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 star 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, Moslems or Christians, whether we are blind, lame, well or happy, this
earth is ours.
Do you understand? 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.
We can feel that it is our world and love it only when we understand what freedom
is.
KRISHNAMURTI
ON THE FLIGHT FROM DISTURBANCE
A Collection of Krishnamurti's Teachings
Introduction
1. Background. Krishnamurti noted that many people, having suffered in their
lives, seek comfort and peace of mind in religion. But, throughout his public
talks he roundly criticised the flight from disturbance as a destructive and
"dangerous" tendency -- settling for pacifiers in the absence of peace (6Aug49),
settling for tranquillisers in the absence of tranquillity (7Jul55).
Flight from disturbance is a rather natural impulse, especially for those who feel
exhausted by the burdens they have carried. One might well expect a compassionate
teacher to offer comfort to those in such a situation. But that was not
Krishnamurti's way. Instead he sounded a warning to beware of those who offer
comfort -- "a snare in which you are caught like a fish in a net" (13Apr35). This
is one of many vivid metaphors he used to convey the urgency of facing reality in
a more robust spirit. From early to late, he counselled against putting up "Please
Do Not Disturb" signs when the house we live in is burning. (11Jul48, 27Jul77).
We have collected below a number of passages from public talks in which
Krishnamurti examines in detail the longing for shelter, and explores the
strategies man has invented to avoid discomfort. Through these passages the reader
can see Krishnamurti in action, analysing the causes and destructive consequences
of flight from disturbance, and see him responding to it with acute poignancy: "We
carry on; and the beauty of life passes by." (21Jan54). These passages also
explain how flight from disturbance can actually increase insecurity. After
carefully building protective walls around ourselves, we may naturally fear the
day when those walls break down ("Something will Crack" 27Jul77). The remedy he
offers is to learn the vitality that comes from being "entirely vulnerable to
life". (26Jun35)
2. The Documentary Record For the present study, we canvassed nearly two thousand
contexts from Krishnamurti's public talks between 1926 and 1985. From this vast
material we selected nearly one hundred passages to introduce several aspects of
this rather subtle theme.
We have not so far found any single term in common usage or in Krishnamurti's
special vocabulary, to capture this particular topic. It might well be explored
through any chosen terms from a background set of more than sixty alternatives
that we initially looked at. We chose to focus on three main
keywords: disturbance, comfort andvulnerability. These three terms provided more
than sufficient material to illustrate some central issues and, we hope, to give
readers a useful starting point for their own inquiries in this field.
3. Arrangement of the Source Material. We have organised our selections under
seven headings (1) Beware of Those Who Offer Comfort (2) I am Afraid of Losing
What I Have (3) I Have Built My Own Prison (4) Security or Awareness? (5) No
Escape From Life (6) Entirely Vulnerable (7) That is the Moment to Inquire.
For the present study, we have not adhered to any chronological arrangement of
selections within each section. After experimenting with several arrangements, it
is our sense that this particular topic lends itself better to a thematic
arrangement. We have aimed for a sequence of passages which could help readers to
identify an important but perhaps somewhat neglected thread that runs through many
contexts in Krishnamurti's public talks.
4. Its Destructive Consequences. We have already noted one major consequence that
Krishnamurti drew out of the flight from disturbance -- that it creates artificial
fears and new anxieties. In this respect it may be a self-defeating impulse, which
begins in weariness and ends in even more suffering. Gradually we bind ourselves
by commitments and vested interests and then we fear to lose what was gained in
these ways. Krishnamurti noted how this promotes conservative attitudes -- "we
want to live an undisturbed, respectable, bourgeois life" (7Sep61). Here and
elsewhere Krishnamurti wryly treated material and spiritual comfort as two sides
of the same debased coin -- "I want a comfortable chair or ... a comfortable,
secure idea which can never be shaken" (30Aug77; see also 31Dec33). He warned that
all these attitudes encourage disengagement, and we let things drift, even when
that entails complicity in "world catastrophe" (11Jul48). What is more, flight
from disturbance is ultimately self-destructive: "your thoughts and feelings
become shallow, barren, trivial, and life becomes an empty shell" (1Jan34).
5. It Blocks Free Inquiry. Krishnamurti's critique of authority as a hindrance to
free inquiry, is well-known. His critique of the flight from disturbance as
another major hindrance to free inquiry, is considerably more subtle and probably
less widely recognised. One of the deepest and most destructive consequences that
he saw in flight from disturbance is the way it makes one insensitive and closes
the doors to the "laboratory of life" in which we learn (22Nov59). It makes one
run away from many of those learning opportunities which present themselves
precisely at moments of disturbance and engagement in a crisis. Because of the
cardinal importance he attached to completely free inquiry, it would seem to
follow that one must choose between comfort and awareness, or as he sometimes puts
it, one must choose between security and truth. While leaving this choice to the
individual, there is no mistaking where he positions himself on this issue. These
themes are developed fully in Section 7 ("That is The Moment to Inquire").
6. Strength Through Vulnerability Vulnerability as a source of strength is a
characteristic twist for Krishnamurti, who held the search for comfort to be an
illusion that weakens the spirit and very much aggravates the unavoidable
insecurities of life. In many passages he puts forward an invitation to find the
vitality and strength that come from facing uncomfortable facts directly and
engaging fully with the challenges of life. "To live greatly, to think creatively,
one must be completely open to life, without any self-protective reaction ... in
love with life" (15Mar35).
7. A Difficult Message to Convey Once, Krishnamurti hinted that the impulse toward
security might be part of our conditioning (22Mar72). And, there are indications
in his talks that flight from disturbance is a field where resistance is high and
self-deception is rampant. Over a long period of time, Krishnamurti expounded his
treatment of the problem. And he sometimes prefaced his remarks with cautionary
words that indicate a steady resistance on the part of his audience. In one of the
earliest passages in this study he remarked: "What I am saying today I have said
innumerable times; I have said it again and again. But you don't feel these things
because you have explained away your suffering" (31Dec33). Twenty-six years later
his words suggest a continuing stalemate in the discourse: "Probably you will say,
'Well, I have heard this before, he is on his favourite subject', and go away. I
wish you [could] listen as if for the first time ... [and] discover freedom for
yourself" (22Nov59). Another twenty-six years passed, and he was still remarking
how walls, even "soft walls", hinder free inquiry (29Aug85). We have already noted
how flight from disturbance encourages us to let things drift. Now, after the
passage of yet another decade in which drifting has become very much more
dangerous, readers may be left to ponder the question as to how widely this
particular aspect of Krishnamurti's teaching has been recognised and fully
absorbed in action.
PART 1: BEWARE OF THOSE WHO OFFER COMFORT
All My Life I Have Been Hurt (1972)
I have been hurt all my life, I am sensitive -- you know what hurt is, the wounds
that one receives, and what effect it has in later life. I have been hurt. I can
deal with superficial hurts fairly intelligently. I know what to do. I either
resist, build a wall around myself, so isolate myself so that I will never be
hurt, grow a thick skin -- which most people do. But behind that they are wounded
deeply. (Saanen 23Jul72)
Looking For Peace (1955)
Essentially you are seeking a state of mind which will never be disturbed and
which you call peace + Our life is disturbed, anxious, full of fear, darkness,
upheaval, confusion, and we want to escape from all that; but when a confused man
seeks ... what he finds is further confusion + I may want perfect bliss, which
means an undisturbed state of mind in which there will be complete quietness, no
conflict, no pain, no inquiry, no doubt + I might just as well take a drug, a
pill, which will have the same effect - only that's not respectable, whereas the
other is. (Laughter). Please, it is not a laughing matter, this is what we are
actually doing. (Ojai 7Jul55)
We Want To Be Enclosed (1948)
Love is the most dangerous thing, because when we love somebody, we are
vulnerable, we are open; and we do not want to be open. We do not want to be
vulnerable. We want to be enclosed, we want to be more at ease within ourselves.
(Bangalore 11Jul48)

The Protective Walls We Build (1936)

Awareness is discernment, without judgement, of the process of creating self-
protecting walls and limitations behind which the mind takes shelter and comfort +
If you begin to be aware, to discern how you have created this process through
fear, how you are constantly taking shelter, whenever there is any reaction,
behind these ideals, concepts and values, then you will perceive that awareness is
not occupation with your own thoughts and feelings, but deep comprehension of the
folly of creating these values behind which the mind takes shelter. (Eddington
12Jun36)
Even Soft Walls Are Limitations (1985)
I can build a wall round myself and say "Sorry", and be polite about it, soft
about it, and very affectionate; but it is still a wall, and that means
limitation. Is it possible for me to live vulnerably? Go on, think it out Sirs.
And yet not be wounded. Highly sensitive, not in any way responding according to
my attachment -- you understand? Go on Sirs, think it out. (Brockwod 29Aug85)
You Want Comfort (1935-77)
Many will say that they are seeking truth; but if they were to analyse their
longing, their search, it would be seen that they are really looking for comfort,
security, an escape from conflict and suffering (Rio de Janeiro 13Apr35); After
all, what is it we all want? We want gratification, comfort, inward security,
peace -- and that is what we are seeking. We call it truth, we give it a name.
What we are seeking in different forms, at different levels, is gratification.
(London 16Oct49); It is a fact that none of us wants to be disturbed. We have
fallen into a rut, a narrow groove, intellectual, emotional or ideological, and we
do not want to be disturbed. All we want, in our relationships and everything
else, is to live a comfortable, undisturbed, respectable, bourgeois life. (Paris
7Sep61); Because I am insufficient, I want comfort. I want a comfortable chair or
a comfortable woman or man or a comfortable idea. I think most of us [want] a
comfortable, secure idea which can never be shaken, and to that we are deadly
attached; and [when] anybody says "nonsense" to that I get angry, I get upset
because he is shaking my house. (Brockwood 30Aug77)
You Are Running Away (1934)
Where there is a search for comfort, there is no understanding + To me, there is a
living reality. There is something eternally becoming, fundamental, real, lasting,
but it cannot be preconceived; it demands no belief, it demands a mind that is not
tethered to an ideal as an animal is tied to a post, but on the contrary, demands
a mind that is continually moving, experimenting, never staying + You are running
away -- there is escape, desire for comfort, security. When religions are based as
they are, on the giving of securities, there must be exploitation. To me religions
as they are exist on nothing but a series of exploitations. (Auckland 28Mar34)
It is All Smoke (1950)
Habit is a means of forgetting and being at peace so that you won't be disturbed +
This process ... is all smoke + Sometimes we do have the flame, rich, full,
complete; but the smoke returns because we cannot live long with the flame + We
are inwardly poor, insufficient ... lonely (Madras 5Feb50)
Don't Expect Comfort From Me (1949)
I am not giving you comfort. This is not something to be believed or thought
about, or intellectually examined and accepted -- for then you will make it into
another comfort (London 16Oct49)
A Disturber of the Peace (1935-61)
Then there is the man who, with his ideas, disturbs the vested interest of
religion or of worldly power. You call him dangerous and get rid of him. + If he
says that acquisition leads to exploitation, to sorrow and cruelty, you call him a
criminal or an idealist ...a disturber of the peace. (Argentina 2Aug35); I do not
see why one should not be disturbed; what is wrong with being disturbed? (Paris
7Sep61)
Beware of Those Who Offer Comfort (1935)
Beware of the person who offers you comfort, for in this there must be
exploitation; he creates a snare in which you are caught like a fish in a net.
(Rio de Janeiro 13Apr35) Because there is so much suffering, we think that by
giving comfort to people we are helping them. This giving of comfort is nothing
but putting them to sleep; thus the comforter becomes the exploiter. (Montevideo
26Jun35)
Slowly Dying From That Poison
You can know yourself only in relationship in your daily life. Don't you know that
you are in conflict? And what is the good of going away from it, of avoiding it,
like a man who has a poison in his system which he does not reject and who is
therefore slowly dying? (4Dec49)

PART 2: I AM AFRAID OF LOSING WHAT I HAVE

Why Not Look Into This Fear? (1950)
The actual question is the desire to escape. What do you fear, why are you afraid
of the unknown, that insufficiency in yourself, that emptiness? If you are afraid,
why do you not look into it? Why should you be afraid of losing what you have, of
losing association, contact? + You don't know the living, you know the past --
dead and decadent things. So, is it not our trouble that we never find what is? We
never face the conflict of our insufficiency -- we keep smothering it down and
suppressing it, running away from it, and we don't know what is. When we approach
it without any fear or condemnation, then, we come to find the truth of it; and it
may be extraordinarily more significant than the significance we give it through
fear. (Colombo 22Jan50)
Commitments Made and Benefits Accepted (1933-36)
If my talk is to be of any value to you, try to think for yourself + Don't think
along the lines to which you have already committed yourself, for they are merely
subtle forms of comfort. You say, "I belong to a certain group. I have given that
group certain promises and accepted from it certain benefits. How can I think
apart from these conditions and promises? What am I to do?" I say, do not think in
terms of commitments, for they prevent you from thinking creatively. (Adyar
29Dec33) We have innumerable commitments. We have organisations to keep up. We
have committed ourselves to certain ideas, to certain beliefs. And economics play
a large part in our lives. We say, "If I think differently from my associates,
from my neighbours, I may lose my job + So we go on as before ... not facing facts
directly. (Adyar 3Jan34) Once we have committed ourselves to a particular society,
to its leaders and their friends, we begin to develop those loyalties and
responsibilities which prevent us from being wholly honest with ourselves. (Ojai
10May36)
Heavy in That Which We Have Accepted (1953)
In my youth, I see the inequality of rich and poor ... appalling misery, strife. I
am discontented with all that and I begin to enquire. I join a party,, or become a
very devout religious person. The moment I have joined ... my discontent is gone +
When you look back to your youth, that is what happens to most of us. + When we
have become crystallised, heavy in that which we have accepted, we have destroyed
our discontent + The moment we have found someone who can give us a way to act, a
way to live, our dissatisfaction comes to an end, and we pursue that particular
pattern of thought for years and years (Madras 13Dec53)
Vested Interests (1955-61)
If you and I approach our human problems, not with commitments ... and self-
interest, but with clarity, then I think these problems can very easily be solved.
I must know that I am confused, that I am committed, that I have a vested interest
(New Delhi 8Mar59)
We Are Weary, We Let Things Drift (1948)
You don't see that the house is burning and you are living in it + You are afraid,
you are comfortable, you are weary + You let things drift, and therefore the
world's catastrophe is approaching + That is an actual fact + After all, what
affects another affects you. You are responsible ... you cannot shut your eyes and
say, "I am secure in Bangalore". That is very short-sighted and stupid. (Bangalore
11Jul48)
We Compromise Our Freedom (1959)
We have lost our dignity as human beings. There is dignity as a human being only
when one has tasted, smelt, known this extraordinary thing called freedom + If we
do not know this freedom, we are enslaved. That is what is happening in the world,
is it not? + Probably you will say, "Well, I have heard this before, he is on his
favourite subject", and go away. I wish it were possible for you to listen as if
you were listening for the first time -- like seeing the sunset, or the face of
your friend for the first time. Then you would learn, and thus learning, you would
discover freedom for yourself + If your mind is tethered, held by some commitment,
whether political, religious, social, or economic, then that very commitment will
prevent you from inquiring; for you there is no freedom. Do please listen to what
is being said, and see for yourself the fact that the very first movement of
inquiry must be born of freedom. You cannot be committed, and from there inquire,
any more than an animal tied to a tree can wander far. + We cannot proceed
together unless we comprehend from the very beginning, from now on, that to
inquire there must be freedom. There must be abandonment of the past ...a complete
letting go. + If you commune with yourself, you will know why ... you have
committed yourself; and if you push further, you will see the slavery, the cutting
down of freedom, the lack of human dignity which that commitment entails. When you
perceive all this instantaneously, you are free. People who are committed to
something, are not serious at all. They have given themselves over to something in
order to achieve their own ends. (Madras 22Nov59)
We Become Dull (1960)
I do not know if we have ever asked ourselves ... why we lose our sensitivity +
[One way in which] dullness comes about is ... when one belongs to a particular
group and must act within the framework of that commitment. (New Delhi 9Mar60)
Why Are We Not Free of All That? (1955)
Must not our minds be free of all commitments as Hindus, Theosophists, or whatever
it be, before we can inquire? Why are we not free of all that? + If you are
serious, this must actually take place. (Banaras 18Dec55)
Drawing A Line (1985)
If one is dependent on another financially, that becomes rather dangerous. Most of
us are in this position. Do you want me to go on with this? If I am dependent
financially on you, God forbid ... what happens between us? You then have the whip
in your hand + For myself I won't depend on anybody, or on anything, or on any
past experience and all the rest of that rubbish + But if one is dependent
financially where do I draw the line? + How far, how deep is that line? You
understand my question? + I must be very clear on this + Oh Lord! (Brockwod
29Aug85)

We Can Discard It Completely (1953-61)

Can you completely discard this whole idea of ...the giver of comfort? + I say you
can completely wipe it away (Bombay 25Feb53) From the beginning to the end,
destroy your Masters, your Society, your commitments ...completely wipe them away
and stand alone. (Madras 13Dec61)

PART 3: I HAVE BUILT MY OWN PRISON

Trying to Avoid Crises (1933)
When you realise with your whole mind and heart the condition of the prison in
which you live ... then are you free, naturally and without effort. This
realisation can come only when you are in a great crisis, but most of you try to
avoid crises. + If you really confront the crisis before you, if you realise the
futility of escape ... then in that awareness is born the flower of discernment +
When you are trying to escape, your attempt to be aware is futile. You don't
really want to be aware, you don't want to discover the cause of suffering; your
whole concern is with escape. (Alpino 6Jul33)
We Don't Want to be Disturbed (1950)
The awakening of intelligence is a most difficult task. The mind is so timorous
that it is ever creating shelters to protect itself ... moving from one prison to
another (La Plata Argentina 2Aug35); We don't want to be disturbed. That is our
whole process of thinking, is it not? We want to be self-enclosed, without any
disturbance + In his search for God, the so-called religious person is really
seeking complete isolation in which he will never be disturbed; but such a person
is not really religious. The truly religious are those who understand relationship
completely, fully, and therefore have no problems, no conflict. Not that they are
not disturbed; but because they are not seeking certainty, they understand
disturbance and therefore there is no self-enclosing process created by the desire
for security. (New York 18Jun50)
Self-Imposed Limitations (1936)
The true experience of reality is not some fantastic, imaginative experience, but
that which comes into being when the mind is free from ... [those] restrictions
and limitations which we accept in our search for self-protection, security and
comfort. (Eddington 12Jun36)
A Thousand Escapes (1933-85)
The very idea of comfort is a hindrance; that very conception from which we derive
consolation is but a flight from the conflict of everyday life. For centuries we
have been building avenues of escape + We do not understand the real movement of
suffering; we merely become more and more cunning and subtle in our dealings with
it + Wisdom, life itself can be understood only when the mind is free from this
search for comfort, this imitation. These are but the ways of escape that we have
been cultivating for centuries. (Oslo 10Sep33) One man rationalises away
suffering, so as to live as undisturbed as possible; another in his belief, in his
postponement, takes shelter and comfort so as not to suffer in the present. These
two are fundamentally the same. Neither wants to suffer, it is only their
explanations that differ. (Ommen 5Aug37) I am afraid that is ... difficult, not to
seek comfort .... some way [of] escaping from the fact. We have cultivated a
thousand escapes, it is part of our life. So K says to his friend, who is you, he
says: "Don't escape. That is the first thing to realise." Do you understand? See
the fact, the truth of it, the implications of escaping. (Madras 5Jan85)
Seeking Comfort in Illusions (1949-72)
Most of us are disinclined to be disturbed, we prefer to follow the easy way of
existence; and whether it leads to misery, to turmoil and conflict, is apparently
of very little importance. All that we want is an easy life - not too much
trouble, not too much disturbance, not too much thinking (Rajahumundry 4Dec49) The
mind wants comfort + And the man who seeks comfort will find it in an illusion,
not in reality. For him it is more important to be comfortable, not to be
disturbed, not to break down the habits which he has built for so many centuries.
(Brockwood 16Sep72)
Building on Sand (1933)
We entrench ourselves continually; through possessiveness we build around
ourselves securities, comforts, and try to feel assured, safe, certain. That is
what we are constantly doing. But though we entrench ourselves behind [these]
securities ... though we build up many certainties, we are but building on sand,
for the wavs of life are constantly beating against their foundations, laying open
the structures that we have so carefully and sedulously built. Experiences come,
one after another ... and all our securities are swept away, scattered like chaff
before the wind. So, though we may think that we are secure, we live in continual
fear of death, fear of change and loss, fear of revolution, fear of gnawing
uncertainty. (Adyar 31Dec33)
From One Cage to Another (1933)
I know many who daily practise certain ideals, but they become only more and more
withered in their understanding + They have merely transferred themselves from one
cage to another. If you do not seek comfort, if you continually question -- and
you can question only when you are in revolt -- then you establish freedom from
all teachers and all religions; then you are supremely human, belonging neither to
a party nor to a religion nor to a cage. (Oslo 5Sep33)
Looking for Quick Relief (1933-49)
Most of you are seeking temporary relief, temporary shelter, and you call that the
search for truth + As long as you merely want to relieve conflict ... you are like
a doctor who deals only with the symptoms of a disease. As long as you are merely
concerned with finding comfort, you are not really seeking. Now let us be quite
frank. We can go far if we are really frank. Let us admit that all that you are
seeking is security, relief; you are seeking security from constant change, relief
from pain + [That] has nothing to do with reality. In such things we are like
children + Now you may agree with my words, saying, "You are quite right; we are
not seeking truth, but relief, and that relief is satisfactory for the moment." If
you are satisfied with this, there is nothing more to be said. If you hold that
attitude, I may as well say no more. But, thank heaven! not all human beings hold
that attitude. Not all have reached the state of being satisfied (Adyar 29Dec33);
Find out how to meet the problem anew. Every problem, whether political, economic,
religious, social, or personal ... is ever new + We would like to sit back and be
comfortable. We would like to shelter ourselves + We would like not to be
disturbed; but life, which is ever changing, ever new, is always disturbing to the
old. So, our question is, how to meet the challenge afresh + Most of us ... want
quick relief, a panacea + We are searching not for truth but for comfort. The man
who gives us comfort, enslaves us. (Colombo 25Dec49)
The Misery It Brings (1935)
You want to know how and why evils, miserable conditions, exploitation exist in
the world. We have created them. Each individual, through his intense desire to be
secure, to be safe, to be certain, has created a society, a religion, in whose
shelter he takes comfort. We as individuals have created this system, and as
individuals we will have to awaken to our creation and destroy all the things that
are false in it; then in that freedom there will be love, truth. Instead of
escaping from the objective world of confusion and misery into the subjective, in
which you hope to find God, let there be harmony between the subjective and the
objective. (Mexico City 2Nov35)
We Haven't Got the Intensity of It (1977)
What I am seeking is comfort, not the truth of anything, but comfort. If I do not
seek comfort in any form -- which is the fact -- if I have lived a shoddy narrow
life and petty, jealous, anxieties, like millions and millions and millions of
people do, what is the importance of me? I am like the vast ocean of people. I
die. You follow? But I cling to my little life, I want it to continue hoping that
at some future date I will be happy. And with that idea I die. And I am like a
million others in a vast ocean of existence, without meaning, without
significance, without beauty, without any real thing. + The whole process of
living is to move away from this vast current of ugliness and brutality. Because
we can't do it, we haven't got the energy, the vitality, the intensity, the love
of it, we move along. Right sir. (Saanen 20Jul77)
How Destructive It Is (1961-78)
The feeling of security is the most destructive thing on God's earth, (New Delhi
20Jan61) See the consequences of building this structure + If you like it, if it
pleases you, if it gives you comfort, know in that comfort there is tremendous
danger, that you suffer, that you go through all kinds of neuroticisms, you know
what is happening. If you say that gives me comfort, stay with it. (Brockwood
29Aug78)
The Tragedy of It (1958)
Please believe me, you will not have that sense of beauty and love even if you sit
cross-legged for meditation, holding your breath for the next ten thousand years +
You do not see the tragedy of it. We are not in that sensitive state of mind which
receives, which sees immediately something which is true. You know a sensitive
mind is a defenceless mind, it is a vulnerable mind, and the mind must be
vulnerable for truth to enter (Poona 21Sep58)
It Creates Fear and Conformity (1934)
Religions as they are, not as you would like them to be ... are based on comfort,
giving you comfort when you are suffering. The human mind is continually seeking
security, a position of certainty, either in a belief or an ideal, or in a
concept, and so you are continually seeking a certainty, security, in which the
mind takes shelter as comfort. Now what happens when you are continually seeking
security, safety, certainty? Naturally that creates fear, and when there is fear
there must be conformity. (Auckland 28Mar34)
It Postpones Change (1936)
Change involves not only physical discomfort but mental uncertainty, and we
dislike to be uncertain. Because this uncertainty creates disturbance, we postpone
change, thus exaggerating the gap. So we go on creating conflict and misery, from
which we desire to escape. (Eddington 12Jun36)
It Puts Us to Sleep (1945)
A mind that is well anchored, which feels safe in some refuge, can never
understand Reality. The craving for security breeds slothfulness; it makes the
mind-heart unpliable and insensitive, fearful and dull; it hinders the
vulnerability to Reality. In deep insecurity is Truth realised. (Ojai 8Jul45)
It Destroys That Which You Are Seeking (1933)
You have created this vast machine which you call religion, this intellectual
machine which has no validity, and you have also created the machine that is
called society, for in your social as well as in your religious life you want
comfort, shelter + You talk of searching for truth, but your search is merely a
search for substitution, the desire for greater security and greater certainty.
Your search is destroying that which you are seeking, which is peace, not the
peace of stagnation, but of understanding, of life, of ecstasy. You are denied
that very thing because you are looking for something that will help you to
escape. (Adyar 3Jan34)
One Day Something is Going to Crack (1977)
I have never questioned because I am afraid I might not be comfortable. So I see I
want to be comfortable, that's why I can't look. So why do I want comfort? Where
am I to find it? I want it, but where am I to find it? + One day something is
going to crack, so I am frightened. You follow how far I have moved away. I want
to observe and I find I am really afraid to observe. Right? Are you following
this? I am going to find out why am I afraid. What am I afraid about? Losing my
comfort, losing my security, losing my conditioning? It is this conditioning that
is creating the misery in the world. Right? So the house is burning, I want to put
out that fire, but ... I am frightened. Right? Are you doing this? So in other
words, sir, you want to remain mediocre which means -- I am not condemning you, I
am just pointing out -- mediocrity means climbing half way up the hill; excellence
means going right to the top of it. Most of us would rather remain in our stagnant
pools of little conditioning, and knowing that very conditioning is destroying the
world. Right? So look how far I have gone into it. I find I am conditioned, I
question why I am conditioned and in questioning that I find I want comfort, I
want the easiest way. (Saanen 27Jul77)
Disaster Just Around The Corner (1959)
There are problems of which, perhaps, many of you are unaware -- and probably you
do not care to be aware of them, because you want to live an easy, indolent life +
We are surrounded by many things, both ugly and beautiful. Most of us are not
sensitive to any of this, because we want to lead a safe, secure, undisturbed
life. But disaster is always just around the corner. (Bombay 27Dec59)

PART 4. SECURITY OR TRUTH?

The Time Has Come to Choose (1926)
Every one of you is frightened; you dare not come out of your little path, your
little window, and walk with him. You want him to walk with you, with your ideas,
your idiosyncrasies and your particular fancies. + Now the time has come when you
must choose whether you are going to follow him, to breathe the same air, to climb
the same mountain, along the same path, or whether you are going to try to bend
him to your particular will, to your particular temperament. (Eerde Talk #3 1926)
Are You Interested in This? (1933)
The majority of people are not interested in what I am talking about. Why are they
not interested? Because ... they want security, comfort, pleasure. Not that I am
saying that you must not have these things; don't jump to the opposite. Those
things take minor importance when you are complete. I don't mean that you must not
have clothes, food, shelter, but they are not the first things; they have their
right place. So please first find out ... if you want to pursue [awareness] with
all your being. If you want security, comfort (etc) approach it wholly; not with a
tired, wearisome feeling, wanting and not wanting, seeing the absurdity of it
intellectually and at the same time emotionally running after it. You cannot know
awareness, nor can you maintain it if you are not interested enough to act wholly
with both mind and heart, with your whole being. When you are interested, then out
of that comes the flame of awareness. (Ommen 30Jul33)
I Have Chosen Truth (1949)
A mind that seeks security ... a mind that is seeking safety, comfort, can never
find truth, even in the smallest things + I am not seeking comfort, I am trying to
find out what is true. Are you in that position? (Bangalore 18Jul48)
Do You Want Comfort or Understanding? (1933)
You must find out whether you are seeking comfort and security, or whether you are
seeking understanding. If you really examine your own hearts, most of you will
find that you are seeking security, comfort, places of safety + You can have
understanding, I assure you, only when you begin to question the very shelters in
which you are taking refuge + You are not children, monkeys imitating someone
else's action + You are supposed to be creatively intelligent + But you don't feel
these things because you have explained away your suffering + You are concerned
only with yourselves, with your own security, comfort, like men who struggle for
government titles. You do the same thing in different ways. (Adyar 31Dec33)
You Can't Have Both (1933)
You come here and listen to my telling you that to escape from conflict is futile.
Yet you desire to escape. So you really mean, "How can we do both?"
Surreptitiously, cunningly, in the back of your minds you want the religions, the
gods, the means of escape that you have cleverly invented and built up through the
centuries. Yet you listen to me when I say that you will never find truth through
the guidance of another, through escape, through the search for security, which
results only in eternal loneliness. Then you ask, "How are we to attain both? How
are we to compromise between escape and awareness?" You have confused the two and
you seek a compromise + I can tell you that from dependence on another, from the
search for comfort, results eternal loneliness + What I say is very simple. I say
that authority is created when the mind seeks comfort in security. (Alpino 6Jul33)
Your So-Called Search for Truth (1933)
Those people who are always proclaiming that they are searching for truth are in
reality missing it. They have found their lives to be insufficient, incomplete,
lacking in love, and think that by trying to seek truth they will find
satisfaction and comfort. If you frankly say to yourself that you are seeking only
consolation and compensation for the difficulties of life, you will be able to
grapple with the problem intelligently. But as long as you pretend to yourself
that you are seeking something more than mere compensation, you cannot see the
matter clearly. The first thing to find out, then, is whether you are really
seeking, fundamentally seeking truth. (Alpino 1Jul33) Your so-called search for
truth becomes merely a search for more permanent securities + That is how it is
with most people + The securities which we know are steadily being eaten away,
corroded, by the experience of life. (Adyar 31Dec33)
You Don't Want to See (1949)
We don't see, because we don't want to see; it is too imminent, too dangerous, too
vital. To see would upset our whole process of thinking and living. (Ojai 14Aug49)
Drugged into Contentment (1935)
Don't merely laugh at the question and pass it by, saying that it does not apply
to you. What is it that you are seeking? If you are seeking comfort, then you will
find comforters and be drugged into contentment. (Montevideo 26Jun35)
Plumb The Full Depths (1933)
If you emotionally think security is essential for your well-being, pursue it,
don't try to dominate it. Investigate it, try to plumb its full depths and in the
discovery, in the penetration, you will discover its futility + I am afraid it is
simple and you will miss it. If you want a thing, approach it wholly both with
your mind and heart; look at it intellectually and emotionally. If you want
comfort with all its implications of power, domination, take it with both your
whole heart and mind. (Ommen 30Jul33)
Crisis Ignites the Flame (1933)
As long as your mind is carefully, surreptitiously avoiding conflict, as long as
it is searching for comfort through escape, no one can help you to complete
action, no one can push you into a crisis that will resolve your conflict. When
you once realise this -- not see it merely intellectually, but also feel the truth
of it -- then your conflict will create the flame which will consume it. (Alpino
9Jul33)