In a world where confusion reigns supreme, most people seek to find order in and through organizations and institutions of various kinds, whether they be economical, political, religious or sociological.  They think that by reform, by activity in one shape or another, the world can be made into a better place.  Whether seeking world peace or peace of mind, sooner or later many become disillusioned in their search; they then join another party, a different church, or perhaps, becoming apathetic about the whole thing, they give up in despair, reasoning that it is the world which is at fault and not themselves.
Very few people ever appear to question the wisdom of action on the collective level.  This process has been going on for centuries, yet the world seems never far removed from a major disaster through politico-military action.  The author of the following work, the confusion and conflict which we see everywhere are merely the reflection of the confusion and turmoil in the mind of the individual.  To change his environment, the outer, without fundamentally changing the inner, appears to him utterly useless, for eventually the inner will always overcome the outer.  A confused mind in action can only create further confusion and misery, and everything it touches will turn into a problem.  If we fully understand this, we shall see that legislation by itself, in whatever form, will never abolish war, just as little as raising the standard of living will improve the quality of living. For example, today in the United Kingdom, with its Welfare State that has brought more widely spread prosperity and higher social security than ever before, we also have the biggest-ever juvenile delinquency problem on our hands. 

 So the first requirement in the world today is to tackle, not the many problems, but the problem-maker.  To change oneself fundamentally–not merely superficially, for that is the concern of most of us–it is obviously first necessary to know oneself, to understand the very ways of one’s mind, for without this insight what we think can have very little value.  This is extremely arduous, because nobody can do it for us–and we are so used to leaning on authorities, on the so-called experts.  In the following pages the author had indicated the general lines of his self-inquiry in the hope that it may arouse an interest in others to make their own investigations. 

Where a chapter is not immediately clear, the reader is advised to leave it for the time being and take it up later–for he will find that its meaning is more easily understood by a consideration of the work in its totality rather than through concentration on a particular fragment. 

____________________

“Why do we attach such enormous importance to ideas, to beliefs, to conclusions? . . . We see that ideas, beliefs, divide people . . . bring about catastrophes, miseries and confusion . . . There can be collective action only when there is freedom from all desire to take refuge in any ideology, in any belief, in any system, in any group, in any person, in any particular teaching or teacher . . . As long as we repeat, read books, quote authorities, pursue ideals, conform to formulae, follow religions, practice cults, seek out masters, hoping to make ourselves happy, there can obviously be no freedom.”

-- J. KRISHNAMURTI

Previous Section Contents - | - Next Section: Chapter One