Krishnamurti & the Art of Awakening

Krishnamurti Quote of the Day

Early Writings, Volume VII | Talks at the Ojai Camp 1932

Question: Is it possible to be without motive and yet have an active interest in a particular form of work?

Krishnamurti: Why not? You mean that you are interested in work because it gives you something in return. The structure of civilization is built on this idea, but the few who understand must break away from it. To be free of motive in action, you must be rid of collective and personal will. To break away from the uniformity of thought demands great awareness, the joy of solitude; but you think of this aloneness as a misery, as something so tragic, so appalling, that you shrink from it.

Question: But are we not interested in reality because it gives us freedom?

Krishnamurti: If you are interested in anything because it gives you something, that is but craving, is it not? Do you love another because he is going to give you something? If you look to reality to give you what you call freedom, it does not give you that, but makes you a slave to your idea.

As I said, true action, without a motive, is possible only when all craving has ceased. You can act clearly, freely, when the mind is stripped of all sensation, and then only will your action cease to bring about the utter chaos which exists in this world at present. Action without motive is truly free; in it there is no calculating, wanting. Doing anything you like for the moment is not spontaneity. Spontaneity of action is the fullness of perception, and that can be realized only through the process of freeing the mind from wanting.

Tags: solitude

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