As long as you ask questions you are breaking through, but the moment you begin to accept, you are psychologically dead. So right through life don't accept a thing, but inquire, investigate. Then you will find that your mind is something really extraordinary, it has no end, and to such a mind there is no death.
Interpretation
The quote emphasizes the importance of questioning and inquiry to keep one's mind active and vibrant.
Jiddu Krishnamurti's quote advocates for a mindset of inquiry and investigation rather than acceptance of established norms or beliefs. He suggests that continually asking questions and seeking knowledge keeps the mind alive and engaged, while accepting things as they are leads to stagnation and a 'psychological death.' It highlights the extraordinary potential of the human mind when it is open to exploration and discovery.
In practice
In a motivational speech about personal growth and development.
The following of authority is the denial of intelligence. [It] may help us temporarily to cover up our difficulties and problems; but to avoid a problem is only to intensify it, and in the process, self-knowledge and freedom are abandoned.
In seeking comfort, we generally find a quiet corner in life where there is a minimum of conflict, and then we are afraid to step out of that seclusion.
If you listen through the screen of your desires, then you obviously listen to your own voice; you are listening to your own desires.
If you have this extraordinary thing going in your life, then it is everything; then you become the teacher, the disciple, the neighbour, the beauty of the cloud - you are all that, and that is love.
Meditation is one of the greatest arts in life - perhaps the greatest, and one cannot possibly learn it from anybody, that is the beauty of it.
All of us have been trained by education and environment to seek personal gain and security and to fight for ourselves. Though we cover it over with pleasant phrases, we have been educated for various professions within a system which is based on exploitation and acquisitive fear.
My favorite definition of the mindful path is the one the reveals itself as you walk down it. You cannot find the path until you step on to it.
Anyone who thinks hard work will never hurt you has never had to pay to have it done. Jesus now has many lovers of his Heavenly Kingdom, but few bearers of his cross.
Helped are those who are content to be themselves; they will never lack mystery in their lives and the joys of self-discovery will be constant.
From this point of view, to avoid your strengths and to focus on your weaknesses isn't a sign of diligent humility. It is almost irresponsible. By contrast the most responsible, the most challenging, and, in the sense of being true to yourself, the most honorable thing to do is face up to the strength potential inherent in your talents and then find ways to realize it.
So in the Libyan fable it is told That once an eagle, stricken with a dart, Said, when he saw the fashion of the shaft: With our own feathers, not by others' hands, Are we now smitten.
It is the just doom of laziness and gluttony to be inactive without ease and drowsy without tranquility.
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