Krishnamurti on love and intelligence
May 16, 2003 01:23 AM
by Katinka Hesselink
Hi all,
I've recently been adding a lot to my Krishamurti-pages-
check out the website for that.
http://www.katinkahesselink.net/kr/
I want to share one of those quotes with you all,
Katinka
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From: Education and the significance of Life, Jiddu
Krishnamurti
>> Modern education, in developing the intellect, offers
more and more theories and facts, without bringing about
the understanding of the total process of human existence.
We are highly intellectual; we have developed cunning
minds, and are caught up in explanations. The intellect is
satisfied with theories and explanations, but intelligence
is not; and for the understanding of the total process of
existence, there must be an integration of the mind and
heart in action. Intelligence is not separate from love.
For most of us, to accomplish this inward revolution is
extremely arduous. We know how to meditate, how to play the
piano, how to write, but we have no knowledge of the
meditator, the player, the writer. We are not creators, for
we have filled our hearts and minds with knowledge,
information and arrogance; we are full of quotations from
what others have thought or said. But experiencing comes
first, not the way of experiencing. There must be love
before there can be the expression of love.>>
(p. 64, 65)
>> Information, the knowledge of facts, though ever
increasing, is by its very nature limited. Wisdom is
infinite, it includes knowledge and the way of action; but
we take hold of a branch and think it is the whole tree.
Through the knowledge of the part, we can never realize the
joy of the whole. Intellect can never lead to the whole,
for it is only a segment, a part.
We have separated intellect from feeling, and have
developed intellect at the expanse of feeling. We are like
a three-legged object with one leg much longer than the
others, and we have no balance. We are trained to be
intellectual; our education cultivates the intellect to be
sharp, cunning, acquisitive, and so it plays the most
important rôle in our life. Intelligence is much greater
than intellect, for it is the integration of reason and
love; but there can be intelligence only when there is
self-knowledge, the deep understanding of the total process
of oneself.
What is essential for man, whether young or old, is to live
fully, integrally, and that is why our major problem is the
cultivation of that intelligence which brings integration.
Undue emphasis on any part of our total make-up gives a
partial and therefore distorted view of life, and it is
this distortion which is causing most of our difficulties.
Any partial development of our whole temperament is bound
to be disastrous both for ourselves and for society, and so
it is really very important that we approach our human
problems with an integrated point of view.
To be an integrated human being is to understand the entire
process of one's own consciousness, both the hidden and the
open. This is not possible if we give due emphasis to the
intellect. We attach great importance to the cultivation of
the mind, but inwardly we are insufficient, poor and
confused. This living in the intellect is the way of
disintegration; for ideas, like beliefs, can never bring
people together except in conflicting groups.
As long as we depend on thought as a means of integration,
there must be disintegration; and to understand the
disintegrating action of thought is to be aware of the ways
of the self, the ways of one's own desire. We must be aware
of our conditioning and its responses, both collective and
personal. It is only when one is fully aware of the
activities of the self with its contradictory desires and
pursuits, its hopes and fears, that there is a possibility
of going beyond the self.
Only love and right thinking will bring about true
revolution, the revolution within ourselves. But how are we
to have love? Not through the pursuit of the ideal of love,
but only when there is no hatred, when there is no greed,
when the sense of self, which is the cause of antagonism,
comes to an end. A man who is caught up in the pursuits of
exploitation, of greed, of envy, can never love.
Without love and right thinking, oppression and cruelty
will ever be on the increase. The problem of man's
antagonism to man can be solved, not by pursuing the ideal
of peace, but by understanding the causes of war which lie
in our attitude towards life, towards our fellow-beings;
and this understanding can come about only through the
right kind of education. Without a change of heart, without
goodwill, without the inward transformation which is born
of self-awareness, there can be no peace, no happiness for
men.>>
(p. 66-68)
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Katinka Hesselink
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-Those who observe, learn, a whole life long.
-Wie observeert, leert , een heel leven lang.
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http://www.katinkahesselink.net
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