Meditation is a state of mind which looks at everything with complete attention, totally, not just parts of it. And no one can teach you how to be attentive. If any system teaches you how to be attentive, then you are attentive to the system, and that is not attention.
Interpretation
Meditation requires a deep, holistic focus that cannot be taught through mere systems.
This quote emphasizes the nature of meditation as a state of mindfulness that involves total attention to all aspects of existence, rather than fragmented awareness. Jiddu Krishnamurti suggests that true attentiveness comes from within, and cannot be adequately imparted through structured teachings or systems, as doing so would lead one to focus on those systems instead of the fullness of experience.
In practice
During a meditation workshop, I shared Krishnamurti's insights to highlight the importance of true attentiveness.
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.
We see with the eyes, but we see with the brain as well. And seeing with the brain is often called imagination.
I laugh, for hope hath a happy place with me; If my boat sinks, 'tis to another sea.
My brain surprises even me sometimes.
Understand that a problem is only a problem if you choose to view it as a problem (vs. an opportunity).
We signal that good can be achieved amongst human beings who are prepared to trust, prepared to believe in the goodness of people.
As women, we get the message about how to be a good girl - how to be a good, pretty girl - from such an early age. Then, at the same time, we're told that well-behaved girls won't change the world or ever make a splash.
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