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.
It is a rare and difficult attainment to grow old gracefully and happily.
Television is bubble-gum for the mind.
Much that we call evil is really good in disguises; and we should not quarrel rashly with adversities not yet understood, nor overlook the mercies often bound up in them.
All my work, my life, everything I do is about survival, not just bare, awful, plodding survival, but survival with grace and faith. While one may encounter many defeats, one must not be defeated.
I think you have to listen to the people who are deeply unhappy. You have to find the source of it and not overreact to the craziness in it.
I try to live with honor, even if it costs me millions of dollars and takes a long time. It's very unusual in Hollywood. Few people are trustworthy - a handshake means nothing to them. They feel they're required to keep an agreement with you only if you're successful or they need you.
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