The world is not something separate from you and me; the world, society, is the relationship that we establish or seek to establish between each other. So you and I are the problem, and not the world, because the world is the projection of ourselves, and to understand the world we must understand ourselves. That world is not separate from us; we are the world, and our problems are the world's problems.
Interpretation
Our understanding of the world is intertwined with our understanding of ourselves, as we create our reality through relationships.
This quote by Jiddu Krishnamurti emphasizes the interconnectedness of individuals and the world they inhabit. It suggests that the issues we perceive in the world are reflections of our own internal struggles and relationships with others. Therefore, to change the world, we must first look within ourselves, acknowledging that we are not separate from the world but rather a part of it, with our problems mirroring the broader societal challenges.
In practice
In a community meeting when discussing social issues, one might reference this quote to highlight the need for self-awareness.
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.
No one is free who has not obtained the empire of himself.
Each act is virgin, even the repeated ones.
Every new development for the last three centuries has brought men closer to a state of affairs in which absolutely nothing would be recognized in the whole world as possessing a claim to obedience except the authority of the State. The majority of people in Europe obey nothing else.
The sole meaning of life is to serve humanity.
Haldane was engaged in discussion with an eminent theologian. "What inference," asked the latter, "might one draw about the nature of God from a study of his works?" Haldane replied: "An inordinate fondness for beetles."
Dead men are not friends to living men, and give them no gifts. (Ghan-buri-Ghan, of allies during war)
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