By our pontifical assertions, our superior impatience, and our casual brushing aside of their curiosity, we do not encourage their inquiry, for we are rather apprehensive of what may be asked of us; we do not foster their discontent, for we ourselves have ceased to question.
Interpretation
The quote highlights the importance of encouraging curiosity and questioning rather than dismissing it.
Jiddu Krishnamurti emphasizes that when we express superiority and dismiss the inquiries of others, we stifle their curiosity and inhibit the pursuit of knowledge. This behavior reflects our own apprehensions about facing difficult questions, ultimately leading to a society where questioning and critical thinking are undervalued, and discontent grows as a result.
In practice
This quote would be great in a discussion about fostering a questioning culture in education.
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.
When this No-Mind has been well developed, the mind does not stop with one thing nor does it lack any one thing. It appears appropriately when facing a time of need.
When the pain overtakes you, reach inside. Gather the broken pieces, and hand them to God. Ask Him to remake your heart. Different, this time. Stronger. More beautiful. This is how we are made, and remade by the Maker.
They will envy you for your success, your wealth, for your intelligence, for your looks, for your status - but rarely for your wisdom.
Sometimes I think that it is enough to say that if we don't sit down and shut up once in a while we'll lose our minds even earlier than we had expected. Noise is an imposition on sanity, and we live in very noisy times.
Well, I don't know as I want a lawyer to tell me what I cannot do. I hire him to tell how to do what I want to do.
If you take the approach that “good” is not an accident - that everyone and everything that shows up in your life is there for a reason - you’ll begin to see every event (no matter how difficult or challenging) as a chance for enrichment and advancement in your life.
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