What is it that is hurt? One says that it is I who am hurt. What is that “I”? From childhood one has built up an image of oneself. One has many, many images, not only the images that people give one, but also the images that one has built oneself: as an American— that is an image—or as a Hindu, or as a specialist. So the “I” is the image that one has built about oneself, as a great or a very good man, and it is that image that gets hurt. One may have an image of oneself as a great speaker, writer, spiritual being, leader. These images are the core of oneself; when one says one is hurt, one means the images are hurt. If one has an image about oneself and another comes along and says, “Don’t be an idiot”, one gets hurt. The image which has been built about oneself as not being an idiot is “me”, and that gets hurt. One carries that image and that hurt for the rest of one’s life.
J. Krishnamurti/The Flame of Attention, p 88
