When the mind is Free - Krishnamurti

[KienTanh]

Question :
- Why do you waste your time preaching instead of helping the world in a practical way?

Krishnamurti :
- Now, what do you mean by practical? You mean bringing about a change in the world, a better economic adjusment, a better distribution of wealth, a better relationship, or to put it more brutally, helping you to find a better job. You want to see a change in the world, - every intelligent man does, - and you want a method to bring about that change, and therefore you ask me why I waste my time preaching instead of doing something about it. Now, is what I am actually doing a waste of time? It would be a waste of time, if I introduced a new set of ideas to replace the old ideology, the old pattern. Perhaps that is what you want me to do. But instead of pointing out a so-called practical way to act, to live, to get a better job, to create a better world, is it not important to find out what the impediments are that actually prevent a real revolution, not a revolution of the left or the right, but a fundamental, radical revolution, not based on ideas? Because ideals, beliefs, ideologies, dogmas, prevent action. There cannot be a world transformation, a revolution, as long as action is based on ideas, because action then is merely reaction in which ideas become much more important than action. That is precisely what is taking place in the world, isn't it? To act, we must discover the impediments that prevent action. But most of us don't want to act, that is our difficulty. We prefer to discuss, we prefer to substitute one ideology for another, and so we escape from action through ideology. Surely that is very simple, is it not? The world at the present time is facing many problems : overpopulation, starvation, division of people into nationalities and classes, and so on. Why isn't there a group of people sitting together trying to solve the problems of nationalism? But if we try to become international while clinging to our nationality, we create another problem; and that is what most of us do.
So you see that it is ideals which are really preventing action. A statesman, an eminent authority, has said the world can be organized and all the people fed. Then why is it not done? Because of conflicting ideas, beliefs, and nationalism. Therefore, ideas are actually preventing the feeding of people; and most of us play with ideas and think we are tremendous revolutionaries, hypnotizing ourselves with such words as practical. What is important is to free ourselves from ideas, from nationalism, from all beliefs and dogmas, so that we can act, not according to a pattern or an ideology, but as needs demand. Surely to point out the hindrances and impediments that prevent such action is not a waste of time, is not a lot of hot air. What you are doing is obviously nonsense. Your ideas and beliefs, your political, economic, are actually dividing people and leading to war. It is only when the mind is free of idea and belief that it can act rightly. A man who is patriotic, nationalistic, can never know what it is to be brotherly, though he may talk about it; on the contrary, his action, economically and in every direction, are conducive to war. So there can be right action and and therefore radical, lasting transformation, only when the mind is free of ideas, not superficially, but fundamentally. And freedom from ideas can take place only through self-awareness and self-knowledge.

J. Krishnamurti -- On Relationship