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.
Interpretation
The quote critiques the societal conditioning that prioritizes personal gain and security, highlighting an underlying system of exploitation.
Jiddu Krishnamurti's quote reflects on how social and educational systems train individuals to prioritize personal success and security often at the expense of others. He suggests that this conditioning is veiled with polite language, yet fundamentally stems from a system that exploits human relationships and fosters a sense of fear regarding loss or insecurity, urging a deeper understanding of the societal structures that shape our motivations.
In practice
In a speech on systemic injustice, this quote can serve to illustrate how societal structures influence personal behavior.
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.
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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.
Without knowing myself, I have no real basis for thinking.
We are at the very beginning of time for the human race. It is not unreasonable that we grapple with problems. But there are tens of thousands of years in the future. Our responsibility is to do what we can, learn what we can, improve the solutions, and pass them on.
If you stumble over mere believability, what are you living for? Love is hard to believe, ask any lover. Life is hard to believe, ask any scientist. God is hard to believe, ask any believer. What is your problem with hard to believe? Reason is excellent for getting food, clothing and shelter. Reason is the very best tool kit. Nothing beats reason for keeping tigers away. But be excessively reasonable and you risk throwing out the universe with the bathwater
Everything is autobiography, even if one writes something that is totally objective. The fact that it's a subject that seizes you makes it autobiographical.
If your religion doesn't teach you the difference between good and evil, your religion is worse than useless.
What's the go of that? What's the particular go of that?
All human knowledge begins with intuitions, proceeds from thence to concepts, and ends with ideas.
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