The understanding of what you actually are is far more important than the pursuit of what you should be.

—Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things

what you are understanding

About Jiddu Krishnamurti

Portrait of Jiddu Krishnamurti

Jiddu Krishnamurti (pronounced /ˈdʒɪduː ˌkrɪʃnəˈmʊərti/ ; 11 May 1895 – 17 February 1986) was an Indian spiritual figure, speaker, and writer. Adopted by members of the Theosophical Society as a child, Krishnamurti was raised to fill the mantle of the prophesied World Teacher, a role tasked with aiding humankind's spiritual...

More quotations from Jiddu Krishnamurti

It is only when you don’t vitally feel the truth of something that you say it is difficult to put it into action.

—Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things

feeling awareness action

If you can look at yourself without condemning what you see, without comparing yourself with somebody else, without wishing to be more beautiful or more virtuous; if you can just observe what you are and move with it, then you will find that it is possible to go infinitely far. Then there is no end to the journey, and that is the mystery, the beauty of it.

—Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things

others virtue beauty self mystery self-image journey comparing

True education is to learn how to think, not what to think. If you know how to think, if you really have that capacity, then you are a free human being—free of dogmas, superstitions, ceremonies—and therefore you can find out what religion is.

—Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things

freedom religion education dogma

Really to live requires a great deal of love, a great feeling for silence, a great simplicity with an abundance of experience; it requires a mind that is capable of thinking very clearly, that is not bound by prejudice or superstition, by hope or fear.

—Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things

love fear hope silence simplicity prejudice

Our education, our environment, our whole culture insists that we must become something. Our philosophies, our religions and sacred books all say the same thing. But now I see that the very process of becoming something implies envy, which means that I am not satisfied with being what I am; and I want to understand what I am, I want to find out why I am always comparing myself with another, trying to become something; and in understanding what I am there is no need for discipline. In the process of that understanding, integration comes into being. The contradiction in me yields to the understanding of myself, and this in turn brings an action which is integral, whole.

—Jiddu Krishnamurti in Think on These Things

religion philosophy being becoming

More quotations tagged with “understanding”

Really listening and suspending one's own judgment is necessary in order to understand other people on their own terms… This is a process that requires trust and builds trust.

—Mary Field Belenky

understanding trust listening judgment

I do not want the peace which passeth understanding; I want
the understanding which bringeth peace.

—Helen Keller

understanding peace

The important thing is that when you come to understand something, you act on it, no matter how small that act is. Eventually it will take you where you need to go.

—Sister Helen Prejean

action understanding work need

Ninety percent of most magic consists of knowing one extra fact.

—Terry Pratchett

understanding knowledge magic

Relationships don't always make sense. Especially from the outside.

—Sarah Dessen in Along for the Ride

understanding relationships sense

History

14 Nov 2012 Added
8 Dec 2014 Edited (details weren’t recorded yet)