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Questioner: Some of us who have listened to you for many years agree, perhaps only verbally, with all that you say. But actually, in daily life, we are dull, and there is not the living from moment to moment that you speak of. Why is there such a huge gap between thought, or rather words, and action? Jiddu Krishnamurti : I think we mistake verbal appreciation for real understanding. Verbally we understand each other, we understand the words. I communicate to you verbally certain thoughts that I have, and you remain on the verbal level, and from that verbal level, you hope to act. So, you will have to find out if verbal appreciation brings about understanding, action. For example, when I say that goodwill, affection, love, is the only solution, the only way out of this mess, verbally you understand, and if you are at all thoughtful, you will probably agree. Now, why don't you act? For the very simple reason that the verbal response is identified with the intellectual response. That is, intellectually you think you have grasped the idea, and so there is division between idea and action. That is why the cultivation of ideas creates, not understanding, but mere opposition, counter - ideas; and although this opposition may bring about a revolution, it will not be a real transformation of the individual and therefore of society. I do not know if I am making myself clear on this point. If we dwell on the verbal level, then we merely produce ideas because words are things of the mind. Words are sensate, and if we dwell on the verbal level, words can only create sensate ideas and values. That is, one set of ideas creates counter-ideas, and these counter-ideas produce an action, but that action is merely reaction, the response to an idea. Most of us live merely verbally, we feed on words; the Bhagavad-Gita. says this, the Puranas say that, or Marx says this, Einstein says that. Words can only produce ideas, and ideas will never produce action. Ideas can produce a reaction, but not action - and that is why we have this gap between verbal comprehension and action. Now, the question wants to know how to build the bridge between word and action. I say you cannot, you cannot bridge the gap between word and action. Please see the importance of this. Words can never produce action. They can only produce a response, a counteraction or reaction, and therefore still further reaction, like a wave, and in that wave you are caught. Whereas, action is quite a different thing, it is not reaction. So, you cannot bridge the gap between the word and the action. You have to leave the word and then you will act. Our difficulty, then, is how to leave the word. That means, how to act without reaction. Do you follow? Because as long as you are fed on words, you are bound to react; therefore, you have to empty yourself of words, which means emptying yourself of imitation. Words are imitation; living on the verbal level is to live in imitation, and since our whole life is based on imitation, on copying, naturally we have made ourselves incapable of action. Therefore you have to investigate the various patterns which make you copy, imitate, live on the verbal level; and as you begin to unravel the various patterns that have made you imitative, you will find that you act without reaction. Sir, love is not a word, the word is not the thing, is it? God is not the word God, love is not the word love. But you are satisfied with the word because the word gives you a sensation. When somebody says, ''God,'' you are psychologically or nervously affected, and that response you call the understanding of God. So, the word affects you nervously and sensuously, and that produces certain action. But the word is not the thing, the word God is not God; you have merely been fed on words, on nervous, sensuous responses. Please see the significance of this. How can you act if you have been fed on empty words? For words are empty, are they not? They can only produce a nervous response, but that is not action. Action can take place only when there is no imitative response, which means the mind must inquire into the whole process of verbal life. For example, some leader, political or religious, makes a statement, and without thought you say you agree, and then you wave a flag, you fight for India or Germany. But you have not examined what was said, and since you have not examined, what you do is merely a reaction, and between reaction and action there can be no relationship. Most of us are conditioned to reaction, so you have to discover the causes of this conditioning, and as the mind begins to free itself from the conditioning, you will find that there is action. Such action is not reaction, it is its own vitality, it is its own eternity. So, with most of us the difficulty is that we want to bridge the unbridgeable, we want to serve both God and mammon, we want to live on the verbal plane, and yet act. The two are incompatible. We all know reaction, but very few of us know action because action can come only when we understand that the word is not the thing. When we understand that, then we can go much deeper; we can begin to uncover in ourselves all the fears, the imitations, escapes, and authorities; but that means we have to live very dangerously, and very few of us want to live in a state of perpetual revolution. What we want is a backwater refuge where we can settle down and be comforted, emotionally, physically, or psychologically. As between a lazy man and a very active man there is no relationship, so there is no relationship between word and action; but once we understand that and see the whole significance of it, then there is action. Such action, surely, leads to reality; it is the field in which reality can operate. Then we do not have to seek out reality; it comes directly, mysteriously, silently, stealthily. And a mind that is capable of receiving reality is blessed. Source - Jiddu Krishnamurti talk in Bangalore, India July 25, 1948
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