Daily Quote

J. Krishnamurti Online

How do you find out what you want to do? What you love to do is quite different from what you want to do. I may want to become a lawyer because my father is a lawyer or I see that by becoming a lawyer I can earn more money, or this or that. Then you don’t love it, because you have a motive for doing something which will give you a profit or make you famous. But if you love something, there is no motive. You don’t use what you are doing for your own self-importance. To find out is one of the most difficult things to do, and that is part of education: to help you find what you love to do. So, willing to find that out, you have to go into yourself very deeply. It isn’t easy. You may say, ‘I want to be a lawyer,’ and you struggle to be a lawyer, pass exams, and then you suddenly find you don’t want to do that – you would like to paint. But it’s too late: you are already married, have children and responsibilities, and you can’t give it up. So you are stuck – you feel frustrated and unhappy being a lawyer when you really want to paint. This is what goes on with us.

From Talk to Students 5, Rishi Valley, 1 February 1966