Quotes by Krishnamurti
Topic Selection
Freedom

Freedom is to look without thought
Freedom is to look at a fact without any idea, to look without thought.
—KRISHNAMURTI
Krishnamurti in New Delhi 1962, Talk 8
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So freedom is to look at a fact without any idea, to look at a fact without thought. Either you look at a fact with words, which is thought, or with conclusions, which again is thought and words, or with knowledge which you have acquired previously, which again is words based on experience – that is, the result of memory conditioning every form of experience. So you have to look at something without thought – which does not mean looking at something blankly, emptily, but looking at it through the understanding of the whole significance of thought.

There is freedom when purged of the past
There is freedom when the entire being, the superficial as well as the hidden, is purged of the past.
—KRISHNAMURTI
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Not-knowing is freedom
Not-knowing is freedom. Knowing is prison.
—KRISHNAMURTI
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I see that this concern about freedom, freedom which is not a formula, which is not a conclusion, is not freedom. Then the mind says, if this is not, then what is freedom? Then it says, I do not know. It sees that in that non-knowing, there is an expectation to know. When I say I do not know what freedom is, there is a waiting and an expectation to find out. That means the mind does not say it does not know, but is waiting for something to happen.
I see that and I discard that. So I really do not know. I am not waiting, expecting. I am not hoping something will happen, some answer will come from an outside agency. I am not expecting a thing. There it is. There is the clue. I know this is not it; there is no freedom here. There is reformation, but not freedom. Reformation can never bring freedom. Man revolts against the whole idea that he can never be free, that he is condemned to live in this world. It is not intellect that revolts, but the whole organism, the whole perception. Therefore it says that as this is not it, I do not know what freedom is. I do not expect a thing, I do not hope or try to find what freedom is. I really do not know.
That not-knowing is freedom. Knowing is prison. This is logically right. I do not know what is going to happen tomorrow. Therefore I am free of the past, free of this field.
So, the mind that lives in a state of not-knowing is a free mind.

Choice is the denial of freedom
We think having capacity to choose gives us freedom. Choice is the very denial of freedom.
—KRISHNAMURTI
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There is no freedom of thought
There is no freedom of thought.
—KRISHNAMURTI
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