When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely – the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears- when you give your whole attention to it.

Meaning of the quote

To truly understand something, you need to focus your whole mind on it - your heart, your senses, and your ears. This means paying close attention and letting your mind fully engage with what you are trying to understand, without any distractions.

About Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti was an influential Indian philosopher, speaker, and spiritual figure who rejected the role of World Teacher that he was groomed for as a child. He spent his life speaking and writing about topics like choiceless awareness, psychological inquiry, and freedom from conditioning, emphasizing that ‘truth is a pathless land’ and that no doctrine, discipline, or authority should be followed.

More about the author

More quotes from Jiddu Krishnamurti

I maintain that Truth is a pathless land, and you cannot approach it by any path whatsoever, by any religion, by any sect.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

There is no end to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

If we can really understand the problem, the answer will come out of it, because the answer is not separate from the problem.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

It’s no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

What is needed, rather than running away or controlling or suppressing or any other resistance, is understanding fear; that means, watch it, learn about it, come directly into contact with it. We are to learn about fear, not how to escape from it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

It is no measure of health to be well adjusted to a profoundly sick society.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

There is no need to education. It is not that you read a book, pass an examination, and finish with education. The whole of life, from the moment you are born to the moment you die, is a process of learning.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

All ideologies are idiotic, whether religious or political, for it is conceptual thinking, the conceptual word, which has so unfortunately divided man.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

When we talk about understanding, surely it takes place only when the mind listens completely – the mind being your heart, your nerves, your ears- when you give your whole attention to it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

Tradition becomes our security, and when the mind is secure it is in decay.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

The constant assertion of belief is an indication of fear.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

A man who is not afraid is not aggressive, a man who has no sense of fear of any kind is really a free, a peaceful man.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

Religion is the frozen thought of man out of which they build temples.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

Hitler and Mussolini were only the primary spokesmen for the attitude of domination and craving for power that are in the heart of almost everyone. Until the source is cleared, there will always be confusion and hate, wars and class antagonisms.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

So when you are listening to somebody, completely, attentively, then you are listening not only to the words, but also to the feeling of what is being conveyed, to the whole of it, not part of it.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

In oneself lies the whole world and if you know how to look and learn, the door is there and the key is in your hand. Nobody on earth can give you either the key or the door to open, except yourself.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

Freedom from the desire for an answer is essential to the understanding of a problem.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

The moment you have in your heart this extraordinary thing called love and feel the depth, the delight, the ecstasy of it, you will discover that for you the world is transformed.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

Your belief in God is merely an escape from your monotonous, stupid and cruel life.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

You must understand the whole of life, not just one little part of it. That is why you must read, that is why you must look at the skies, that is why you must sing and dance, and write poems and suffer and understand, for all that is life.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

A consistent thinker is a thoughtless person, because he conforms to a pattern; he repeats phrases and thinks in a groove.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

We all want to be famous people, and the moment we want to be something we are no longer free.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

The end is the beginning of all things, Suppressed and hidden, Awaiting to be released through the rhythm Of pain and pleasure.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)

The flowering of love is meditation.

Jiddu Krishnamurti

Indian spiritual philosopher, mystic, speaker and writer (1895-1986)