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On Fear: Krishnamurti's Profound Teachings on Understanding and Overcoming Hidden Fears, Dependence, and Attachment
On Fear is a collection of Krishnamurti's most profound observations and thoughts on how fear and dependence affect our lives and prevent us from seeing our true selves. Among the many questions Krishnamurti addresses in these remarkable teachings How can a mind that is afraid love? And what can a mind that depends on attachment know of joy? He points out that the voice of fear makes the mind dull and insensitive, and argues that the roots of hidden fears, which limit us and from which we constantly seek escape, cannot be discovered through analysis of the past. Questioning whether the exercise of will can eliminate the debilitating effects of fear, he suggests, instead, that only a fundamental realization of the root of all fear can free our minds.
115 pages, Paperback
First published November 16, 1994
202 people are currently reading
3288 people want to read
About the author
J. Krishnamurti
1,334 books4,266 followersJiddu Krishnamurti was born on 11 May 1895 in Madanapalle, a small town in south India. He and his brother were adopted in their youth by Dr Annie Besant, then president of the Theosophical Society. Dr Besant and others proclaimed that Krishnamurti was to be a world teacher whose coming the Theosophists had predicted. To prepare the world for this coming, a world-wide organization called the Order of the Star in the East was formed and the young Krishnamurti was made its head.
In 1929, however, Krishnamurti renounced the role that he was expected to play, dissolved the Order with its huge following, and returned all the money and property that had been donated for this work.
From then, for nearly sixty years until his death on 17 February 1986, he travelled throughout the world talking to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in humankind.
Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He did not expound any philosophy or religion, but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, of the individual's search for security and happiness, and the need for humankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow. He explained with great precision the subtle workings of the human mind, and pointed to the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality.
Krishnamurti belonged to no religious organization, sect or country, nor did he subscribe to any school of political or ideological thought. On the contrary, he maintained that these are the very factors that divide human beings and bring about conflict and war. He 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 belief systems, nationalistic sentiment and sectarianism. At the same time, they give new meaning and direction to humankind's search for truth. His teaching, besides being relevant to the modern age, is timeless and universal.
Krishnamurti spoke not as a guru but as a friend, and 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 communicates a sense of freshness and directness although the essence of his message remained unchanged over the years. When he addressed large audiences, people felt that Krishnamurti was talking to each of them personally, addressing his or her particular problem. In his private interviews, he was a compassionate teacher, listening attentively to the man or woman 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, discussed their theories and sometimes enabled them to discern the limitations of those theories. Krishnamurti left a large body of literature in the form of public talks, writings, discussions with teachers and students, with scientists and religious figures, conversations with individuals, television and radio interviews, and letters. Many of these have been published as books, and audio and video recordings.
This author also writes under: Jiddu Krishnamurti
In 1929, however, Krishnamurti renounced the role that he was expected to play, dissolved the Order with its huge following, and returned all the money and property that had been donated for this work.
From then, for nearly sixty years until his death on 17 February 1986, he travelled throughout the world talking to large audiences and to individuals about the need for a radical change in humankind.
Krishnamurti is regarded globally as one of the greatest thinkers and religious teachers of all time. He did not expound any philosophy or religion, but rather talked of the things that concern all of us in our everyday lives, of the problems of living in modern society with its violence and corruption, of the individual's search for security and happiness, and the need for humankind to free itself from inner burdens of fear, anger, hurt, and sorrow. He explained with great precision the subtle workings of the human mind, and pointed to the need for bringing to our daily life a deeply meditative and spiritual quality.
Krishnamurti belonged to no religious organization, sect or country, nor did he subscribe to any school of political or ideological thought. On the contrary, he maintained that these are the very factors that divide human beings and bring about conflict and war. He 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 belief systems, nationalistic sentiment and sectarianism. At the same time, they give new meaning and direction to humankind's search for truth. His teaching, besides being relevant to the modern age, is timeless and universal.
Krishnamurti spoke not as a guru but as a friend, and 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 communicates a sense of freshness and directness although the essence of his message remained unchanged over the years. When he addressed large audiences, people felt that Krishnamurti was talking to each of them personally, addressing his or her particular problem. In his private interviews, he was a compassionate teacher, listening attentively to the man or woman 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, discussed their theories and sometimes enabled them to discern the limitations of those theories. Krishnamurti left a large body of literature in the form of public talks, writings, discussions with teachers and students, with scientists and religious figures, conversations with individuals, television and radio interviews, and letters. Many of these have been published as books, and audio and video recordings.
This author also writes under: Jiddu Krishnamurti
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Displaying 1 - 30 of 61 reviews
May 15, 2023
Arranged with excerpts from his journals and talks, this book shows the whole development of his basic philosophy in active listening and meditation as a breakthrough of the mind. Krishnamurti teaches us to use fear- which most people try to escape from in myriad ways- as a focal point. Practice to observe the fear in meditation. Only then can one break free of it.
"Our minds are trained to accept fear and to escape, if we can, from that fear, never being able to resolve, totally and completely, the whole nature and structure of fear. So our first question is: Can the mind, so heavily burdened, resolve completely, not only its conditioning but also its fears? Because it is fear that makes us accept conditioning...."
"Is the mind capable of observing fear totally? We are used to dealing with fear by fragments and we are concerned with the fragments and not the totality of fear. To observe the totality of fear is to give complete attention when any fear arises. You can invite it if you want to, and look at your fear completely, wholly, not as an observer looking at fear...."
"Our minds are trained to accept fear and to escape, if we can, from that fear, never being able to resolve, totally and completely, the whole nature and structure of fear. So our first question is: Can the mind, so heavily burdened, resolve completely, not only its conditioning but also its fears? Because it is fear that makes us accept conditioning...."
"Is the mind capable of observing fear totally? We are used to dealing with fear by fragments and we are concerned with the fragments and not the totality of fear. To observe the totality of fear is to give complete attention when any fear arises. You can invite it if you want to, and look at your fear completely, wholly, not as an observer looking at fear...."
May 5, 2019
In short, all the works (which are actually compilations of Krishnamurti's talks) by him tell us only one thing - there is nothing that you need to worry. You know something, that's fine - however, that's not permanent. This is what I like about him. In this book also, Jiddu K tells us that we should be afraid and to do so, we need to be free from what we know to be permanent. Nothing is permanent.
October 14, 2010
First of all, anything this author writes is breathtaking. He is quite clean and deeply honest in his thinking and he doesn't believe that people are spiritually ranked above one another so much as walking paths about the world together. So when he talks about fear, he's like a grandpa, trying and trying to explain the way he sees it. This is a good book to boil away verbiage and fantasy and get to the core of why fear can control us. It is, in the end, a question of the level of consciousness and presence we choose to cultivate. And then again, it's not, because those are just words ... and feeling a thing is not enough, either. This is about totally being.
September 4, 2020
It is one of the best book I have ever read. Here are the some part of the book.
*Thought is responsible for fear, responsible for pleasure.
*Knowledge is fear. Go into see it, see the beauty of it, then you will see what it means.
*Brain is record machine. It record all of all the time. Recorded version is our knowledge and from the knowledge we act.
*When fear arise, knowledge itself says yes this is fear, so knowledge itself is fear.
*Thought are time. Time is movement of knowledge. They (thought) come present time i.e. movement.
*There is always fear and sorrow within the network of thought and feeling. The ending of sorrow is ending of time
*The root of fear is movement of time and thought.
*We are always seeking pleasure and for ultimate pleasure of course Brahmin invented God.
*Pleasure always brought the fear. To bring pleasure means we are creating fear for our life.
*God hasn't created you to live a miserable life but we have created God.
*When there is complete attention, there is no fear.
*Concentration is inattention.
*True is not opposite of false. and similarly love is not opposite of hate. The pursuit of opposite does not lead to truth, only denial of opposite.
*Seeing the whole fabric of non attention is total attention.
*All change that comes through motive is not change at all.
*Fear arises only in the very act of running away from the fact what it is.
*To observe the totality of fear is give complete attention when fear arises. You can invite if it you want to look at your fear completely, not as an observer looking at fear
*Thought is responsible for fear, responsible for pleasure.
*Knowledge is fear. Go into see it, see the beauty of it, then you will see what it means.
*Brain is record machine. It record all of all the time. Recorded version is our knowledge and from the knowledge we act.
*When fear arise, knowledge itself says yes this is fear, so knowledge itself is fear.
*Thought are time. Time is movement of knowledge. They (thought) come present time i.e. movement.
*There is always fear and sorrow within the network of thought and feeling. The ending of sorrow is ending of time
*The root of fear is movement of time and thought.
*We are always seeking pleasure and for ultimate pleasure of course Brahmin invented God.
*Pleasure always brought the fear. To bring pleasure means we are creating fear for our life.
*God hasn't created you to live a miserable life but we have created God.
*When there is complete attention, there is no fear.
*Concentration is inattention.
*True is not opposite of false. and similarly love is not opposite of hate. The pursuit of opposite does not lead to truth, only denial of opposite.
*Seeing the whole fabric of non attention is total attention.
*All change that comes through motive is not change at all.
*Fear arises only in the very act of running away from the fact what it is.
*To observe the totality of fear is give complete attention when fear arises. You can invite if it you want to look at your fear completely, not as an observer looking at fear
December 22, 2015
I did like this but as someone commented this was a bit repetitive. It’s a serious of thoughts and lectures Jiddu gave over a period of years on the subject of fear. His main point is that fear isn’t something that we must overcome or run away from or challenge. It’s an essential state of most people’s existence acting often at the subconscious level. It’s that “punch” you expect will hit you one day in life when you least expect it. Jiddu believes you have to become one with this fear as supposed to pure confrontation of it. Braveness in the face of fear isn’t overcoming it; it’s a reflection of it, another side of the same coin. Jiddu wants us to become one with the coin. I have many facets as an individual, I am a male, I am a father, a husband, a consultant, a boxer, a reader, I am brown, Pakistani, I am fear (Jiddu would want me to add at the end). When you bring fear into a facet of your reality you surpass it. When you confront fear by “playing” with it like a toy in your hand, silently studying it, it loses its punch. When you live in the present moment and are not too concerned with the stains of your past or the roll of the dice of the future to come, you take a step closer to living and being less fearful.
November 6, 2007
my roommate and gorgeous friend jill snatched this one from my bed-side table. i LOVE that she is finding him!
November 16, 2015
The topic was briefly mentioned in his previous book. It was so intriguing that I decided to seek out this book dedicated to this topic.
We have so many fears in our life: physically, psychologically and others. What is the root? The author says time and thoughts. It's our own memories of you past and future that spurred fear. Only through clearing out mind can we get rid of fear. But then "get rid of fear" is yet a thought itself.
We have so many fears in our life: physically, psychologically and others. What is the root? The author says time and thoughts. It's our own memories of you past and future that spurred fear. Only through clearing out mind can we get rid of fear. But then "get rid of fear" is yet a thought itself.
July 2, 2007
kept nodding to myself :-)
May 11, 2008
woah. so simple. so profound. woah. will re-read very soon.
January 28, 2025
Quite vague. At least not as condescending as all the modern self-help rubbish.
June 20, 2021
"A mind that is caught in fear lives in confusion, in conflict, and therefore must be violent, distorted, and aggressive."
- the book yelled at me
It talks about what fear is, how much we are resistant to insights, what is observation without any demarcation, what is real freedom and many more.
Every once, When I was sailing though the stillness of meditative words like boundarilessness, timelessness, the conscious thoughtlessness, i was unknowingly slipping on to the experience of wonderful oneness.
In short : Do you want to encounter the 'terrified you' hidden deep inside? Then don't hesitate. Grab this book.
It will strip off all the defences played by your mind to protect the self. And you will slowly head-on to the stark naked deadly self - totally unfamiliar to you.
Amen.
- the book yelled at me
It talks about what fear is, how much we are resistant to insights, what is observation without any demarcation, what is real freedom and many more.
Every once, When I was sailing though the stillness of meditative words like boundarilessness, timelessness, the conscious thoughtlessness, i was unknowingly slipping on to the experience of wonderful oneness.
In short : Do you want to encounter the 'terrified you' hidden deep inside? Then don't hesitate. Grab this book.
It will strip off all the defences played by your mind to protect the self. And you will slowly head-on to the stark naked deadly self - totally unfamiliar to you.
Amen.
February 19, 2015
Krishnamurti fue un gran genio y un tipazo, el hecho de haber estado dando conferencias hasta después de los 90 años dice mucho de el. Me encanta la filosofía de este señor, estoy de acuerdo con muchas de sus ideas, y sobre el miedo dice muchas cosas interesantes que me ayudaron a entenderlo mejor. Sin embargo, le doy 3 estrellas porque en si este libro como muchos de sus libros, son recopilaciones de sus conferencias, diarios etc., entonces como es obvio en un libro así, hay mucha repetición de ideas, y te encuentras leyendo varias veces charlas muy parecidas entre si. En un libro más formalmente escrito pudo haber dicho lo mismo en menos de la mitad de extensión.
October 29, 2016
Krishnamurti, seeking to approach the question of fear has exerted an enormous effort, not trying to solve the matter, but rather walk the path with you.
He is not a guru, nor a mentor. He is just - as he said - a brother or a friend.
He believes that the cause of fear is time/ thought.
Based on this fact, he has, over the span of many years, tried to enrich the knowledge of one with oneself. This process entails a state of full attention to the whole of fear.
Can we overcome fear? Can we live without it?
This is a very important book that should be read many times.
He is not a guru, nor a mentor. He is just - as he said - a brother or a friend.
He believes that the cause of fear is time/ thought.
Based on this fact, he has, over the span of many years, tried to enrich the knowledge of one with oneself. This process entails a state of full attention to the whole of fear.
Can we overcome fear? Can we live without it?
This is a very important book that should be read many times.
December 27, 2013
This book was okay. Not as profound or eye opening as his earlier book, "The Flight of the Eagle." And it could've been shorter (Speeches tend to restate the same thing over and over again). But it made some pretty good points.
June 13, 2025
He chopped and cooked and then served and ate. Fear doesn’t control us but it engulfs us in thought. Fear and pleasure are not opposites but they are the SAME THING. A society addicted to fear because it’s the only thing that keeps us clinging to our gods our morals our beliefs etc etc. The solution is presence so excruciatingly in tune with your surroundings that fear ceases to exist. That movement from certainty to uncertainty is fear. Memory and insecurity breeds fear. The word fear causes fear. Fear is neurotic and fear is destructive. We have to stop analyzing and we have to start feeling. Journaling outside. Freedom from thought. An approach to philosophy that is simplified and kind, question and answer structure that isn’t condescending. MY DBT MIND-FULLNESS IS GOATED!!!!!
“When there is complete attention there is no fear. But the actual fact of inattention breeds fear; fear arises when there is an avoidance of the fact, a flight; then the very escape itself is fear.”
“How to listen, not only to the speaker but to listen to those crows, listen to the noise, listen to your favorite music, listen to your wife or husband. Because we don’t actually listen to people, we just casually listen and come to some kind of conclusion, or seek explanations, but we never actually listen to what somebody else is saying. We are always translating what others are saying.”
“When you see that you are a part of fear, no separate from it – that you are fear – then you cannot do anything about it; then fear comes totally to an end.”
“There is no ‘individual’ mind at all – we are all totally related. The mind is not something separate; it is a total mind. We are all conforming, we are all afraid, we are all escaping. And to understand – not as an individual, but as a total human being – what the original is, one must understand the totality of a man’s misery, all the concepts, all the formulas that he has invented through the centuries.”
“To die means that you have to die every day, not just twenty years from now. You die every day to everything that you know, except technologically. You die every day to the pleasures you have, to the pains, the memories, the experiences. Otherwise you can’t come into contact with them. If you die to them all, fear comes totally to an end and there is a renewal.”
“There is no such thing as fear but what the mind creates. The mind wants shelter, the mind wants security, the mind has various forms of self-protective ambition; and as long as all that exists, you will have fear. It is very important to understand ambition, to understand authority; both are indications of this term, which is destruction.”
“When there is complete attention there is no fear. But the actual fact of inattention breeds fear; fear arises when there is an avoidance of the fact, a flight; then the very escape itself is fear.”
“How to listen, not only to the speaker but to listen to those crows, listen to the noise, listen to your favorite music, listen to your wife or husband. Because we don’t actually listen to people, we just casually listen and come to some kind of conclusion, or seek explanations, but we never actually listen to what somebody else is saying. We are always translating what others are saying.”
“When you see that you are a part of fear, no separate from it – that you are fear – then you cannot do anything about it; then fear comes totally to an end.”
“There is no ‘individual’ mind at all – we are all totally related. The mind is not something separate; it is a total mind. We are all conforming, we are all afraid, we are all escaping. And to understand – not as an individual, but as a total human being – what the original is, one must understand the totality of a man’s misery, all the concepts, all the formulas that he has invented through the centuries.”
“To die means that you have to die every day, not just twenty years from now. You die every day to everything that you know, except technologically. You die every day to the pleasures you have, to the pains, the memories, the experiences. Otherwise you can’t come into contact with them. If you die to them all, fear comes totally to an end and there is a renewal.”
“There is no such thing as fear but what the mind creates. The mind wants shelter, the mind wants security, the mind has various forms of self-protective ambition; and as long as all that exists, you will have fear. It is very important to understand ambition, to understand authority; both are indications of this term, which is destruction.”
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July 6, 2020Can you observe your fear? Through one fear trace the very root of all fear? That is, through this sense of loneliness haven’t you traced the root of fear? I am lonely. I know what that means not as an idea but as an actuality. There is this extraordinary sense of loneliness, isolation. Isolation is a form of resistance, a form of exclusion and I am fully aware of it. I am also aware that the observer is the observed. And there is fear there, deep-rooted fear. Through one factor of fear, loneliness, I have been able to find out, look at the central fact of fear, which is the existence of the observer. If the observer is not – the observer being the past, his opinions, judgements, evaluations, rationalizations, interpretations, all the tradition – if that is not, where is fear? If the “me” is not, where is the fear? But we are educated, religiously, to assert and cultivate the “me” as the observer. So I am a Catholic, I am a Protestant, I am British, I am this, I am that. And by looking at one fear the mind has been able to look and trace the central fact of fear, which is the existence of the observer, the “me”.
Can I live in this world without that “me”? When everything around me is the assertion of the “me”: the culture, the works of art, business, politics, religion, everything around me asserts, ‘be you’ – cultivate the ‘me’. In this culture or civilisation can one live without the ‘me’? The monks say you can’t, so escape from the world, go into a monastery, change your name, devote your life to this and that. But the “me” is still there because that “me” has identified itself with the image it has projected, as Christ, this, that and the other. The “me” is still there, in a different form.
So can one live – please, this is a tremendously important and a very, very serious question, it is not just something to play around with – can one live without that “me” in this monstrous world? That means can one live sanely in a world of insanity? The world is insane, with all the make-believe of religions. You know everything that is happening, I don’t have to tell you. Can you live in an insane world and yourself be totally sane?
"What is fear? If we can understand the question and problem of desire then we will understand and be free from fear. ‘I want to be something’ – that is the root of fear. When I want to be something, my wanting to be something and my not being that something creates fear, not only in a narrow sense but in the widest sense. So as long as there is the desire to be something there must be fear."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
--------------------------------------------------------------
Can I live in this world without that “me”? When everything around me is the assertion of the “me”: the culture, the works of art, business, politics, religion, everything around me asserts, ‘be you’ – cultivate the ‘me’. In this culture or civilisation can one live without the ‘me’? The monks say you can’t, so escape from the world, go into a monastery, change your name, devote your life to this and that. But the “me” is still there because that “me” has identified itself with the image it has projected, as Christ, this, that and the other. The “me” is still there, in a different form.
So can one live – please, this is a tremendously important and a very, very serious question, it is not just something to play around with – can one live without that “me” in this monstrous world? That means can one live sanely in a world of insanity? The world is insane, with all the make-believe of religions. You know everything that is happening, I don’t have to tell you. Can you live in an insane world and yourself be totally sane?
"What is fear? If we can understand the question and problem of desire then we will understand and be free from fear. ‘I want to be something’ – that is the root of fear. When I want to be something, my wanting to be something and my not being that something creates fear, not only in a narrow sense but in the widest sense. So as long as there is the desire to be something there must be fear."
- Jiddu Krishnamurti
--------------------------------------------------------------
January 28, 2022
Both good and bad things will inevitably happen whether you decide to worry about them or not. But you have the choice. Living with fear is destructive whereas seeing its roots and being free from it is liberating.
"So, can we, each of us, look at a very simple fact? Observe, see, that the causation of fear is thought/time? Then the very perception is action. And from that you don’t rely on anybody. See it very clearly. Then you are a free person."
"So, can we, each of us, look at a very simple fact? Observe, see, that the causation of fear is thought/time? Then the very perception is action. And from that you don’t rely on anybody. See it very clearly. Then you are a free person."
June 27, 2024
Always insightful and engaging read j k is !!
October 12, 2024
This is poetry, first and foremost
April 7, 2021
IF YOU ARE COMPLETELY FAMILIAR WITH THE MOMENT OF TIME AND THOUGHT, WHICH IS THE BASIS OF FEAR - THEN BECAUSE YOU ARE SO ATTENTIVE, THAT VERY ATTENTION BURNS AWAY FEAR.
TOTAL ATTENTION INCLUDES, NEVER EXCLUDES.
Fear is never an actuality; it is either before or after the active present. When there is complete attention there is no fear.
JK was born in India in 1895 and was taken up by the Theosophical Society at age 13 to be the world leader. He died in 1986 aged 90.
JK pointed always to the urgent need for openness, for that vast space in the brain in which there is unimaginable energy.
One of the causes of fear is comparison. Fear is the desire to fulfill and you may not be able to fulfill. Where there is comparison there must be conformity and imitation.
Where there is any cause there is an ending. Look for the cause.
Helping others gives you satisfaction, so you are still thinking of oneself. Satisfaction, in all sorts of ways, is what we want.
This craving for position, for prestige, for power, to be recognised by society as being outstanding in some way, is a wish to dominate others, and this wish to dominate is a form of aggression. Fear is the cause of aggressiveness.
A mind that is caught in fear lives in confusion, in conflict and therefore must be violent, distorted and aggressive.
Competitive education breeds fear.
Physical fear is inherited from animals and is not of concern. It is psychological fears we are concerned with.
To run away from fear is only to increase it.
Fear is a thought and because thought is always old, fear is always old - never in the present.
Thought is the response to memory.
Most of us want to have our minds continually occupied so that we are prevented from seeing ourselves as we actually are. We are afraid to be empty.
The observer of fear is fear. When you see that you are a part of fear, not separate fro it - that you are fear - then you cannot do anything about it; then fear comes totally to an end.
Comparison breeds fear. It is the root of all fear because it breeds envy, jealousy, hatred.
I depend on something (attachment) because it fills my emptiness.
Having no fear is possible only when there is total attention, an awareness of every thought, of every word, of every gesture. The mind is attentive without the barrier of words, without interpretation, justification or condemnation.
The stored up is the unconscious and is as trivial as the conscious mind.
Fear is like walking in sunshine with a dark cloud in your mind, always frightened.
Fear is not a thing by itself; it exists in contact, in relation, in touch with everything else.
Ambition and authority are both indicators of fear.
A mind that, having reached no conclusion, is free to observe, to inquire.
Normally one is always comparing, evaluating, judging, agreeing, denying and one does not listen at all; actually one prevents oneself from listening. When there is the comparison of any kind, that brings about fear.
To listen so completely implies that one gives one's whole attention - it doesn't mean on agrees or disagrees.
The desire to fulfill brings with it the sense of frustration, and in that there is fear.
The eagle in its flight doe not leave a mark.
Thought cultivates fear; thought also cultivates pleasure - fear and pleasure are opposite sides of the same coin.
The moment there is no fear there is no ambition, but there is an action, which is for the love of the thing but not for recognition of the thing that you are doing.
Fear is the destructive energy in man. A mind that has any form of fear cannot have the quality of love, tenderness, sympathy. It withers the mind, it distorts thought, it leads to all kinds of clever and subtle theories, absurd superstitions, dogmas and beliefs.
Go down to the depths of fear then the pressure on the brain doesnt exist. Therefore, the brain becomes fresh again, innocent, not something jaded, moulded, shaped, made ugly, as it is now.
Fear is a moment of time and thought, and that very knowledge prevents us from seeing something new, fresh.
Knowledge is limited, so thought is limited; because thought is based on knowledge, memory and so on.
It is only a mind that is free from occupation of any kind that has tremendous energy. That may be on of the factors that may dissipate fear.
The actual fact of inattention breeds fear; fear arises when there is an avoidance of the fact; a flight; then the very escape itself is fear.
In complete attention there is no experiencing.
Inattention is concentration, which is exclusion, a cutting off.
Thought is time and experience; it is essentially the result of non-attention.
The false as the false cannot be seen when there is opinion, judgement, evaluation, attachment, and so on, which are the result of non-attention.
An attentive mind is an empty mind.
A change that comes through motive is no change at all.
Truth has no opposite.
Aloneness is not withdrawal from life; on the contrary it is the total freedom from conflict and sorrow; from fear and death.
The what should be, the ideal, is verbal, theoretical; it has no reality.
The fact is and everything else is not.
Its very odd how each one craves power; the power of money, position, capacity, knowledge. In gaining power there is conflict, confusion and sorrow. The desire for power and success are an escape from loneliness and the ashes that are memories.
Where there is analysis, there is division between the analyser and analysed and hence conflict.
Through the observation of disorder, order comes.
Look at fear wholly, not as an observer looking at fear.
TOTAL ATTENTION INCLUDES, NEVER EXCLUDES.
Fear is never an actuality; it is either before or after the active present. When there is complete attention there is no fear.
JK was born in India in 1895 and was taken up by the Theosophical Society at age 13 to be the world leader. He died in 1986 aged 90.
JK pointed always to the urgent need for openness, for that vast space in the brain in which there is unimaginable energy.
One of the causes of fear is comparison. Fear is the desire to fulfill and you may not be able to fulfill. Where there is comparison there must be conformity and imitation.
Where there is any cause there is an ending. Look for the cause.
Helping others gives you satisfaction, so you are still thinking of oneself. Satisfaction, in all sorts of ways, is what we want.
This craving for position, for prestige, for power, to be recognised by society as being outstanding in some way, is a wish to dominate others, and this wish to dominate is a form of aggression. Fear is the cause of aggressiveness.
A mind that is caught in fear lives in confusion, in conflict and therefore must be violent, distorted and aggressive.
Competitive education breeds fear.
Physical fear is inherited from animals and is not of concern. It is psychological fears we are concerned with.
To run away from fear is only to increase it.
Fear is a thought and because thought is always old, fear is always old - never in the present.
Thought is the response to memory.
Most of us want to have our minds continually occupied so that we are prevented from seeing ourselves as we actually are. We are afraid to be empty.
The observer of fear is fear. When you see that you are a part of fear, not separate fro it - that you are fear - then you cannot do anything about it; then fear comes totally to an end.
Comparison breeds fear. It is the root of all fear because it breeds envy, jealousy, hatred.
I depend on something (attachment) because it fills my emptiness.
Having no fear is possible only when there is total attention, an awareness of every thought, of every word, of every gesture. The mind is attentive without the barrier of words, without interpretation, justification or condemnation.
The stored up is the unconscious and is as trivial as the conscious mind.
Fear is like walking in sunshine with a dark cloud in your mind, always frightened.
Fear is not a thing by itself; it exists in contact, in relation, in touch with everything else.
Ambition and authority are both indicators of fear.
A mind that, having reached no conclusion, is free to observe, to inquire.
Normally one is always comparing, evaluating, judging, agreeing, denying and one does not listen at all; actually one prevents oneself from listening. When there is the comparison of any kind, that brings about fear.
To listen so completely implies that one gives one's whole attention - it doesn't mean on agrees or disagrees.
The desire to fulfill brings with it the sense of frustration, and in that there is fear.
The eagle in its flight doe not leave a mark.
Thought cultivates fear; thought also cultivates pleasure - fear and pleasure are opposite sides of the same coin.
The moment there is no fear there is no ambition, but there is an action, which is for the love of the thing but not for recognition of the thing that you are doing.
Fear is the destructive energy in man. A mind that has any form of fear cannot have the quality of love, tenderness, sympathy. It withers the mind, it distorts thought, it leads to all kinds of clever and subtle theories, absurd superstitions, dogmas and beliefs.
Go down to the depths of fear then the pressure on the brain doesnt exist. Therefore, the brain becomes fresh again, innocent, not something jaded, moulded, shaped, made ugly, as it is now.
Fear is a moment of time and thought, and that very knowledge prevents us from seeing something new, fresh.
Knowledge is limited, so thought is limited; because thought is based on knowledge, memory and so on.
It is only a mind that is free from occupation of any kind that has tremendous energy. That may be on of the factors that may dissipate fear.
The actual fact of inattention breeds fear; fear arises when there is an avoidance of the fact; a flight; then the very escape itself is fear.
In complete attention there is no experiencing.
Inattention is concentration, which is exclusion, a cutting off.
Thought is time and experience; it is essentially the result of non-attention.
The false as the false cannot be seen when there is opinion, judgement, evaluation, attachment, and so on, which are the result of non-attention.
An attentive mind is an empty mind.
A change that comes through motive is no change at all.
Truth has no opposite.
Aloneness is not withdrawal from life; on the contrary it is the total freedom from conflict and sorrow; from fear and death.
The what should be, the ideal, is verbal, theoretical; it has no reality.
The fact is and everything else is not.
Its very odd how each one craves power; the power of money, position, capacity, knowledge. In gaining power there is conflict, confusion and sorrow. The desire for power and success are an escape from loneliness and the ashes that are memories.
Where there is analysis, there is division between the analyser and analysed and hence conflict.
Through the observation of disorder, order comes.
Look at fear wholly, not as an observer looking at fear.
This entire review has been hidden because of spoilers.
August 7, 2015
Other reviewers have pointed out the simplicity of his work, but I think the contrary. Every one of his books I've had to really concentrate on and take my time with. I find that I have to have a lengthly reading stint with his books to get into his style. I think the primary reason is that he asks a lot of questions, which causes me to stop and reflect. Which is great... but I do not see his style and approach as being simple. It's great - come on, it's Krishnamurti, but it's not simple. That being said, this book is another great example of the wisdom of our friend J.K.
December 26, 2019
Leí hace un tiempo "La pregunta imposible" del mismo autor. Ese libro me pareció más interesante. Esto se debe probablemente aquí el autor apunta a desarmar un problema que considera el eje de gran parte de lo que está mal en los individuos y por consiguiente la sociedad: el miedo.
De todas formas es interesante ver como Krishnamurti profundiza en un tema en particular.
Me deja la misma sensación que el otro libro que leí: probablemente lo tenga que volver a leer en algún momento de mi vida.
De todas formas es interesante ver como Krishnamurti profundiza en un tema en particular.
Me deja la misma sensación que el otro libro que leí: probablemente lo tenga que volver a leer en algún momento de mi vida.
August 24, 2012
Got about 1/2 way through this and then stopped reading it. I've done this before with Krishnamutri. His writing is hard and unless I really stick with it and make extra time to read, then the toughness of the reading drags me down until I get to the point that I'm not really getting the full flavor of it.
October 17, 2022
One of the thinkers I find myself going back to again and again. Rereading, wrestling with K. is good for the soul. I highly recommend trying it. If you're just starting with him, Freedom From The Known and/or the more recent collection, To Be Human are the best entry points (and maybe the finishing points, as I think he pretty much says it all in these books).
November 30, 2008
Re
Re
reading it.
haven't got it yet?
Nope.
: )
it's going to take a while this time around!
April 15, 2010
3 1/2
July 12, 2018
One of my life changing book...
August 30, 2018
This man really knew how explain life simply. Great book can’t wait to digest his other works #spiritfood 🧠😇
January 29, 2019
Clarity
I like the clarity as to how K explains such a complex problem. Amazing insight into a fundamental problem. Life changing.
I like the clarity as to how K explains such a complex problem. Amazing insight into a fundamental problem. Life changing.
November 30, 2014
good point of view about fear that belong to myself.
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