means? In India, I believe, twelve or thirteen million new babies are born every year.
And in China many more. The world is getting fuller and fuller of people, and they all want jobs, they all want homes, children, position, prestige, power, money. The more you look at it the more frightened you get and you say, "What is going to happen to me?"
How do you know now what you will do or be like in twenty years' time? You see what you are doing? While you are young, live, enjoy, don't think about the future.
If you live now without fear, then when you grow up you will be the same, you will live - it doesn't matter what you do, whether you're a gardener, a cook, whatever it is, it will be a happy thing for you. But if you say, "My God, how shall I fit into this world, how shall I manage when I am thirty", then you are destroying yourself. You see, each generation more or less conforms to the past generation, therefore no generation is ever a new generation.
What we are trying to do here is to create a new generation. It may be forty people - that is good enough - who won't be afraid, who won't conform, who will have the intelligence to find out what to do when they grow up; this intelligence will tell you what to do. But if you are frightened, from now on you will be caught.
Are you afraid of standing alone? Do you know what I mean by that? Are you, Rachael?
Are you afraid of being alone? - not in the dark. Alone means not to have companions, not to be dependent on people, on their flattery, on their encouragement, on their saying, "You are marvellous."
Are you dependent on anybody? Obviously we are dependent on the milkman, on food, on who cooks it - we are dependent in that way. But emotionally are we dependent on anybody?
Find out! Look at it. Does love demand dependence?
"I love you" - does it mean I depend upon you? Or do you depend upon me emotionally? I may earn the money, that is a different kind of dependence.
But psychologically, inwardly, in our feelings, when we say "I love", does that mean I depend upon you, that without you I would be lost? Is love like and dislike? That is a form of dependency - do you understand that?
Do you see the difference between like and love, between love and pleasure? To like is a form of pleasure, isn't it? If I say, "I like you", it means I choose, but if I don't choose then it is all right.
Look! I am do you depend psychologically on anybody? If you do, in that there is fear, isn't there?
Because if anything happens to you I am frightened. I become jealous if you look at somebody else. Which means I possess you - right?
I depend on you, therefore I must be assured that I possess you in every way, otherwise I am lost. Therefore I am frightened, therefore I become more and more dependent and more and more jealous. So do you depend on anybody?
And all this dependence is generally called love, isn't it? Dependence is a fear of being without. Find out, don't agree, find out if you are dependent.
And then find out why you depend and see what are the implications of that dependence - fear, loneliness, lack of comfort. If you don't depend on people then you are not frightened, are you? Then you don't mind standing alone.
You are standing alone not out of fear; the moment you are alone you are much more honest, much more sure, nobody can corrupt you, there is no question of being hurt. So find out if you are dependent on people. And not only on people, on drink, tobacco, chatter, talking endlessly about nothing.
We do depend on our parents, don't we? We depend on our parents because they have brought us into the world, they feel responsible and we depend on them because they give us money to be educated. That is a different kind of dependence.
That is a necessary dependence. It is necessary. I depend on the postman.
When I get into the train I depend on the engine driver. Is one dependent if one thinks incessantly of one object or person? Yes, obviously.
It seems to me that one of the main things is that society is dependent on its art, which becomes part of any form of self-expression and art becomes incredibly important. "Self-expression" - what does that mean? "I must express myself", "I must be myself".
Look at it carefully - "I" must express myself. "I" must be myself. "I" must find my identity - myself.
You know all the phrases. Now what does that "I must be myself"? Is the "I" the fear, the "I" that is envious, the "I" that says, "I am so frightened of the future, what is going to happen to me?"
The "I" that says, "It is my house, my book, this is my husband, my boyfriend?" That is the "I", isn't it? And that "I" says, "I must express myself" - how silly it sounds!
No? Isn't expression creativity? Find out.
Is expression creativity? Painting a picture, writing a poem, making a pot - is that creativity? I am not saying it is or it is not.
It does bring into being something that was not there before. To make something that was not there before is to be creative, is that it? That is not what you mean.
I don t know. People say expression is creativeness. Follow this step by step - self-expression is creative.
The what is that self? That kind of creativity is limited. Look at those words, "I express myself and therefore I am creative."
What does it mean? It may be a sort of therapy, to be able to do that. You are saying, by expressing yourself you will become healthy, you will become sane?
"Self-expression is creative." Think of that. I suppose it is just identifying oneself.
Just look. What is the "I". Go into it, don't accept these "I am expressing myself."
What does it mean? Who is the "I"? My long hair, my short hair, my anger, my jealousy, my memories, my pleasures, my dislike, my sex, my little enjoyment - is that the "me"?
It is the "me", isn't it?, that wants to express itself - which is my anger, my jealousy, my this and that, whatever it is. Is that creative? So what is creativeness?
This is an immense question. Does the creative man, or the creative mind, ever think about expressing? No.
Wait, This is a little difficult. Don't say yes or no. Whoever says, "I am expressing myself" ought to be kicked in the pants!
To express something does not mean to be creative... Therefore, what does creativeness mean? I exist and express myself - is that creativity?
Or is creativity when the "I" is not? When the "I" says, "I must express myself by kicking somebody", the "I" expressing itself is violence. So is the state of creativity the absence of the "I"?
When there is the absence of the "I", do you know that you are creative? That is all! Have you understood?
When you are doing something with a motive behind it - of becoming popular, famous, having more money - that is not doing something which you really love to do. A musician who says, "I love music", but who is watching how many titled people there are in the audience, how much money he is going to make, he is not creative, he is not a musician; he is using music in order to become famous, to have money. So there can be no creativity if there is a motive behind it.
See this for yourself. So when we use these words, "I must express myself", "I must be creative", "I must identify myself", it has no meaning. When you really see this, live that way, understand it, your mind is already free of the "me".
Is it valid to make things of beauty? Valid for whom? For yourself.
What do you mean, "yourself"? Do you remember, we talked about beauty the other day? Look at that tree and the shadow and the that is beauty.
How do you know what is beautiful? Because somebody told you? A famous artist has painted a picture, or a great poet has written about that light and the tree and the clouds and the shadows and the movement of the leaves.
And you say, "He is a great man, I like that, it is beautiful." Is beauty something that comes to you through another? Is beauty something that you have been told about?
What then is the sense of beauty? Not what is beautiful, but the sense of beauty? Does this beauty lie in the building, in the tree, in the face of a person, in music, in a poem, in things outside?
Or do the things you see become much more intensified because you have this sense, this sense of beauty? You understand what I mean? - because you have the feeling of beauty.
Therefore when you see something extraordinary like that, you delight in it because in yourself you have this sense. Now how do you arrive at this, or happen to have this sense? How do you come by it?
Can you come by it by training, through an image, through any amount of reading, studying, collecting paintings and having a lovely house? How does this happen? Do you remember what we said the other day?
It happens when you are physically very sensitive, watching - sensitive, not only about yourself but sensitive to others, to everything - sensitive to how much you eat, the way you sit, the way you talk, the way you walk. I am going to come down to something very practical. I have seen a lot of you you touch something, lick your fingers thoroughly and go back and pick up something else - do you think that is to be sensitive?
It is then on your own plate. I didn't mean that. You can do whatever you like on your own plate.
But you lick your finger and pick up a piece of bread. It is unhygienic. I don't want to lick your spittle!
I have seen everybody do it. First of all it is not hygienic. I touch my mouth and then pick up a piece of bread or something else - you follow?
I have contaminated it. You are unaware of what you are doing, you do it automatically. Now to do something automatically is not to be sensitive - that is all.
So when you become aware of it, of the implications, you won't do it. When you sit down to eat, some of you don't chew your food at all. You just swallow it, and food is meant to be chewed.
When you become aware of everything, you become sensitive and to be sensitive is to have an awareness of beauty, to have the sense of beauty. And without the sense of inward beauty you may do the most marvellous things, but it won't contain the flame. Has one got creative energy and how can one release it?
You know what I mean by that? We've got plenty of energy when we want to do something. When we want to do it very badly, we've got enough energy to do it.
When we want to play or go for a long walk we have energy. When we want to hurt people, we have energy. When we get angry, that's an indication of energy.
When we talk endlessly, that's also an expression of energy. Now what is the difference between this and creative energy? Does this interest you?
Yes. What is the difference - I'm just thinking aloud now - what is the difference between physical energy, and energy that is brought about through friction, such as anger, tension, dislike. There is purely physical energy, and there is the energy derived through tension, through conflict, through ambition.
And is there any other kind of energy? We only know these two. The energy that a good, healthy body has - tremendous energy.
And the energy that one gets through every kind of struggle, friction, conflict. Have you noticed this? The great writers who lead terrible lives, miserable lives of conflict in their relationship with others and with people this tension gives them a tremendous energy.
And because they've got a certain capacity, a gift to write, that energy expresses itself through writing. You see all this? Now what kind of energy have you?
Physical energy - naturally, being young, you should have plenty of it, an abundance of it. And have you the other kind of energy which drives you, through hate, through anger, through ambition, through tension, through conflict, resistance? Because if I resist you I have tremendous energy.
I dislike you, I fight you, because I want to have your - whatever it is - and that gives me energy. And behind that energy there is a motive. Now you see the two physical energy; and energy which comes through conflict and resistance, through fear, or the pursuit of pleasure.
Is there any other kind of energy? Is there energy which is without motive? I want to get a job because I need it; and the drive for it, the necessity for a job, this gives enough energy to ask, demand, push, be aggressive.
There is a motive behind it. And where there is motive, the energy is always restricted, limited. The moment there is a motive, it acts as a brake.
You see the point? So have you that kind of energy that is always having a brake put on it because it has a motive? Discuss with me!
I'm just thinking it out. Have you ever done anything without a motive? A motive such as fear, like and dislike, wanting something from someone, being as good as those are all motives which drive one forward.
Now do you know any action without any motive? Is there such action at all? We're enquiring.
What do you say? The problem being... whether you're conscious or not of the motive - because you can have an action with a motive but if you're... Unconscious of it... ...then you... Quite right. So you're saying, I may think I am acting without a motive and yet have a motive which is hidden.
Yes; or the contrary. Or the contrary. Now which is it in yourself, enquire, go into yourself, find out?
Look at yourself. Do you know what it is to look at yourself? Don't you look at yourself in the mirror when you comb your hair - you do, don't you?
Now what do you see? You see your reflection in the mirror, exactly what you look like is reflected there, unless the mirror is crooked or cracked. Can you look at yourself in the same way as see yourself in the mirror?
Look at yourself without any distortion, without any twist, without any deviation, just to see exactly as you see yourself in a mirror. And only then you will find out whether you are acting with a motive or without a motive. Can you look at yourself very simply and very clearly, as though you were looking at yourself in a mirror?
You know, it's very difficult, what we're talking about. I don't know whether you have ever done it; we're investigating into the question whether all our actions - going to meals punctually, getting up, whatever we do - have a motive behind them. Or is there a certain sense of freedom to move?
What do you mean by freedom to move? Freedom just to move, without fear, without resistance, without a motive - to live. And to find that out!