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Jiddu Krishnamurti - Guru cannot awaken youQuestioner: In my view, the guru is one who awakens me
to the truth, to reality. What is wrong with my taking to such a guru? That is, you want comfort, you want gratification, you want your confusion cleared away by somebody, and the person who helps you to find escapes you call a guru. Actually, not theoretically, you look to a guru who will assure you of what you want. You go guru-hunting as you go window-shopping: You see what suits you best and then buy it. In India, that is the position: You go around hunting for gurus, and when you find one you hold on to his feet or neck or hand until he gratifies you. To touch a man's feet - that is one of the most extraordinary things. You touch the guru's feet and kick your servants, and thereby you destroy human beings, you lose human significance. So, you go to a guru to find gratification, not truth. The idea may be that he should awaken you to truth, but the actual fact is that you find comfort. Why? Because you say, ''I can't solve my problem, somebody must help me.'' Can anybody help you solve the confusion which you have created? What is confusion? Confusion with regard to what? Suffering with regard to what? Confusion and suffering exist in your relationship with things, people, and ideas; and if you cannot understand that confusion which you have created, how can another help you? He can tell you what to do, but you have to do it yourself, it is your own responsibility; and because you are unwilling to take that responsibility, you sneak off to the guru - that is the right expression to use, ''sneak off'' - and you think you have solved the problem. On the contrary, you have not solved it at all; you
have escaped, but the problem is still there. And, strangely, you always
choose a guru who will assure you of what you want; therefore, you are
not seeking truth, and therefore the guru is not important. You are
actually seeking someone who will satisfy you in your desires; that is
why you create a leader, religious or political, and give yourself over
to him, and that is why you accept his authority. Authority is evil,
whether religious or political, because it is the leader and his
position that are all-important, and you are unimportant. You are a
human being with sorrow, pain, suffering, joy, and when you deny
yourself and give yourself over to somebody, you are denying reality
because it is only through yourself that you can find reality, not
through somebody else. Is truth like that - static, something permanent to which you can be led? It is static only when you create it out of your desire for comfort. But truth is not static; nobody can lead you to truth. Beware of the person who says he can lead you to truth because it is not true. Truth is something unknown from moment to moment; it cannot be captured by the mind, it cannot be formulated, it has no resting place. Therefore, no one can lead you to truth. You may ask me, ''Why are you talking here?'' All that I am doing is pointing out to you what is and how to understand what is as it is, not as it should be. I am not talking about the ideal but about a thing that is actually right in front of you, and it is for you to look and see it. Therefore, you are more important than I, more important than any teacher, any savior, any slogan, any belief, because you can find truth only through yourself, not through another. When you repeat the truth of another, it is a lie. Truth cannot be repeated. All that you can do is to
see the problem as it is and not escape. When you see the thing as it
actually is, then you begin to awaken, but not when you are compelled by
another. There is no savior but yourself. When you have the intention
and the attention to look directly at what is, then your very attention
awakens you because in attention everything is implied. To give
attention, you must be devoted to what is, and to understand what is,
you must have knowledge of it. Therefore, you must look, observe, give
it your undivided attention, for all things are contained in that full
attention you give to what is. To seek rightly is to give attention, not to God, not to truth, because you don't know it, but attention to the problem of your relationship with your wife, your children, your neighbor. When you establish right relationship then you love truth, for truth is not a thing that can be bought, truth does not come into being through self-immolation or through the repetition of mantras. Truth comes into being only when there is self-knowledge. Self-knowledge brings understanding, and when there is understanding, there are no problems. When there are no problems, then the mind is quiet, it is no longer caught up in its own creations. When the mind is not creating problems, when it understands each problem immediately as it arises, then it is utterly still, not made still. This total process is awareness, and it brings about a state of undisturbed tranquillity which is not the outcome of any discipline, of any practice or control, but is the natural outcome of understanding every problem as it arises. Problems arise only in relationship, and when there is understanding of one's relationship with things, with people, and with ideas, then there is no disturbance of any kind in the mind, and the thought process is silent. In that state there is neither the thinker nor the thought, the observer nor the observed. Therefore, the thinker ceases, and then the mind is no longer caught in time, and when there is no time, the timeless comes into being. But the timeless cannot be thought of. The mind, which is the product of time, cannot think of that which is timeless. Thought cannot conceive or formulate that which is beyond thought. When it does, its formulation is still part of thought. Therefore, eternity is not a thing of the mind;
eternity comes into being only when there is love, for love in itself is
eternal. Love is not something abstract to be thought about; love is to
be found only in relationship with your wife, your children, your
neighbor. When you know that love which is unconditional, which is not
the product of the mind, then reality comes into being, and that state
is utter bliss.
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