Lecture 5 of 14: Listening to Jiddu Krishnamurti
Here’s another one that I finished listening today: Lecture 5: Awareness and Discipline.
As said in the previous post, I’m doing something differently this time—posting only my reflection.
My Reflection:
True awareness dissolves discipline. Krishnamurti argues that when we are truly aware—fully present and attentive—there’s no need for imposed discipline because awareness itself becomes the guiding force.
Understanding desire is the essence of discipline. Instead of enforcing external control, discipline arises naturally when we deeply perceive how desire originates, how it operates, and its consequences. (I want to unpack this a little bit more at the end of this post because this is where it hits me the most.)
True awareness cannot be cultivated through techniques or effort; instead, it emerges in moments of total, effort-free attention—what Krishnamurti calls “choiceless awareness.”
Krishnamurti challenges all spiritual methods and gurus—even meditation techniques—saying transformation comes through deep insight and self-observation, not through following structured practice or external authority.
Now, on unpacking understanding desire, when you watch it closely: how it starts as a thought -> grows into a craving -> pushes you toward action, you see its whole movement. The moment you perceive its pattern without judgment, something shifts: you’re no longer blindly pulled along. That clarity itself becomes discipline (effortless, not imposed).
I’m taking this one step further by using a simple, daily-life take. Say I feel the sudden urge to buy (another) book online. If I fight the urge with willpower (“I must not click buy”), that’s external control, classic discipline. But if I pause and watch the desire—notice the spark of excitement, the imagined pleasure of the parcel arriving, the small void it promises to fill—I start to see the whole chain. In that ‘seeing,’ the desire (often) loses its grip. I’m not suppressing it; it just softens. I believe this is what Krishnamurti calls real discipline that is born of understanding, not force.
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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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