During his life, Jiddu Krishnamurti (1895-1986) was known for his ability to see the core issues of our day with a timeless vision. With a gift for crossing the barriers of time, space, and spirit, he influenced a host of great 20th-century minds, including George Bernard Shaw, Aldous Huxley, and Henry Miller. In Truth Is a Pathless Land, Krishnamurti discusses a startling constellation of philosophical issues: love, greed, violence, separation, time, death, conflict, and fear.

Am I aware of the process of thinking? Can I see that thought is destructive, except where it is essential? Why is it that we don't see something immediately? Do you know when you are thinking? Is the thing that we call thinking thinking at all? Do you think from the background noise when a problem arises? When the mind becomes totally aware of the background, is there thinking when a problem arises? What happens when I am aware of this hum, this noise incessantly going on? Is the background noise different from the observer? How am I to live an everyday life with complete silence?

What is the relationship of the brain to the totality of the mind? Fear of not being, fear of isolation, fear of not having pleasure, fear of having no relationship, is the soil from which the stem of contradiction grows. I want to be free of this stem to see what happens if there is no attachment, no detachment, because I am not afraid. Is there a peace with no entity saying, ‘I am peaceful?'

Thought and the brain. Can the brain free itself from all self-delusion? Why has the self become important? Can there be only sensation, thought and no desire? Can desire—which brings illusion, self-deception and all the complications of changing desires—can the root of desire be dissipated? What prevents one from having a real insight? That is, seeing the truth of desire and therefore end it. Is it that we have never asked this question? When there is no desire whatsoever then there is a total revolution, and that will affect the consciousness of man.

Though we have plenty of energy, apparently we lack the drive, enthusiasm, vitality to bring about a change in ourselves. As long as there is fear, there must be violence, aggression, anger, hatred. Thought is the source of fear. Is it possible to live everyday life without thought interfering? Thought is always old. When you worship thought, you are worshipping some thing that is dead.

Wisdom, intelligence and truth. If there is attention, is there choice? Why has man divided perception? What is wisdom which is not the movement of thought. What place has the man who perceives truth in this world of reality? Truth operating in one brain clears that brain. Mustn’t there be emptiness for the perception of truth? Consciousness.

Why is thought divisive? The desire to change in a particular direction gives an energy that is divisive. Will you free the mind taking time, through analysis, or can you look totally and therefore be totally free? Does choiceless rejection of the false give a different kind of energy? Does a foundation give me direction or does it bring confusion? Is the operation of intelligence insight? Questions from the audience followed the talk.

Is there a totally different way of approaching the whole turmoil of life? As long as the centre is creating darkness, and thought is operating in that darkness, there must be disorder, there must be everything as society now is. To move away from that, you must have insight. Insight can only come about when there is a flash which abolishes not only the darkness but the creator of darkness. Human beings have been acting according to one pattern, responding to hatred by hatred and so on. There are those few, perhaps many, who did not.

What is the relationship to society of a man who has insight? What is his action with regard to war and the whole world?

Living with a sustained seriousness. 21 February 1970. Duration: 91 minutes. What does it mean to be serious? Becoming. Why do I compare myself with you or with somebody else? Do I look at people through images? Can the brain operate without recourse to the past? 22 February 1970. Duration: 92 minutes. Is there self-progress? Conflict. Security. Any form of division within oneself is a source of conflict. Can the brain be quiet?

Attention implies the total abandonment of the 'me'. 6 March 1971. Duration: 100 minutes. Can the mind undergo a radical revolution? How do you observe the world? What solves our human problem is observing the whole process of ourselves without judging, condemning, translating or rejecting - just to observe.

To look without a concept is to be aware of the observer and the thing observed. 20 May 1967. Duration: 88 minutes. Violence and sorrow are not limited to the West or the East; they are parts of the human structure psychologically. Is it possible to bring about a change radically, a total revolution in the psyche itself, not through time? The first and last freedoms are when the mind is totally free from concepts and the mechanical process of building a formula.

What takes place when one falls in love? Why has sex taken on such extraordinary importance? How will you know that it is stupid to be a nationalist? You see or understand only when the mind is quiet, when you are aware without any choice. When I say, ‘I love you,’ I have blocked myself from looking at you. Is it possible to look totally impersonally and yet be completely intimate? One takes a drug and has an extraordinary experience. At the base of this is the demand for wider and deeper experiences. Why do you want experience?

Can there be a total perception which completely heals the brain? What benefit has culture? Does speech come before thought? Is it possible to say something without the operation of thought? Is there in the brain anything untouched by culture? Is attention a conscious process? Is love the factor of profound change?

Why do we divide the world, the human being and the divine? Do good and evil really exist or are they simply conditioned points of view? Is there a permanent ‘me’. Is there in me a place where there is no corruption, where there is real, absolute peace, order? Are the various scriptures of India and the Middle East similar to or in contradiction to your teaching? Is there any connection between the supernatural and religion?