Why do we follow?

"Why do we accept, why do we follow? We follow another’s authority, another’s experience and then doubt it; this search for authority and its sequel, disillusionment, is a painful process for most of us. We blame or criticize the once accepted authority, the leader, the teacher, but we do not examine our own craving for an authority who can direct our conduct. Once we understand this craving we shall comprehend the significance of doubt."

– J. Krishnamurti

Public Talk 3
Santa Monica, California, USA
March 25, 1972

How does order come about in our life?

When you compare yourself with somebody else, you’re not only denying your own light, you’re trying to imitate, conform to the light of another.

Can thought ever produce order?

Q: Could you go into thought and why we desire to separate ourselves from one another?

Q: From where does the new come, a new invention, a new perception?

Q: When many in the audience laughed, you said, ‘Please do not laugh, this is very serious.’ Is that not a conception of how seriously or not seriously to take the whole matter?

Q: It seems to me that to be free one must be able to see what actually is. Yet to see what actually is, it seems that one must be free. Is that not a paradox?

Q: Could you discuss loneliness, how it drives us in different directions?

Q: When I am looking at you and I bring in images between what I am seeing and what you really are, is that thought?

Note: a total of 13 seconds of missing video is replaced by audio only.

Public Talk 1
Brockwood Park 1975

Is there an action that is whole and complete at the personal and social level?

Does thought, having created the ‘me’ make it into a fragment?

Can thought realize its limitation and not spill over into the realm it can never touch?

Is compassion the result of thought?

Can thought be attentive to its own movements?

Can you look at your disorder without choosing and totally deny it?

Is the very act of walking away from disorder, order?

Do you observe directly or from a distance? Is distance actuality or created by thought?

When you observe the limitations of thought, you are left empty, naked, void.