Krishnamurti on Choiceless Awareness

Urgency of Change • The Krishnamurti Podcast

This episode explores Jiddu Krishnamurti's concept of 'choiceless awareness' through three historical lecture extracts from New Delhi, Saane

Key takeaways

• Krishmuarti argues that cultivating attention creates duality and conflict between fact and desire.
• The brain's psychological recording of pleasant and unpleasant experiences builds the ego and separates individuals.

Main topics

• Choiceless Awareness
• Psychological Recording

Notable quotes

Choiceless awareness is a state of mind that sees what actually is taking place, factually, without any condemnation or justification.

Conclusion

The episode provides a profound philosophical framework for achieving

Transcript preview

Speaker 3 (0:00) We have a crisis in the world, tremendous crisis, and also crisis in our consciousness, in us. I see the urgency of Speaker 2 (0:11) change, radical revolution, mutation in the mind. I see it. It is necessary. There is complete quietness Speaker 3 (0:22) of the mind, and that which is silent has vast space. Only then that which is nameless comes into being. Speaker 1 (0:35) This is Urgency of Change, the Krishnamurti Podcast. Choiceless awareness is a state of mind that sees what actually is taking place, factually, without any condemnation or justification. Speaker 1 (0:59) Hello and welcome to episode 302 of Urgency of Change. The Krishnamurti podcast features carefully selected extracts from his talks. Each episode highlights Krishnamurti's different approaches to universal and timeless themes relevant to everyday life, the state of the world, and the future of humanity. Speaker 1 (1:23) This episode's theme is choiceless awareness. Upcoming themes are the timeless and the eternal, ignorance and blindness, and non-violence. This is a podcast from Krishnamurti Foundation Trust, based at Brockwood Park in the UK, which is also home to the Krishnamurti Retreat Centre. Speaker 1 (1:48) Situated in the beautiful countryside of the South Downs National Park, the Krishnamurti Centre offers retreats individually and in groups. The focus is on enquiry in light of Krishnamurti's teachings in a conducive atmosphere. Please visit krishnamurticentre.org.uk for more information, including our volunteer programme. Speaker 1 (2:15) You can also find our regular Krishnamurti quotes and videos on social media at Krishnamurti Foundation Trust. This episode on choiceless awareness has three sections. This first extract is from Krishnamurti's first talk in New Delhi 1967 and is titled Choiceless Awareness in Everyday Life. Speaker 2 (2:42) The questioner asks, is this choiceless awareness possible in daily life, in office, at home, when you are by yourself, or when you are talking, when you are doing all the activities of life? Is this possible? Right? Now, just a minute. Whom are you asking? And who is going to tell you? Speaker 2 (3:22) Choiceless awareness is a state of mind which actually sees what is actually taking place, factually, without any condemnation, justification, which means it is very attentive. And you say, is this possible in life? Isn't it possible in life? Wait, sir. Wait, sir. Either… Do please sit down, sir. Speaker 2 (4:04) There are only two states, either you are attentive or you are not attentive, and most of us are inattentive. And we are inattentive because we have developed various habits of thought, habits of activity, and we function in those habits and mechanically carry on, which is inattention. Speaker 2 (4:46) Being attentive means to be attentive to inattention. You understand? Not to cultivate attention. If you cultivate attention then you are cultivating duality. That is, sirs, one is inattentive in the office, at home. Most of the time we are inattentive, daydreaming, or imagining, or wishing. Speaker 2 (5:31) wishing things were different, complaining against the conditions we live in, being envious of somebody else, wishing you were in that position – all that is inattention. Now, one becomes aware of this inattention. Then one says, I will become attentive, I must cultivate attention. Speaker 2 (6:04) So you begin to cultivate attention, which is not attention at all, which is merely the opposite of inattention. I don't know if I am making myself clear. Wait, I'll show you. Just a minute, sir, I'm finished. You see, sir, we are so eager to ask our questions that we don't even listen to what is being said. Speaker 2 (6:41) And we'll talk about attention. That's just it, sir. Look, sirs, for many, many years this country with its saints have preached non-violence up and down the land. They shipped it abroad as something extraordinary. And when there was a war between this country and Pakistan, not one of you stood up against it. Speaker 2 (7:30) Right? Not one of you said this is wrong, to kill, though you have preached non-violence. Now, what was factual was violence. Human beings are violent because they have inherited the animal instincts. The animals are violent. Speaker 2 (8:02) And man has developed from the animal, part of this violence is the animal. And instead of tackling violence, looking at it, going into it, understanding it, uprooting it completely in oneself, you escape into non-violence, into an ideology which is non-existent, it's just an idea. Speaker 2 (8:37) If one is cultivating attention then it is an escape from inattention because you will still be inattentive. But if you are aware of the nature of inattention then you are attentive, you don't have to cultivate it. Is this clear at all or not at all? Look, sir, clear, is it? Now, what do you mean by clear? Speaker 2 (9:25) No, sir, please, this is not a clever question. Just enquire when you say it's clear. What do you mean? Verbally it's clear? Or you have actually understood it. If you have actually understood it, then you are attentive. Not cultivate attention. You are attentive. Being attentive, then you will know when you are not attentive, which is inattention. You see, sir, that's why this whole problem of cultivation… Speaker 2 (10:13) of becoming something, that is, one is dull, stupid, and one wants to become clever, more sharp. This sharpness, this brightness is the opposite of dullness, and therefore the cleverness contains its own opposite. Speaker 2 (10:47) All right, sir, you don't see it, all right. So it is, as one can observe in one's daily life, one can be choicelessly aware, not practice choiceless awareness. There is no such thing as practising something which you don't know. What you can know is that one is inattentive. Speaker 2 (11:21) The moment you become aware that you are inattentive, you become attentive. You are attentive. And this is very important to understand because if you cultivate attention or if you cultivate bravery, there is an interval between the fact and what you want to be, and in that interval is conflict, in that interval there is hypocrisy. Speaker 2 (12:03) If you say, I am violent, I want to understand it, then there is no hypocrisy. But if you say, I am violent, I must become non-violent, and during that interval between violence and becoming non-violent, you are sowing the seeds of violence. So what is important is to find out for oneself Speaker 2 (12:42) Not what others say, but actually observe, see, listen to yourself. In that you discover your own reality. When you say, when one is a liar, one says, I am a liar, not pretend and say, no, this and that. When one is angry, one is angry. But to say, I must not be angry. Speaker 2 (13:24) It is an avoidance of anger because again you will be angry. But if you went into anger, the whole question of anger, why you are angry, not why you shouldn't be angry, but why are you angry. Probably you have not had enough sleep, probably you have not had enough calcium, probably you have pet beliefs which are being shaken, questioned. You have many reasons probably why you are angry. Speaker 2 (14:01) But to escape from it and say, I must not be angry, is no meaning. So in the same way, if you begin to enquire into inattention, why you are not attentive in your office, at home, in the street, in the bus, attentive, to watch, to look, then out of that inattention comes an extraordinary fact of attention, naturally. Speaker 1 (14:54) The second