Photo of J. Krishnamurti

Why ARE we such snobs? Why do we cling to the exclusiveness of name, position and acquisition? Is anonymity degrading, to be unknown despicable? Why do we pursue the famous, the popular?

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Why do we crave to be recognised, to be made much of, to be encouraged? Why are we such snobs? Why do we cling to the exclusiveness of name, position and acquisition? Is anonymity degrading, to be unknown despicable? Why do we pursue the famous, the popular? Why are we not content to be ourselves? Are we frightened and ashamed of what we are, so name, position and acquisition become all-important? It is curious how strong is the desire to be recognised and applauded. Through privilege, cleverness, capacity or efficiency, one arrives somewhere near the top – but the top is never the top, for there is always more and more in the intoxication of success. Organised religion offers position, prestige and honour; there too you are somebody, apart and important. Or you become the disciple of a teacher, a guru, a master, or you cooperate with them in their work. You are still important; you represent them, you share their responsibility; you have and others receive. Though it is in their name, you are still the means. You may put on a loincloth or a monk’s robe, but it is you who is making the gesture, it is you who is renouncing. In one way or another, subtly or grossly, the self is nourished and sustained.

The self can never be anonymous; it may take on a new robe, assume a different name, but identity is its very substance.

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The greater the outward show, the greater the inward poverty. But freedom from this poverty is not the loincloth. The cause of inward emptiness is the desire to become, and do what you will, this emptiness can never be filled. You may escape from it in a crude way or with refinement, but it is as near to you as your shadow. You may not want to look into this emptiness, but nevertheless it is there. The adornments and the renunciations that the self assumes can never cover this inward poverty. By its activities, inner and outer, the self tries to find enrichment, calling it experience or giving it a different name according to its convenience and gratification. The self can never be anonymous; it may take on a new robe, assume a different name, but identity is its very substance. This identifying process prevents the awareness of its own nature. The cumulative process of identification builds up the self, and its activity is always self-enclosing. Every effort of the self to be or not to be is a movement away from what it is. Apart from its name, attributes, idiosyncrasies, possessions, what is the self? Is there the ‘I’, the self, when its qualities are taken away? It is this fear of being nothing that drives the self into activity; but it is nothing, it is an emptiness. If we are able to face that emptiness, to be with that aching loneliness, then fear altogether disappears and a fundamental transformation takes place.

Anonymity has almost gone. With anonymity is a different kind of creativity, not based on success or money.

Krishnamurti, Questions and Answers

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Painters, writers and poets probably consider themselves creative. We all seem to agree with this popular idea of a creative person. Many manmade things are extraordinarily beautiful: the great cathedrals, temples and mosques – and we know nothing of the people who built them. But now, with us, anonymity has almost gone. With anonymity there is a different kind of creativity, not based on success or money. Anonymity has great importance; in it there is a different quality – personal motives, attitudes and opinions do not exist and there is a feeling of freedom, from which there is action. But most manmade creativity, as we call it, takes place from the known. Great musicians – Beethoven, Bach and others – acted from the known; writers and philosophers have read and accumulated. Although they developed their own style, they were always moving, acting or writing from that which they had accumulated: the known. And this we generally call creativity. Is that really creative, or is there a different kind of creativity born out of freedom from the known?

It is good to hide your brilliance under a bushel, to be anonymous, to love what you are doing and not to show off.

Krishnamurti, Think on These Things

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We want to be famous as a writer, poet, painter, politician or singer – why? Because we really don’t love what we are doing. If you loved to sing or paint or write poems, if you really loved it, you would not be concerned with whether you are famous or not. To want to be famous is tawdry and trivial; it has no meaning. But because we don’t love what we are doing, we want to enrich ourselves with fame. Our present education is rotten because it teaches us to love success and not what we are doing. The result has become more important than the action. It is good to hide your brilliance under a bushel, to be anonymous, to love what you are doing and not to show off. It is good to be kind without a name. That does not make you famous, it does not cause your photograph to appear in the newspapers. Politicians do not come to your door. You are just a creative human being living anonymously, and in that there is richness and great beauty.

It is an extraordinary thing in life to be anonymous – not to be famous or great, not to be very learned, not to be a tremendous reformer or revolutionary, just to be nobody.

Krishnamurti, Think on These Things

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Questioner: Why do you feel shy?

Krishnamurti: It is an extraordinary thing in life to be anonymous – not to be famous or great, not to be very learned, not to be a tremendous reformer or revolutionary, just to be nobody. When one really feels that way, to be suddenly surrounded by a lot of curious people creates a sense of withdrawal.

Quietness is the highest form of intelligence, which is never personal or impersonal, never yours or mine. Being anonymous, it is whole and immaculate.

Krishnamurti, The Urgency of Change

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When the brain is completely awake, the mind becomes quiet. When the brain is completely awake, there is no fragmentation, no separation, no duality. The quality of this quietness is of the highest importance. You can make the mind quiet with drugs and all kinds of tricks, but such deceptions breed illusion and contradiction. Quietness is the highest form of intelligence, which is never personal or impersonal, never yours or mine. Being anonymous, it is whole and immaculate. It defies description for it has no quality. This is awareness, this is attention, this is love, this is the highest. The brain must be completely awake – that’s all. As in the jungle you must keep terribly awake to survive, so in the jungle of the world you must keep terribly awake to live completely.

I am completely anonymous; I am not important. What is important is to find out for yourself if what is being said is true or false, and that depends on intelligence.

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I am completely anonymous; I am not important. What is important is to find out for yourself if what is being said is true or false, and that depends on intelligence. There is no question of following me. There is no authority invested in me. This must be said over and over again as most of us have a tendency to follow, to accept, especially from those we think are somewhat different or spiritually advanced, and all that nonsense. So if one may repeat: our minds and our brains are conditioned to follow. We follow a professor in a university; they inform and we accept because they know more of the subject than we do. But here it is not a matter of that kind – the speaker is not informing you or urging you to accept the things that are said. Rather, we should together, in cooperation, investigate into human problems, which are very complex and need a great deal of observation, energy and inquiry. If you merely follow, you are only following the image you have created about me or about the symbolic meaning of the words. Please bear in mind all these facts.

Is there a different kind of creativity born out of freedom from the known? Is there a creativity totally different from the activity we generally call creativity?

Krishnamurti, Questions and Answers

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Is there a different kind of creativity born out of freedom from the known? When we paint, write or create a marvellous structure out of stone, it is based on accumulated knowledge carried from the past to the present. Is there a creativity totally different from the activity we generally call creativity? Is there a living, a movement, not from the known? Is there a creation from a mind that is not burdened with all the turmoil of life, with its social and economic pressures? Is there a creation out of a mind that has freed itself from the known? Generally, we start with the known and from that we create, but is there a creative impulse or movement taking place that can use the known, but not the other way round? In that state of mind, creation, as we know it, may not be necessary. Is creativity something totally different, something we can all have – not only the specialist, professional, talented and gifted? We can all have this extraordinary mind that is really free from the burdens man has imposed upon himself. Out of that sane, rational, healthy mind, something totally different comes which may not necessarily be expressed as painting, literature or architecture.

There can be no creativity if there is a motive behind it. See this for yourself.

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What does creativeness mean? I exist and express myself – is that creativity? Or is creativity when the ‘I’ is not, when there is the absence of the ‘I’? When there is the absence of the ‘I’, do you know that you are creative? When you are doing something with a motive behind it – of becoming popular, famous, having more money – that is not doing something you really love to do. A musician who says, ‘I love music,’ but is watching how many titled people there are in the audience or how much money they are going to make, is not creative, is not a musician. They are using music in order to become famous and have money. So there can be no creativity if there is a motive behind it. See this for yourself. When we say, ‘I must express myself,’ ‘I must be creative,’ or ‘I must identify myself,’ it has no meaning. When you really see this, live that way and understand it, your mind is already free of the ‘me’.

Can there be creativity, in the most profound sense of that word, as long as there is egotism, the demand for success, money and recognition – supplying the market?

Krishnamurti, Questions and Answers

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What is it to be creative? Painters, musicians and singers say theirs is the act of creation – but is it? You have accepted Picasso as a great painter, a great creator, putting one nose on three faces or whatever he does. I am not denying or being derogatory, just pointing out. That is what’s called creation, but is all that creativeness? Or is creativeness something totally different? You say the expression of creativeness is in a painting, a poem, in prose, in a statue, in music. It is expressed according to one’s talent, one’s capacity great or small. We human beings have accepted all this as creative because it brings fame, money and position. But I am asking, is that creativity? Can there be creation, in the most profound sense of that word, as long as there is egotism, the demand for success, money and recognition – supplying the market? I am not saying I know creativity and you do not. I am saying we never question these things. I say there is a state where there is creation in which there is no shadow of self. That is real creation. It does not need expression, it does not need self-fulfilment; it is creation.

In the state of creation, of creativity of the new, which is timeless, there is no action of the ‘me’ at all.

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The time process cannot bring the new; time is not the way of creation. I do not know if any of you have had a moment of creativity. I am not talking about putting a vision into action; I mean that moment of creation when there is no recognition. At that moment, there is that extraordinary state in which the ‘me’, as an activity through recognition, has ceased. If we are aware, we shall see that in that state there is no experiencer who remembers, translates, recognises and then identifies; there is no thought process, which is of time. In that state of creation, of creativity of the new, there is no action of the ‘me’ at all. Is it possible for the mind to be in that state, not momentarily, not at rare moments? I would rather not use the words ‘everlasting’ or ‘forever’ because that implies time, but to be in that state without regard to time? That is an important discovery to be made by each one of us because that is the door to love; all other doors are activities of the self. Where there is action of the self, there is no love. You cannot practise love. Love is not of time; you cannot come upon it through any conscious effort, discipline or identification. The mind, knowing only the process of time, cannot recognise love. Love is eternally new.

When we don’t accept or follow, but question, investigate and penetrate, there is an insight out of which comes creativity and joy.

Krishnamurti, Think on These Things

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Most of us are discontented merely because we want something: more knowledge, a better job, a finer car, a bigger salary. Our discontent is based upon our desire for the ‘more’. It is only because we want something more that most of us are discontented. It is the desire for more that prevents clear thinking. If we are discontented, not because we want something, but without knowing what we want; if we are dissatisfied with our jobs, with making money, with seeking position and power, with tradition, with what we have and what we might have; if we are dissatisfied, not with anything in particular but with everything, then we shall find that our discontent brings clarity. When we don’t accept or follow, but question, investigate and penetrate, there is an insight out of which comes creativity and joy.

Creativity is not born of knowledge or previous experience. If it makes use of knowledge, it becomes invention, just a new way of doing the same thing.

Krishnamurti, The Future is Now

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Creativity is not born of knowledge or previous experience. Keep that in mind. If it makes use of knowledge, it becomes invention, just a new way of doing the same thing. We are asking a very, very serious question. I think it may be that we are all so terribly informed, about everything. Maybe we are so educated that there is no space for anything new to take place; full of memories, remembrances. All that may be a hindrance.

Gradually the flame of creativity is lost and only the picture, the symbol, the word remains, without anything behind it.

Krishnamurti, Life Ahead

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Remembrance is a dead thing, a major cause of human deterioration. We are inclined to imitate, copy, follow ideals and heroes – and what happens? Gradually the flame of creativity is lost and only the picture, the symbol, the word remains, without anything behind it. We are taught to memorise, and this is obviously not creative. There is no understanding in merely remembering things you have read in books, or have been taught. When memory alone is cultivated, real understanding is gradually destroyed. It is understanding that is creative, not remembrance. Understanding is the liberating factor, not the things you have stored up in your mind. Understanding is not the future. The cultivation of memory brings about the idea of the future, but if you understand directly, if you see something very clearly for yourself, there is no problem.

When you end attachment, a different activity goes on: to incarnate in the present, now. That is creativity.

Krishnamurti, Mind Without Measure

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Most people are repetitively or mechanically active. You are active, you have a life, you have feelings, responses, sensations, and when death comes, all that is wiped out. That is what we call death – to end all the things you have held, your joys, your house, your money, your wife or husband, your children. All that ends – you and your attachment. That is death. But you want to carry it over to the next life – which is just an idea, a vision, fulfilment. While living, can you end attachment? When you die, all attachment ends, but can you invite the ending of attachment? That is ending; ending is death. So, can you, while living, vigorous and active, end your attachment, end a particular habit voluntarily, easily, quietly? Then, where there is an ending, there is a totally different beginning. When you end attachment, a different activity goes on: to incarnate in the present, now. That is creativity.

These quotes only touch on the many subjects Krishnamurti inquired into during his lifetime. His timeless and universal teachings can be explored using the Index of Topics where you will find texts, audio and video related on many themes. Another option is to browse our selection of curated articles or more short quotes. Krishnamurti’s reply when asked what lies at the heart of his teachings can be found here. Many Krishnamurti books are available, a selection of which can be explored here. To find out more about Krishnamurti’s life, please see our introduction and the biography. We also host a weekly podcast, and offer free downloads. Please visit our YouTube channel for hundreds of specially selected shorter clips. Below, you can learn more about Krishnamurti and our charity which he founded in 1968.

Krishnamurti outdoors smiling

Who Was Krishnamurti?

J. Krishnamurti (1895-1986) is widely regarded as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He spoke throughout the world to large audiences and to individuals, including writers, scientists, philosophers and educators, about the need for a radical change in mankind. Referring to himself, Krishnamurti said:

He is acting as a mirror for you to look into. That mirror is not an authority. It has no authority, it’s just a mirror. And when you see it clearly, understand what you see in that mirror, then throw it away, break it up.

Krishnamurti was concerned with all humanity and held no nationality or belief and belonged to no particular group or culture. In the latter part of his life, along with continuing to give public talks, he travelled mainly between the schools he had founded in India, Britain and the United States, which educate for the total understanding of man and the art of living. He stressed that only this profound understanding can create a new generation that will live in peace.

Krishnamurti reminded his listeners again and again that we are all human beings first and not Hindus, Muslims or Christians, that we are like the rest of humanity and are not different from one another. He asked that we tread lightly on this earth without destroying ourselves or the environment. He communicated to his listeners a deep sense of respect for nature. His teachings transcend man-made belief systems, nationalistic sentiment and sectarianism. At the same time, they give new meaning and direction to mankind’s search for truth. His teaching is timeless, universal and increasingly relevant to the modern age.

I am nobody. It is as simple as that. I am nobody. But what is important is who you are, what you are.

Krishnamurti

Krishnamurti spoke not as a guru but as a friend. His talks and discussions are based not on tradition-based knowledge but on his own insights into the human mind and his vision of the sacred, so he always communicated a sense of freshness and directness, although the essence of his message remained unchanged over the years. When Krishnamurti addressed large audiences, people felt that he was talking to each of them personally, addressing their own particular problem. In his private interviews, he was a compassionate teacher, listening attentively to those who came to him in sorrow, and encouraging them to heal themselves through their own understanding. Religious scholars found that his words threw new light on traditional concepts. Krishnamurti took on the challenge of modern scientists and psychologists and went with them step by step, discussing their theories and sometimes enabling them to discern the limitations of their theories.

Krishnamurti left a large body of literature in the form of public talks, writings, discussions with teachers and students, scientists, psychologists and religious figures, conversations with individuals, television and radio interviews, and letters. Many of these have been published as books, in over 60 languages, along with hundreds of audio and video recordings.

Three-quarters portrait photo of Krishnamurti

The Krishnamurti Foundation

Established in 1968 as a registered charity, and located at The Krishnamurti Centre, Krishnamurti Foundation Trust exists to preserve and make available Krishnamurti’s teachings.

The Foundation serves a global audience by providing worldwide free access to Krishnamurti videos, audio and texts to those who may be interested in pursuing an understanding of Krishnamurti’s work in their own lives.

In describing his intentions for the Foundations, Krishnamurti said: 

The Foundations will see to it that these teachings are kept whole, are not distorted, are not made corrupt.