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Jiddu Krishnamurti on how to break
through Habit completely
Question: Is not an immature mind one that is caught
in habits?
Jiddu
Krishnamurti : I wonder if you are exercising all your attention or
are merely waiting for me to awaken your intelligence, your awareness.
Are you working intensely in spite of this heat, or are you being rather
slack?
The question is: ``Is not an immature mind one that is caught in
habits?'' Now, I wonder why you put this question? Are you aware that
you are immature, caught in habits, or are you merely pointing out what
has already been explained? Please, I am not speaking derogatorily of
the questioner. If you see that you are immature, caught in habits, as
most people are, then the further question is how to be mature
immediately, that is, how to break through habit completely, not at some
future time, but now. Is that the question?
I see that I am caught in habit. Politically, religiously, as a writer,
as a painter, as a man or a woman, I am caught in a particular way of
thinking. Being an Englishman, I have a certain tradition with a fixed
attitude towards life; or I am trained in Catholicism, in this or in
that, and it has become a habit. Can that habit be broken immediately,
or must it be done away with gradually over the years? If I say it will
take time, that it must be done away with gradually over the years, what
then is the state of my mind? Obviously my mind is lethargic, dull,
thoughtless, unaware.
Nationalism, for example, is a habit, and it can be broken instantly;
but it gives us pleasure, it gives us a sense of importance to be
identified with a particular country, especially if it is a powerful
one. Most of us like being identified with a particular government, with
the flag, and all the rest of that nonsense, so we don't want to break
the habit of nationalism, and then there is no problem. But if you want
to break that habit - and you can only break it instantly, not over the
years - then how is it to be done?
Is there a method by which to break a habit? Surely, a method implies
time, moving from a beginning to an end. If you see for yourself that
time does not free you from habit, and that methods or systems are
therefore of no avail, then you are actually faced with the fact that
your mind is caught in habit. You are faced with it, not through words,
not through ideas, but you directly see the fact that your mind is
crippled with habit; it is inescapably so. And then what happens?
You are not trying to change the habit; you are not
trying to break it down. You are simply faced with the fact that your
mind functions in the groove of habit. And what happens when you are
directly faced with a fact? What happens if you come face to face with
the fact that you are a liar, that you are jealous? If you don't try to
change it, then the fact itself gives you enormous energy to break that
fact completely.
Do you understand? When you are directly faced with
the fact, your mind is no longer dissipating itself in escapes, in
denials, in trying to change the fact through time, and all the rest of
it; therefore, your attention is complete; all your energy has been
gathered, and that energy totally shatters the fact.
Source: Jiddu Krishnamurti Talk at London, Saanen,
1962
Related Article:
J Krishnamurti -
Habit of Smoking, drinking is an escape from reality
Osho on How to Drop an
Obsession with the help of Meditation
Jiddu Krishnamurti - What matters is
to be totally conscious of habits
Osho on Habit of Chain
Smoking and Quit Smoking Dropping Consciously
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