A feeling for all living things

It is odd that we have so little relationship with nature, with the insects and the leaping frog, and the owl that hoots among the hills calling for its mate. We never seem to have a feeling for all living things on the earth. If we could establish a deep, abiding relationship with nature, we would never kill an animal for our appetite, we would never harm, vivisect, a monkey, a dog, a guinea pig for our benefit. We would find other ways to heal our wounds, heal our bodies. But the healing of the mind is something totally different. That healing gradually takes place if you are with nature, with that orange on the tree, and the blade of grass that pushes through the cement, and the hills covered, hidden, by the clouds.

J. Krishnamurti/Krishnamurti to Himself, p 10

You are losing your relationship with nature

I wonder if you ask these questions of yourself when you look at those chestnut trees with their blooms like white candles against the blue sky. What relationship exists between you and that, what relationship have you actually got (not emotionally nor sentimentally) what is your relationship with such things? And if you have lost the relationship with these things in nature, how can you be related to man? The more we live in towns, the less do we have any relation with nature. You go out for a walk on a Sunday and look at the trees and say “How lovely”, and go back to your life of routine, living in a series of drawers, which are called houses, flats. You are losing your relationship with nature. You can see this by the fact that you go to museums and you spend a whole morning looking at pictures.

J. Krishnamurti/Talks in Europe 1968, p 82

If you hurt nature you are hurting yourself

Nature is part of our life. We grew out of the seed, the earth, and we are part of all that. But we are rapidly losing the sense that we are animals like the others. Can you have a feeling for that tree, look at it, see the beauty of it, listen to the sound it makes; be sensitive to the little plant, to the little weed, to that creeper that is growing up the wall, to the light on the leaves and the many shadows? One must be aware of all this and have the sense of communion with nature around you. You may live in a town but you do have trees here and there. A flower in the next garden may be ill-kept, crowded with weeds, but look at it, feel that you are part of all that, part of all living things. If you hurt nature you are hurting yourself.

J. Krishnamurti/Letters to the Schools vol II, p 71

It is our earth

I don’t know if any of you have noticed, early in the morning, the sunlight on the waters. How extraordinarily soft is the light, and how the dark waters dance, with the morning stars over the trees, the only star in the sky. Do you ever notice any of that? Or are you so busy, so occupied with the daily routine, that you forget or have never known the rich beauty of this earth—this earth on which all of us have to live? Whether we call ourselves communists or capitalists, Hindus or Buddhists, Muslims or Christians, whether we are blind, lame, or well and happy, this earth is ours. It is our earth, not somebody else’s; it is not only the rich man’s earth, it does not belong exclusively to the powerful rulers, to the nobles of the land, but it is our earth, yours and mine. We are nobodies, yet we also live on this earth and we all have to live together. It is the world of the poor as well as of the rich, of the unlettered as well as of the learned; it is our world, and I think it is very important to feel this and to love the earth, not just occasionally on a peaceful morning, but all the time.

J. Krishnamurti/This Matter of Culture, p 23

Relationship to nature

We must find out for ourselves what is the relationship between nature and each of us. That is part of spirituality. You may not agree, but consider it, go into it. Have you any relationship with nature, with the birds, with the water of that river? All rivers are holy, but getting more and more polluted: you may call it Ganges, or the Thames, the Nile, the Rhine, the Mississippi, or the Volga. What is your relationship with all that—with the trees, with the birds, with all the living things that we call nature?

J. Krishnamurti/On Nature and the Environment, pp 100-1

Beauty and observation of nature

Many of you live in cities with all the crowds, noise, and dirt in the environment. Probably you have not often come across nature. But there is this marvelous sea, and you have no relationship to it. You look at it, perhaps you swim there, but the feeling of this sea with its enormous vitality and energy, the beauty of a wave crashing upon the shore—there is no communication between that marvelous movement of the sea and yourself. And if you have no relationship with that, how can you have relationship with another. If you don’t perceive the sea, the quality of the water, the waves, the great vitality of the tide going out and coming in, how can you be aware, or be sensitive to human relationship? Please, it is very important to understand this, because beauty is not merely in the physical form, but beauty in essence is that quality of sensitivity, the quality of observation of nature.

J. Krishnamurti/On Nature and the Environment, pp 84-85

Beauty and self-abandonment

Beauty is not something put together by man. Beauty is when there is complete self-abandonment, a total relinquishing of the self, the “me”, with all its aches and loneliness, with all its despairs, anxieties, and fears. Then you will live in this world as a human being.

J. Krishnamurti/Talks in Europe 1968, p 44

Is there another quality of beauty?

Is beauty in the color, the shape, the bones of the face, the clarity in the eyes, and the skin and the hair, in the expression of a man or a woman? Or is there another quality of beauty which may transcend all this beauty; and when that is part of this life, then the form, the face, everything has its place? If that is not captured, if that is not understood, the outward expression becomes all important. We are going to find out what that beauty is, if you are interested. You know, when you see something like a marvelous mountain against the blue sky, the vivid, bright, clear, unpolluted snow, the majesty of it drives all your thoughts, your concerns, your problems away. Have you noticed that? You say, “How beautiful it is”, and for two seconds perhaps, or even for a minute, you are absolutely silent. The grandeur of it drives away for that second the pettiness of ourselves. So that immensity has taken us over. Like a child occupied with an intricate toy for an hour; he won’t talk, he won’t make any noise, he is completely absorbed in that. The toy has absorbed him. So the mountain absorbs you and therefore for the second, or the minute, you are absolutely quiet, which means there is no self. Now, without being absorbed by something—either a toy, a mountain, a face, or an idea—to be completely without the “me” in oneself is the essence of beauty.

J. Krishnamurti/On Love and Loneliness, p 88

Sensitivity to beauty and ugliness

Any tendency or talent which makes for isolation, any form of self-identification, however stimulating, distorts the expression of sensitivity and brings about insensitivity. Sensitivity is dulled when gift becomes personal, when importance is given to the “me” and the “mine”—I paint, I write, I invent. It is only when we are aware of every movement of our own thought and feeling in our relationship with people, with things and with nature, that the mind is open, pliable, not tethered to self-protective demands and pursuits; and only then is there sensitivity to the ugly and the beautiful, unhindered by the self. Sensitivity to beauty and to ugliness does not come about through attachment; it comes with love, when there are no self-created conflicts. When we are inwardly poor, we indulge in very form of outward show, in wealth, power and possessions. When our hearts are empty, we collect things. If we can afford it, we surround ourselves with objects that we consider beautiful, and because we attach enormous importance to them, we are responsible for much misery and destruction. The acquisitive spirit is not the love of beauty; it arises from the desire for security, and to be secure is to be insensitive.

J. Krishnamurti/Education and the Significance of Life, pp 125

This creative beauty inside

Beauty obviously includes beauty of form; but without inward beauty, the mere sensual appreciation of beauty and form leads to degradation, disintegration. There is inward beauty only when you feel real love for people and for all the things of the earth; and with that love there comes a tremendous sense of consideration, watchfulness, patience. You may have perfect technique, as a singer or a poet, you may know how to paint or put words together, but without this creative beauty inside, your talent will have very little significance.

Unfortunately, most of us are becoming mere technicians. We pass examinations, acquire this or that technique in order to earn a livelihood; but to acquire technique or develop capacity without paying attention to the inner state brings about ugliness and chaos in the world. If we awaken creative beauty inwardly, it expresses itself outwardly, and then there is order.

J. Krishnamurti/This Matter of Culture, p 72

Love and beauty

Love is something extraordinary, is it not? You cannot love if you are thinking about yourself—which does not mean that you must think about somebody else. Love is, it has no object. The mind that loves is really a religious mind because it is in the movement of reality, of truth, of God, and it is only such a mind that can know what beauty is. The mind that is not caught in any philosophy, that is not enclosed in any system or belief, that is not driven by its own ambition and is therefore sensitive, alert, watchful—such a mind has beauty.

J. Krishnamurti/This Matter of Culture, p 153

When the things of the mind don’t fill your heart…

When the things of the mind don’t fill your heart, then there is love; and love alone can transform the present madness and insanity in the world—not systems, not theories, either of the left or the right. You really love only when you do not possess, when you are not envious, not greedy, when you are respectful, when you have mercy and compassion, when you have consideration for your wife, your children, your neighbour, your unfortunate servants. Love cannot be thought about, love cannot be cultivated, love cannot be practised. The practice of love, the practice of brotherhood, is still within the field of the mind, therefore it is not love. When all this has stopped, then love comes into being, then you will know what it is to love.

J. Krishnamurti/The First and Last Freedom, p 234

Love is not sentiment

Obviously love is not sentiment. To be sentimental, to be emotional, is not love, because sentimentality and emotion are mere sensations. A religious person who weeps about Jesus or Krishna, about his guru and somebody else is merely sentimental, emotional. He is indulging in sensation, which is a process of thought, and thought is not love. Thought is the result of sensation, so the person who is sentimental, who is emotional, cannot possibly know love. Again, aren’t we emotional and sentimental? Sentimentality, emotionalism, is merely a form of self-expansion. To be full of emotion is obviously not love, because a sentimental person can be cruel when his sentiments are not responded to, when his feelings have no outlet. An emotional person can be stirred to hatred, to war, to butchery. A man who is sentimental, full of tears for his religion, surely, has no love.

J. Krishnamurti/The First and Last Freedom, pp 232-233

Is forgiveness love?

Is forgiveness love? What is implied in forgiveness? You insult me and I resent it, remember it; then, either through compulsion or through repentance, I say, "I forgive you." First I retain and then I reject. Which means what? I am still the central figure; it is I who am forgiving somebody. As long as there is the attitude of forgiving it is I who am important, not the man who is supposed to have insulted me. So when I accumulate resentment and then deny that resentment, which you call forgiveness, it is not love. A man who loves obviously has no enmity and to all these things he is indifferent. Sympathy, forgiveness, the relationship of possessiveness, jealousy and fear all these things are not love. They are all of the mind, are they not?

J. Krishnamurti/The First and Last Freedom, p 233

Without love your daily life has no meaning

In this torn desert world there is no love because pleasure and desire play the greatest roles, yet without love your daily life has no meaning. And you cannot have love if there is no beauty. Beauty is not something you see—not a beautiful tree, a beautiful picture, a beautiful building, or a beautiful woman. There is beauty only when your heart and mind know what love is. Without love and that sense of beauty there is no virtue, and you know very well that, do what you will, improve society, feed the poor, you will only be creating more mischief, for without love there is only ugliness and poverty in your heart and mind. But when there is love and beauty, whatever you do is right, whatever you do is in order. If you know how to love, then you can do what you like because it will solve all other problems.

J. Krishnamurti/Freedom from the Known, p 86

Negating that which is not love

What is love? We are not discussing the theories of what love should be. We are observing what we call love: “I love my wife.” I don’t know what you love, I doubt if you love anything at all. You know what it means to love? Is love pleasure? Is love jealousy? Can a man who is ambitious love?—he may sleep with his wife, beget a few children. And a man struggling to become an important person in politics or in the business world, or in the religious world where he wants to become a saint, where he wants to become desireless—all that is part of ambition, aggression, desire. Can a man who is competitive love? And you are all competitive, aren’t you?—better job, better position, better house, more noble ideas, more perfect images of yourself; you know all that you go through. And is that love? Can you love when you are going through all this tyranny, when you can dominate your wife or your husband or your children? When you are seeking power, is there a possibility of love? So in negating what is not love, there is love. You understand, sirs? You have to negate everything which is not love. Which is: no ambition, no competition, no aggression, no violence either in speech or in act or in thought. When you negate that which is not love, then you know what love is.

J. Krishnamurti/Mind in Meditation, pp 10-11

Without love you cannot be moral

Really you have no love. You have pleasure, you have sensation, you have sexual attachments, such as the family, the wife, the husband, the attachment to a nation. But attachment is not love. And love is not something divine and profane: it has no division. Love means something to care for: to care for the tree, for your neighbour, for the child—to see that the child has the right education, not just put him in a school and disappear; the right education not just technological education—and to see that the children have the right teachers, right food, that they understand life, that they understand sex. Teaching children merely geography, mathematics, or a technical thing which will give them a job—that is not love. And without love you cannot be moral—you may be respectable; that is, you may conform to society; that you will not steal, that you will not chase your neighbour’s wife, that you will not do this and you will not do that. But that is not morality, that is not virtue, that is merely the conformity of respectability. Respectability is the most terrible, disgusting thing on earth, because it covers so many ugly things. Whereas when there is love, there is morality. Do what you will, it is moral, if there is love.

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol XIV, p 302

Desire and love

We are all so crazy about desire, we want to fulfil ourselves through desire. But we do not see what havoc it creates in the world—the desire for individual security, for individual attainment, success, power, prestige. We do not feel that we are totally responsible for everything we do. If one understands desire, the nature of it, then what place has it? Has it any place where there is love?

J. Krishnamurti/The Network of Thought, p 49

Momentary sensations give the sense of being happy

Why are we seeking happiness? Why this incessant pursuit to be happy, to be joyous, to be something? Why is there this search, this immense effort made to find? If we can understand that and go into it fully, perhaps we shall know what happiness is without seeking it. Because, after all, happiness is a byproduct, of secondary importance. It is not an end in itself; it has no meaning if it is an end in itself. What does it mean to be happy? The man who takes a drink is happy. The man who drops a bomb over a great number of people feels elated and says he is happy or that God is with him. Momentary sensations, which disappear, give that sense of being happy. Surely, there is some other quality that is essential for happiness. For happiness is not an end, any more than virtue. Virtue is not an end in itself; it gives freedom, and in that freedom there is discovery. Therefore virtue is essential. Whereas, an unvirtuous person is slavish, is disorderly, is all over the place, lost, confused. But to treat virtue as an end in itself or happiness as an end in itself has very little meaning. So happiness is not an end.

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol V, pp 328-329

To find the happiness of a resting place

Our life is a series of demands for comfort, for security, for position, for fulfillment, for happiness, for recognition, and we also have rare moments of wanting to find out what is truth, what is God. So God or truth becomes synonymous with our satisfaction. We want to be gratified; therefore truth becomes the end of all search, of all struggle, and God becomes the ultimate resting place. We move from one pattern to another, from one cage to another, from one philosophy or society to another, hoping to find happiness, not only happiness in relationship with people, but also the happiness of a resting place where the mind will never be disturbed, where the mind will cease to be tortured by its own discontent. We may put it in different words, we may use different philosophical jargons, but that is what we all want—a place where the mind can rest, where the mind is not tortured by its own activities, where there is no sorrow.

J. Krishnamurti/The Collected Works vol VIII, p 328