Word Gems
exploring self-realization, sacred personhood, and full humanity

Jiddu Krishnamurti
1895 - 1986
We do not wish to be truly aware lest we become disturbed and bring ourselves to crisis, a prompting to action. Instead, we sedate a mandate to change by clinging to tradition. We bow to authority of experience, what others say, but also our own experience. Experience is valuable to negotiate technical things of the world, but experience, the encrustations of memory, can never lead us to God, the truth, spiritual maturity, the immeasurable.
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Editor’s prefatory comments:
Jiddu Krishnamurti has been an important teacher in my life. I began learning about the “true” and “false” selves about 15 years ago, and his insights served to inaugurate this vital area of enquiry.
He was the one to make clear that “guru” signifies merely “one who points,” not “infallible sage.” Pointing the way is what even the best teachers provide, but no more. One must walk the path of enlightenment alone, no one can do this for us.
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Public Talk 2, Madras - 25 Nov 1959
Editor's last word:
“The ending of sorrow is realized in sorrow itself, not away from sorrow.” This means we are to enter into, not run away from, a full awareness of sorrow. As we follow it back to the center of being, we discover that it’s an illusion, and it evaporates. See more on the ‘surrender and acceptance’ page.
When I say that sorrow evaporates, I refer to its debilitating and enchaining effect. If we lose a loved one, it’s natural to feel sorrow, but not to the extent of despair and suicidal thought. When we discover the life within, we gain a balance and perspective which “whispers” to us that love lost is only temporary and part of a classroom.
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