Photo of J. Krishnamurti

15 Quotes on Mechanical Living by Krishnamurti

Curated by THE FOUNDATION STAFF

We are machines, second-hand people. We repeat what others have said. We read enormously. We are the result of thousands of years of propaganda. We have become psychologically and intellectually mechanical.

Krishnamurti, Beyond Violence

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Look at your own life, see how it has become mechanical. Our education is mechanical; we acquire knowledge and information, which gradually becomes mechanical. We are machines, second-hand people. We repeat what others have said. We read enormously. We are the result of thousands of years of propaganda. We have become psychologically and intellectually mechanical. In a machine, there is no freedom. Sex offers freedom; for a few seconds there is freedom; you have completely forgotten yourself and your mechanical life. So sex has become enormously significant, and its pleasure you call love. But is love pleasure, or is love something entirely different, something in which there is no jealousy, no dependency, no possessiveness? One has to give one’s life to find out what love means, just as one has to give one’s whole life to find out what meditation is and what truth is.

To live mechanically is not only encouraged by society, but also by each one of us, because it is the easiest way to live.

Krishnamurti, The Impossible Question

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Thought is always mechanical. It falls very easily into a pattern, into a groove, and then you consider you are being tremendously active, whether you are confined to the socialist groove, the Catholic groove, or whatever it is. It is the easiest, the most mechanical thing to do, and we think we are living! So although thought has a certain limited freedom in its field but everything it does is mechanical. 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 daily behaviour is based on following certain patterns, which are mechanical and therefore superficial, or on very carefully thought-out motives based on reward or punishment.

Krishnamurti, The Whole Movement of Life Is Learning

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Goodness has no opposite. Most of us consider goodness to be the opposite of the bad or evil, and so throughout history, in any culture, goodness has been considered the other face of that which is brutal. Humanity has always struggled against evil in order to be good, but goodness can never come into being if there is any form of violence or struggle. Goodness shows itself in behaviour and action and in relationship. Our daily behaviour is based on following certain patterns, which are mechanical and therefore superficial, or on very carefully thought-out motives based on reward or punishment. So our behaviour, consciously or unconsciously, is calculated. This is not good behaviour. When one realises this, not merely intellectually, then good behaviour comes out of negating what it is not. Good behaviour is, in essence, the absence of the self, the ‘me’. It shows itself in politeness, in consideration for others, in yielding without losing integrity. Behaviour is extraordinarily important; it is not a casual affair to be slurred over, or a plaything of a sophisticated mind. It comes out of the depth of your being and is part of your daily existence. Goodness shows itself in action.

We have created a society that demands all our time, all our energies, all our life. There is no leisure to learn, and so life becomes mechanical, almost meaningless

Krishnamurti, The Whole Movement of Life Is Learning

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Leisure implies that a mind is not occupied. It is only then that there is a state of learning. A school is a place of learning, not merely a place for accumulating knowledge. This is really important to understand. Knowledge is necessary and has its own limited place in life. Unfortunately, this limitation has devoured all our lives, and we have no space for learning. We are so occupied with earning a livelihood that it takes all the energy of the mechanism of thought, so that we are exhausted at the end of the day and need to be stimulated. We recover from this exhaustion through entertainment, religious or otherwise. This is the life of human beings. Human beings have created a society which demands all their time, all their energies, all their life. There is no leisure to learn, and so life becomes mechanical, almost meaningless. So we must be very clear in the understanding of the word ‘leisure’: it is a time, a period when the mind is not occupied with anything whatsoever. It is the time of observation. It is only the unoccupied mind that can observe. Free observation is the movement of learning. This frees the mind from being mechanical.

Most of us carry on mechanically in the condition in which we are born and educated, living a repetitive life, with certain modifications.

Krishnamurti, Can the Mind be Quiet?

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We do not seem to be aware of the psychological structure of the brain. Most of us carry on mechanically in the condition in which we are born and educated, living a repetitive life, with certain modifications. We are trained from childhood until we die to function within a very small part of our brain’s capacity. We all use the part of the brain which is always of yesterday. All specialisation is exclusive and fragmentary, limited and narrow. All this is the old brain, which is the result of millions of years of struggle for survival, struggle to get the best out of the environment, and so on. This is all we know, and with this brain we try to explore and discover something new. Therefore, there is always deep-rooted frustration and despair. This old brain is memory, and memory is always fragmentary. Every challenge is met by the old brain responding according to its old patterns. Being aware choicelessly of this process, the brain itself understands its own nature and structure, and so only responds in a mechanical way to mechanical demands like writing, spelling and so on. Obviously, this mechanical part of the brain must function where memory is involved, but when we make a challenge out of something which is not a challenge, like meeting someone who insulted us or flattered us some time ago, this is a mechanical response which is habitual. This is the way we live. All these responses are from what we call the old brain. Is the whole operation of the brain old? Is there any action of the brain which is not this response of the computer? And can this brain ever be quiet? Can it be active when it is demanded and silent when it is necessary? The answer to this lies in meditation.

Freedom is never mechanical, for it is not put together by thought which is mechanical.

Krishnamurti, Can the Mind be Quiet?

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Knowledge is one thing and learning is another. One leads to bondage, the other to freedom. Freedom is never mechanical, for it is not put together by thought which is mechanical. Freedom is not in the known; it is not an accumulation of the known. The accumulation of knowledge, as a squirrel accumulates nuts, has become the business of our lives – the more we have of it, the more we feel secure and important. The action of knowledge is mechanical, repetitive, and in this habitual repetition we feel safe, protected; we feel we cannot be hurt. It is a shield against doubts, fears and uncertainties, and within the enclosing walls of knowledge our life and the activities of the brain seem secure. You can impart knowledge, but not the act of learning. Learning is never accumulative, for learning implies an active movement in the present with its curiosity, its intensity, its eager pursuit. If the act of learning is tethered to the post of knowledge, it can only learn within the radius of the thing to which it is tied. In this, there is no freedom. It is like a prisoner whose freedom is within four walls. This prison is knowledge, and so he is never free.

Knowledge is mechanical; learning never is.

Krishnamurti’s Notebook

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Humility is not a virtue; it is not to be cultivated. It is not within the morality of the respectable. The saints do not know it, for they are recognised for their saintliness; the worshipper does not know it, for he is asking, seeking; nor the devotee and the follower, for they are following. Accumulation denies humility, whether it be property, experience or capacity. Learning is not an additive process; knowledge is. Knowledge is mechanical; learning never is. There can be more and more knowledge, but there is never more in learning. Where there is comparison, learning ceases. Learning is the immediate seeing which is not in time. All accumulation and knowledge are measurable. Humility is not comparable; there is no more or less of humility; so it cannot be cultivated. Morality and technique can be cultivated; there can be more or less of them. Humility is not within the capacity of the brain, nor is love.

A life based on thought and its activities becomes mechanical; however smoothly it may run, it is still mechanical action.

Krishnamurti’s Notebook

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How easy it is to degenerate, in every way, to let the body waste and become sluggish. It is easy to allow feelings to wither away; the mind allowing itself to become shallow, petty and dull. A clever mind is a shallow mind. It cannot renew itself and so withers away in its own bitterness; it decays by the exercise of its own brittle sharpness, by its own thought. Every thought shapes the mind in the mould of the known; every feeling, every emotion, however refined, becomes wasteful and empty, and the body fed on thought and feeling loses its sensibility. It is not physical energy that breaks through the wearying dullness; it is not enthusiasm or sentiment which brings about sensitivity of one’s whole being; enthusiasm and sentiment corrupt. Thought is the disintegrating factor, for thought has its roots in the known. A life based on thought and its activities becomes mechanical; however smoothly it may run, it is still mechanical action. Action with motive dissipates energy, and so disintegration sets in. All motives, conscious or unconscious, generate from the known. A life of the known, though projected into the future as the unknown, is decay; in that life there is no renewal. Thought can never bring about innocency and humility, and yet it is innocency and humility that keep the mind young, sensitive and incorruptible. Freedom from the known is the ending of thought; to die to thought, from moment to moment, is to be free from the known. It is this death that puts an end to decay.

Mechanical repetition leads to the complete destruction of the brain.

Krishnamurti, Explorations and Insights

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I want to find out if there is an action which doesn’t breed conflict, which doesn’t contradict itself tomorrow Which doesn’t mean that action is consistent. Following a set pattern and always following it is never contradictory, and that mere mechanical repetition leads to complete destruction of the brain. I want to find out an action which is not repetitive, which is not conflicting, which is not imitative, conforming, and therefore corrupt.

When I act on a conclusion, my action must be continuously mechanical.

Krishnamurti, Facing a World in Crisis

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When I act on a conclusion, my action must be continuously mechanical, though at the beginning I may have had an insight. Now, if one doesn’t draw a conclusion at all, and there is only insight, then action is nonmechanical. Therefore that action is always creative, always new, always living. So a mind that has insight and acts from that without drawing a conclusion is in the movement of continuous, constant insight. Now, this constant insight without a formula, a conclusion that puts an end to that insight, is creative action.

All our civilisations are mechanical and therefore corrupt.

Krishnamurti, Facing a World in Crisis

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A mind that is free has insight every minute. A mind that is free has no conclusion and is therefore non-mechanical. Such a mind is in action, non-mechanical action, because it sees the fact that there is insight into everything each minute. So it is constantly moving, alive, and therefore such a mind is always young, fresh and incapable of being hurt, whereas the mechanical mind is capable of being hurt. So thought, upon which all our civilisations are based, becomes mechanical. All our civilisations are mechanical and therefore corrupt. Therefore, to belong to any organisation is to become corrupt, or to allow oneself to be corrupted. Now, that is an insight, isn’t it? Can you then move from that insight to another insight and keep moving, which is living? Then relationship becomes a totally different thing.

Knowing we are conditioned, we invent a divine agency which we piously hope will get us out of this mechanical state.

Krishnamurti, To Be Human

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Knowing we are conditioned, we invent a divine agency which we piously hope will get us out of this mechanical state. We either postulate its existence outside or inside ourselves – as the atman, the soul, the kingdom of heaven within, and who knows what else! To these beliefs we cling desperately, not seeing that they themselves are part of the conditioning factor which they are supposed to destroy or redeem. So, not being able to uncondition ourselves in this world, and not even seeing that conditioning is the problem, we think that freedom is in heaven, moksha or nirvana. In the Christian myth of original sin and in the Eastern doctrine of samsara, one sees that the factor of conditioning has been felt, though rather obscurely. If it had been clearly seen, naturally these doctrines and myths would not have arisen. The psychologists also try to get to grips with this problem, and in doing so condition us still further. So the religious specialists have conditioned us, the social order has conditioned us, the family which is part of it has conditioned us. All this is the past, which makes up the open as well as the hidden layers of the mind.

Our lives are so mechanical, so shallow, that we want deeper experiences because we are bored with the superficiality of life.

Krishnamurti, Beyond Violence

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A religious mind is not burdened with fear, or seeking out any form of security or pleasure. A mind that is not burdened with experience is absolutely necessary to find out what meditation is. In seeking experience lies the way to illusion. Not to seek any form of experience is very difficult; most of our lives are so mechanical, so shallow, that we want deeper experiences because we are bored with the superficiality of life. We want, or rather crave for, something that will have a meaning, a fullness, depth, beauty or loveliness, and so the mind is seeking. And what it seeks it will find; what it finds will not be the truth.

Man is caught in material energy, in mechanical energy; he is caught by technology and the movement of thought.

Krishnamurti, Tradition and Revolution

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How is the movement of this mechanical decay in which man is caught to be brought to an end? Is there a contrary movement? Man is caught in material energy, in mechanical energy; he is caught by technology and the movement of thought. There is the field of technological knowledge and the movement in that knowledge; that is the field in which man lives. It has tremendous influence on him; it is really taking him over, absorbing him. Scientists have measured the energy of that movement, and that energy is an energy of decay, an energy of waste. They also say there is a contrary movement of energy in the opposite direction, which is creative energy. Real human energy is nonmechanical, non-technological.

A mind that is merely mechanical, as thought is, can never come upon that which is total, supreme order and therefore complete freedom.

Krishnamurti, This Light in Oneself

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To meditate is really important, because a mind that is merely mechanical, as thought is, can never come upon that which is total, supreme order, and therefore complete freedom. The universe is in total order. The human mind is in disorder, and one has to have an extraordinarily orderly mind, a mind that has understood disorder and is free of contradiction, imitation and conformity. Such a mind is an attentive mind. It is completely attentive to whatever it does, to all its actions in relationship. Attention is not concentration. Concentration is restricted, narrow and limited, whereas attention is limitless. In attention is the quality of silence, not the silence invented by thought, not the silence that comes about after noise, not the silence of one thought waiting for another thought. There must be that silence that is not put together by desire, by will, by thought. And in that meditation, there is no controller. In all the systems of meditation there is always effort, control or discipline. But discipline really means to learn – not to conform but to learn – so that your mind becomes more and more subtle. Learning is a constant movement; it is not based on knowledge. Meditation is freedom from the known, which is measure. And in that meditation, there is absolute silence. Then, in that silence alone, that which is nameless is.

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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