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J Krishnamurti on fear - how do we deal with the superficial fears

Question: Is it possible to be free of fear?
Jiddu Krishnamurti : Fear exists not only at the conscious level but deep down at the unconscious level. There is the fear with which we are familiar and to which we have become accustomed. There is also the fear deep down, hidden, concealed. Is it possible to be free of all fear?

To understand that, one must understand the whole content of consciousness. Now, you have to understand the fact, not what consciousness is according to somebody - whether that somebody is a great saint or great teacher or whatever he is. You have to understand the consciousness which is you - not in terms of what you have learned from some book or from what you have been told - you have to observe. And that is what we are going to do, if you will follow what I am going to say.

This whole consciousness is of time - time being thought, thought being the response of memory, memory being the past, the past moving through the present to the future in a limited way or in an expansive way. The whole structure of the conscious as well as the unconscious is in the framework of time - time being not only chronological time but also psychological time. That is a fact, whether you agree or disagree; it is not a matter of agreement or disagreement; it is so.

We have divided this consciousness as the superficial and the hidden. The superficial is the educated mind, the modern mind - it goes to the office, however bored it is; it passes examinations; it has certain technological knowledge; it reads newspapers and reacts. That is the superficial mind. And then there is the hidden mind. The hidden mind is all the latent factors of the past; certain parts of it are awake, other parts of it are asleep.

I wish you would listen to this, actually observing your own state of consciousness. I am only using the words to describe; do not depend on the description, but watch it. Then you will go much further, deeply.

Now, how do we deal with the superficial fears? We either escape or take a drink or go to church or repeat some mantra or read a book. And reading a book, going to the temple, seeking God, or taking a drink are all the same because they are all escapes from the fact of the fears of which you are conscious.

Secondly, in regard to the unconscious with which we are not familiar, we have to get acquainted with it - and it is difficult. There is the hidden part of me, the hidden part of you with which you are not familiar, as familiar as you are with your conscious mind. To become familiar with it, to know all the contents of it, requires an attention, an observation which is attentive - not in terms of condemnation or justification, but merely attentive.

Attention is necessary in order to find out the whole content of the unconscious. I mean by attention a mind that is attentive without any subjective or objective condemnation, a mind which is merely attentive. I must go into the meaning of the word attentive. Because most of us do not know what it means; we know only what it is to be concentrated, to focus the attention, to focus the thought on a particular thing. And in that focusing of the thought on a particular thing, which is called concentration, there is an exclusive process - you are putting everything aside. Therefore, concentration is a form of resistance. Concentration is not attention because in attention there is no resistance. Attention can concentrate; even then, it is not exclusive.

One must be very clear between these two facts: the implication of concentration, and the implication of attention. In attention, there is complete emptiness; otherwise, you can't attend. Now, if you are attentive, you listen to that noise of the train on the bridge, you listen to the hoot of the train, you listen to the speaker, you watch the colors of the various people, you see the sparrows flying across the room, you see the people there - their smiles, their yawning, their scratching. But if you are concentrated, you cannot be aware of all this extraordinary movement.

So, you need attention to observe the unconscious; otherwise, you cannot observe it. This means that the conscious mind must not seek any result, it must not wish to transform what it sees, it must not try to interpret what it sees according to its likes and dislikes. So the conscious mind must be attentively aware, which means ``aware without any preoccupation.''

The conscious mind must be in a noninterpretative, noncondemnative state; this means it must be quiet - quiet, not forced, not compelled. And that is only possible when there is no ambition, when the conscious mind is psychologically free from society - then the conscious mind is completely quiet; even the brain cells which are being highly sensitive, highly aware, are quiet; the conscious mind can be quiet because there is no resistance.

When the conscious mind is quiet - which means when the conscious mind is attentive - it has no thought, it is empty but aware; then it can observe. This observation is not analytical or interpretative. I won't go into the question of analysis: who is the analyzer or who is the analyzed. This attention has no introspective or analytical quality; the conscious mind merely observes.

Then what is the unconscious? I am merely describing verbally. You can add more words, more description, but that will not help you to understand the unconscious. And you have to understand the whole content of the unconscious, not only the superficial, but also the hidden; otherwise, you cannot possibly go beyond. You may talk everlastingly about God, truth - that is all too childish, immature.

Unless the mind can comprehend the depth, the superficiality, the movement of every conscious and unconscious thing within the field of time, unless the mind understands all that, it cannot possibly under any circumstances go beyond itself. And it must go beyond itself to understand what is truth - even the truth of everyday, the daily truth, not the ultimate. So, you have to observe the unconscious or the subconscious, whatever name you give it. The word, the name, is not the thing. We are talking about the thing and not about the word, not about the symbol. When you are observing the thing, the word becomes unimportant.

As we said, the whole of consciousness is of time. The unconscious is the past with all its traditions and authorities and experience - not only the experiences of the present, but the experiences, the knowledge, the authorities of centuries and centuries of man - because you are the result of all men, not just one man. It is too narrow, limited, if we say that the unconscious is merely the result of one individual life, striving, striving, striving - it is not a fact.

The unconscious is the whole endeavor of man's existence, his conflicts, his hopes, his fears, his despairs. The whole of that is the unconscious, the collective, as well as the collective operating through the so-called individual, the motives, the urges, the hidden recesses of the mind, of which the conscious mind is not aware at all, and which occasionally, through dreams, come into being. I am not going into dreams now; that will take too long. So, all that is time, obviously - time as the past operating in the present, which becomes the future; the yesterday, moving into today, becomes the tomorrow. That is how we live.

Being attentive, one can observe this process of time. Time becomes mechanical - ''I have done this yesterday, and the result of that is today, which will operate on the events, the challenges of tomorrow.'' The mind which is consciousness, the mind which is asleep or awake, hidden or open - that mind is the result put together by time. Your mind is the result of time. Now, please listen to this carefully. Is it possible for that mind to be free of time? Do not say yes or no. Do not put a superficial question: ``Is it possible? Must I catch my train? What about my lunch?'' I am talking about the working of the mind at a deeper level. The mind has to be free of time.

Without being free of time, you cannot be free of fear. Because, fear is the result of thought; if you did not think, if you had no thought about tomorrow, you would not be afraid of tomorrow. If there is no process of thinking with regard to something, of which you think you are afraid, there will be no fear. If death comes to one instantaneously, one has no fear of death. So thought which is the instrument of time, which is the response of memory, which is the past - that creates time; and out of that there is fear.

Thought is the origin of fear; time gives soil to fear. So one has to understand fear and be free of fear - not the fear of the snake, but this deep-down fear which gives sorrow, the fear which prevents affection, the fear which clouds the mind, the fear which creates conflict, the fear which brings about darkness. Most of us live in darkness and die in darkness. If one would really understand that fear, one must understand this whole process of consciousness which is of time.

Source: Jiddu Krishnamurti talks in India 1963

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