Lecture 3 of 14: Listening to Jiddu Krishnamurti
Today, I finished listening to Lecture 3: Beliefs Seeking. In this lecture, Jiddu Krishnamurti begins with the concept of self-knowledge. “Without knowing oneself,” he says, “there is no possibility of a harmonious and true action.” No foundation for thought. No clear ground for living.
To know oneself surely is to study the responses, the reactions that one has in relation to something. He speaks of self-knowledge not in isolation, not in the safety of theory, but in the friction of relationship. The relationship between me and you, me and society, me and the things I accept without question.
Belief. Krishnamurti calls it a screen. A covering. Fear hides behind it. The fear of emptiness, of being nothing. He says, A cup is only useful when it is empty.
We cling because belief gives us a pattern for action, a promise of belonging. But Krishnamurti asks: Is belief necessary for action? […] Is ideation necessary for action? Which comes first, an idea or an action? Action, he says, comes first. Then the mind names it, builds theories, spins its safety nets. I feel the truth of that.
And then, there’s fear. Fear of loneliness, of stagnation, of not becoming. He says when fear is looked at without escape, without naming, there is no fight. The fact itself is never frightening, only our reaction to it.
What is important is not to seek the unknowable, but to understand. Our job is not to pursue it but to understand the confusion, the turmoil, the misery. So, all the chasing for the unknown—God, reality, the next great meaning—is just another form of escape. The more you know something, the more you’re familiar with it. And the more the mind becomes quiet. Such a mind, he says, understands the various forms of fears and because it understands itself.
He reminds us that we cannot invite the unknown. We can only invite what we know. The unknown comes when the mind is still and quiet—not ‘made’ quiet, but still and quiet because it has seen itself clearly.
My Reflection:
Self-knowledge is not a final state but an ongoing practice. Each reaction, fear, and belief reveals a deeper layer of who we are.
Belief offers comfort but also blinds us. Only by facing fear directly, without escape, can we encounter reality as it unfolds in each moment.
When the mind grows quiet on its own, like a lake no longer stirred, the real shows itself—not chased, not invited, simply present.
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From today until the end of September, I plan to listen to a series of lectures given by Jiddu Krishnamurti in 1949 to an audience in Ojai, California. These lectures—14 of them—are digitally remastered recordings available in an audiobook collection from NLB.
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