Passages from First and Last Public Talk

First and Last Public Talk of U.G Krishnamurti

Q: What is the secret of total happiness?

U.G.: There is no happiness. I never ask myself the question. So many people ask me that question: "Are you happy?" What is that question? Funny question. I never ask [myself] that question, "Am I happy?" 'Total happiness is an invention. [Mr. Kothari: "Invention of the mind, you mean? Naturally."] There is no mind. There is no such things as the mind at all. Where is the mind? Is the mind separate from the body? Distinguished from the body? Apart from the body? These questions have no meaning at all. You have no way of separating yourself from what is going on. The moment you separate yourself means you have a knowledge about it -- the knowledge given by either the biologists, the physiologists, the psychologists or the religious people. So through that you are looking at it. You cannot experience anything without knowledge. You cannot experience this at all, let alone Brahman or reality. You cannot experience this at all. Only through abstraction. And what is that abstraction? The knowledge you have about it. This has been put there.

First and Last Public Talk of U.G Krishnamurti

 

Your mother told you, or your neighbor or friend told you that this is a table. What the hell is that, you don't know, apart from what you have been told. Every time you look at this, you have to repeat to yourself that it is a table. What are you doing that for? This is my question. This is the continuity I am talking about. You want to reassure yourself that you are there. The "I" is nothing but this word. There is no "I" independent of this word. Maybe you find some parallel [to what I am saying] in Shamkara or God knows what.

 First and Last Public Talk of U.G Krishnamurti

Q: How do you reconcile your existence with the world?

U.G. : I don't bother. Do I exist in this world? Does the world exist for me? Where is the world? I am not trying to be clever with all these phrases. I don't know a thing about it. Am I talking, am I saying anything? This is like the howling of a jackal, the barking of a dog or the braying of an ass. If you can put this on that level and just listen to this vibration, you are out, you will walk out, and you will never listen to anybody in your lifetime. Finish. It doesn't have to be the talk of a self-realized man. You will realize that there is no self to realize. That's all. There is no center there. It is working in an extraordinary way.