Photo of J. Krishnamurti

15 Quotes on Conditioning by Krishnamurti

Curated by THE FOUNDATION STAFF

We are not aware of our conditioning, and until we are, we can only produce further conflict and confusion.

Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living 2

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Society is the outcome of man’s relationship with man. This relationship is one of use, of need, of comfort, of gratification, and it creates influences and values that bind us. The binding is our conditioning. By our own thoughts and actions we are bound, but we are not aware that we are bound; we are only aware of the conflict of pleasure and pain. We never seem to go beyond this; and if we do, it is only into further conflict. We are not aware of our conditioning, and until we are, we can only produce further conflict and confusion.

Are you aware that you are conditioned? That is the first thing to ask yourself, not how to be free of your conditioning.

Krishnamurti, Freedom From the Known

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Are you aware that you are conditioned? That is the first thing to ask yourself, not how to be free of your conditioning. You may never be free of it, and if you say, ‘I must be free of it’, you may fall into another trap of another form of conditioning. So are you aware that you are conditioned? Do you know that even when you look at a tree and say, ‘That is an oak tree,’ or ‘That is a banyan tree,’ the naming of the tree, which is botanical knowledge, has so conditioned your mind that the word comes between you and actually seeing the tree? To come in contact with the tree you have to put your hand on it and the word will not help you to touch it. How do you know you are conditioned? What tells you? What tells you that you are hungry – not as a theory but the actual fact of hunger? In the same way, how do you discover the actual fact that you are conditioned? Isn’t it by your reaction to a problem, a challenge? You respond to every challenge according to your conditioning and your conditioning being inadequate will always react inadequately.

To be aware of my conditioning means I am not trying to go beyond it, not trying to be free of the conditioning. I must see it as it actually is.

Krishnamurti, The Awakening of Intelligence

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How do I free myself from the conditioning of the culture in which I was born? First, I must be aware that I am conditioned – not somebody telling me that I am conditioned. Do you understand the difference? If somebody tells me I am hungry, that is something different from actually being hungry. So I must be aware of my conditioning, which means I must be aware of it not only superficially but at the deeper levels. That is, I must be aware totally. To be so aware means I am not trying to go beyond the conditioning, not trying to be free of it. I must see it as it actually is, not bring in another element, such as wanting to be free of it because that is an escape from actuality. What does it mean to be aware? To be aware of my conditioning totally, not partially, means my mind must be highly sensitive. To be sensitive means to observe everything very, very closely – the colours, the quality of people, the things around me. I must also be aware of what actually is, without any choice. Can you do that – not trying to interpret it, not trying to change it, not trying to go beyond it or be free of it – just to be totally aware of it?

The minds of most older people are fixed; they are set like clay in a mould, and it is very difficult to break through this. This moulding of the mind is its conditioning.

Krishnamurti, Life Ahead

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We are always told what to think and what not to think. Books, teachers, parents, the society around us, all tell us what to think, but they never help us to find out how to think. To know what to think is comparatively easy because from early childhood our minds are conditioned by words, phrases, established attitudes and prejudices. I do not know if you have noticed how the minds of most older people are fixed; they are set like clay in a mould, and it is very difficult to break through this mould. This moulding of the mind is its conditioning.

It is very difficult for the mind to free itself from its conditioning and go beyond it because this conditioning is imposed upon it, not only by society but by itself.

Krishnamurti, Life Ahead

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A conditioned mind is not free because it can never go beyond its own borders, beyond the barriers it has built around itself. And it is very difficult for such a mind to free itself from its conditioning and go beyond, because this conditioning is imposed upon it, not only by society, but by itself. You like your conditioning because you dare not go beyond. You are frightened of what your father and mother would say, of what society and the priest would say, therefore you help to create the barriers which hold you. This is the prison in which most of us are caught, and that is why your parents are always telling you – as you in turn will tell your children – to do this and not do that.

The root of all conditioning is thought, which is the ‘me’. The ‘me’ is the very essence of the past, the ‘me’ is time, the ‘me’ is sorrow, and the ‘me’ endeavours to free itself from itself.

Krishnamurti, The Urgency of Change

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The factor of conditioning in the past, present and future is the ‘me’. The ‘me’ thinks in terms of time. The ‘me’ exerts itself, and now it exerts itself in the demand to be free. The root of all conditioning is thought, which is the ‘me’. The ‘me’ is the very essence of the past; the ‘me’ is time. The ‘me’ is sorrow, and the ‘me’ endeavours to free itself from itself. The ‘me’ makes efforts and struggles to achieve, to deny, to become. This struggle to become is time, in which there is confusion and greed for the more and the better. The ‘me’ seeks security, and not finding it, the ‘me’ transfers the search to heaven. The ‘me’ identifies itself with something greater in which it hopes to lose itself, whether that be the nation, an ideal or some god. The ‘me’ is the factor of conditioning. If there is no ‘me’, you are unconditioned, which means you are nothing.

Thought being a mechanical, repetitive pursuit, accepts any form of conditioning which enables it to continue in its mechanical activity.

Krishnamurti The Impossible Question

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The mind wants to follow a groove, wants to be mechanical and that way there is safety, security and no disturbance. To live mechanically is not only encouraged by society, but also by each one of us because that is the easiest way to live. So thought being a mechanical, repetitive pursuit, accepts any form of conditioning which enables it to continue in its mechanical activity. A philosopher invents a new theory, an economist a new system, and we accept that groove and follow it. Our society, our culture, our religious prompting, everything seems to function mechanically; yet in that there is a certain sense of stimulation. When you go to Mass, there is a certain excitement and emotion, and that becomes the pattern.

There is no noble or better conditioning; all conditioning is pain. The desire to be, or not to be, breeds conditioning, and it is this desire that has to be understood.

Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living 3

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To not put a complete end to the mechanism that produces patterns and moulds, whether positive or negative, is to continue in a modified pattern or conditioning. There is the urge that makes for conformity, and the urge to be free. However dissimilar these two urges may seem to be, are they not fundamentally similar? And if they are fundamentally similar, then your pursuit of freedom is vain for you will only move from one pattern to another, endlessly. There is no noble or better conditioning; all conditioning is pain. The desire to be, or not to be, breeds conditioning, and it is this desire that has to be understood.

The conditioning of a religious culture is propaganda, a series of acceptances of beliefs, all arising through fear and the demand for security.

Krishnamurti, Beyond Violence

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The conditioning of a religious culture is propaganda, a series of acceptances of beliefs, all arising through fear and the demand for security, psychologically, because inwardly one is insufficient, miserable, unhappy, uncertain, one puts one’s hope in something that can offer security, certainty. So when the particular religion to which I belong fails, I jump into another, hoping to find that security there, but it is the same thing under another name. When the mind is very clear about this, it understands the whole situation and it has no need of choice; then the whole response of action according to ‘will’ comes completely to an end.

One form of conditioning can be substituted for another, but it is still conditioning. The response of this conditioning is karma.

Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living 2

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One form of conditioning can be substituted for another, but it is still conditioning. The response of this conditioning is karma. The response of memory is called action, but it is only reaction – this ‘action’ breeds further reaction, and so there is a chain of so-called cause and effect. But is not the cause also the effect? Neither cause nor effect is static: today is the result of yesterday and today is the cause of tomorrow. What was the cause becomes the effect, and the effect the cause – one flows into the other. There is no moment when the cause is not also the effect. Only the specialised is fixed in its cause and so in its effect: the acorn cannot become anything but an oak tree. In specialisation there is death, but man is not a specialised entity: he can be what he will. He can break through his conditioning, and he must if he would discover the real.

If we transmit our background to a child, we perpetuate both the child’s and our own conditioning. There is radical transformation only when we understand our own conditioning and are free of it.

Krishnamurti, Education and the Significance of Life

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If we transmit our background to a child, we perpetuate both the child’s and our own conditioning. There is radical transformation only when we understand our own conditioning and are free of it. To discuss what should be the right kind of education while we ourselves are conditioned is utterly futile. While children are young, we must of course protect them from physical harm and prevent them from feeling physically insecure. But unfortunately we do not stop there: we want to shape their ways of thinking and feeling; we want to mould them in accordance with our own cravings and intentions. We seek to fulfil ourselves in our children, to perpetuate ourselves through them. We build walls around them, condition them by our beliefs, ideologies, fears and hopes, and then we cry and pray when they are killed or maimed in wars, or otherwise made to suffer by the experiences of life.

Incarnate today, afresh, not in the next life. Change now completely, change with great passion. Let the mind strip itself of everything, of every conditioning and everything it thinks is ‘right’ – empty it.

Krishnamurti The Impossible Question

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What are you? A lot of words, a lot of opinions and attachments to your possessions, your furniture and your conditioning. Is all that, including the soul, going to be reborn in the next life? Reincarnation implies that what you are today determines what you will be in the next life. Therefore behave! Not tomorrow but today, because what you do today you are going to pay for in the next life. People who believe in reincarnation do not bother about behaviour at all; it is just a matter of belief, which has no value. Incarnate today, afresh, not in the next life. Change now completely, change with great passion. Let the mind strip itself of everything, of every conditioning and everything it thinks is ‘right’ – empty it. Then you will know what dying means, and then you will know what love is. For love is not something of the past, of thought, of culture; it is not pleasure. A mind that has understood the whole movement of thought becomes extraordinarily quiet, absolutely silent. That silence is the beginning of the new.

The moment you give total attention to your conditioning you will see that you are free from the past completely, that it falls away from you naturally.

Krishnamurti, Freedom From the Known

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Why don’t you act when you see the danger of your conditioning? If you saw the danger of nationalism to your own security, wouldn’t you act? The answer is you don’t see. Through the intellectual process of analysis, you may see that nationalism leads to destruction but there is no emotional content in that. Only when there is emotional content do you become vital. If you see the danger of your conditioning merely as an intellectual concept, you will never do anything about it. In seeing a danger as a mere idea, there is conflict between the idea and action, and that conflict takes away your energy. Only when you see the conditioning and the danger of it immediately, as you would see a precipice, do you act. So seeing is acting. Most of us walk through life inattentively, reacting unthinkingly according to the environment in which we have been brought up, and such reactions create only further bondage and conditioning. But the moment you give total attention to your conditioning, you will see that you are free from the past completely – it falls away from you naturally.

When you observe your conditioning, the conditioning exists only in the observer, not in the observed.

Krishnamurti, The Awakening of Intelligence

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If you can observe your conditioning totally, you can look at it with a mind that is not spotted by the past. Therefore the mind itself is free of conditioning. To look at myself – as we generally do – I look as an observer looking at the observed: myself as the observed and the observer looking at it. The observer is knowledge, is the past, is time, is the accumulated experiences – he separates himself from the thing observed. Now, to look without the observer. You do this when you are completely attentive. Do you know what it means to be attentive? To be attentive means to listen without any interpretation, without any judgement – just to listen. When you are so listening there is no boundary, there is no ‘you’ listening; there is only a state of listening. So when you observe your conditioning, the conditioning exists only in the observer, not in the observed. When you look without the observer, without the ‘me’, then you enter into a totally different dimension.

Freedom from conditioning comes with the freedom from thinking. When the mind is utterly still, only then is there freedom for the real to be.

Krishnamurti, Commentaries on Living 2

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Our attachment to a person, to work, to an ideology, is the conditioning factor. This is the thing we have to understand – not seek better escapes. All escapes are unintelligent, as they inevitably bring about conflict. To cultivate detachment is another form of escape, of isolation; it is attachment to an abstraction, to an ideal called detachment. The ideal is fictitious, ego-made, and trying to become an ideal is an escape from ‘what is’. There is the understanding of ‘what is’, and an adequate action towards ‘what is’, only when the mind is no longer seeking any escape. The very thinking about ‘what is’ is an escape from it. Thinking about the problem is an escape from the problem, for thinking is the problem, the only problem. The mind, unwilling to be what it is, and fearful of what it is, seeks these various escapes, and the way of escape is thought. As long as there is thinking, there must be escapes and attachments, which only strengthen conditioning. Freedom from conditioning comes with the freedom from thinking. When the mind is utterly still, only then is there freedom for the real to be.

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.

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