Do not repeat after me words that you do not understand. Do not merely put on a mask of my ideas, for it will be an illusion and you will thereby deceive yourself.
Interpretation
Understanding is essential before adopting others' ideas; surface-level imitation leads to self-deception.
This quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti emphasizes the importance of truly understanding ideas before echoing them. It warns against the superficial imitation of thoughts that one does not comprehend, suggesting that such behavior results in a deceptive self-image and a lack of authentic understanding and insight.
In practice
In a classroom discussion on critical thinking, this quote can be shared to emphasize the importance of comprehension.
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 chief study all my life has been to lighten misfortunes and multiply pleasures, as far as human nature can.
Learning to be silent is far more difficult and far more important than learning to recite prayers.
Each day is the scholar of yesterday.
You have to give to the world the thing that you want the most, in order to fix the broken parts inside you.
First think of the person who lives in disguise, Who deals in secrets and tells naught but lies. Next, tell me what's always the last thing to mend, The middle of middle and the end of end? And finally give me the sound often heard During the search for a hard-to-find word. Now string them together, and answer me this, Which creature would you be unwilling to kiss?
I'm proud of what I am and who I am, and I'm just going to be myself.
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